Discipleship Series: Seeking Justice For All

SEEKING JUSTICE FOR ALL

 

What comes to my mind when you hear the word “justice”? Our natural inclination would be to think of criminals getting what they deserve. We think of the justice system with its courts and lawyers. Justice punishes the wrongdoer and protects the innocent. Justice has a heavy judicial meaning.

            I found a song that laments the broken justice system of America by Metallica entitled “And justice for all.” But Metallica’s not really my thing. Then I remembered another song about justice by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. (Read portion of lyrics). 

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son

A man had to answer for the wicked that he done

Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree,

Round up all them bad boys hang them high in the street

For all the people to see

That justice is the one thing you should always find

You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line

When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune

And we'll all meet back at the local saloon

We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing

Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

Does that describe justice for you? Cowboy Justice? 

            What if I speak of Social Justice? You may be tempted to think of tree-huggers chaining themselves to bulldozers to save a forest. You may think of protest marches with people armed with signs and shouting slogans. Or you may envision the “Truth and Reconciliation” movements of South Africa and here in Canada where First Nations groups lobby for fair treatment and equal rights. 

            We often define justice by placing it in these categories: political, economic, or judicial. Honestly, these categories are beyond my everyday experience; I don’t encounter these realms consciously. Yet our text in Micah 6:6-8 tells us “to do justice” in our own personal journeys. What does it mean to “do justice” on Monday morning?

            This series “The Seven Realms of Discipleship” is designed to help us look on the other side of the cross. You have come to the cross, acknowledged your sin and need for Jesus’ sacrifice, and are now saved. What’s next? What happens after the cross? What happens next is that as you follow Jesus, that experience transforms every aspect of your life. One

            One aspect that we are considering today is justice. What does it mean to follow Jesus in a world of injustice? How are we to respond as people of faith to the unfairness others experience? 

What God Doesn’t Want from Us (Micah 6:6-7)

 

Micah was a man who loved his people, his nation, and he loved his God. The nation of Judah was experiencing a time of prosperity, but the political outlook was dark. Prosperity had intoxicated the people and they were unaware of the dangers of it. They knew that foreign nations wanted to invade, but their internal spiritual sickness was a cancer. The prophet Micah knew there was only one thing that could save the nation: a deep and widespread revival, a turning back to Yahweh.

            The people inquired of Micah, “What does God want?” And they proceeded to offer a list of suggestions. In the text (6-7), the people are represented as an individual who asks, “With what shall I come before the LORD…?” There is an earnest if not wrong-headed desire to please God. 

            First, the worshiper suggests bringing “burnt offerings” to God. These are different than other offerings where the worshiper receives a portion of the meat back to eat. This offering is given completely to Yahweh. The worshiper even offers to give year-old calves, the best of his stock, the most expensive gift a person can give. 

            Then, the worshiper suggests quantity over quality: a thousand rams and a gross exaggeration of “ten thousands of rivers of oil.” This too is an expensive suggestion; he is willing to spend money, whatever it takes, to please God.

            Finally, in desperation, this series of hypothetical questions rises to a hysterical and ghastly crescendo as the worshiper even offers to sacrifice his own child for his sins. This is so abhorrent to God, so heinous in his sight. This is what pagans do.

            What is this? This is religiosity; the appearance of dcvotion. The motivation for these offerings stink. God doesn’t want any of this. God doesn't want a show. Especially when they were giving them while sinning in other areas of their lives. They think they can make up for their sins and then carry on ignoring what God really wants. He doesn’t want external devotion when the heart is still wicked.

            In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and took the throne. His invasion led to the deaths of many men, so to help relieve the guilt he felt before God, he built a chapel on the field of the battle. It’s called “Battle Abbey.” Did he think that building a chapel would make up for his PTSD? His guilt? Build a chapel and God will look the other way? That’s not what God wants.

            God doesn’t want shows of religion to make up for the areas in our life where we are disobeying him. “Well, I am unethical in my business practices, so I’ll give a big gift to the church building fund.” “I drank a little too much this week, partied too hard – I’ll go to church on Sunday.” God doesn’t want these “sacrifices;” these are poorly motivated substitutes for what he really wants.

 

What God Really Wants from Us (Micah 6:8)

 

It was no secret. Yahweh had told his people long ago what he wanted from them in the covenant. That’s why Micah says, “He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (8).

            What does God want from us? There are three things in his well-known verse that are actually three sides of the same action:

To Do Justice – We are talking about biblical justice, God’s notion of justice. This is captured in two Hebrew words. The first is mishpat. 

