Holy Communion For The Abused And Disillusioned

This is a simple communion devotional given at a gathering devoted to concerns about corruption and abuse in the Church:

Scripture text: Acts 8:26-35:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Thus far the reading of God's Most Holy Word.

Can you find your way to God if you have been abused?

Many have done so. The Ethiopian eunuch had suffered a sexual violence so horrific that any man would shudder to think of it, and some would rather die than experience it.

Can you find your way to God in a corrupt church controlled by evil men?

Many have done so. Acts 8:27 says that this eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. What would he have found there? At the temple he would have seen a sign in Latin and Greek warning Gentiles like him to proceed no further under penalty of death. He would have heard the shouts of greedy vendors who no doubt set their tables up again soon after Jesus had driven them out. Murderers led temple worship - foul fiends of darkness who had delivered Jesus up to Roman crucifixion.

How can one find God in a place so spiritually decadent that, as Jesus prophesied, it would soon be destroyed under divine wrath, and not one stone would be left upon another? By God’s mercy, the eunuch extracted from that depraved house of worship an ancient holy book with truth about Jesus Christ. He could not understand it. But in the mist of his confusion he read these words: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch wondered, “Who is the prophet talking about?”

Philip explained that it was about Jesus, who stepped into our corrupt world and took upon himself its most severe abuse: death by torture. Jesus bore the wrath of man, but much more important, for us and our salvation, he bore the wrath of Trinitarian God. God, in love, bore the penalty for our sin against him.

For those of you who have been abused, remember that Jesus is no stranger to brutal treatment. Poet Edward Shillito wrote,

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak.
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne.
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak.
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

For those of you who have been the abusers, know this: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Songwriter Bob Bennett wrote,

There are those who are among us who believe they are not worthy.
We offer you the Word of Life, we bid you come and dine
Upon the mercy we have tasted, and the love given so freely.
Come take your place at table now; Jesus in our time.

And for all who have grown weary and cynical because of false brothers, wolves in shepherds’ clothing, corrupt and compromised fellowships - fix now your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He committed no sin, nor was any guile found in his mouth. Jesus is holy. And he swears by himself to render his loved ones holy as he conforms them to his image through sorrow and joy. You who love Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected Son of God, come now, partake of bread of wine as you remember him in reverent worship. Let us pray.

Lord God, by your mercy, remove every impediment of sin, confusion, disillusionment and unbelief, and shine the light of your Son so brightly in our faces that we can do no more than fall down before you and give thanks. Amen.

Evangelicals Are Wrong Concerning The Most Important Thing About You

I disagree with a quote so widely accepted in evangelicalism that I’m beginning to wonder if I am the lone living Christian who opposes it. Hating my isolation, I write now in hope of persuading somebody to dismiss with me a thoughtless cliché that has gained creedal status in our tradition.

I refer to the words of A. W. Tozer: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If you don’t go to church or listen to Christian radio or read Christian literature then you may not know what I’m talking about. But if you do those things then you are probably familiar with that quote. It is regularly cited with warm approval in Christian settings.

But what comes into my mind when I hear it is, “Oh no – they have not read C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Weight of Glory’!” Or worse, they have read it and disagreed with it. If you have not read “The Weight of Glory,” please stop reading this and go read that. Or listen to a recording online. After you take in Lewis’s sermon you won’t want to read anything else soon after. You will need time to ponder, weep, rejoice perhaps, and bow the knee to God.

Welcome back.

Near the beginning of “The Weight of Glory,” Lewis says:

I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us.

There it is. The most important thing about you is not what you think of God but what he thinks of you.

There are individuals who have accurate thoughts about God but it does them no good. Demons are orthodox monotheists. James 2:19 says, “You believe that God is one. Good for you. The demons believe that too, and shudder.” One of the first affirmations of Jesus’ identity came from a demon: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24). The devil was so knowledgeable about God’s redemptive plan in Christ that he tried to derail it (Mark 8:31-33). I would bet that the devil could even explain subtle differences between infra- and sub-lapsinarianism-- whereas as I, a Bible major, forgot what both words mean a long time ago.

Don’t get me wrong. It is good to have right thoughts about God. But Lewis is certainly correct in saying that what is infinitely more important is what God thinks about us.

And that is a problem. How can we possibly know what God thinks of us? We have ready access to our own minds, but “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Romans 11:34). The Bible quotes God as saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8). Job’s friend Zophar asked him, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?” (Job 11:7-8).

Faced with the difficulty of discerning the mind of God, many people simply project larger-than-life images of themselves onto deity and assume that he is like them. Psalm 50:21 exposes this folly. God says to the wicked, “These things you did and I kept silent. You thought I was just like you.” Few sins are more beguiling than that of extrapolating our corruptions onto God and convincing ourselves that he is as indulgent of our behavior as we are. I see other people do this all the time. How do I know I’m not doing it myself?

We ought not underestimate our ability to self-deceive. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Saul the Pharisee thought he was doing good when he tried to extinguish an upstart religious sect. His conscience affirmed him, and his understanding of Scripture made it clear that God was on his side. But then Jesus knocked him down and turned him around with such compelling force that he became a zealous advocate of the Way he once despised. His proud opposition became his deepest shame, and drove him acknowledge that he was the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

So how do you know that you are not now as deceived as he once was? How do you know that you are not - from the perspective of the Eternal and Holy – a foul villain and a moral outrage?

I’m afraid there is objective data to suggest that we view ourselves much more highly than we should. In 1997, U S News and World Report asked a thousand people, “Who do you think is most likely to go to heaven?” Celebrities were ranked. Sixty-six percent thought Oprah Winfrey was going there. Michael Jordan was close at 65%. Bill and Hillary Clinton came in at around 50%. Dead last was O J Simpson at 19%. First overall among popular figures was Mother Teresa, whom 79% of respondents tagged as heaven-bound.

But there was one obscure, unknown person who clobbered Mother Teresa in the ratings. And that was...whoever was responding to the survey! When asked, “Are you going to heaven?” 87% said yes. That is, the average person felt more secure about his favorable standing before God than that of any public figure, sinner or saint, on planet earth.

If you listen to modern evangelical preaching, you would never guess this tendency to “think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think” (Romans 12:3). Today we are told the opposite – that we beat ourselves up with guilt and shame and need to learn how to rest in the confidence that God is tickled pink with us. A few days ago I heard a preacher say to his congregation, “You’re one of those that says, ‘Pastor, if you knew what I’ve done or where I’ve been, what’s gone on in my life – God could never love someone like me.’” I've heard that line countless times from dozens of preachers in the last few decades. Preachers today assume that their listeners are racked with guilt, doubtful of God’s love, and in desperate need of assurance. But I'm afraid that far more people are racked with pride, presumptuous of God’s love, and in desperate need of warning.

