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The Ultimate Testimony

Tuesday, December 25th, 2012 | Author:

For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  John 18:37  NASB

To bear witness – Why did Yeshua come?  What was His purpose?  What did He accomplish?  Far too often we jump to ready-made answers rather than even listening to His own explanation.  We assert that “He came to save our souls,” or “He came to forgive sins,” or “He came sacrifice Himself.”  But listen to what He says.  “I came to bear witness to the truth.”  What does that imply?  Doesn’t it imply that the truth was already known and that He is testifying as to its veracity?  Doesn’t it imply that His life confirms, corroborates, demonstrates and attests to something already present?  When we suggest that He came to provide forgiveness, aren’t we suggesting that forgiveness of this kind wasn’t available prior to His action?  But is that what He says?

The context of His statement is important.  Yeshua doesn’t make this statement while teaching His disciples.  He doesn’t say these words when He is on trial before the high priest.  Do you know when He says He is a witness?  When He stands before Pilate!  In the same sentence when He says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  What is the context?  The context is Pilate’s question, “So You are a king?”  Yeshua’s response is the affirmation that He is in fact a king.  The entire statement about His purpose, His being born into this world, is a statement about the truth that He is king.  “Every one who is of the truth hears My voice,” He concludes.  Shema.  They hear and they obey.  That is the sign of being under a king.

You might find it interesting that the Greek verb here is martyreo.  To bear witness is to be martyred.  The witness in death is the one true testimony.

Now we might need to make some revisions in our Christology.  Apparently Yeshua Himself tells us that the primary purpose of His coming is to attest to His kingship.  The primary purpose is not to forgive sins, not to save us from our pitiful state, not to get us to heaven.  The primary purpose is to verify that He is king over all the earth.  Facing death, He asserts that these actions will indisputably establish His role as king.  What is the truth that He is witness to?  That He reigns.  That He rules.  And that there is no other.

Perhaps our preoccupation with our own desire to find a guilt eraser has obscured us from the ultimate message.  Yeshua is not simply Savior.  He is Lord!  And those who hear/obey Him are members of His kingdom.  That is the truth!

Topical Index:  to bear witness, martyreo, purpose, truth, king, John 18:37

 

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What Do You Want? (1)

Saturday, November 17th, 2012 | Author:

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4  NASB

Desires – The first word in this verse is a word that expresses the sheer enjoyment of the person of God.  When we delight in who God is an amazing transformation occurs.  Our lives progress toward fulfillment.  Those secret spaces are no longer empty.  We experience the desires of our reborn hearts as joy.  As the psalmist suggests, God gives us His desires so that they may become our desires.

Today we look at the result of this enjoyment.  In Hebrew, mish’ala (plural mish’alot) means a personal plea for something.  This word occurs only twice in the entire Old Testament.  But its root word (sha’al) is used over one hundred times for asking God for guidance or for some possession.

This is a promise that each of us must make our personal motto.  It is the Old Testament equivalent of Yeshua’s statement, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  But in our world, it seems like utter foolishness to place all of my confidence in God.  The world tells me that the best investment strategy is diversification.  “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”  Why do David and Yeshua tell us just the opposite?  Because they know that only God is really reliable.  Everything and everyone else will fail.

In spite of my solid conviction about this truth, I find that I am struggling with great intensity over this verse today.  God knows the direction of my heart is toward Him.  He knows that my final desire is to see His will done in my life.  But my life is not filled with joy these days.  It is riddled with struggle and anxiety.  I know that God can do anything He chooses but the question plaguing me is will He rescue me.  I need this verse more than ever.  I need to see that God is my life; that no one else and nothing else can come between us and that my true joy will be found only in Him.  I have spent many hours on my knees asking God to intervene in the trauma before me.  Both David and Yeshua tell me that He will.  God’s faithfulness is the most important fact of life.  But my crisis of faith is not knowing what He says.  It is stepping forward on the basis of what He says.  My doubt is Hebrew hesitation, not Greek lack of information.  I want His desires in my heart but I struggle to let go and walk with Him into a future that I cannot see.  My need for security is fixed on the visible but God comes to me with audio assurance.  I must trust what I hear, not what I see.  And in Hebraic thinking, what I hear I do.  That is faith.

Father, renew my hope.  Grant me true delight in You.  Let me be fully identified with the words of Your Son, “Thy will be done.”  Help me take the next step forward as if I were a blind man for, Father, I truly am blind without You.”

Topical Index:  desires, mish’ala, sha’al, to ask, truth, Psalm 37:4

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The Road Less Traveled

Friday, October 26th, 2012 | Author:

I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.  3 John 4  NASB

Walking – This Greek word is peripatounta.  It combines two Greek words to produce the meaning, “to walk about.”  This is a Greek substitution for a Hebrew idiom that encompasses all of our activities.  “To walk in God’s ways” is the Hebrew expression of our entire conduct in the world.  In this verse, John puts the emphasis on “truth.”   Literally, he says, “in the truth are walking.”  John says that truth is the active operation of our present daily moving about.  That means John is thinking like a Jew.  He is not telling us that having correct (true) theology is the essence of spirituality.  He is telling us that living according to reliable authority (Hebrew emunah) is what matters.