            Mishpat occurs over 200 times in the OT. It basically means “treating people equitably (fair and impartial). It can mean acquitting or punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social status (rich or poor). 

            We say that justice is blind. I used to think this was contradiction. Justice should see all the facts, all the evidence, and make right judgments. But what we mean is that justice is blind to the influence of the wealthy, or the pathos of the poor. Justice is blind because justice is impartial. All who break the law receive the same penalty.

            But mishpat means more than punishing the wrongdoer. It also means making sure that people are treated right. Deuteronomy 18 teaches that the priests working in the tabernacle should be supported by a certain percentage of the people’s income. The support is called “the priest’s mishpat.” So, justice means giving people what they are due, whether in punishment, protection, or care (Tim Keller, Generous Justice). 

            The second word is tzadeqah. It can be translated as “being just” or “being righteous.” What it really gets at is living a life in right relationship with others. If mishpat focused on punishing wrongdoers and protecting victims, tzadeqah would eliminate the need for that kind of justice because everyone would be living in right relationship with everyone else. Tzadeqah is initially about being in right relationship with God, but that relationship would transform all of your relationships. 

            Isaiah lived at the same time as Micah and saw the same problems in Judah. He agreed with Micah and counseled the people, “…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause,”(Is. 1:17). 

            The theme of justice extends into the NT. Jesus mirrored the challenge in different words, saying, “Treat people in the way you would like them to treat you; this is the intent of the law and the prophets,” (Mt. 7:12). This is the ethic Jesus taught. 

Love Kindness – Kindness does not capture the wealth of the Hebrew word represented here. In Hebrew, the word is chesed, and it means “kindness, mercy, unselfish goodness, love, faithfulness, loyalty, and covenant love.” Martin Luther summed it up saying that this is the OT version of the NT “grace.” God wants us to love and understand grace. More than that, I believe the Lord wants us to chase after grace.

            Mercy is NOT giving people what they deserve. Grace is giving people what they DON’T deserve. Chesed is a combination of the two. This combination takes justice, making sure people get what they are due, and adds something more, to love grace – to go beyond what someone is due and give them even more than they are due. Give them grace; treat them better than they deserve. 

            When Jesus is asked which commandment is most important, he answered, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” (Mk. 12:29-30). Loving God is the first thing a person who seeks a relationship with God does. But loving God means understanding who God; God is a God of justice and grace. So, Jesus adds, “The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (31a). Jesus ties a social obligation to knowing God. In other words, you cannot say you love God, but not love people. In the OT, commitment to Yahweh included commitment to the covenant community. In the NT, that means the church.

Walk Humbly with Your God – The reason we are cautious to preach a social justice perspective is because we don’t want to lose the heart of the mission: gospel proclamation. A social gospel that feeds the hungry but doesn’t save the soul is no gospel at all. However, the example of Jesus brings the two together: Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, cast out demons, and freed the prisoner from oppression. The good news went hand in hand with the relief of the poor and sickly as Jesus went from town to town. 

            Micah invites us to walk humbly with our God. To walk is to follow, to imitate. That is the essence of discipleship. Following Jesus changes your life. Following Jesus makes you an agent for change. Jesus said we are "salt" and "light," elements that penetrate and make a difference wherever they are found. 

            John says as much in 1 John 3:16-18 (read). We know what love is; Jesus showed us what love is – self-sacrifice for the sake of others. 

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The hungry person needs bread, the homeless person needs shelter, the one deprived of rights needs justice, the lonely person needs community, the undiscipline one needs order, and the slave needs freedom. It would be blasphemy against God and our neighbor to leave the hungry unfed while saying that God is closest to those in deepest need,” (DBWE 6:97). Following Jesus opens your eyes to those in need.          

            So, the three elements of Micah’s call are to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Is this not the life of Jesus? Does he not encapsulate justice and mercy and humility? Are we not called to be like him in discipleship? Then we must seek the justice of all…

 

I like how John Perkins expressed this truth: “I am convinced that the Church, as the steward of the gospel, holds the key to justice in our society. Either justice will come through us, or it will not come at all.” 

True justice comes through the church. Not through political activism or state welfare programs. The church has shirked its responsibility allowing society to dictate what justice looks like. And I think we are afraid to reveal to the world what biblical justice looks like because they will hate it and find it convicting.

The biblical gospel of Jesus naturally and powerfully leads to a passion for justice in the world. How do we do justice? But how do we think justly? 