The songs we sing in church attack self-doubt like it was sin, and assure us that God has only nice thoughts about us. A couple Sundays ago at my church we sang,

What if I saw me the way that You see me?
What if I believed it was true?
What if I traded this shame and self-hatred
For a chance at believing You?

Wait a minute. The lyrics assume that my shame and self-hatred are bad things, and that they can be traded for a reassuring faith that God sees me in a favorable light. That is not biblical. In the Bible, better men than I hated themselves more, and felt far deeper guilt. Righteous Job, confronted by God, said, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). The prophet Isaiah saw the Lord and said, “Woe is me – I’m ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5). St. Peter said to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). St. Paul said, “I know that nothing good dwells in me” (Romans 7:18). St. John said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man” (Revelation 1:17).

I cannot for the life of me understand how “seeing myself the way God sees me” could be a comforting rather than dreadful thought. I'd prefer not to know what he sees. God sees all, and he is holy.

Despite my sin and that of my fellow congregants, modern evangelicalism beats into our heads the notion that "God is for us, not against us!". In one popular Hillsong worship anthem we sing (over and over and over again),

You are for me, not against me, I am who you say I am!

What pops into my mind when I hear that monstrously presumptuous affirmation are Bible passages where God says the opposite. For example:

Jeremiah 50:31: “Behold, I am against you, O proud one," declares the Lord God of hosts, "for your day has come, the time when I will punish you."

Psalm 34:16: The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

1 Samuel 12:15: If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you.

God isn't for everybody. He is for some people and against others. The Bible says that many, many times. The most important thing about you is which category you're in, and that is something God knows for sure and that you can be deceived about. Therefore be humble. Quiver. Doubt yourself. Repent of known sin, and beg God to reveal to you those sins which alienate him but have yet to alight on your malfunctioning conscience. Presume nothing, but cast yourself upon the mercy he has made available through the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ. I don't know, right now, if God is for you or against you. But I do know that God "opposes the proud, yet gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Be the kind of person to whom he gives grace rather than the kind of person he opposes. Remember that his evaluation of you is the only one that matters. As for you, well, it would be better to fear you're going to hell and wind up in heaven than to assume you're going to heaven and wind up in hell.

When God Gets Mad At You

(The text of yesterday's sermon)

Scripture texts: Deuteronomy 3:23-27; Deuteronomy 32:48-52; Hebrews 12:5-6. (Full Scripture texts are at the end of this message.)

Three times in the book of Deuteronomy Moses says, “The Lord was angry with me.” We read one of those verses in Deuteronomy 3:26. The other occurrences are in Deuteronomy 1:37 and 4:21. "The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me."

Is it possible that God is angry with you? Right now, today, this morning, is God mad at you?

I know that many people answer emphatically, “No! God is not mad at you.” I heard that for the first time 35 years ago, when a worship leader said to everyone in the sanctuary, “God’s not mad at you.” I have heard it many times since. Joyce Meyer has a book by that title: God’s Not Mad At You. A preacher on WMBI, Steve Brown, has a ministry called "Key Life." If you go to his website, right under the logo you will find the words, “God’s not mad at you.” In preparation for this sermon I googled that phrase and found that many preachers have sermons with that title. And then, just a few weeks ago, my best friend from college messaged me saying, “We have a worship director who will occasionally tell entire groups of people that God is not mad at them.”

What should you do if you are in a worship service and the speaker says, to everyone, “God is not mad at you”?

I don’t recommend doing what was done at a large public gathering on March 27th of 2022. At that gathering comedian Chris Rock said something that actor Will Smith disagreed with, and Smith went up and slapped him hard across face. Don’t do that. Be like Jesus instead. When Peter spoke words that Jesus disagreed with, it is not recorded that Jesus slapped him hard across the face. (He called him “Satan,” but he did not slap him, as far as we know. Matthew 16:23.) We are a nonviolent people. When Peter himself got violent one time on Jesus’ behalf Jesus said to him, “Put your sword away. Those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52). But though we do not draw a sword of steel when one of God’s representatives speaks heretical words from the pit of hell, we do unsheathe a spiritual sword, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).

That is what I want to do this morning: draw a biblical sword and with it stab to death a Satanic teaching woefully prevalent in many pulpits to the effect that God is never mad at people. Does the Bible say that God gets mad at people? Yes it does – hundreds of times, both Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, God’s wrath is mentioned by name nearly 600 times, and many more times than that it is referred to though the word itself does not appear. But the most arresting depictions of God’s anger are not in the Old Testament. They’re in the New Testament, and still future to us. God’s anger was expressed in the past, it is being expressed in the present, and it will be expressed in the future - for all eternity, so long as there is sin. It is quite possible then, that in this room, there is someone, or several people, with whom God is angry indeed.

I do not exempt myself. I am no better than Moses. God forbid that I should consider myself above Moses. Moses, after all, was granted a glimpse of the glory of God in Exodus 33. And when his siblings rebelled against him, God said, When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face.(Numbers 12:6-8).

God does not speak to me face to face, I don’t think he does that with any of you either. If God was angry with Moses, how dare we think that he would never be angry with us? Who do we think we are?

Do you know why God became angry with Moses? Ultimately it was for the same reason that God ever gets angry with anyone. Sin. We all know people who get angry for no good reason - people who are touchy, irritable, easily provoked. You have to walk on eggshells around them because they’re always ready to go off about something. God isn’t like that. The Bible says that God is love. It says many times that he is slow to anger. It says that he is merciful and compassionate. But precisely because God is love he must get angry. For example, because God loves all races he gets angry over racism. Because God loves children he gets angry when they are abused and exploited. Psalm 17:11 says that God displays his wrath every day. That is because there is sin every day.

Now with regard to the specifics of Moses’ sin, there are elements worthy of a deep dive into the Scriptures, because they provoke questions that have captivated the minds of Bible scholars. But I am not going to dive deep into those waters now, because the details would consume the rest of this sermon, and my purpose is more general. I will just say this much. In Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to a rock to draw out water for the people who are complaining of thirst. Moses says to the people, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then he strikes the rock twice and water pours out.

Some find significance in the fact that Moses struck the rock when God told him to speak to it. Others think the problem lay in the fact that Moses said, “Must we bring you water out of this rock?”, and they infer that Moses and Aaron were claiming credit for that miracle rather than attributing it to God. There are other suggestions as well. What is not in dispute is this: in some way, Moses dishonored God before the Israelites. That’s what the text says. Numbers 20:12: the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Then, 48 chapters later, in the next book over, Deuteronomy, when Moses was about to die, God reminded him of this incident. Moses, despite all his pleadings and his earnest desire, would not be permitted to cross the Jordan and plant his feet on the soil of the Promised Land. He would only get to see it from a mountaintop far away. Deuteronomy 32:50-51 God says:

There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.