Did you notice that John addresses fellow believers as “my children”?  His comment is full of tenderness and pride.  Nothing makes him happier than to see the ones he has nurtured in the faith walk according to the ways of God.

My wife and I used to say that our only goal for our children is see that they are happy.  We really did not care what career they chose, who they decided to marry, where they wanted to live.  We wanted them to have happy lives.  But these days we see that something else is more important.  Happiness is nice, but fulfilling God’s purpose and walking in His ways is much, much better.  Happiness is temporary, as we have both learned over the years.  But purpose under God’s mighty hand is eternal.  To know the truth and to walk in it surpasses all temporary forms of happiness because God’s purposes carry us through any circumstances.  Today we wish to say that same thing that John says:  “We want no greater joy than to hear that our children are walking in truth.”  That will mean they have a place in God’s plan.

Sadly, many children live the kind of lives each of us had before we walked in the truth.  They followed in our footsteps, much to our shame.  Now we all have a new burden – the burden of prayer for those we brought into this world.  There is no greater joy than to hear that your children walk in the truth.  And there is no greater sorrow than to hear that they do not.  It should drive us to our knees, pleading with God to work His purposes in their lives so that they will find what we have found – life in the truth.

Topical Index:  walking, peripatounta, truth, emunah, 3 John 4

 

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Gut-level Goodness

Saturday, July 14th, 2012 | Author:

to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted and humble in spirit”  1 Peter 3:8  NASB

Kind-hearted – eusplanchnoi in Greek.  Wow! Don’t even try to say this word.  The prefix eu means “well” or “good” (you remember eulogize?).  But “good” what?  The second part of the word (splanchnon) means “intestine” or in ancient languages, “bowel.”  We might conclude that this word is talking about good digestion.  But we need to look at the cultural setting to see what the real meaning is.  The proper translation must capture the meaning of an idiom.  The ancient Greeks saw this word as an expression of pleasant feelings toward someone.  If you think about it, you can see why they used this particular word.  We have an idiom like this when we say that a particular person makes me feel good inside.  What we mean is that we feel kindness and empathy toward that person.  But we express this idea in terms of our own inner makeup.

Consider the opposite feelings.  Have you ever been around someone who makes you feel sick inside?  Have you ever thought, “This person is upsetting my stomach”?  I remember an encounter years ago when the conversation was so vicious that I literally got sick.  As the other person reprimanded me, I suddenly felt a hot flash, got dizzy and felt ill.  My mental discomfort had a direct effect on my physical condition.  His words made me physically sick.

Peter certainly knew about this feeling.  I can only imagine how ill he must have felt after he denied Jesus.  Now he writes to his Christian family and tells them, “Make each other feel good inside.”  Kindness is one of God’s most powerful medicines. I had an experience today of just how far I am from practicing this all the time.  My wife baked a pie.  She is a great cook, but this one just didn’t taste right.  The flour she used was bad.  When we were with some friends later, I told them about the “bad” pie.  That remark was not kind-hearted.  My words did not make my wife feel good inside.  How much better if I had complimented her on the wonderful cooking she does every day rather than focus on the one problem that wasn’t even her fault.  I have a long way to go before “kind-hearted” describes all my words.  When my actions make someone else feel bad, I feel bad too.  I should have listened to Peter.  Be eusplanchnoi.  Make someone feel good inside.  Don’t give them a stomach ache today.

Peter’s remark reminds me of my mother who used to say, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  I resisted that advice, complaining that the truth was more important than protecting someone’s feelings.  Now I’m not so sure.  Our ability to hear and accept the truth is often determined not by the accuracy of the statement but by the kindness with which it is given.  We don’t diminish the truth by making it good to taste, but we will certainly drive people away from the truth if we serve it up on a plate of bad feelings.

Topical Index:  eusplanchnoi, kind-hearted, feelings, truth, 1 Peter 3:8

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Off The Beaten Path

Saturday, September 03rd, 2011 | Author:

“For false Christs and false prophets will arrive and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”  Matthew 24:24 NASB

To mislead – In the last days there will be plenty of misdirection.  It will be spectacular but it will still be misdirection.  Lies are often far more dazzling than the truth.  There is a certain human attraction to the spectacular but when it comes to spiritual awareness, the spectacular is dangerous.  The Greek verb planao means “to cause to wander, to lead astray, to deceive or seduce into rebellion.”  Most of the time people don’t intentionally wander off.  They have to be lead away from the truth.  And there’s nothing like a big show to grab their attention.