Biblical justice speaks for the helpless. Is anyone more helpless than an unborn baby? Since Roe vs. Wade in 1974, 63 million babies have been aborted in the US. In Canada, where we have no laws on abortion as such, 3000 babies are aborted every year. While we fight for higher wages and individual rights in various realms of life, a terrible holocaust is at work under our noses. And we have said nothing!        

Biblical justice speaks for the oppressed. At my seminary graduation, when I first heard the president speak these words, I was taken aback. He acknowledged that Providence Seminary sat on Treaty One land and declared, “Providence carries out its activity as an educational institution on the traditional territories of the Cree, Anishinabe, and Métis nations. We honor them as the ancient peoples and current hosts of this part of God’s creation.” The same type of declaration is verbalized at Jets’ games. You might be annoyed at this and at the media-induced reminder concerning residential school atrocities against First Nations peoples. But shouldn’t their wounds break our hearts? As a people that have been chased around the world for 500 years, shouldn’t we as Anabaptists empathize with a people whose land was taken away? 

Biblical Justice speaks for the outcast. Again, at Jets’ games and other NHL arenas, Pride Nights have been held. We balk at this; we do not support the intention of these evenings; they do not reflect our biblical values about sexuality. But one thing the NHL is doing that the church has failed to do is welcome those who feel outcast by society. We should have been first to welcome these folks. 

How do we do justice in Rosenort? We can pray for and verbally encourage and support our principal in his ongoing work to bring positive influences into our school. We can open our homes for Safe Families to assist parents who are finding work and life hard. We can be change-makers and influencers in our community to make sure that people can experience real community. We can lead the way in making Rosenort a positive and healthy place to live. We do this for the glory of our Lord Jesus who has transformed our individual lives and taught us what real community is…

What does it mean to follow Jesus in a world of injustice? It means courageously acting like Jesus and loving the least of these.

 

                                                AMEN

Introduction To Discipleship Series

“Now That You’re Saved”:

THE PURPOSE OF LIVING FOR CHRIST

 

A truck driver was hauling a load of 50 penguins to the zoo. Unfortunately, his truck broke down and could not continue his route. He was able to wave down another truck and offered the driver $500 to take the penguins to the zoo.

            When the driver had his truck fixed, he drove to town the next day and witnessed a peculiar sight. Just ahead of him, he saw the other truck driver crossing the road with 50 penguins waddling behind him. The driver jumped out of his truck and ran up to the guy and said, “What’s going on? I gave you $500 to take these penguins to the zoo!” To which the man responded, “I did take them to the zoo. But I had enough money left over, so now we’re going to the movies.” 

            The second driver was unclear on his mission. Either the instructions given by the first driver were given in a moment of panic and hurry, or the second driver worked for Purolator and was not instructed on how to deliver live animals. I don’t know. It’s a silly story that simply illustrates that many believers today are unclear about their sense of purpose. 

            We are living in post-Easter times. The teaching of salvation is immensely important, but now that you are saved by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, what comes next? Jesus gave his disciples the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28, commanding them to take the good news and make disciples – that is, to teach people what it means and how it makes a difference in this present life. 

            You see, some Christians get stuck on the salvation aspect of Christianity; they receive forgiveness for sin and the hope for eternal life, but they don’t know what difference their faith makes in the present life. How does being a Christian affect your community? The world of finance? The workplace? Social justice? The realm of politics? 

            The big question we want to look at over the next several weeks is this: What does it mean to follow Jesus in these various realms of life? 

            But before we get into the specific realms, I want to briefly introduce you to the process of discipleship. After we have put our trust in Jesus for salvation, what comes next? What comes next is learning to walk in life as Jesus walked. We sometimes call this spiritual growth. It is a process where the Holy Spirit works in us to show us how to live like Jesus and become like him. 

            Becoming like Jesus, the goal of discipleship, is only possible if we have someone to show us what that’s like. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit uses people to accomplish this work in our lives. And in turn, he uses us to disciple other people. 

            This is the thrust of what Paul talks about in Colossians 1:28-29. “Him (Jesus Christ) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.” 

            In these words, we read about five aspects of discipleship:

1. The Heart of Discipleship – First and foremost, discipleship is about proclaiming Jesus. Paul speaks of Jesus as the great mystery hidden for generations but now revealed to us (1:26). Again, in 2:2-3, Paul expands on this picture of Jesus as a mystery saying that the knowledge of God’s mystery is Christ “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

            In other words, everything that can be known about God and the universe he created begins with Jesus Christ. As Hebrews 1:3 expresses it, Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. If you want to know what God is like, examine Jesus in the gospel. He is God in the flesh; a visible and accurate expression of who God is (1:15).