Among the conclusions that can be drawn from these sober events are these two: Moses, righteous as he was, angered God. Secondly, there were consequences to Moses’ wicked actions. Irrevocable consequences that were directly enforced by an angry, loving, holy God.

Sometimes we may have the mistaken impression that being forgiven means suffering no consequences. This is often indicated with the kind of rhetoric we hear that says “When you’re forgiven, the past is past! It is completely forgotten, and you’re given a clean slate. And the word ‘justified’ means ‘just-as-if-I’d' never sinned.’” But biblically there is a much different nuance. Consider King David.

When David took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba to bed with him, had Uriah killed, and then was confronted with his sin, he confessed it and repented of it. Was he forgiven for his sins? Yes, he was. That’s what the Bible says. In 2 Samuel 12:13, when David said to the prophet Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”

Wonderful. Great. Perhaps you can imagine David breathing a deep sigh of relief as he wipes away his tears. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound! I have done the worst thing in the world and God has forgiven me. Praise God! Well then, glad that’s over. The slate is wiped clean, and now I can go back to normal.”

Not so fast. Nathan’s next few words indicate just what is meant by “forgiveness.” He says to David, “You are not going to die.” Death would have been the just penalty. The punishment for adultery was death. The punishment for murder was death. David had committed two capital crimes, either one of which could have justly resulted in his being stoned to death by his fellow Israelites, or being supernaturally extinguished by God – as God did to Onan, Uzzah, Ananais, Sapphira, Herod Agrippa I, etc. David was forgiven in the sense that his life was spared. Neither God nor the Israelites were going to kill him for it. But there were still consequences. Devastating, heart-breaking consequences that would last for decades. In the very next verse, Nathan says to him, “But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

And that was not the only son born to David who would die before his time. Sometime later David’s son Amnon would violate his half-sister Tamar, and one of David’s other sons, Absalom, would kill him for it. Later on Absalom would rebel against his own father and wage war against him, and die in battle. Later on Solomon would kill another of David’s sons, Adonijah, in a power struggle between those two. If you are keeping track, that’s 4 dead sons of David. The prophet Nathan had said, “The sword will never depart from your own house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10).

When you are tempted to sin (and who is not tempted to sin?), never let creep into your mind the beguiling thought, “God will forgive it. That’s what he does. He won’t even get mad. He never gets mad. He’ll just wipe the slate clean and forget that it ever happened, and we’ll go on as before.” That’s not the way it works. Forgiveness is a lot more sober than that.

Bob Bennett has a wonderful little song – it’s worth looking up - called A Hand of Kindness. In that song he writes,

Forgiveness comes in just a moment.
Sometimes the consequences last.
And it’s hard to walk inside that mercy
When the present is so tied up to the past.

Indeed, the present is tied up to the past, even as the future will be tied up to the present. The sin that you contemplate today, even if forgiven, will tie up your future in irrevocably tragic ways. Moses found that out. David found that out. They both experienced it. And by God’s grace they left a record to instruct us in those truths. Those who maintain that you cannot provoke God to wrath and will suffer no consequences for your sin are false teachers who do not know their Bible and have no business instructing God’s people.

Some might say, "But didn’t this bit about God’s wrath all change when Jesus came?" I know that some people teach that. They will acknowledge that God used to get angry in the Old Testament but once Jesus came and died on the cross that exhausted all the wrath of God, so there is none of it left. Therefore they tell us, “Don’t worry about God’s wrath. It’s over!” Nine years ago today, June 18 of 2014, Pastor R W Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka Minnesota tweeted the following: “Christian, you don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than you have to fear a tornado that happened 2000 years ago!”

You see his point. Tornados are terrifying and destructive, and if one is on the way we take efforts to avoid it. But none of us are afraid of a tornado that happened 2000 years ago. Well, Christian, Pastor Glenn said, “God’s wrath is like that. It expired 2000 years ago at the cross of Christ.” So now you’re free to get up and walk about. Nothing but blue skies ahead for you. Nothing to fear.

Is that what the Bible says? About 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Apostle Paul addressed some sinners at the church in Rome, and he said this to them in Romans 2:5-8,

Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

A few years later when Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he said, in Ephesians 5:5-6,

No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

God’s wrath comes upon the disobedient. Only a fool refuses to fear the wrath of God. Fools like R W Glenn. When he tweeted that we don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than a 2,000-year-old tornado, he was at that time cheating on his wife. His infidelity was discovered, and in September of that year and he was fired from his church. Thankfully, the last I heard he is no longer in the ministry.

I plead with you not to listen to the lies of R W Glenn, Steve Brown, Joyce Meyer, or that worship director at my friend’s church. If you sin, you better believe God is mad at you. That’s all over the Bible.

Does that mean that all is lost and you’re going to hell? Not necessarily. Not yet anyways. But indeed there are some people who reach a tipping point in their rebellion against God such that no amount of consequences ever get through to them to teach them a lesson. They never get it. They never repent. Revelation 9 speaks of such people. It says that even though they suffered horrible plagues as a judgement of God, verses 20 and 21 say that still they did not repent, still they did not stop worshiping demons, committing murder, or indulging in sexual immorality.

Then there are people who reject the voice of God that calls to them through conscience and nature, and keep rejecting his voice until God says, in effect, “Very well. Have it your way.” That too is an expression of God’s wrath, and we read about it in Romans 1:18 and following. Romans 1:18 says

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Then that passage goes on to say how God’s anger is revealed in such people. It is a matter of them being given over to their sin. It says that 3 times: Verse 24, “God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.” Verse 26, “God gave them over to shameful lusts.” Verse 28, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

Beware of ongoing sin. Do not treat it lightly, lest God, in anger, turn you over to it. I have found to my horror that you can often tell when a person has been given over to their sin. It’s when they’re not even ashamed of it. They feel no guilt. They feel no fear. They often regard themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of evil. They’re even proud of their sin.

But as I said, if you have sinned, and God is mad at you, and disciplines you with long-lasting consequences, that is not necessarily the end of the world. It wasn’t for Moses, it wasn’t for David, and it need not be for you. Do what they did. Confess your sin. Repent. Acknowledge that God is holy, and whatever he does is right.

Hebrews 12:5: says “Do not lose heart when God rebukes you.” And it goes on to say that God disciplines those he loves. He punishes his sons and daughters for their own good just as any wise father does to his own children.

I do not know how any of you experience the rebuke and discipline of God. I can tell you how it comes to me. It comes through his Word, the Bible, and faithful preaching from it. That is where I hear God’s holy rebuke, and I know it is good for me. I have very little tolerance for teaching that is showy, entertaining, light on Scripture, designed to make me feel good about myself. I also am revolted by the teaching of men whose personal lives are so chock-full of hypocrisy and wickedness as to make a mockery of whatever good they are trying to say. But when I hear Scripture faithfully explained by humble men of God who stand under its authority – men like D A Carson, James Montgomery Boice, Warren Wiersbe, then I feel those yearnings that make me mourn my sin and desire to be a better man before God.

