Holy Week Sorrow and Celebration
Right now in my personal devotions, I am reading through the book of Lamentations, a sorrowful song written by the prophet Jeremiah, which describes Israel’s defeat and exile at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC. Some of the language Jeremiah uses to describe Israel’s demise is grotesque and gut wrenching:
- The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst. (Lamentations 4:4)
- Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become dry as wood. (Lamentations 4:8)
- The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Lamentations 4:10)
Clearly, this is a tragic, despairing time. Indeed, even for a professional prophet such as Jeremiah, who has seen much sin and tragedy, the despair of the exile seems overwhelming. And Jeremiah places the blame for this despair squarely at the feet of God.
In chapter 3, Jeremiah laments his plight:
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath; He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me He turns His hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; He has broken my bones; He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; He has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer; He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; He has made my paths crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; He has made me desolate; He bent His bow and set me as a target for His arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes. (Lamentations 3:1-16)
Notice the pronoun Jeremiah employs again and again to describe who is responsible for his misery: “He.” “He” has brought Jeremiah misery, trouble, pain, and despair. It’s “His” fault that Jeremiah’s plight is what it is. Who is this “He”? None other than God, of course. God has afflicted Jeremiah in the most miserable of ways.
And yet, even in his misery, Jeremiah has not lost all hope: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23). Jeremiah believes that finally, ultimately, God’s steadfast love will prevail. Indeed, it’s interesting the way Jeremiah describes this steadfast love just verses later: “Though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:32-33). Though God does afflict and grieve people because of their sin, Jeremiah says, He does not willingly do so. God’s will is not to pour out His hot wrath, but His steadfast love. The Hebrew word for “willingly” is milibo, a word meaning, “from His heart.” Thus, Jeremiah is saying that from God’s heart does not come affliction. Rather, from God’s heart comes His steadfast love. God’s will is wrapped in love.
Luther describes God’s wrath at sin and God’s will of love by making a distinction between the “alien” and the “proper” work of God:
We must know what is meant by the work of God. It is nothing else but to create righteousness, peace, mercy, truth, patience, kindness, joy, and health, inasmuch as the righteous, truthful, peaceful, kind, joyful, healthy, patient, merciful cannot do otherwise than act according to His nature. Therefore God creates righteous, peaceful, patient, merciful, truthful, kind, joyful, wise, healthy men…But He cannot come to this His proper work unless He undertakes a work that is alien and contrary to Himself…Therefore, since He can make just only those who are not just, He is compelled to perform an alien work in order to make them sinners, before He performs His proper work of justification. Thus He says, “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” (AE 51:18-19)
God must judge us before He can justify us, Luther says. His alien and His proper work go hand in hand. Thus, both God’s alien work of judgment and God’s proper work of love are needed in Jeremiah’s life. And both God’s alien work of judgment and God’s proper work of love are needed in our lives too. But lest we forget, through faith in Christ, God’s proper work prevails!
The alien and the proper work of God meet most clearly in the death and resurrection of Christ, which we remember during this Holy Week. Luther explains:
God’s alien work is the suffering of Christ and sufferings in Christ, the crucifixion of the old man and the mortification of Adam. God’s proper work, however, is the resurrection of Christ, justification in the Spirit, and the vivification of the new man, as Romans 4:25 says: “Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification.” (AE 51:19)
God judges His Son on the cross, killing Him for the sins of the world. This was not something He delighted in doing – it was alien to Him – but it was necessary. For Christ’s crucifixion satisfied God’s righteous wrath at sinners…sinners like you and me (cf. Romans 3:25-26). And with God’s wrath satisfied through Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, God could now move to His proper work: Giving to His children His steadfast love which never ceases.
This Holy Week, spend some time meditating on both the alien and the proper work of God. For both are needed. But finally, one prevails! For God’s work does not end in an alien way. Rather, it ends in its proper way. It ends in our salvation through faith in Christ. Praise be to God!