            Christ is central to the Christian faith. That’s what I appreciate about the Anabaptist movement: it is the primary core value of our creed. A church that emphasizes another part of the Bible as primary or focuses on something other than Jesus is not a Christ-centered church. 

2. The Means of Discipleship – How do we disciple others to know Jesus and live godly lives? In this verse, Paul talks about warning and teaching everyone. 

            When we disciple, we must train them up in the Word of God and show them how to live lives that reflect who God is and the transforming work that he has done in us. “Warning” sounds about as harsh as the word “admonish.” The sense of the word is that we are helping to set someone’s mind in proper order, that is, to think like Jesus. Out of love for the person we are discipling, we must not be silent if we see them living contrary to the Scriptures. 

            “Teaching with all wisdom” means of course that we open up our Bibles together and talk about what God has shown us. We meditate on the saving work of Christ, but we also discuss together what it means to follow him in life. 

             I would add, as Paul does to the Philippians, that discipleship is not just about teaching someone to live like Jesus, it is also showing them. Paul boldly asks believers to imitate him, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you,” (Phil 4:9). Do we live the kind of lives that we could say to someone, “imitate me”? 

3. The Goal of Discipleship – One word: Maturity. Our goal is to present everyone who follows Jesus as complete before God. Paul said, “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” There are two sides of salvation in this sense. On the one hand, we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and nothing needs to be added to that fundamental truth. On the other hand, we have a responsibility to nurture and develop the gift of faith given to us by living it out in this present life. 

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer once talked about those who believed that grace had saved them believing then that they could live how they wanted. He called this “cheap grace.” Costly grace, in contrast, compels a person to submit to the lordship of Jesus and follow him in every aspect of life. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ…Costly grace means pursuing the gospel. It is costly because it will cost you your life, and it is grace because it will give you true life. 

            For some of us, maturity seems elusive. How do we know if we are growing in maturity? The evidence of growth in our faith can be seen by looking back on your progress. John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace,” wrote, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

4. The Cost of Discipleship – Paul said, “for this I toil, struggling.” “Toil” and “struggle” both come from the world of sports. “Toil” means to grow or advance through hard work, while “agony” is at the root of the word “struggle.” An athlete who excels at his or her sport will compete to the point of exhaustion because winning is so important. Athletes talk about the agony and the ecstasy of the competition; it is a challenge that could break you, but the outcome outweighs the tears and sweat. 

            Think of this in terms of discipleship: Do we engage discipling in this way, with this effort? Do we agonize over one or two other people to see them mature in Christ? 

             J. Oswald Sanders told the story of an indigenous missionary who walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel in India. His hardships were many. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement, he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was driven out of town and rejected. So, he went to the edge of the village, dejected, and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion.

            When he awoke, people were hovering over him, and the whole town was gathered around to hear him speak. The head man of the village explained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man, and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message that he was willing to suffer so much to bring them.

I doubt we will have blistered feet, but is there a willingness in our hearts to wrestle with the work of discipling another person in the faith? 

5. The Power of Discipleship – Discipleship takes a lot of energy, time, and resources. Even as Paul talks about the cost of discipleship in terms of energy, he concludes his thought this way: “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me,” (29). 

            The good news is that the Lord gives us his energy to disciple other people. And he is the One who does the transforming work in the hearts of men and women. In the Greek, this verse would be literally, “striving according to his energy which powerfully energizes within me.” 

 

This verse captures the essence of discipleship in fundamental ways. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.” 

            Did you notice that Paul says “everyone” three times? Following Jesus is a calling for everyone, young and old. Parents, you are the primary disciplers for your children until they “grow up.” I learned the basics of faith from my mom and dad. Then, as I grew, my SS teachers had an influence on my maturity in faith. Sharon and I reminisced last week that we could not remember a thing our SS teachers taught us. But we do remember that they were faithful in teaching and showing us Jesus.

            Discipleship, or following Jesus in life, permeates every part of life. That’s why we are asking this question and trying to answer it from Scripture in the next few weeks: How do I follow Jesus at work? With my mind? In a world of violence? 

            Jesus didn’t just come to save you; he came to transform you. That’s what he meant when he said, “Come follow me.” Following him is a journey of discovering how God in Christ wants us to respond to our world and its crises.

            “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps,” (1 Peter 2:21). 

 

                                                            AMEN

Easter Sunday - John 20:1-18

RECOGNIZING THE RISEN CHRIST

 

I was impacted a few years ago by the “Me Too” movement that emerged out of Hollywood. Movements like this tend to overflow the banks of logic and sense when fed by emotionalism and a flawed sense of justice. So, to be clear, I do not count myself a radical left-winger. But the Harvey Weinstein affair opened my eyes to the way women have been treated in Hollywood and throughout history. And it grieves me as a man to realize the various abuses women have endured at the hands of men. 