Of course, those of us who are aware of all the “big” lies don’t get caught in the folly of all that glitter, do we?  We don’t flock to the mega-meetings and the celebrity rallies.  We know that God’s hand is most often seen in places where the world has no interest and that God’s people are often anonymous.  After all, Yeshua gave us a warning.  “If it were possible,” He said.  But we are the elect and so it isn’t really possible, is it?  We can spot the false prophet in the Armani suit stepping from his Gulfstream a mile away.  (Maybe we might wonder why we are even within a mile, but there are good excuses for that).

But what if the false prophets are not quite so obvious?  What if they are so subtle that even the elect could be carried away?  What if the false Christ is sitting in front of the screen right now, reading this little message?

Perhaps the greatest of all deceivers is inside my own skin.  The one who is attracted to the “big show” just might be the one who thinks that knowing God is simply a matter of humble contrition sprinkled with large doses of religious fervor.  How would I know if I am deceiving myself?  What if that feeling of accomplishment that comes with putting the pieces together in the interpretation of Scripture is really an assertion of pride, cleverly disguised as religious dedication?  Am I really prepared to hear the truth?  Am I ready to have the shibboleths of my world torn down?  Could I confront the Lord on the Damascus road, have my carefully constructed religious world shattered, and emerge a whole man?  Or would I retreat to the protected zone of my sacred cows?

The truth is intensely painful because men are fiercely resistant.  “Truth confronts us as a behest, an insistent summons, austere, uncompromising.”  “Truth is severe, harsh, demanding.  We would rather hide out face in the sand than be confronted by it.  ‘To live means to be indebted’ – who wants to hear this? ‘I am commanded, therefore I am’ – who knows how to cherish it?”[1]  To encounter the truth in Scripture is to encounter the Holy, and no man is able to do this without exclaiming “Woe is me!”  Self-deception leaves me comfortable with my God.  Truth leaves me shattered.

Yes, even the elect may be caused to wander, but not by those false prophets of neon religion.  The elect are lead astray by a far more dangerous enemy – the enemy of comfortable assurance within.

When you come before the Lord, do you feel fear and trembling?  Does the truth scald you?

Topical Index:  deceive, mislead, astray, planao, truth, Matthew 24:24


[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 159.

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“Incorrect” Theology

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 | Author:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6  (J. Green)

Truth – God does what He says He will do.  He is the ultimate promise-keeper.  That’s why Moses can call God emunah – faithful.  But emunah is also related to another Hebrew word, ‘emeth, the word that means “truth.”  When Yeshua spoke to Thomas, he did not say, “Ego eimi he hodos kai he alethia kai he zoe.”  That’s the Greek translation of His Hebrew sentence.  He didn’t use the Greek word alethia for truth.  He used the Hebrew word ‘emeth – and the difference between the two is critically important.

The classical Greek idea of truth is related to what is factually correct.  True means “without mistake,” like the choices you have on an exam.  When the Greeks talk about “the Good, the True and the Beautiful,” they convey the ideals of what is noble and virtuous, what is factual and accurate and what is aesthetically pleasing.  Much of this thought is incorporated in our view of truth, but it is not the biblical view.  In fact, if we think of the idea of “true” in the Bible as factually correct, our theology will be very incorrect.

Jepsen makes the following remark on the Hebrew idea of ‘emeth:  “‘emeth was used of things that had to be proved to be reliable; of the word that was really true, on which a person can rely; of a man who is really trustworthy, and thus to whom an office can be entrusted; of judgment that is righteous; and in general, of the innermost nature of man, that which determines his character and his actions.  But OT admonitions to ‘emeth and laments over its absence show that such ‘emeth is not something that is obvious in man.  Indeed, only rarely does the OT dare to say that some man (or men) is a man of ‘emeth, and it is almost astonishing when a word is really true.  And yet, ‘emeth is the prerequisite for justice and righteousness. . . . ‘emeth is that on which others can rely.  To this extent, ‘emeth involves a personal relationship, it is not merely an objective fact.”[1]

If we read Yeshua’s statement in its Hebrew context, we realize that He is saying something shocking.  Every one of His disciples would have recognized that ‘emeth was almost never attributed to a man, and even less to a man who claimed it for himself.  Yeshua’s statement is outlandish!  Unless He is not like every other man.  Furthermore, Yeshua’s statement is not about some theological fact or some propositional dogma.  It is about the total reliability of His own words.  It is about His claim to do exactly what God does – to always keep His promises.  What Yeshua claims is that we can rely completely on what He says, that there is no need for even the slightest doubt or hesitation, in spite of the fact that this is obviously not true of nearly all other men.  Therefore, accepting His claim must itself be a step of faith.  We must decide to trust Him.  ‘emeth is a condition that has to be proven in action.

We are reminded once more of the Hebraic character of Paul’s declaration, “Faith comes by hearing.”  To experience Yeshua as ‘emeth requires us to venture forth into the relationship.  I must obey in order to know.  If I wait for all the facts before I act, I will never understand ‘emeth.