I close with this. God got angry with Moses and told him that he would not get into Promised Land. I’m sure that broke Moses’ heart. But he accepted it, and acknowledged that God’s way was right. And he died up on the mountain viewing the Promised Land off in the distance.

But his death was not the end of the story. Are you aware that after his death, he got to the Promised Land after all? I don’t mean metaphorically – I mean for real. We see it in Luke chapter 9, the Mount of Transfiguration. Three of Jesus’ disciples, Peter James and John, went up with him to a mountain top where Jesus’ glory was revealed. It was as though, for a brief time, a window opened and heaven broke through on earth. And part of that transcendent experience included appearances by Moses and Elijah. Verses 30 and 31 say this: Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.

Among the many things that could be said about that extraordinary occurrence is this. Though Moses sinned by dishonoring God before all the Israelites, though he provoked God to anger, and though God punished him by prohibiting his entrance into the Promised Land, that punishment was for this life only. It did not carry on into the next. It is as though God said to Moses, “My child, you will someday get to the Promised Land. But it will be after your death. And it will only be in the company of my Son Jesus Christ.”

Let us pray.

Lord God, we sinners acknowledge with sorrow that we have provoked you to your face and invited your righteous anger. By your mercy, do not hand us over to our sin. Soften our hearts to receive the painful lessons of rebuke, and grant us repentance unto life. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Hold before our minds that future joy of beholding the face of Jesus and fellowshipping with him just like our fellow sinners Moses and Elijah. Thank you that Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf can make that happen. Amen.

Scripture texts:

Deuteronomy 3:23-27: At that time I pleaded with the LORD: 24 “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.” 26 But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

Deuteronomy 32:48-52: On that same day the LORD told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Hebrews 12:5-6: And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Reflections On A Christmas Song's Embarrassing Slip

In Matthew 23:29-32 Jesus condemned Pharisees with words that seem unnecessarily harsh. He said,

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets."

Why did Jesus put a negative spin on good actions and noble sentiments? The Pharisees built tombs for righteous men. That’s good. Instead of commemorating conquerors they honored brave souls who were killed for telling the truth. Shouldn’t the Pharisees have been commended for disavowing murderers and embracing martyrs? Jesus seems impossible to please.

Some time ago it dawned on me that there is a damning subtext to the words that Pharisees used when honoring the worthy dead. Jesus alluded to it, but for a long while it escaped my notice. Now I have detected the same theme cropping up in other contexts too, and it makes me wonder about the ways in which our words betray inner corruption even when we’re trying to be good.

The Pharisees said, “If we had lived back then, we would not have killed the prophets.” Good. But wait a minute. Why didn’t they say instead, “If we had lived back then, we hope that we would have endured persecution like our fathers the prophets”? That thought did not occur to them. It seemed that they knew which group they really belonged to. Ultimately, they identified with murderers, not murderees. They acknowledged their affiliation even when they were trying to say the right thing. They were so at home in the camp of authoritarian persecutors that holy men of God were still “them” and not “us.”

Jesus was saying (if I may paraphrase), “Deep down, you know who your spiritual ancestors are. Your words betray you. And, as a matter of fact, you are cut from the same cloth as they. Despite your disavowals, you are going to do just what your killer ancestors did.”

Jesus’ strong words might awaken us to subtle ways in which we reveal our own corrupt affiliations. Maybe these embarrassing slips of infelicitous expression will help us uncover and repent of character flaws we did not know we had.

Take for example some curious wording in the third stanza of the Christmas hymn “Oh Holy Night”:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease,

These are wonderful sentiments right? Especially when you consider that they were written in 1855 when slavery was legal in much of America. Author/translator (and stout abolitionist) John Sullivan affirmed that, under the Lordship of Christ, oppression was to cease, chains were to be broken, and slaves were to be regarded not as property but as brothers (as in Paul’s letter to Philemon, verse 16).

That is great as far as it goes. But ask yourself, “Who is singing this Christmas carol?” I’m afraid the answer is, “Masters and those who identify with them.” The song does not say, “The master is our brother,” which a slave could sing. Nor does it say, “The slave is a brother” or “Masters and slaves are brothers,” which both could sing together. The lyric is written in the first-person voice of masters and their ilk who by their magnanimity grant brotherhood to the enslaved. While seeming to express equality before God, the form of expression actually excludes slaves from joining in the song! It did not seem to occur to the author that they might want to be in the choir too.

Oops.

My lovely (and longsuffering) wife has gotten used to hearing me respond to assorted aphorisms and rhetorical flourishes with, “Why didn’t they put that the other way?” or, “How would it sound if we flipped that perspective?” This technique is useful in undermining popular bits of sage counsel that are supposed to inspire us but that in my mind just fuel self-regard. Take for example that old piece of relationship advice that begins with the words, “Fall in love with someone who wants to know your favorite color…” and there follows a list of the ways in which the person worthy of your love is obsessively focused on you. I like to ask, “Why doesn’t that list instead begin with the words, ‘Fall in love with someone whose favorite color you want to know…’?”

Recently I heard a popular parable in which an undervalued object is dismissed by the ignorant but prized by the knowledgeable. The moral was that you should associate with people who know your true worth and reward you accordingly. You’re a diamond in the rough, so you should gravitate toward people who “get that” about you and are in a position to give you nice things. Hmm. It seems to me that narcissists will find that advice easy to heed. But a humbler approach to the same parable places oneself in the role of one of the evaluators. Then the moral becomes, “Strive to find value in those whom others overlook or dismiss.” (That, by the way, is what Jesus did in Luke 21:1-4 when he exalted a poor widow.)

In the Chicago area where I live there is a very large institution founded by sex abusers that regrettably calls itself a “church.” For many years it has run an annual Leadership Conference in which it pays wealthy people large sums so they can tell us how to be important. I’m still waiting for them to run a Followership Conference. (“Followership?” I imagine them saying. “Is that in the Bible?” Yes, it is, actually. Quite a bit.)

I imagine that bookstores in the Kingdom of God will undergo a serious revamping. The largest section will be labeled “Other-Help.”

If you are a Christian and eager to be a good follower of Jesus Christ, then strive to be aware of and to root out your subtle identifications with murderers, masters, egoists and leaders. Take your place instead with the persecuted, the servants, the self-forgetful helpers and the humble followers. God will take care of your exaltation at the proper time.

A Most Unexpected Gospel

After Jesus was crucified and had risen from the dead, he appeared to his disciples several times. On one of these occasions, in Luke 24:45-48, we read this:

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

The words that I want to highlight there involve the content of the gospel that Jesus commanded his disciples to preach. Jesus said “repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name.” Repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. One of the ways to summarize the gospel is this: Repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. Where was that message to be preached? Everywhere. Beginning in Jerusalem, with the Jews. But eventually to all nations – that is, to the Gentiles as well. Everyone was to hear this message.