            Isn’t it striking then to consider that the first witnesses of the empty tomb and the risen Christ were women? It certainly gives a tone of authenticity and credibility to the historical reality of the event. 

            Yet when the women reported to the men that Jesus had risen, they didn’t believe it. Certainly, the main reason they didn’t believe it was because people don’t rise from the dead. In their grief, people get confused, imagine things, speak in error. Sometimes they lie. The most likely reason they didn’t believe the women was gender bias. In the first century, women were not considered good witnesses.

            The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote about common legal practice saying, “But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least…But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex…”

            The Romans were no better. A huge critic of Christianity named Celsus wrote, “Christianity can’t be true, because the written accounts of the resurrection are based on the testimony of women – and we all know women are hysterical…deluded by sorcery.” 

            A woman was the first person to see the risen Christ. I would venture to say that Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to have that honor and it says something remarkable about how the Lord views women. Let’s consider her story…

Mary Discovers the Empty Tomb (1-2)

 

It was the custom in Palestine to visit the tomb of a loved one for three days after the body had been laid to rest. It was believed that for three days the spirit of the dead person lingered near his body, but then departed when the body decayed and became unrecognizable. 

            On the first day of the week (Sunday), Mary Magdalene stepped out into the chill morning air and began to walk towards Golgotha and the garden tomb. She came with spices to anoint the dead body. Jesus’ body was entombed in haste because of Passover. Since sundown on Friday, Mary had wanted to be there, just to be near the one she loved but had so violently been taken from her. But the Sabbath kept her from visiting the tomb. Other women had the same idea.

            Luke tells us that Mary was among several women who followed Jesus as disciples. Having men and women as followers was scandalous to the Jews, but Jesus gave women dignity by engaging them. Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene (the number “7” indicated fullness suggesting that Mary was overwhelmingly possessed). Being freed from spiritual bondage, Mary became a financial supporter of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1-3). She is also the only woman mentioned in all four gospel accounts of the cross.

            When she arrived at the tomb, she was horrified. What did she see and understand? The seal was broken, the great stone was rolled away from the tomb entrance, and the soldiers were missing. In her mind this evidence suggested two possibilities: 1) the Jewish leaders had taken Jesus’ body to further inflict indignities on him; 2) raiders had assumed that being buried in a rich man’s tomb, a ransom could be had. 

            The body is missing at any rate. Mary turns on her heels and runs. She rushes past the other women entering the garden. Frightened and confused she races to find Peter and John and breathlessly cries, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him,” (2). 

Peter and John Run to the Tomb (3-10)

 

Each witness of the empty tomb seems to see and understand something different. Now it is Peter and John’s turn to run. John was about 19 and Peter was in his late 30s, so John outruns Peter and gets to the tomb first. John stopped at the entrance and allowed Peter to go in first.

            What did Peter see? “He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself,” (6b-7). It was a bewildering scene. Mary was right. The body of Jesus was gone. Peter couldn’t seem to process what he was seeing. Luke records that Peter went home “wondering to himself what had happened,” (Luke 24:12).

            What did John see? We read a very short and profound response, “he saw and believed,” (8). John saw the same thing that Peter did but understood the scene very differently. To John, the cloths that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body and filled with spices now formed an empty cast. The head cloth was neatly folded. This was no tomb robbery. John believed that Jesus “moved” through the burial cloths and walked out of the tomb. 

            Three witnesses – three responses. Mary: fear. Peter: confusion. John: belief. Yet they all saw the same thing.

            The part that love plays in the narrative is amazing. It was Mary, who loved Jesus so much, who was first at the tomb. It was John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and who loved Jesus, who was first to believe in the resurrection. Love compels a person to comprehend and believe. Love gave him eyes to see and a mind to understand. And Mary’s love compels her to linger further at the tomb to find an answer.       

            Love is the great interpreter. Love can grasp the truth when intellect is left groping. Once a young artist brought a picture of Jesus to a master painter to hear his verdict. The master was slow to speak, but then said this: “You don’t love him, or you would paint him better.” 

Why Are You Weeping? (11-15)

 

From the perspective of heaven, nothing is more incongruous than tears at the empty tomb of Jesus. If there is one place in space and one moment in time when tears are least appropriate, it is at the empty tomb of Jesus on Easter morning! (Bruce Milne, 291).