Topical Index:  truth, ‘emeth, alethia, obey, know, John 14:6

 

[1] Jepsen, “aman,” TDOT, Vol. 1, p. 313.

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Dictionary Definitions

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Author:

If you will not believe, surely you will not be established. Isaiah 7:9

Believe – What is faith? Ah, it seems like such a simple question until you try to give your definition. Faith is _____________. You’ll probably need a pretty big blank space to fill in. Just remember faith is a verb, so don’t use static concepts, nouns or “beliefs” in your definition. Before you get too frustrated, let’s see if we can get some help from the biblical texts.

The Greek word is pistis. It is usually defined as a relationship with God – or something like that. But immediately we have a problem. You see, John never uses faith as a noun, so it can’t be a “relationship”. Paul and John consider “faith” from a Hebrew context. The actual word “faith” is very rare, but we do find words like hope, fear and trust. That takes us to the Old Testament idea of the Greek pistis. The word occurs in the LXX, but what we find most of the time is nothing like hope, fear or trust. What we find is the Hebrew root ‘mn. It’s the same root that shows up in the word amen. Now this seems really confusing. What does amen have to do with faith?

The most common expression based on the root ‘mn is ‘emet, the Hebrew word for “truth.” Amen, of course, expresses the thought that what I have just heard is vouched as true before God. So, the Old Testament idea of faith is not tied to my “beliefs.” It is tied to establishing myself in the truth. In other words, it is setting my feet on the solid rock of God’s unassailable character. Faith is not my relationship to Him. It is gaining the stability that comes from Him.

Isaiah helps too. This verse includes a wordplay. “If not ta-aminoo (you will believe), surely not te-amenoo (you be established).” The root ‘mn is used in both words – to believe and to establish. In other words, there is a direct connection between believing and securing. The opposite of believing is not doubting. It is tearing down. If I believe (verb), I secure God’s truth as the foundation of my actions. If I do not believe, I tear down God’s truth and am left without a firm foundation.

We often adopt the Greek idea that faith is about certain beliefs. We think faith is about true statements. “I know my Redeemer lives” becomes a statement of faith. The focus of our attention is on the connection between what we claim to know and the relationship that it fosters. We think of faith in connection with correct doctrine. But the Old Testament seems to say something else. The Old Testament says faith is truth in action! If I believe, I set myself on God’s word. I engage His promise and make it my reality. Faith is something I do for me. I move myself from instability to stability. I step onto a sure foundation. It hardly matters what I say or what I claim. It matters where I stand, so help me God.

Topical Index: faith, ‘mn, amen, pistis, ‘emet, truth, foundation, Isaiah 7:9

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As By One Man

Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Author:

and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband with her; and he ate  Genesis 3:6

With Her – “Why, oh, why did you come into my life?  Why did God send you to me?  Look what a mess you’ve caused?  It’s all your fault!”  Adam has a sad song to sing very soon after he and his ‘ezer kenedgo ate from the Tree.  But when she offered him the fruit, he didn’t reject it.  He didn’t say, “Now wait a minute.  God said not to eat from this tree.  Why are you doing this?”  No, he went right along with her.  Why?

The first thing we notice is that the Hebrew text makes it very clear that Adam was not off fishing while Havvah was conversing with the serpent.  He was right there beside her!  The Hebrew is ‘immah.  It doesn’t just mean that he was standing there.  It means that he was agreeing with everything that was happening.  The preposition ‘im carries the meaning of something done together or in common.  This is not the exclusive sin of the ‘ezer.  This is mutual culpability.

My wife and I love doing things together.  In fact, when we got married, we agreed that the life of the corporate world where husband and wife occupy two different realities was not for us.  We tried to spend as much time as possible doing the same things.  That has been increasingly difficult as we have weathered financial storms, but the truth is that when we can just spend the day together, we are very happy.  I can only imagine what it must have been like for Adam and his ‘ezer.  They were the only human occupants of God’s Garden.  What joy it must have been to discover all that God put there, to walk hand in hand through the creation of the Lord, observing the perfect harmony of the ordered world.  And Adam knew, in his bones, that the one walking beside him was exactly right for him.  She was his complement in the perfect order of existence.  So, it’s not surprising at all to find that he is right there during the serpent’s conversation.

What is surprising is that Adam doesn’t say a word.  He doesn’t object, resist or challenge anything.  He submits to her suggestion and follows her lead.  Why?  Isn’t he the one who is supposed to remember?  Isn’t he the zakar?  Of course he is.  When God asks him why he ate of the fruit, he offers the reasonable excuse.  “I just did what she told me to do.  That’s what You made her for, God.  To give me direction.”  And he’s right.  That is what the ‘ezer is supposed to do.  She is responsible for her mate’s relationship guidance.  Adam did what she said because he trusted her.  But it was a huge mistake.

The woman fails to maintain the boundaries.  She fails to recognize the difference between how she is made and how she might be made.  Because she does not see the difference between being equipped by God and being self-sufficient, she steps over the line.  And Adam follows.  He forgets that the Lord told him something else.  Both the man and the woman violate their essential, God-created character.  But that’s what sin does.  It violates who we really are.