Weekend Extra – Jesus, the Donkey Tamer
It was the first new vehicle I had ever purchased. And when I drove off the lot in my brand new 2003 forest green Chevrolet Silverado, I was beaming with pride. Never had I owned a truck so spotless. Before this, I sputtered around in a beat up Ford Ranger. But now, I cruised smoothly in a Chevrolet. I even got to take in that famed new car smell. I couldn’t wait to show off my new truck to my buddies. “Look!” I exclaimed as I pulled into my buddies’ apartment, “This truck is sweet.” And my buddies agreed. Of course, the three of us had to appropriately break in such a fine new vehicle. And so we ventured out on a ritual right of passage, precious to young men everywhere: the road trip. After all, there’s nothing like Slim Jims, Dr. Pepper, and several hundred miles to appropriately break in a new truck.
In our reading for Palm Sunday from Mark 11, Jesus takes a road trip with His disciples to the city of Jerusalem. But instead of breaking in a new truck for His road trip, Jesus breaks in a new donkey: “As Jesus and His disciples approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here’” (Mark 11:1-2). For this occasion, Jesus wants a donkey “which no one has ever ridden.” Two things are notable about this request.
First, unlike a truck that has never been driven, a donkey that has never been ridden was no smooth ride, for the donkey wouldn’t have been “broken.” That is, it wouldn’t have been used to carrying any sort of a burden. Thus, the animal would have normally tried to buck any burden off its back. Jesus, however, seems to have no such problem: “When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it” (Mark 11:7). There is no mention of the animal making any fuss whatsoever. At this scene, one cannot help but think of the kind of power Jesus has over creation. He can calm a storm (Mark 4:35-41) and whither a fig tree (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21). Nature submits to His command. Who is this? Even the wind and the waves, the fig tree, and a donkey obey Him (cf. Mark 4:41)!
The answer to this question, of course, is that Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is God’s Messiah and, as such, fulfills the Isaianic promise: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:6-9). Christ, as God’s Holy One, rules God’s creation and brings peace and rest to it – even to unbroken donkeys.
This takes us to the second thing that is notable about Jesus’ request. Jesus’ request for an unbroken animal hearkens to the Old Testament sacrificial system, where unbroken animals were used as sacrifices to God. For instance, in Numbers 19:2-3, we read: “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.” A sacrificial animal was to be unbroken and un-ridden. And so here we have an unbroken donkey. But this time, instead of being the sacrifice, the donkey is bearing the sacrifice. For Christ, just days later will be sacrificed on a cross.
In the Old West, the cowboys had a saying. “Hold your horses!” they would say when an equine got out of control. On Palm Sunday, the cry rings out from the disciples: “Hold your donkey!” “Hold your donkey,” for the Savior needs it to ride into Jerusalem. And though it has never been ridden, it will not gallop out of control. For the Holy One of God is sovereign over nature – even donkeys. “Hold your donkey,” and do not give it to someone else, for this unbroken donkey will bear the sacrifice broken for sin…and sinners. What an honor it must have been for that donkey to bear the Christ. And what a blessing it is for us that our King has come to us “righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Josh’s
message!
Adult Bible Class – God in the Gap
What is hell? Is it a real place? Do real people go there? Find out in this Adult Bible Class from Concordia Lutheran Church.
Weekend Extra – Tough and Weak Prayer
Recently, I heard the story of a lady whose husband was terminally ill with a heart condition. For years, he had fought valiantly against his sickness, but now, his ability to fight was waning. The time came when he had only days left. He was in the hospital. The doctors were scrambling to prolong his life. And this man’s wife had a decision to make. Should she advise continuing treatments for her husband, who was unable to decide for himself, or should she advise against it? She prayed to her Lord. A couple of hours later, word came from the nurse: “He will not be getting better. It’s all downhill from here.” She took this word to be her divine answer and told the doctors to keep her beloved husband comfortable rather than to try to treat his disease. He passed away a couple of days later.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we took a look at Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Judge:
In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!” (Luke 18:2-5)
Upfront, Luke states the purpose of Jesus’ parable when he writes, “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1). This, then, is a parable about prayer. Indeed, in this little parable are embedded some very valuable lessons that can help us tremendously in our own prayer lives.