I want to impress upon you how odd, how unexpected, and how counter-to-expectation that gospel was to Jesus’ disciples. They lived in a different world of priority and hope and expectation. It took years for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to move their priorities and adjust their understanding so that they could embrace this gospel and proclaim it.

To make this point, I begin with the words of two disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus right after he rose from the dead. One of these disciples was named Cleopas. We don’t know the name of the other. They were depressed because their teacher had just been killed, and it appeared that all was lost. They explained that to Jesus, not knowing that it was Jesus that they were talking to. Their eyes were shielded from recognizing him. They said this:

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19-21)

“We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” What didn’t they say? There are many things they didn’t say – an infinite number of things. But among the billions of things they did not say was, “We had hoped that he would forgive our sins.” Or, “We had hoped that he would justify us by faith before God.” Or, “We had hoped that he would make atonement for us.” Or, “We had hoped that he would build a bridge to God across the chasm created by our sin.” Or, “We had hoped that he would rescue our souls from hell so that we could go to heaven when we die.” None of that seemed to be foremost in their minds or even present in their minds. There was nothing in their words involving atonement, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation with God, or eternal life in his presence. Those two disciples were depressed because their hopes for Israel’s redemption were dashed. They saw Jesus as the one who would liberate their nation from Roman control and restore their political self-rule under God. That is, they would finally have one of their own in power, a Jewish king like David rather than a Roman governor ruling over them, or a puppet tetrarch like the Herod Antipas. Herod was half-Jewish, but he was evil, and he was really no better than Pontius Pilate. But now that Jesus was dead, obviously he could not replace those two and redeem Israel.

Was it just Cleopas and this other disciple who viewed Jesus through the lens of a redeemer of Israel and a restorer of Israel’s political fortunes? The major disciples knew better than that, right? Peter, James, John, Philip, Thomas, etc. Especially after the resurrection. It must have dawned on them by then that Jesus was about something bigger than and different from national restoration.

But no, it seems they still did not get it. Weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, and moments before he ascended to the Father, the disciples had one last question for him. Acts 1:6: Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

I might paraphrase their words this way. “Lord, will you now restore Israel to its former glory? Is this the time? We’ve been waiting so long for that. We thought we were on track for it. But then we had this hiccup with your, uhh, you know, death, and all that. And we lost Judas – good riddance, of course. But now that you’re alive again, now, now do we get the Israelite kingdom? Now do we get the restoration of Israel that we have been yearning for all our lives?”

It makes you wonder how many times Jesus had to say something before his disciples would get it. How many repetitions were needed before his words would sink into their minds and guide their actions and emotions?

For example, he had told his disciples many times that he would be killed and three days later rise from the dead. And despite hearing that over and over again, they did not understand it, believe it, or absorb it. They fought him on that point, and once he was killed they were terrified and broken. They were not saying, “I can hardly wait! Three days more and we’ll see him resurrected!” They still did not expect a resurrection. In fact, when the first reports came back from the women that he had risen they thought the women were crazy. That’s what the text says. And Thomas famously disbelieved all 10 of the other disciples when they said they had seen Jesus alive. Though Jesus had told them many times, they still couldn’t believe it until they saw him and touched him.

Just as there was this extraordinary hard-headedness to understand that Jesus would be resurrected, so also there was an extraordinary hard-headedness to understand that Jesus’ purpose was not to restore the kingdom to Israel, but rather to forgive the sins of Israelites and Gentiles alike. And to make it possible that those sins could be forgiven, he had to die a brutal death at the hands of Israelites and Gentiles. Both groups would kill him. And both groups would stand to benefit eternally from his death.

When the disciples asked Jesus that one last question, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” he did not say, “Yes, I’m going to do that now.” Nor did he say, “No, I will do it later.” Instead he batted the question away with an absolute non answer. He said, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” While that is true, it gives them nothing. It gives them no clue whatsoever about the fortunes of Israel. I think that was deliberate, because their question reflected a priority that Jesus wanted to move them away from. What he did then was re-direct their thoughts along lines that would astonish them. He said, ”But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That is a complete reversal from the way they were thinking. The disciples were asking, “Will Israel now be restored?” And Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.” Jerusalem – that makes sense, that’s where the Jews are. All Judea – good, more Jews. But then, Samaria. Samaria? That’s odd. The disciples would think, “The Samaritans are our ethnic cousins, but they’re not true Jews, they’re not true Israel - they’re half-breeds, and their religion is all messed up, and they don’t even want us there! They wouldn’t let us stay the night in their town, remember?” But Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Samaria.” And then the crowning blow: you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. “The ends of the earth??? That includes the Romans, our overlords. And Greeks, and Egyptians, and the remnants of empires that oppressed us through centuries and tried to wipe us off the face of the earth! We’re supposed to go to them?”

This doesn’t sound at all like the redemption of Israel, or the liberation, restoration of Israel. Jesus wanted the whole world redeemed. And redeemed on his terms. It was a redemption that would involve repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name. I repeat: repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name. That’s the message that Jesus wanted his followers to communicate.

With regard to the redemption of Israel, the restoration of Israel, Jesus had already told them in stark, violent terms that it was not going to happen - at least not in their lifetimes. Things would not get better for Israel – they would get worse – far, far worse. Jesus told them that the great temple they so admired would be utterly destroyed, and not one stone would be left upon another. The city of Jerusalem would be annihilated – if you stayed there you would die. That is exactly what happened in AD 70, about 37 years later. Jesus said this generation will not pass before all this happens, and of course he was right. Some (not all, but some) of his disciples would live another 37 years to behold the devastation. It was unimaginably tragic. If Josephus’s numbers are to be believed, the devastation in Jerusalem and Judea in AD 70 was statistically worse than the Holocaust of the 1940s. That is, a greater percentage of the Jewish population alive at that time was exterminated in AD 70 than that represented by the 6 million Jews who perished in Nazi Germany.

Here is an analogy for you. Imagine you are a Japanese laborer living in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in the spring of 1945. Not a lot of news gets through to you about the war but you get the idea that things aren’t going great. You’re nervous about your country, your family, your relatives, your city. But in the midst of your distress, you hear of a champion, a leader, a wonder-worker, a miracle-worker, a god perhaps, one upon whom you can pin all your hopes that he will make everything right and protect your nation and lead it to victory and peace. And then you meet him, and rather than giving you the hope you long for he says, “Everything you see here will be incinerated. Not one brick will be left on another. And when you see the pamphlets fall from airplanes warning that an attack is imminent, flee immediately. Run. Don’t even pack a bag. Just run out of the city as fast as your feet can carry you. Everything you know is about to go up in radioactive smoke.”