Was it a mistake to trust her?  No.  The only place in the Bible where the Hebrew word for trust (batach) is used positively between human beings is in Proverbs 31:11.  That verse instructs a man to trust his wife.  In every other case, the use of batach as a positive declaration of trust is between a man and God.  Adam was not wrong to trust her.  A man is supposed to trust his wife in the same way that he trusts God.  Adam’s problem is not trust.  It’s remembering.  When Adam fails to be who he really is – the one who remembers – then the slate is wiped clean and all that is left is trust.  But trust without truth is sin.  Trust without remembering the truth is like sailing without a compass.  You can trust that the wind will fill the sails and propel you forward, but you have no idea where you are going.  Paul was entirely correct to say, “As by one man, sin entered the world.”  He did not have to say, “As by one woman.”  Adam was right there, forgetting how God made him and what he was supposed to be.

The reason that I trust God is that He is unwaveringly true.  That is the divine standard of the ‘ezer – action based on unwavering truthfulness.  But since the Fall, everyone wavers.  We need an outside voice of correction to correspond to our inside voice of direction.  We need a compass that is not influenced by our idea of True North.  Adam forgot the truth – and his trust killed him.  Eve forgot her boundaries – and her step slew her.

If you are in complement with another, you will need both truth and boundaries before trust and direction can accomplish their purposes.  Don’t confuse them no matter how desirable the fruit.

Topical Index:  Adam, trust, with her, ‘immah, batach, boundaries, truth, Genesis 3:6

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The Obscene Truth

Tuesday, March 03rd, 2009 | Author:

Many years ago Rollo May examined a connection between obscenity and violence.  In Power and Innocence, he argued that violence progresses through several other mediums before it erupts in physical force.  One of these mediums is language.  The disintegration of the meaning of words is a step on the pathway to violence.

There is a halfway stage in the disintegration of words.  This is obscenity.  It gets its power from the using of words to do violence to our unconscious expectations, to destroy our mooring posts, and to undercut the forms of relationship we are used to.  The words threaten us with the insecurity of formlessness.  Obscenity expresses what had previously been prohibited, reveals what previously was not revealed.  Thus it insists on and gets our attention. [1]

According to May, obscenity is a form of “psychic violence”, causing words to lose their “holy character”.  Behind this insight that obscenity is a stepping stone toward violence is an even more important relationship – the connection between obscenity and truth.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines obscene as “highly offensive, morally repugnant from Latin meaning ill-omened, abominable”.  We usually understand obscene as sexually  indecent or lewd.  But sexual obscenity is only one form of a much wider application. Would we call movies which graphically display physical aggression, dismemberment and torture obscene? If we accept May’s insight, we must conclude that all physical violence is in some sense obscene.  We could apply this broader definition to historical and political situations.  Were Hitler’s concentration camp exterminations obscene?  Are the repressions in Serbia obscene?  The answer must be YES to these questions.  Obscenity is a representation which offends or morally degrades some acceptable social standard no matter what realm that standard happens to occupy.  Both Terminator and Auschwitz are obscene even though one is a celluloid dream and the other an oven nightmare.

We are afloat on a sea of lobotomized orifices manufacturing mechanical copulations. We are constantly lured into self-victimizing savagery.  Sex and violence are easily recognized borderlines constantly crossed in order to create conscience confrontation.  Reflection on these border violations shows us that the necessary affront needed to produce the lure and power of obscenity goes through a constant tolerance curve.  Like  addictions, each subsequent exposure requires a higher level of intensity to reproduce the required result.  Sexual borders are pushed toward sexual abuse of children, necrophilia, bestiality and other behaviors.  Ordinary sex is just too “ordinary” to command our attention.  The obscenity of violence cannot be satisfied with killing.  We are coaxed to witness cannibalism, torture, and global dehumanization.  It is not that these perversions have not been part of civilization in the past.  It is rather that they are now paraded before us for the express purpose of causing reaction.  We were willing to ignore the hidden.  We are threatened to find that it is now revealed.  And, of course, that threat also provides a lure.  What is obscene has become a judgment based on the intent of the perpetrator.  No wonder the legal system has so much trouble with the concept.  It is a question of the disintegration of meanings.

The gray line – that’s the problem with all of this.  Today’s affront to the expected standard may be tomorrow’s commonplace practice.  The borders we erect around our standards are yielding because we have detached them from Truth.  We are pluralists, believing that each one has a “right” to his own view, finding no where to draw a line in black.  Benjamin Franklin said that all cats are gray in the dark.  Since we have turned off the lights, it is difficult to see how we can now distinguish one shade of gray from another.