            Two angels ask Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping?” One writer suggested that even the angels were puzzled at her tears. What is Mary not seeing? We talked about what she did see and how she interpreted it. But looking at the same evidence, there’s an empty tomb and two ANGELS!! They must have looked at each other and thought, “She sees us, right?” 

            Mary is still looking into the tomb and she hears a voice, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She responds as she did to the angels about someone taking the body of her Lord away and wanting him back. You and I know that this time it is Jesus speaking to her, but she is unaware. 

            Why didn’t Mary recognize Jesus? 1) She could not recognize Jesus because of her tears. Her sorrow over the loss of someone so dear to her was an emotional hurricane, all confusion and pain. Her loss, her disappointment, her grief kept her from seeing Jesus. 

            2) She could not recognize Jesus because she was looking at the tomb. She was facing the wrong direction. She was so focused on her loss and the grave that Mary could not see beyond. 

            When we focus on dead things, it’s difficult to see Jesus. Hanging on to our losses keeps us in the valley of death. We may also find ourselves gripping tightly onto a doctrine or an ideology or a cause that we think honors the Lord but actually blinds us to the life he wants us to have. 

            In any event, Mary’s tears were unnecessary. She needed to turn around and look up.

 

Encountering the Risen Christ (16-18)

 

The man Mary presumes to be the gardener speaks one word that completely changes her life: “Mary.” And she responds with, “Rabboni,” (my own dear teacher). 

            CH Dodd said, “There is something indefinably first-hand about it…there is nothing quite like it in the gospels. Is there anything quite like it in all of ancient literature?” It is a simple and beautiful exchange of love. 

            Michael Card said it was hard for him to imagine Jesus’ tone of voice other than touched with quiet laughter. One word, “Mary.” The sound of her name from her resurrected Lord began Mary’s own resurrection story. Her faith and hope are reborn in the face of the living Christ. 

            Mary must have grabbed onto him. Matthew tells us that the disciples grabbed his feet in worship. How could she resist embracing him? 

            But then Jesus says something to her that sounds awkward in our English translations: “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God,” (17). It sounds like, “Don’t touch me,” a really harsh rebuke. But then a few verses later, Jesus tells Thomas to touch him, to examine his hands and feet. What are we to think of this odd response to Mary’s joy?

            1) It has been argued that the only real contact with Jesus came after his ascension. This perspective spiritualizes our relationship with Jesus negating any human touch. 

            2) In contrast, it has also been suggested that the Greek is a mistranslation of the Aramaic. Jesus spoke Aramaic, but this gospel is written in Greek. What Jesus actually said was something like, “We cannot linger here. In a short time, I will go back to my Father and I want to meet with my disciples as often as possible before I leave. Go tell them the good news.” 

            3) A third possibility is that there was a lot of fear that needed dispelling. Mark’s gospel account tells us the disciples were afraid and didn’t know what to do with this resurrection business. They may have been afraid of losing Jesus again. Jesus may have meant, “Don’t be afraid; I haven’t gone to my Father yet; I am still here with you.” 

            Of the three, I prefer the second option since Mary did go and tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” And in that message is the very essence of Christian faith, for a Christian is one who says, “I have seen the Lord.” Christianity is not knowing about Jesus; it means knowing him and meeting with him. It is the certainty of experience that Jesus is alive.

 

What are some takeaways from Mary’s story?

            First, the role of women in the Passion narrative is critical to the spreading of the gospel. In his book, “Women: God’s Secret Weapon, Ed Silvoso writes, “One of the main reasons Christianity spread so rapidly in the early years is because its message restored honor and inner worth to half of the world’s population; that is, women.” It is also extremely telling that the resurrected Jesus did not go knock on Pilate’s door and say, “I’m back!” He went to a dear lady he loved and who loved her teacher and gently brought her back from despair.

            Second, we all have access to the biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. But what do we see? For some it is a story often told and many times rehearsed. It has become, shall we say, too familiar? I bowed out of a breakfast meeting last week to write this sermon and a colleague joked, “It’s a 2000-year-old holiday. Sort of writes itself at this point, no?” He made sure to say he was joking, but the truth is, how do I keep the story fresh for all of us? What do you see in the empty tomb? Do you see the resurrected and living Christ? How would your love be reflected if you could paint him?

            Finally, we focus on the Easter weekend as a highlight in the Christian year. And it is. I love this weekend celebration. I wonder if Jesus is saying to us today, “Don’t cling to this weekend quite so tightly. But go and tell the people that need to know that I’m alive.” Go and tell them, “I have seen the Lord.” In other words, celebrating Easter, getting together with family, and eating ham (just to stick it to the Jews, apparently), fails to grasp the commission that is Easter. Resurrection Sunday is a hope that the world needs to know about. Sins are forgiven. Death is defeated. Christ is alive. Go and tell them. 