First, we must remember that prayer is tough. The woman in Jesus’ parable is persistent in her entreaty of the judge. We should be the same in prayer. But being persistent is not always easy. All too often, we can be tempted to give up when the answers to our prayers come slower than we might like. In our quick fix, microwave, lightning fast, high speed society, we are conditioned to want answers from God and want them now! But sometimes, God makes us wait. And this is good. For patience can build our character and our trust in God. But waiting is not easy.
Prayer can also be tough when the answer we receive to a prayer is not the one we want. I think of that lady and her husband. Surely she was praying for a miracle. Surely she was begging for her husband to be healed. But her answer from God through a nurse was loud and clear: “No. His time has come.” To receive an answer like this in prayer and then to make a medical decision like the one she had to make is never easy. Prayer is not easy. This we must remember.
Second, we also must remember that prayer is for the weak. There is an interesting paradox that permeates prayer. Prayer is tough, and yet it is for weak people. It is for people who know that by their own devices, know-how, and strength, they cannot prop up, fix up, or wrap up their lives. In Jesus’ parable, it is a widow who entreats a judge. This is purposeful. For widows were well known to be weak and vulnerable in this day. Without a husband, a widow often had no financial resources for herself or recourse against those who would seek to take advantage of her, as did this mysterious adversary in Jesus’ parable. Prayer, then, is for people who are weak…and know it. It is for people who understand that the most profound things of life happen not with our cajoling and coaxing, but by God’s providence and power. Prayer demands more trust in the supremacy of God and less trust in the supremacy of self. Prayer is for weak people and to a powerful God.
Finally, then, the question of prayer is this: Are you tough and weak in prayer? Are you persistent and powerless in prayer? The good news of our prayers is that they do not fall on the ears of an unjust judge, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, but on the ears of a righteous heavenly Father who wants to help. We do not have to persuade Him to care about us as does the widow with the judge. He already does.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Facebook and Salvation
The other day, I noticed a conversation between some of my Facebook friends on the parable we studied this weekend, Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31. I found it fascinating the way one of my friends described the point, or as I like to put it in ABC, the “transcendent truth” of this parable: “What I get is that God is not happy with rich people who do not care about the sufferings of others, especially the poor. Why is the rich man in Hades? Because he did not help his neighbor Lazarus.”
I’ve spent some time pondering the “point” that my Facebook friend took away from this parable. On the one hand, she is right. Jesus’ subsequent conversation with a rich ruler in Luke 18 makes her point all too soberly:
A certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. (Luke 18:18-23)
This man’s great wealth kept him out of the Kingdom of God because he refused to love his neighbor and share his wealth. This selfishness was damning for him and to him. My friend is right in her Facebook post.
And yet, something is missing. Because although it is true that refusing to be a neighbor to someone in need – as both the rich ruler in Jesus’ conversation and the rich man in Jesus’ parable do – does damn a person to hell, the inverse is not true. Giving to the poor, being a neighbor to those in need, and even keeping all of God’s commandments does not get a person to heaven! No, only Jesus, through His work on the cross, gets a person to heaven. Indeed, it is vital to note how Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus ends. The rich man is talking to Abraham in heaven and he says:
“I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” “No, father Abraham,” he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:27-51)
The rich man’s five brothers can avoid the fires of hell not by being really good guys who help their neighbors, but by listening to Moses and the Prophets. In other words, they can receive salvation by believing what the Scriptures say about salvation. And if they refuse to believe what the Scriptures say about salvation, they will not believe even if someone rises from the dead to preach salvation to them, which, of course, is precisely what Jesus did. And, precisely as Jesus warned, many people still did not believe. Helmut Thielicke explains the situation well:
Do not imagine that a messenger will come from the beyond and confirm what is said in Moses and the prophets, what seems to you to be so unverifiable, so mythological. Father Abraham will not send you any such occult confirmation. For anybody who has an interest in evading God will also consider an appearance from the dead and empty specter and elusion. Nor will the heavens open above us and God will perform no miracle to bring us to our knees. For God is no shock therapist who works upon our nerves; He loves you as His child and it’s your heart He wants.