So we’re stuck.  One the one hand, we want to maintain some standard of decency, fair play, human compassion and respect for life.  On the other hand, we seem to lack any firm ground on which to base such standards.  Every time we draw another gray line, our fellow conspirators find ways to make it wobble.  Every time we cry out in rage at the affront to our expectations, we find other human mouths shouting victory over repressions.  In the quicksand of ethics, we sink together toward some lowest common denominator.

The most amazing insight about our current dilemma with malleable morals is that it has occurred precisely because we rejected the rigidity of Truth. What we needed in order to draw black lines for humanness, compassion and justice was solid ground.  But when the solid ground confronted us, we refused it because its presentation affronted our current wobbly standards. Logic turned upside down.  The Truth itself appeared obscene because the standards we used to judge it  were already corrupt and malleable.

Why did we refuse the very thing we needed?  How could such a rejection occur?  In its simplest terms, the answer is sin.  Why can’t we seem to stop the constant onslaught of obscenities?  Because ultimately  we ourselves are obscene.  We, the ones who are affronted, are the offenders.  The irony of obscenity is that it is both repulsive and attractive. As much as it offends, it also draws us toward the darkness.  It whispers the power of the forbidden.  This attraction is the core of our problem.  The external obscenities we decry are mirror reflections of the internal desires we hide.  The truth is that we love violence, we love sexual advantage, we love power.  Who among us has not taken advantage of an opportunity for gain at another’s expense?  Who among us has not lusted for another’s body?  Who among us has not wished to harm or destroy another?  Who among us is a stranger to revenge?  Our efforts to control obscenity fail because  obscenity reflects something about our inner selves.  It demands our attention because we identify with its border breaking power.  We want to be the sex star, idolized in every glance.  We want to be the Terminator, forcing others to our will.  We want to be the sports hero, the billionaire, the President.  We want to be a god.

Jesus confronted every one of us as the pluralists we are when he challenged the Pharisees to examine their inner character.  If we will admit it, we know a great deal about whitened sepulchers.  We know what it means to carry a banner of morality on our arm but a motive of deceit in our hearts.  It doesn’t take much introspection to reveal the malice in our actions, the self serving purpose in our manipulated manners. Jesus increased his affront when he suggested that murder was a state of rage in my heart, that adultery was a sexual act in my mind, that revenge was a commitment of my will to usurp God’s authority.  One reason for Jesus’ crucifixion was that he revealed the obscenities of the moral majority.  That is the problem with the Truth.  It shows the counterfeit for what it is.

Jesus’ message was not obscene to the destitute, the disenfranchised, the morally corrupt and the socially ostracized.  He said that he came to bring liberty and hope to social outcasts, prostitutes, the diseased and disabled.  His expression of God’s love for these human beings was received with gladness because they were living examples of the socially obscene.  The lepers knew what it meant to be obscene because of their bodies.  The tax collectors knew what it meant to be obscene because of their loyalties, the whores because of their profession.  That Jesus even associated with these border people made the moral majority suspicious.  That he pronounced God’s blessing upon them made him scandalous.  That he proclaimed God’s forgiveness for those who were considered obscene made him worthy of execution.  The moral majority would not abide such affronts to their status quo ethics.  The truth was repulsive in a way that no lie could have even been.

In the New Testament, the Greek words for this phenomenon are proskomma and skandalon.  They convey the picture of a trap, a lure which causes one to fall into sin.  This seems backwards.  We can understand how Jesus’ actions would be an offense, but how can the New Testament proclaim that Jesus is a lure or trap which causes men to fall into sin?   The New Testament writers saw that Jesus represented an obscenity to every standard of man without God.  Jesus claimed to be God.  Yet everything about him upset every expectation of who God should be.  Jesus came to the world as a dependent infant born to poor, ignominious parents in a backward, occupied country.  Scandal surrounded his conception and birth.  When he began his ministry, he refused the populist political emphasis.  He portrayed God as a suffering servant, not a powerful ruler.  He demonstrated humility, not authority.  He lived with the socially disgraced and ostracized, not  the accepted and the powerful.  He preached love for enemies, not revenge.  He taught man’s utter dependence, not self actualization.  He accepted degradation, not plaudits and praise.

Most offensive of all, he claimed that God is to be found on the cross.  The cross, a sign to the Jews of God’s curse, a symbol of complete weakness to the Gentiles, became the greatest obscenity of all.  The cross invalidated all human wisdom, removed all human cooperation, negated all human effort.  The cross affronted the very nature of man because it revealed how far from godliness we had come.  When human hands nailed Jesus to the cross, they confirmed the obscenity of God.  In the process of killing Jesus, human beings stumbled over this symbol of love.  Each one of us was there that day, denying the God could be anything except what we would allow Him to be.  Each one of us fell over this affront to our expectations. The truth that God is not like us was a slap in the face we could not abide.  We refused to believe our delusions of divinity were wrong.  The truth of God on the cross exposed all of our sinful rebellion.  It trapped us, revealing who we really are.

Jesus came to those whose lives could not be covered up.  He came to those who were already unmasked in their obscenity because the message of forgiveness can be heard only by those whose ears are already attuned to shame.  The Gospel is really for the obscene.