            God give us power and joy to tell the world: He is Risen!

 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls,” (1 Peter 1:8-9). 

 

 

                                                            AMEN

   

Isaiah 53:1-6 Sermon

THE MYSTERIOUS SUFFERING SERVANT

 

These past few weeks we have been studying images of Christ on the cross from an OT perspective. We have seen how God foreshadowed long ago the saving event that would deliver the world from sin and death. Some of the images have been obscure and needed interpretation. Isaiah 53, in comparison, so clearly refers to the person of Jesus that it hardly needs explanation. That wasn’t always the case, however.

            Who is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53? In Isaiah’s day, some thought Isaiah was talking about himself. Shortly after Israel’s fall and captivity, many Jews thought it was talking about themselves and their plight in Babylon.

            But in Acts 8, we read the account of a treasury official who was reading Isaiah 53 on the way home from a religious festival. He is struggling with the text and can’t figure it out. While engrossed in the scripture, a man named Philip appears who hears him reading Isaiah 53. “Do you understand what you are reading?” he asks the treasury agent. “How can I unless someone guides me?” the agent responds. So, Philip climbs into a seat beside the man and the man asks who this person is who is led like a lamb to the slaughter. Who is Isaiah talking about? 

            Without hesitation, Philip takes this passage and begins to tell the man about the good news of Jesus (8:35). The Christian church is barely a few years old at this time and already Isaiah 53 is commonly accepted among Christians as a prophecy about Jesus. 

            Isaiah’s prophecy gives us the richest understanding of the work of Christ in the OT. This text takes us to the heart of the human problem and the heart of the divine mind. It offers a bold and daring answer to the question, “How is God going to deal with sin and forgive humankind without offending his holy character?” His answer is the Suffering Servant who submits to God’s purposes and takes on the sins of humanity even though he was innocent of any himself. 

            Isaiah’s portrait of Jesus is not pretty. It shatters the American image of a man with a commanding presence or a blue-eyed attractive hippy with rippling muscles. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah will leave you speechless. Is this the Jesus you have come to know?

 

Would you believe it?

 

The Servant Song (as it is known) begins at 52:13 and speaks of his marred appearance. He is so mutilated that he barely resembles a human being. The picture is shocking. 

            Isaiah asks, “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (1). What Israel wanted and needed in the time of Isaiah was a king who would deliver them from the threats of the surrounding nations. They needed a hero. 

            What Isaiah described was a zero. It was so shocking a revelation of human disfigurement that those who would see him would step back in horror not only saying, “Is this the servant?” but is this human?

            Who would believe this? The arm of the LORD is a reference to the power and strength of God. This is not anyone’s idea of power and strength. 

            When Jesus entered Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna” he came riding on a donkey. That should have been a clue that something was amiss in their perceptions. A warrior king comes on a white horse, not a merchant’s animal. Their deliverer entered the Holy City with no sword, no army, and no visible advantage of power. 

            Jesus himself said as he entered, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes,” (Luke 19:41-42). If anyone should have recognized the Messiah it would be those who possessed the knowledge of the scriptures, of Isaiah 53. But their eyes were blind to “the arm of the LORD.” 

 

He was nothing to look at…

 

This may offend your perceptions of Jesus, but he was nothing to look at. I know that this is hard to swallow, but listen to what Isaiah says, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground;” (2a).

            Isaiah implies that the Servant had an unimpressive birth. His pedigree was common and unremarkable. A “young plant” pictures a tender shoot, a wisp of a plant that grows in a place where nothing should grow at all. You may think “Ok, but it’s Jesus.” No, you don’t get it, this is a green little nothing compared to an oak tree. 

            Forget the romanticized Christmas cards of stables and animals and angel glory. Jesus was born in the muck of animal dwellings instead of in a palace. He was born to peasants whose only claim to nobility was a long-dead dynasty. When Jesus began his ministry and teaching, his hometown buddies sneered, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother Mary? Aren’t his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” (Mt. 13:55). Who is this guy? And one of his own potential followers, Nathaniel, when he heard where Jesus was from laughed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn. 1:46). 

            Isaiah said they would apply the usual tests to the Servant: “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him,” (53:2b). Was he good looking (beauty)? Did he have an impressive personality (majesty)? What impression did he make? According to Isaiah, he would fail on all accounts. 