So there will be no one appearing from the dead, no voice from heaven will sound, nor will there be any miracle in the clouds. None of this will come to you…We have only the Word, the Word made flesh and crucified, that namelessly quiet Word which came to us in one was was poor and despised as His brother Lazarus. For He really wanted to be his brother…
Accordingly, there remains for us…nothing but “Moses and the Prophets” and all they have to say about this Jesus. He who does not hear these and is not saved here cannot be helped by messengers from the dead.” (Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father, 50)
How are the rich man’s brothers to escape the fires of hell? They are to hear and believe all that Moses and Prophets have to say about Jesus. And the same is true for us.
We never learn the fate of the rich man’s five brothers. We simply know that Lazarus rests in Abraham’s bosom in heaven and the rich man is consigned to agony in hell. This is purposeful. For, you see, we are the five brothers in this parable. This parable is ours to finish. For we are, by nature, destined for hell because of our sin, but able to obtain salvation full and free by God’s grace through faith in His Word, Jesus Christ. Will you believe what Moses and the Prophets have to say about Jesus?
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Jesus Likes It When You’re Humiliated
No one likes to be humbled. After all, being humbled is, well, humiliating. Being humbled wounds your ego. Being humbled shatters your pride. Being humbled can even make you question your competence. But although being humbled is not an enjoyable experience, Jesus says it is a good – and sometimes even a necessary – one.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we studied the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18:9-14. Jesus ends His parable with this thought: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (verse 14). This one, seemingly simple, statement is worth pondering.
First, it is worth noting that Jesus’ statement concerning humility and those who are humbled and exalted does not prima facie show it self to be apparent in the lives of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee, who haughtily “thanks God that he is not like other men” (verse 11) and the tax collector, who cries out, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner” (verse 13) do not depart from the temple any more visibly humbled or exalted than when they came in. In fact, it is reasonable to suggest that they did not feel any more humbled or exalted than when they came in. The Pharisee leaves still secure in his own righteousness. And the tax collector leaves probably still struggling with guilt from his past misdeeds. However, regardless of how things may appear to outsiders or even feel on the inside for the Pharisee and the tax collector, something radical happened spiritually: the Pharisee has been humbled and the tax collector has been exalted. Jesus says so. Thus, it seems possible for a person to be humbled or exalted in God’s Kingdom and not even know it. And so, even when we feel humiliated by the world, we trust that, through faith, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). God exalts His people, even if hiddenly.
The second thing worth noting is that, in God’s Kingdom, exaltation comes in and through humiliation. The Greek word for “exalt” is hypso. This word is taken up by the apostle Paul in his famous hymn from Philippians 2:8-9: “Being found in appearance as a man, Christ humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.” Here the word for “exalted” is hyperhypso, the prefix hyper- intensifying the thrust of the verb. In other words, Jesus is not just exalted, He’s hyper-exalted! But notice the route He travels to arrive at such exaltation: He humbles Himself and becomes obedient unto death – even death on a cross. Thus, exaltation for Jesus involves not just a lofty heavenly perch, but a humiliating death. Jesus Himself speaks similarly when He prophesies, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Again we find the word hypso, this time translated as the phrase “lifted up.” In the Gospel of John, to be “lifted up” does not mean to be lifted up in exaltation on throne, but to be lifted up in humiliation on a cross. Humiliation is exaltation for Jesus!