The power of Truth is to unmask the counterfeit. Truth affronts what is false and convicts those who practice falsehood.  But from the perspective of the counterfeit, Truth must be obscene. When Jesus proclaimed God’s love for those who were on the wrong side of the border, he said something obscene to the “beautiful people”.  He said that the purpose of having is to give, that the purpose of power is to serve, that the purpose of living is to die.  He said that God’s way is not our way. He said that God wants humility; we want heroes.  God wants weakness; we want strength.  God wants submission; we want glorification.  God wants contrition; we want pride.  God wants repentance; we want rewards.  God wants servants; we want status. God wants listeners: we want orators.  God wants promises; we want patronizing.  God wants meekness; we want admiration.  God wants gentleness; we want power.  God wants mercy; we want advantage. God wants purity; we want platitudes.  God wants righteousness; we want to be proven right.  God wants quiet accomplishments; we want publicity.  God wants emptiness, we want to fill ourselves up.

The irony of the Gospel is that the revelation of God’s Truth is obscene to all unrighteousness.  God’s way of doing things affronts all of our standards.  God does not chose the powerful, the successful, the religious to accomplish His purposes.  He deliberately invites the maimed, the outcast and the ignominious to His celebration feast.  Why should God do such an unthinkable thing?  Because He knows that those who are experiencing the obscenities of life now are ready to accept the Gospel message for what it is – a gift of new beginnings.  The moral majority, the powerful, the successful are not prepared to begin again.  They have a vested interest in the present.  They want things to remain just as they are.  They want the hidden obscenities upon which they build their identities to continue.

God has come to us with a confrontational message – that the direction of our standards is completely wrong headed.  Our way of thinking points us away from respect for life, human fulfillment and love.  It points us away not because humanitarian efforts are inappropriate nor because concern for others is ill conceived, but because our standards are built on the sand of self.  No matter how altruistic we may think we are, God’s message is that without His backing and His direction, all of our righteousness is really obscene.  God is holy.  We are the ones who have affronted Him.  Our very existence is a moral insult to His holiness for we are constantly compromising unselfish love with self fulfilling desires.

When Jesus suggested that those who know they are on the outside are closer to the Truth than those who think they are inside, he affronted every human effort to be good.  Goodness cannot be earned, he said, because the motive of earning favor is anathema to God.  We want to bring something to the table in order to bargain our reward.  We want advantage.  We want it our way.  That is the essence of sin, no matter what moral trapping we put around it.  The truth is that God could not be pacified, that God could not be compromised, that God could not be ignored.  God will judge.  But God will also forgive – not those who attempt to stand on their own merit, not those who believe that their standards will be good enough.  God will forgive those who recognize that they are truly obscene, morally undone, and that nothing that they can do will ever erase their obscenity.  Finally, Jesus revealed that hardest Truth of all, that He and He alone is the only one who can bring us into a peaceful relationship with the Father.

Rollo May was right.  Obscenity is a disintegration of meaning.  Jesus on the cross has shown us that the direction of the disintegration is exactly opposite of what we think.  God has revealed Himself in Jesus.  He has revealed Himself as someone very different than we would wish.  That revelation establishes the true meaning of the words holy, love, forgiveness, and repentance.  We have done violence to the holy character of these words by tearing them away from the revelation of God.  We have profaned them to further our own meanings.

The Truth is obscene.  The Truth is that the God of all creation, the God of all power, the God who is totally sovereign, is the God who hangs on the cross.  He is the God of offense. Offense to all who cannot come to repentance.  Offense to all who would claim merit on their own efforts.  Offense to all who believe that they are the chosen, the few, the favored.  The obscene God hangs on the cross and denies our pretenses to power, will and desire.  He agonizes and dies because of our pluralist morality.  He looks down from the place of torture and death to see children of shame where He intended children of light.  But this obscenity casts light on the Darkness. At last we see what has been hidden and we can echo the words of the Revealer, “Father, forgive me, for I did not know what I was doing”.

[1]Rollo May, Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1972, p. 72.

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Making It Real

Sunday, February 08th, 2009 | Author:

Reflections from a few years ago

Yesterday I lost my job. It doesn’t really matter that I lost it because the ministry ran out of funds. The reality is still the same. No income. The bills don’t stop just because the ministry ended. But the confidence that I had for the last year and a half has been shaken. I’m not sure what I will do to make those payments.

It’s time to make it real.

Jesus tells us that God’s word is truth. He prays that we will be sanctified in the truth, that we will make real the words of the Most High God by turning them into action. In other words, in this time of apparent crisis, I am asked to see the world the way God sees the world, not the way that my fearful, emotionally vulnerable ego sees the world.

That means that my true reality must begin with praise.

“Thank you, Lord, for bringing me to exactly this place and this situation. You know, completely, how I feel and what I face. You are still in control. I can trust You. I choose to trust you, even if I don’t know how all of this will work out. You’re word is truth.”