That is not an encouraging message, is it? But it would be true, and that is the message Jesus gave to his disciples and to anyone who would listen in the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. Maybe you can sympathize with the disappointment and distress and heartache of those Jews who thought, “This is our Savior, our Messiah, the rescuer and redeemer of our nation! O Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This understanding of who Messiah was and what he would do was a deep-rooted conviction shared by all godly Israelites. Go back to when Jesus was just one month old. Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple in Jerusalem where they met two saintly people: Simeon and Anna. Luke 2:25 says: “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.” What was Simeon waiting for? The consolation of Israel. Even if we take the phrase to be just a synonym for “Messiah,” note how it is worded. It’s not the consolation of Rome. It’s not the consolation of the Greeks, or the consolation of any of the pagans – it’s the consolation of Israel. Israel’s redemption was in view.

Simeon said to Mary at that time, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel.” Simeon mentions the Gentiles, but even there he draws a distinction between Gentiles and Israelites. He says to God, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

In that statement, the Gentiles get revelation, and that could be ambiguous – it could be a revelation of judgment – but Israel gets glory. Revelation for Gentiles, glory for God’s people Israel.

After Simeon, the prophetess Anna spoke up. Verse 38 says, “She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” There it is again. To whom was she speaking? To people who were looking forward to Jerusalem’s redemption. Little did they know Jerusalem was not going to be redeemed. Quite the opposite: it would be destroyed. Once again, if Josephus’ numbers are to be trusted, Jerusalem’s death toll would be greater than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Two more examples of the longing for Israelite redemption. Go back to the time just before Jesus’ birth. Read the prayer of the priest Zechariah when he learns that he will be the father of John the Baptist, forerunner of Messiah. Here is how Zechariah interprets the message that the angel Gabriel communicated to him. He says,

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1:68-75)

Very interesting. Zechariah thought that Messiah would rescue them from the hand of their enemies – that is the Romans. It did not seem to enter his mind that after Messiah came Jerusalem will be obliterated by its enemies. Zechariah was expecting his people to serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness right there where he was standing at the temple. But in reality the place where he was standing would cease to exist as a structure. As Jesus said, “Not one stone would be left upon another.”

My last example is the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. After she learned that she would be mother of Messiah, she offered up a psalm of praise popularly called “The Magnificat.” There she says of the Lord God, “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:54-55)

As best as I can tell, all good and faithful Jews, without exception, from before Jesus’ birth to minutes prior to his ascending back to the Father, saw his Messiahship in terms of a liberation of Israel, a redemption of Jerusalem, a vindication of the descendants of Abraham, a rescue from Roman oppressors, and a defeat of Israel’s enemies.

Do I blame them for mainly thinking along those terms? No, absolutely not. I think it was perfectly understandable. Given what they knew and given the oppression that they experienced (some of them on a daily basis) I think it was reasonable to view their deliverer along nationalistic lines. But I also think it is instructive for us to keep in mind the difference between the gospel they were expecting and the gospel that Jesus delivered. It was a most unexpected gospel. It was a gospel made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it was a gospel that Jesus ordered his disciples to preach everywhere – even to those Romans who would destroy their nation. It was a gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus.

The reason I think it is helpful to contemplate the way Jesus redirected and reoriented his disciples’ understanding of the gospel is because we will find that the audience to whom we speak, and we ourselves from time to time will need to be redirected and reoriented in order to understand, believe, and delight in the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is why I say that. As we go out into the world we see that people everywhere have a variety of concerns that preoccupy them. There are major issues that will be foremost in their minds. And they may look to God as a solution to their problem. If you are a French patriot living in Paris in 1943, then the consuming passion of your life is liberation from the Nazis who control your country. And it is good that you resist the Nazis and look to God to deliver your country from them.

On a more personal level, if you are chronically ill, then health may be your main concern. And it is good to get treatment for your sickness and to pray to God for healing.

If you are unemployed or your business is facing bankruptcy, your immediate concern may be, “I will soon be homeless and hungry and unable to provide for myself or my family. Help me God!”

If your spouse is unfaithful and abusive, then your controlling thought might be, “How do I get him to repent so that our marriage can be happy – or failing that, how do I escape so as to protect myself and my children from this beast?”

In all of these things, the gospel of Jesus Christ comes along and says, “You have a bigger problem than all of those things put together. And that is the fact that you have sinned against Almighty God and stand condemned before him. And that remains a problem even if your city is liberated from the Nazis, even if you are restored to robust health, even if you inherit millions and never have to worry about money again, even if your husband miraculously repents and becomes a godly saint and every woman’s dream. You can have all that more – but as a sinner, you are still lost, alienated from God, and facing his judgment.”

But do not despair. There is good news. Jesus Christ died for sinners. He died for sinners just like you. And in him there is forgiveness of sin for all who repent and trust in him.

And that forgiveness holds even if your city is bombed out and completely destroyed. Even if your sickness is terminal and ends in your death. Even if your finances never recover and you go hungry. Even if your husband murders you and your children. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. God’s forgiven loved ones will stand before him in joy no matter how this world has distressed and victimized them. In Jesus Christ there is eternal forgiveness of sins for all who repent and trust in him.

For that reason our gospel will make the most sense to, and will be received with greatest gratitude by, those who know themselves to be sinners. They know that they are sinners and they feel bad about that. They want to be forgiven and they want to be good and they are afraid of God. But the same God whom they rightly fear is the one who loved them so much that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Those who have no desire to repent and who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord will receive what they deserve – no more, no less. Speaking perhaps only for myself, I’m terrified of getting what I deserve. The idea of receiving from the hand of God exactly what I have merited is, for me, a nightmare beyond reckoning. But thanks be to God. He hears the prayers of those who cry out to him in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. He grants them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. He forgives their sins, removing those sins and their condemnation as far as the east is from the west.

If you have not cried out to him for forgiveness - the forgiveness of sin made possible through his Son Jesus Christ – then for the love of God do so now as I close in prayer.

Lord God, perhaps at some other time I will ask for a lesser thing, like the healing of my body, or the restoration of my country, or relief from a violent oppressor. But in this moment all that matters is that I have defied you by my sins – both those that I am aware of and those that have yet to alight upon my conscience but certainly will someday, filling me then with deep regret and holy terror. Be merciful to me, if not for my sake then for the sake of your holy Son Jesus, so that his agonizing death on behalf of sinners will not have been suffered in vain, but will suffice to bring to glory all who trust in him. Count me among those sinners saved by your grace alone. In Jesus’ name, amen.

There's No Such Thing As A Bad Atheist

My son once overheard a conversation between two students from India. One was appalled to discover that the other ate beef, and said to him,

“You’re a bad Hindu!”