So what does all this mean? It means that in the Kingdom of God, humiliation and exaltation are closer than we think. Indeed, we find exaltation in humiliation. This truth should lead us to humble ourselves in service to our God and to others. Consider: Who is it that needs your strong hand? Or who is it that needs your gentle words? Who is it that needs your time in companionship? Or who is it that needs your prayers for healing? These tasks may seem menial and humble, but these are exactly the kind of tasks to which we are called. For in such humble service, we are exalted – not in the way the world views exaltation, but in the way God grants exaltation. And that’s the kind of exaltation we want anyway.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra: Not So Neighborly
When I moved to Austin in 1996 to go to college, I was a scrawny seventeen year-old. As I settled into college life, hung out and ate Top Ramen in our 1950’s rundown dorm, and turned eighteen, I felt the need to “bulk up.” After all, I was on my own now. And I was eighteen so I was a “man.” And so, I hit the gym with one of my buddies. Almost immediately, my eyes darted to the bench press. “This is exactly what I need!” I thought to myself. “I’ll be benching a couple hundred pounds in no time at all.” Of course, I needed to start with a little less than two hundred pounds. After all, I hadn’t bulked up yet. And so, I lugged four twenty-five pound plates onto the bar for a mere one hundred pounds. “I’ll just lift this to get warmed up,” I thought to myself. I couldn’t even lift the bar. So, I switched out the plates and reduced the bench press to eighty pounds. Still no dice. Finally, I tried fifty. This, I managed to lift. But I also forgot to put the pins on the ends of the bar. And the plates quickly came crashing down.
I thought I was strong. But I wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought. A similar thing happens when many of us think about our righteousness and goodness. Most of us like to think of ourselves as “good people.” I was recently reading an article by Dr. Neal Mayerson, founder of the VIA Institute on Character. In his article, he noted what psychologists refer to as an “actor-observer bias.” This refers to the tendency that we all have to excuse our immoral behavior by appealing to circumstantial reasons that we had to act the way we did. In other words, we think we’re good. But we’re not nearly as good as we think. And when we are confronted with our own immorality, we try minimalize and rationalize it.
The “actor-observer bias” comes out in our text from this weekend from Luke 10 when an expert in the law approaches Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life” (Luke 10:25)? Rather than responding to his query directly, Jesus instead prods this so-called “expert” to answer his own question. And so the expert does. He gives his take on the requirements for eternal life. You must “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Jesus is impressed: “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). Notably, the Greek word for “do” is in the present tense, denoting a continuous action. So it’s not just that this expert in the law is to love God and his neighbor once. Or even regularly. It’s that he is to love God and his neighbor continually – as in constantly. And no matter how highly the expert in the law might think of himself, this is something he cannot do. This expert in the law may think he is good. But he’s not nearly as good as he thinks. Indeed, Jesus’ subsequent parable makes this sobering fact all too clear.
In His Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus relays the story of a man who is mobbed and robbed as he is traveling the steep trail which leads down the side of a mountain from Jerusalem to Jericho. Indeed, in the first century, this road was well known as a haunt for thieves and thugs. Being beaten unconscious and left for dead, a priest passes by and sees this man, clearly in need of assistance. But probably due to concerns for ritual cleanliness – for, according to Old Testament law, to touch a dead person would render one ceremonially “unclean” for a whole week – he passes the man by. The same thing happens with a Levite, also probably out of concerns for ritual cleanliness. It is a Samaritan – a person from a nationality despised by the Jews – who stops and helps this man.
In our day, we like to think of ourselves as the Samaritan. “Surely!” we think to ourselves, “If I someone half-dead on the side of the road, I would help.” But alas, this is merely our own “actor-observer bias” rearing its head. If you don’t believe me, consider these scenarios:
- Have you ever failed to stop to help someone with car trouble because you were in a hurry?
- Have you ever not picked up the phone because your caller ID told you who the person on the other end of the line was and you didn’t feel like talking to them?
- Have you ever lied and told a panhandler, “I don’t have any change” simply because you didn’t want to get into a discussion with them?
If you have ever done any of these things – or a whole host of other similar things – then perhaps you are not as helpful as you think you are.
Finally, when we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are called to think of ourselves not as the Samaritan, but as the priest and the Levite. Helmut Thielicke, the rector of the University of the Hamburg in the 60’s and 70’s, explains the parable like this: “The point of the parable is that we should identify ourselves with the priest and the Levite and repent” (The Waiting Father, 167).
So who, then, is the Good Samaritan if he is not us? The early church fathers thought he was Jesus. Origen says unequivocally, “The Samaritan was Christ” (Homilies on Luke). How did they arrive at such a conclusion? They knew that all of us failed to continuously love God and our neighbor. Thus, only Jesus can play the part of the Samaritan. This does not mean, however, that we are not invited to follow in our Savior’s footsteps. Jesus’ admonition at this end of His parable, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37) makes this clear enough. We are called to love our neighbor by being a neighbor. We are called to help others.