My praise begins with what I can see. It’s 5 AM in the morning. I’m sitting outside in the dark, looking at the moon and the stars. God put them there. If He can do that, isn’t He more than able to care for my petty little concerns? If He is the God of the cosmos, can’t He be the God of Skip Moen? Of course, He can. So, I praise Him for giving me a cosmic reminder of His majesty. I don’t serve some powerless god. I serve the Lord of the universe. He is worthy of praise, period. Praising Him does not depend on the circumstances of my life. Whether I am in joy or sorrow, peace or conflict, prosperity or poverty, God is worthy of praise.

That leads me to David’s psalm – “Who am I that You should care about me? But You have made me a little less than angels.” I praise Him because He made me. All that I am, in body, mind and spirit, comes from the Father of lights. I didn’t bring myself into this world. I didn’t draw up the course of my life, nor equip myself with the talents and skills that I possess. God brought all this into being in order that I might be perfectly fitted to glorify Him. He knows exactly what He is doing to restore me to the full image-bearer He had in mind. I praise Him because He is not done with me yet. I praise Him because His handiwork shows itself in my past and in all the dependencies that had to occur to engineer this moment. His word is truth.

I praise Him because I do not need to fear. Behind all the anxiety and concern that yesterday produced is my vulnerability to a lie. You see, I say that God loves me and that He has compassion for His children and that He is sovereign, but I often act on the basis of a lie. The lie is that even though God is able to care for me (the way I want Him to), He is not willing to care for me (the way that I want Him to). It is a lie straight from hell. But it is very subtle. It simply suggests that what God says is not quite true. This lie invites me to be afraid. It’s just a version of the lie presented to Eve. “Did God really say such-and-such?” Jesus knew God’s word well enough to combat such lies. God’s word is truth. But I find myself listening. Why? Because in spite of the fact that I believe the world is under the sovereign control of a good and loving God Who cares about me, I sometimes act as though the world is out to get me. Loosing a job makes me fear the future, something that I know is entirely within God’s control but which, nevertheless, appears to be foreboding and dangerous. I start feeling as if things aren’t destined for His good purposes, or if they are, His good purposes don’t include my good purposes. I start worrying about what will happen to me. And the devil whispers, “You see, you can’t trust Him, can you?” He wants me to be afraid because if I am afraid I will be vulnerable to the next step in the lie – save yourself!

Almost every day I write something about the truth of God’s word. My little exercise in deeper understanding proclaims the reality of God’s holy purposes. I have shown that God cares, that He loves me with a jealous love that will tolerate no deception and no misunderstanding in our relationship, that He will bring about His image in my life even if that means taking me through kindergarten lessons over and over and that He wants me to experience His perfect peace and unquenchable joy. I have also written that my obedience is the key to His craftsmanship in my life. God wants malleable clay that He can form into vessels to serve His purposes. My resistance to act according to His word only serves to make this man of clay unfit for the Potter. So, if God is going to bring into my life all the characteristics of His image – and in the process renew my mind so that I no longer listen to the lie – I will have to let Him make me as soft and pliable as needed.

Then I can praise Him for loosing my job. It is just one more step toward the plan He has for me. It is a lesson in humility. It is a reminder that I am not in charge of life. It is an unavoidable conclusion about my dependence. And it is a required step in learning the virtue of contentment.

I consider the marvelous way God has already engineered my life, the way that He connected me to others who are my trusted and valued community, the small joys He gives me with my family, the insights I find in my study and the display of His attention to every detail, even in a blade of grass. Am I not more valuable to Him than the wildflowers of the field? Yes, His Son says so – and God’s word is truth.

Now I am ready to pray. My praise leads me to understand that prayer is not manipulation or negotiation. Prayer is the exercise of trust in the integrity and reliability of God. I will pray to the Father because I trust He will listen – and He will act in accordance with His will for me. I will pray quite specifically about what I really need. That does not happen to be a job. What I really need is to be in perfect alignment with Him, doing exactly what He has asked me to do and equipped me to do, so that I become His image-bearer wherever He places me. What I really need is to be a delight to Him while I am on the practice field of life. If I trust Him and I trust His word, then I can boldly speak my mind.

“Yes, Lord, I need a job. But You know that. What I want to ask of You is not about employment. That I am confident You will supply. After all, You tell us that we can cast all our cares on You because You care for us. No, Lord, what I am asking is that You search me. More than anything, I want to be a delight to You. I know that until I am in perfect alignment with You, I will always be tempted to save myself. This, Lord, I will not do. Your word is truth. I choose to act on it and not act according to the circumstances surrounding me. You are my King. Command me and I will obey.”

“And now, Lord, I praise You that You have heard my prayer. I praise You that You have already determined how You will answer my prayer. I wait, expectantly, joyfully, to see the fulfillment of Your purposes in my life. Lord, I need nothing more. May You be glorified.”

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