The rebuke provoked laughter, but musing about it later inspired some thoughts that intrigued me. The young man did not say that his friend was a bad person but a bad Hindu. What’s a bad Hindu? I suppose it’s someone who professes Hinduism but eats beef – or, more generally, who does what his religion forbids or does not do what it commands.

We can extend the principle. What’s a bad Jew? A bad Jew eats pork and does not have his son circumcised. A bad Muslim drinks whiskey and neglects to pray five times a day. A bad vegan downs a pepperoni pizza. A bad communist exploits market forces to enrich herself at the expense of the poor. A bad Christian does what megachurch preachers have been doing these days.

So what’s a bad atheist?

That’s a tough one. I imagine a bad atheist sneaks off to prayer meetings on Wednesday nights to intervene for the souls of the lost. He hopes nobody finds out that he donates to Wycliffe Bible Translators. Under the floorboards of his room he has hidden a stash of gospel tracts, and in weak moments he goes to distant neighborhoods to hand out Christian literature. He crosses himself when he drives by a church.

That is to say, I don’t think there are any bad atheists. Of course there are atheists who are bad people, but they’re not bad atheists. The reason is simple. Atheism, as atheism, commands nothing of its adherents and forbids nothing to them. There is nothing to be bad about – no higher power to offend, no canon law to transgress, no sacred writing to desecrate, no holy name to blaspheme, no faith-communal expectations to fulfill. Atheism grants its partisans a privileged status – one that renders hypocrisy a sin almost impossible to commit.

For that reason atheists can target religious people’s inconsistencies all day long while remaining invulnerable to return fire. It seems a little unfair. If a pastor or priest does something bad you will hear about it, because the shockwaves resonate through churches and the media. But if a serial pedophile or school shooter turns out to have no religious affiliation, you will probably not be directly informed of the fact. It will go unnoticed because it isn’t news. You have never heard someone say, “How strange! She feared no God and thought the 10 commandments were a man-made concoction – who would imagine she could do such a terrible thing?” Everyone knows that wicked actions and nihilistic unbelief are not intrinsically incompatible. That is why you have heard tales of abusive nuns but not abusive Nones. The former is newsworthy while the latter is a shrug and a “What did you expect?”

I’m not complaining about the imbalance that makes “bad Christian” a recognizable category and “bad atheist” a nonentity. If I call attention to atheist privilege it is not out of envy or pique. I actually think the dichotomy reveals a healthy dynamic, and I hope it is maintained. I want people to expect more of Christians and be outraged when they misbehave. The name Christian comes with – and ought to come with - loads of expectations so heavy that only Jesus would call them “light” (Matthew 11:30), and it demands a self-discipline so rigorous that only God’s constant supply of grace could sustain it.

I’m a Christian. Ultimately it is for God to determine if I’m a good or a bad one. But as a Christian I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and his word is absolute, and one day I shall appear before him to render account of deeds done in the body. Among other things, that means I must daily honor my Master by loving my enemies, telling the truth, helping the weak, opposing injustice, refraining from self-indulgence, and just generally shunning the vices that tempt me while struggling to attain the virtues that are alien to my nature.

And if I fail, then friend and foe alike would have every right to label me a bad Christian. And that would be no laughing matter.

A Time To Weep

There are three verses in the Bible that say that Jesus wept. One of those is Hebrews 5:7, which says, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” That verse seems to suggest that Jesus cried more than once. The nouns “prayers,” “petitions,” and “tears” are plural. The prophet Isaiah had foretold that Messiah would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).

Two specific occasions where Jesus cried are recorded in John 11:35 and Luke 19:41. John 11:35 is famous for being the shortest verse in the Bible. Just two words: “Jesus wept.” It happened at the tomb of his friend Lazarus who had died four days earlier. That text does not tell us why Jesus wept, but it does tell us why the bystanders thought he wept. The next verse reads, “Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ They interpreted his tears as a sign of grief over the loss of his friend. But some were puzzled. It says, “But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’”

That’s a good point. He could have kept Lazarus from dying. In fact he could do a lot more than that. He could raise him from the dead, as indeed he did just a few minutes later. When Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, it was evidently not for the same reason that we weep at the funeral of a friend. We weep because we miss our friend, and know that this side of eternity we will not see him again. That was not the case with Jesus. He was going to see Lazarus alive and well in a few minutes. So why did he weep?

The text does not tell us why. But I believe that other texts give us a clue. The other time recorded for us where Jesus wept was on Palm Sunday when Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with celebration and praise. Luke 19:37-40 say this:

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

That seems like a moment for real rejoicing. Even inanimate rocks were ready to burst forth in joyful song. But not Jesus. The next verse says, “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” And unlike the account of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, this passage tells us why he wept. He wept because he knew the future, and he saw what great sin and suffering it contained. In verses 42 through 44 he speaks to Jerusalem as though it were a person and says,

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

So although the disciples rejoiced when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus himself wept. He wept because he saw what was coming. He saw his own rejection and crucifixion. He saw the persecution of his followers. And he saw the destruction of the city with all its accompanying barbarisms and cruelties.

Jesus’ tears in that moment call to my mind the tears of Elisha in 2 Kings 8. This was more than 800 years before Jesus was born. The prophet Elisha was meeting with a man named Hazael, emissary of Ben Hadad, king of Syria. At one point in their discussion Elisha stared at Hazael and began to weep. Hazael was embarrassed and said, “Why are you weeping?” Elisha said, “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”

Hazael said, “Who, me? Impossible.” But of course later he did that and more.

If Elisha knew in advance that this man would commit unspeakable atrocities, why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he nip it in the bud? You would think it might occur to Elisha to slit Hazael’s throat on the spot – the way some people fantasize about what you might do if you could go back in time and kill Hitler before he had a chance to start WWII and slaughter 6 million Jews.

Maybe someone would respond, “Well, probably Elisha wasn’t like that. He must have been a gentle, delicate man of God who wouldn’t think of doing something so crude and violent.” Biblical evidence suggests otherwise. Neither Elisha nor his mentor Elijah had any qualms about killing bad people, or calling upon God to do the killing for them.

Elijah, after contending with and defeating the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 had all of them killed. There were 450 of them. Some years later when King Ahaziah sent a captain with 50 men to arrest Elijah, Elijah called down fire from heaven to kill all 51 of them. Then the same thing happened again. That story is in 2 Kings 1. In 2 Kings 2 a group of young ruffians harassed Elisha, saying “Get out of here, baldy!” Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord, and a couple bears came down and mauled 42 of them. If you’re keeping track of the numbers here, the body count between Elijah and Elisha of dead and or mauled opponents now stands at 594. They were not squeamish about invoking the power of God’s lethal justice (or using violent means themselves) to thwart evildoers. So why not make Hazael victim number 595? He’s clearly the worst of the lot, and he will do the most damage. Elisha doesn’t even have to kill him personally. He could call down the fire of God or the claws of a bear to do it for him. Or maybe he could pray for a quick, natural, unsuspicious death. The Bible says that his predecessor Elijah was a man like us, and he prayed that it would not rain, and for three and a half years it did not rain. So, why not pray for, say, a heart attack to take out Hazael as he walks out the door? As far as that goes, Hazael doesn’t even have to die. Elisha could just afflict him with isolating leprosy as he did to his corrupt servant Gehazi in 2 Kings 5.