            Do you ever notice when a victim of a tragedy (a murder or some horrific event) is shown on the news what reaction people have based on appearance? They show a picture, and we go, “Oh, she was so pretty. What a shame.” Because it’s not a shame when less attractive people die…

 

No one wanted him around…

The portrait of the Suffering Servant descends even further. Partly because of his unimpressive pedigree and appearance, but also because of the nature of his ministry, he is totally rejected. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from who men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” (53:3). 

            Twice the word “despised” is used. We often wonder at the choice of the Twelve disciples as lowly men, with minimum wage jobs and no leadership skills. I think that those who we deem better candidates didn’t want the job of following Jesus. The “better” types despised the uncredentialed rabbi. Until they saw the miracles. But then his teaching turned crowds away. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,”(Lk 9:23), was not an attractive invitation. 

            A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…Jesus could have come into our world as some kind of superman, untouched by human weakness, never tiring, hungering, thirsting, immune to trials and temptations. Would you have related to that? Jesus knew pain, hunger, weariness. He knew rejection, betrayal, and exasperation. He even knew grief when his good friend Lazarus passed away. 

            Jesus’ greatest sorrow was experienced on the cross, bearing the sins of the world. But this was only the culmination of his grief over the lostness of the people around him, people who didn’t understand God. What a delight for Jesus when the eyes of the woman at the well grew large at the revelation that Messiah stood before her. She got it. As a teacher I can tell you that nothing thrills me more than seeing a student suddenly “get it.” Otherwise, ignorance is grievous.

 

He looked cursed…

 

Jesus was a man of sorrows and griefs, but they were our sorrows and griefs. Note the tone of verse 4, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” (53:4). The words “griefs” and “sorrows” are the same as the Hebrew words in verse 3. The Hebrew word “bore” means “to carry, to lift up.” And “carried” means “to bear, carry, drag along a burden, to shoulder.” That sounds heavy. 

            A common cliché we use when someone carries a lot of responsibility is that they “are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.” Who but Jesus fits this image better? He carried our sorrows, our griefs…Here I ask you to recall the image of the scapegoat. Remember in Leviticus 16 how the priest laid his hand on the head of the “surviving” goat and symbolically transferred all Israel’s sins to that goat? The scapegoat image fits well in Isaiah’s description. All our griefs and sorrows are put on him.

            “…yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted,” (53:4b). Isaiah commented that when the onlookers, those observing the Suffering Servant, gazed on this wasted life of a man, they concluded that God was punishing this man for his sin. The common understanding among the Jews was that if someone suffered, they must have sinned. Yeah, we’re not too far off on that one. But it’s wrong. 

            Jesus was hung on a cross, a tree. Deuteronomy 21:23 says that a hanged man is cursed by God. Anyone who witnessed a man dying on a cross would be justified in saying that man was cursed. It normally takes nine days for a person to die on a cross. Jesus died in six hours. 

 

Yet he was punished for us…

 

If there is any misunderstanding about the suffering of this man, if anyone should begin to think he was cursed by God and that is why he endured such agony, Isaiah clears this up:

            “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed,” (53:5). 

            This piece explains what really happened and why. It was not the punishment of God against him. It was not his own sins that put him on the cross. It was our sins. It was our rebellion. It was our wandering. As Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (53:6; there’s the scapegoat motif again). 

            Sin as failure would receive nothing more than pity; sin as a moral defect is troublesome but it may be argued that what cannot be helped cannot be blameworthy; but sin as willfulness is the thing God cannot overlook. It is the very heart of sinfulness that we sin because we want to. The wandering sheep who is intent on feeding its stomach ignores the shepherd’s call to come back. We all like sheep are enticed by the allure of greener grass over the hilltop. We all like sheep inch forward ignoring the warning that wolves lay in wait behind the bushes. We keep pressing the issue of our independence.

            And that is why the Suffering Servant is pierced, is crushed, is rejected, is despised, is deformed by the scourge of whips and nails and crown of thorns. We are the reason for the suffering of the Servant. 

            But as long as we see that our need of forgiveness remains our deepest need, we can rejoice in this tragic image of a man so disfigured. Because Jesus died for us, the rest of our problems can be dealt with precisely because sin and forgiveness are core issues. We can bring our sins to the cross and leave them there; we can bring our pains, our griefs, and our sorrows to the cross and leave them there too. We need not hang on to them. The Servant suffers both for our rebellion and for our pain and suffering. (J. Goldingay – paraphrased). 

            “This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins,” 1 John 4:10. 

                                                            AMEN