I invite you to look at--

My Website where you will find: ordering information and chapter summaries for The Beauty of God for a Broken World; audio sermons; a few poems and hymns; and some other essays.

My Videos where you will find a few two-minute videos on various subjects related to The Beauty of God for a Broken World.

Pages

Thursday, March 14, 2019

In His Own Words--Chapter 5


Chapter 5 – Jesus Is Greater


When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, I worked on the window-washing crew. We hung out of windows on straps and climbed tall ladders, and our “hazard pay” was twenty-five cents an hour more than the rest of the student janitors received.
One of our ladders was a fifty-foot wooden monstrosity that we used to clean the high, arched windows of Torrey Gray Auditorium. Even that was not quite tall enough to reach the peak of the windows unless a fellow was foolish enough to stand on the top rung. We had a couple of guys who would do it. I wasn’t one of them.
One day the other guys insisted that I go up the ladder. As I nervously neared the top, one of my co-workers jumped as high as he could and grabbed a rung from the inside. The weight of his body caused the ladder to slide down a foot or so. Then he let go and the ladder bounced against the wall. I scuttled down, shaken and angry, and I never went up that ladder again.
The top rung of a tall ladder is a precarious place reserved only for the supremely (or foolishly) confident.
In a series of striking claims, Jesus mounted the ladder stretching from earth to heaven until there were no more rungs to climb. Then He stood there, supremely confident in His position and His authority. He calmly claimed to be greater than the great, and more holy than Israel’s most sacred institutions.
More than once the scribes and Pharisees demanded that Jesus show them a sign to support His outrageous claims of authority. What did they want more than feeding five thousand men with a little boy’s lunch, or healing the blind, the lame and the lepers! In the face of such willful blindness, Jesus simply refused.
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:39-41).
Think for a moment about this claim. We probably count Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and in terms of the wonderful revelations God gave them, that is certainly true. However, none of them had the kind of response Jonah did. Most of the prophets preached to deaf Israelite ears. Jonah went (under compulsion) to the pagan city, Nineveh. In Jonah’s day Nineveh was one of the royal cities of the Assyrian empire. Later on, it became the capitol. Assyria has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most a ruthless, violent, nations of the ancient world.
One of the Assyrian kings boasts,
“The monuments which I erect are made of human corpses from which I have cut the head and limbs. I cut off the hands of all those whom I capture alive.” Reliefs at Nineveh show men being impaled or flayed, or having their tongues torn out; one shows a king gouging out the eyes of prisoners with a lance while he holds their heads conveniently in place with a cord passed through their lips.
After regaling his readers with these atrocities, Will Durant wryly adds, “As we read such pages we become reconciled to our own mediocrity.”[1]
No wonder Jonah didn’t want to preach to them! Nevertheless, he did, and this great city with more than 120,000 morally deficient inhabitants repented. No other Hebrew prophet had such an amazing response to his message—and in this case it was gentiles who believed.
So, in what way was Jesus claiming to be greater than Jonah? First of all, His resurrection from the dead would be a greater miracle than Jonah’s preservation in the sea monster. Second, a great pagan city repented at the preaching of Jonah, but an innumerable multitude of gentiles would be attracted to the message of Jesus. (Matthew 8:11 and 24:31 indicate that Jesus looked forward to gathering many gentiles into His kingdom.) The Ninevites repented with far less evidence that Jesus provided His contemporaries. He was a far greater prophet than Jonah.
That is the first rung of the ladder. Jesus stands higher than the prophets. The next rung of the ladder places Jesus above the wisest man who ever lived.
The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:42).
When Solomon asked God for “an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil,” God replied,
... behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you (1 Kings 3:9, 12).
Yes, I know that Solomon forsook his great wisdom in his old age, but the fact remains that God said no one else would ever have such wisdom as he. Who, then, has the right to claim that he is wiser than the wisest man?
Greater than the most successful prophet, wiser than King Solomon—the next rungs up the ladder leave even these far behind.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath” (Matthew 12:1-2).
Before we move on through the text, it is important to note the basis for the Pharisees’ complaint. According to Deuteronomy 23:25, it was perfectly all right to pluck the heads of standing grain in a neighbor’s field. Using a sickle to cut the stalks was stealing. Eating a few grains out of one’s hand was not. The Pharisees charged the disciples of Jesus not with stealing, but with working on the Sabbath. How serious was that accusation? The Old Testament Law was clear.
Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death (Exodus 31:14-15).
The Jews of Jesus day, living under Roman rule, did not have the freedom to carry out the letter of the Old Testament law, but shortly after Moses announced the penalty an Israelite man decided to put it to the test. Isn’t there always someone like that, pushing the boundaries just to see if they will hold?
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses (Numbers 15:32-36).
Working on the Sabbath was a serious charge! How did Jesus defend His disciples? His answer is two-fold. First, He argued that human need and necessary work take precedence over God-ordained ceremonial regulations. David, in a time of need, ate the “consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone.” Even the priests had to do work in the temple on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:3-5). To reinforce His point, Jesus quoted from Hosea 6: “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent (Matthew 12:7).
Jesus used this kind of argument on other occasions to defend healing the sick on the Sabbath.
 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:11-12).
If Jesus had stopped at this point, He would have appeared to be just another rabbi making an argument on the basis of Old Testament texts. However, He didn’t stop. He took a giant step up, passing over several rungs on our metaphorical ladder when He said, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8).
“The Son of Man” was Jesus normal way of referring to Himself. At the very least, He was claiming to have the authority to rule on acceptable Sabbath behavior. More than that, if He was the Lord of the Sabbath, His authority exceeded the authority of Moses who had to go ask Yahweh what to do with the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Finally, by implication, Jesus had the authority to set aside the Sabbath altogether, which His apostles later did (Colossians 2:16-17).
Wow! And if that didn’t light a fire under the Pharisees’ fringed robes, Jesus had one more incendiary bomb to drop. It comes before His claim to be Lord of the Sabbath. Just after referring to the priests working in the temple on the Sabbath, He added, “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here” (v. 6).
Something greater than the temple? I can imagine the Pharisees looking all around for something or other greater than the temple—It’s not over there on the left. It’s not over there on the right. It’s not behind us. Jesus must be talking about Himself!
What could be greater than the temple? The temple was the dwelling place of God on earth among His people, Israel. The Psalms are filled with longing for God’s house because godly Israelites were deeply conscious of God’s presence in the dark, inner recesses of the temple. Psalm 26:8 is typical: “O Lord, I love the habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.”
Jesus is greater than the temple made of stone because He is the living temple, the ultimate dwelling place of Yahweh. Early in His ministry, Jesus proclaimed, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” That was sufficiently cryptic to confuse everybody who heard Him, but the apostle John writing after the resurrection of Jesus explained, “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 2:19, 21).
When Jesus told the Pharisees that He was greater than the temple, they would not have been able to understand the full implication of His statement. They certainly understood, however, that He was claiming to be higher and greater than the holiest spot on earth. Perhaps it was not a direct claim to deity, but Jesus was standing confidently on the highest rung of the ladder with one end touching the earth and the other in heaven. The only way He could have been more clear would have been to shout, “Hey, you guys! I’m God.”
There is one more thing to note, something that throws these “greater than” claims into sharp relief. Jesus is not only greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon, greater than the temple and Lord of the Sabbath. He also said, “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).
Egomaniacs might tout their pretended humility in order to further their evil plans. Uriah Heep in Dickinson’s David Copperfield comes to mind. But what shall we say about Jesus? Either Jesus was fooling Himself, or He was fooling His disciples, or He was supremely conscious of His own voluntary lowering of Himself.
His disciples called Him “Teacher and Lord” and He said, “you are right, for so I am” (John 13:13), but He lowered Himself to wash His disciples’ feet. Perhaps a couple of weeks before that, as He was preparing His disciples for the cross that lay in his future, He called His disciples to Himself and said,
You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:42-45).
From this perspective, Jesus is the greatest and the first because He willingly gave His life a ransom for many.