Elisha has so many options here. And all he does is weep? Really? That’s his solution, that’s the best he can do? What’s the matter with him? Did he lose his faith in the power of God? Did he lose heart and forget how to act with the decisive boldness that typically characterized him?

I believe the answer is straightforward. Somehow – I don’t know how – God made clear to Elisha that the terrible future involving Hazael was going to occur. Period. No matter what. It would all unfold under the authority and sovereign will of God, and Elisha was to take no steps to prevent it. Just as Jesus was to take no steps to avoid the cross. Instead he marched toward it. You may remember that Peter tried to prevent him a couple times. The first time Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). The second time, Jesus explained that if he wanted to he could call upon his Father to put at his disposal 12 legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). But that would be contrary to the will of God, and it would leave God’s Scriptures unfulfilled. So all the means of self-protection typically at Jesus’ disposal were not to be employed. Likewise with Elisha - all the weapons normally at Elisha’s disposal, whether physical or spiritual, were to be held in check as the worst imaginable things played out, including the violent death of children and pregnant women. What then can you do but weep? What other recourse do you have?

Over 40 years ago I heard a pastor tell the story of a time when he served at a phone bank of volunteers who received calls on behalf of a Billy Graham crusade. Back in the day you could watch Billy Graham preach on TV and there would be a phone number at the bottom of the screen that you could call for questions or spiritual counsel. The volunteers had some training and did their best responding to people who called in. They also had a little sign with the word “Help” on it, and if they got a call where they felt out of their depth they could hold up the sign and the pastor would come over and take the call. This pastor said that in the course of the evening a volunteer held up the dreaded “Help” sign, so he went over.

The caller was a woman who had experienced, or was experiencing, severe distress. The pastor did not reveal the nature of it. Whatever it was, it was really bad. The caller wept as she spoke, and before long he began to weep too. I don’t know what the resolution was, if there was a resolution.

But afterward the person who originally took the call went up to the pastor and said, “What do you say to somebody in those circumstances?” And the pastor said, “Sometimes you just cry with them.”

I don’t know if that is necessarily wise counsel for counselors. But I do know that sometimes weeping is the right and appropriate thing to do. Sometimes it’s all you can do. It is altogether fitting and proper to weep when you cannot or must not prevent a terrible thing from happening.

I think that is why Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. I think his tears dropped into the same well (metaphorically speaking) where Elisha shed his tears over Hazael, and where Jesus would shed more tears over the city of Jerusalem. Jesus knew - of course he knew - that he was about to resurrect Lazarus and restore him to his sisters Mary and Martha. And there would be rejoicing and awe and wonder, and the faith of his followers would be strengthened, and new people would come to faith in Christ. But I think Jesus also knew what would happen right after that. And it was appalling. There would be blood-curdling evil.

In the next chapter, John 12, we read these words in verses 9-11:

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

The chief priests, the religious leaders of the day, made immediate plans to kill Lazarus. Just assassinate him in cold blood. They were already planning to kill Jesus in the most gruesome way possible, and we know they succeeded at that. But their hatred of Jesus, while evil, was understandable in one sense. Jesus had called them sons of the devil in front of everybody. He had cursed them out repeatedly and pronounced many woes against them. He told parables where they were the villains who would be judged and cast out by God. He told his disciples and the crowds not to be like them, and he outlined their sins in painstaking detail. Of course, while everything he said about them was true, you could understand why they might not be warmly inclined toward him and would be happy to get rid of him.

But Lazarus? What did Lazarus ever do to them? What was his crime? The only thing he did wrong was get raised from the dead. But that fact was leading people to believe in Christ. So, according to the cold consensus of chief priests, Lazarus had to die. Again. The sooner the better. And this time violently, at the hands of evil men.

I believe Lazarus was dead again very soon after this. Which means his sisters had to grieve him all over again and make yet another trip back to the tomb. There would be sorrow upon sorrow, as we sometimes see in our own lives. Or if we do not experience it ourselves, we have only to watch the news and see what happens in places like the Ukraine where the wicked go on committing atrocities, one after another, and in their monstrosities they seem to thwart every good thing.

Elisha wept, Jesus wept, and we, if we are righteous, will sometimes weep. That too is part of the perfect will of God. The righteous weep while Hazael and Caiaphas and Vladimir Putin do not.

I am not trying to depress you. But I am seeking to forewarn you and equip you. Because in recent years I have heard more and more sermons designed to get people cheering, applauding, shouting “Amen!”, even stomping their feet in religious excitement which is something I heard some years ago at a stadium rally. And the messages tend to run along the lines of how God will make a way where there is no way, and you can become that one-in-a-million who unleashes the power of God in your life and receives all the blessings that God has in store for you if you will only let him.

I have two problems with the kind of teaching that regularly provokes “Amens!” and enthusiastic shrieks and standing ovations, and that never seems to vary from the upbeat, energetic performance that seeks to convince us that we can overcome any obstacle in the power of God. For one thing, I don’t think anybody can simultaneously applaud and repent of sin. Those two don’t go together. No one who says, “What a great sermon! He really knocked it out of the park!” is in a frame of mind to be convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin and righteousness and judgment, and to turn in humble faith to God Almighty. People do not repent when they cheer. They repent when they weep.

Secondly, within the context of gospel preaching there must be an acknowledgement, somewhere, somehow, that there will be occasions to weep. There will be, even for the holiest of the holy – and perhaps especially for them - problems that admit no solution in this life. There will be future horrors that no prayer can turn aside, that no physical effort can mitigate, that no amount of righteousness can conquer. Hazael will commit atrocities. Lazarus will die again. Jesus will go to the cross. Jerusalem will be laid low.

There will be tears. For all righteous souls in this unrighteous world there will be tears. But for those who belong to Jesus Christ and remain faithful to Him who wept while others rejoiced, they can rest in the sweet assurance that their tears are not eternal. Those tears will be wiped away and never renewed. In Revelation 21:3-4 John describes heaven with these words: “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”

As Jesus said in Luke 6:21, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, there may be some who hear or read these words and who wonder if this life will ever afford them freedom from tears or an occasion to laugh. Give to them a special measure of grace whereby they might trust you through the tears, and obey your good will, and look forward to that day in your presence when all weeping shall cease. Amen.

(Below is the full text of 2 Kings 8:7-15 alluded to in the sermon)

Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” he said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’” Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’” Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless, the LORD has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep. “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.” Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?” “The LORD has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha. Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.