[1] Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, The Story of Civilization, vol. 1, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954), 276.

Saturday, March 2, 2019

In His Own Words--Chapter 4


Chapter 4 – Jesus Gives Rest

God Stills the Storms

God commanded Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. This was highly displeasing to the prophet because Nineveh was the capitol city of Israel’s fierce enemy, Assyria. Jonah was afraid that Nineveh would repent and thus escape God’s judgment for a time. (That is exactly what happened.)
When Jonah boarded a ship to flee from the presence of the Lord and to escape his prophetic responsibility,
The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up (Jonah 1:4).
The frightened sailors drew lots to see on whose account this fearful storm had come. The lot fell on Jonah, who confessed his rebellion against Yahweh. When he told the sailors to cast him overboard, they initially refused, but finally they yielded.
Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.” So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows (Jonah 1:14-16).
This may be the only occasion in history when tossing a man overboard resulted in several conversions. It’s probably not a good evangelistic strategy for our imitation.
Jonah did not still the storm. Yahweh did, so the men feared Yahweh and offered a sacrifice to Him. Throughout the Old Testament God is the one who raises storms and who stills them.
O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.  You rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them (Psalm 89:8-9).
Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; they have seen the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed (Psalm 107:23-29).
Notice now the parallels between these passages and the account of Jesus stilling a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:35-41).
As in Psalm 107 and Jonah 1, the storm was so fierce that the boat was in danger of sinking. Like the sailors in Jonah, the disciples feared Him who stilled the storm more than they feared the wind and the waves. The stilling of the storm by Jesus was more than a nature miracle. The narrative parallels Him to the storm-stilling God of the Old Testament. Jesus did not say to the waves and the wind, “The Lord rebuke you,” as an Old Testament prophet might have done. He rebuked the elements on His own authority.

Jesus Gives Rest

In the gospels, Jesus gives rest and peace to troubled souls as well as stilling the troubled sea.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
Rest of soul! How desirable and yet how difficult to obtain! Apart from Jesus we can find nothing better than a superficial rest, a rest that ignores the underlying restlessness of sin.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace," says my God, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20-21).
What is the source of true rest and peace? In the Old Testament it is clearly Yahweh.
“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, creating the praise of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” Says the Lord, "and I will heal him” (Isaiah 57:18-19).
And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Exodus 33:14).
Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:16).
When Jesus used the phrase, “you will find rest for your souls,” He was clearly quoting from Jeremiah, and He was claiming that He could give the rest that Yahweh had promised. His promises of peace are no less striking.
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful (John 14:27).
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33).
The peace Jesus gives is His personal peace, and we find it only in union with Him. It is assured because He is victor over all the unsettling forces of the world that attack our souls.  The phrase “My peace” is significant because peace is not a commodity that Jesus may give us without giving us Himself. True peace is only in Him.
God accused the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day, saying, “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). The Lord, however, offers something much better: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you (Isaiah 26:3, ESV). “Perfect peace” is literally, shalōm, shalōm. The word for peace is repeated, which is the Hebrew equivalent of underlining, italicizing, and capitalizing a word.

How to Have Peace and Rest

How then can we have the true peace and rest that Jesus offers? Let’s return to Matthew 11:28-30.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
The way to have Christ’s rest is to take His yoke in place of the heavy, wearying burden you are bearing. Picture in your mind two oxen yoked together with a heavy, wooden bar over their necks. They are attached to a wagon overloaded with immense boulders. The wheels of the wagon are stuck axle-deep in mire while the driver is lacerating the backs of the oxen with a whip tipped with bits of steel. The poor beasts are straining with all their might, but they cannot budge the wagon. That is the plight of suffering men and women laden with their sins and the cares of life, beaten down by the world and the devil.
Now look off to the other side of the road. Another wagon headed the opposite way stands ready with an empty yoke. The driver, Jesus, says, “Come pull My load. It is easy and light.” The load looks heavier, if possible than the one the oxen are already attempting to pull. The first large lump on Jesus’ wagon is labeled “repentance.” The second is labeled “trust.” The third is labeled “obedience to God’s will.” “Come,” says Jesus, “I will not whip you. I will not score your back lacerations.”
One of the poor, beaten beasts bows its head and moans out its acceptance of Jesus as its new master. The Lord takes the blows of the tyrant on His own back as He releases the ox and puts it under His own yoke. As he fastens the lines, He passes His hands across the bleeding back of the animal. The ox lifts its head and lows in gratitude because the sting of the lash has been eased and its wounds have begun to heal.
Finally, the most amazing thing happens. The Lord Jesus takes on the form of a powerful ox, fits Himself under the other side of the yoke and begins to pull. The great weight of the wagon falls on His shoulders and his new yoke-mate pulls with easy pleasure beside his new master.
When Jesus releases us from slavery to the world, the flesh and the devil, He doesn’t set us loose to wander where we will. He brings us under His yoke. The way to find the rest and peace in Jesus is not to thrash around in the yoke trying to escape it, but rather to submit to it, to lean into it, and to experience the relief that comes when Jesus begins to pull.