So be a neighbor to someone in need today. After all, before you were called to become a neighbor to someone else, Christ became your neighbor on the cross.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
Some Thoughts On Rob Bell’s “Love Wins”
I was curious, so I checked. It’s number one in Amazon’s “Religion and Spirituality” section and number three in Amazon’s overall list of the top 100 books. To say Rob Bell’s newest opus, Love Wins, has made a splash is like saying our recent recession was an economic hiccup. Both are understated. Because of its meteoric rise to the top of national book sales, the pastors at Concordia feel it is important to address what Rob teaches in this book. Here is what you need to know upfront: Concordia’s pastors do not believe that Love Wins presents true biblical or Christ-centered doctrine. In fact, we believe it presents false doctrine that is dangerous and confusing, leading people away from Christ rather than toward Him. If this is all you want or need to know, there is no need to read the balance of this blog. If you want to know why we believe this book presents false doctrine, read on.
The blogs and reviews of Rob’s new book are legion, and so my goal in this blog is not to try to break through the cacophony of clamor surrounding the book’s release. That’s a far too ambitious – and, I might add, unrealistic – goal. But neither do I intend my review to simply be another voice added to the many shouts either celebrating or decrying Rob’s book. Instead, my review is more of a personal sort. I am a pastor. And already, I am receiving questions from people I know and love about Rob’s book. And I am concerned. I am concerned about Rob. I remember him in his earlier years. To this day, I have never heard a finer sermon on Leviticus 16 than the one he preached. And the picture he painted of Ephesus, the Roman emperor Domitian, and John’s Revelation still grips me – and gives me hope – every time I think about it. In fact, I still have a copy of that sermon…on cassette tape! I’m having a hard time understanding what happened to Rob theologically. I am concerned about him. But I am also concerned about the people with whom I am talking. The people who are questioning. The people who are confused. The people who are wondering, “Is this book true?” If this is you, then I mean this blog for you. And though my words may be pointed, they are not meant to be vicious. Rather, they are written in love and a concern for the truth, for “love rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). And I believe that, finally, the truth will carry the day. For I, like Rob Bell, believe that love wins.
Deconstructing theology is dangerous business. And yet, it’s something people – especially so-called “postmodern” thinkers – love to do. After all, it’s fun to pile on top of certain theological presuppositions and assertions and expose the discontinuities in them, especially if these presuppositions and assertions are widely regarded as traditional and orthodox. And it is this is this deconstructionist method that Rob employs in Love Wins. Consider this quote:
Millions have been taught that if they don’t believe, if they don’t accept in the right way, that is, the way the person telling them the gospel does, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day, God would have no choice but to punish them forever in conscious torment in hell. God would, in essence, become a fundamentally different being to them in that moment of death, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony.
If there was an earthly father who was like that, we would call the authorities. If there was an actual human dad who was that volatile, we could contact child protective services immediately.
If God can switch gears like that, switch entire modes of being that quickly, that raises a thousand questions about whether a being like this could ever be trusted, let alone be good. (pages 173-174)
The logic seems, well, logical enough. If God loves us and wants salvation for us, how could He abandon his pursuit of us upon our deaths and consign us to eternal torment? That’s not a loving God! Therefore, goes Rob’s argument, God must allow people the opportunity to repent (though he never uses the word) even, perhaps, after death. Or at least that’s what he tantalizingly infers!
But let’s apply Rob’s same deconstructionist enterprise to his own argument. Rob solves the difficulty of the God who pursues us in the life and judges us in the next by appealing to God’s generous love – a love generous enough to allow for our free will, now on earth and then in eternity:
To reject God’s grace, to turn from God’s love, to resist God’s telling, will lead to misery. It is a form of punishment, all on its own.
This is an important distinction, because in talking about what God is like, we cannot avoid the realities of God’s very essence, which is love. It can be resisted and rejected and denied and avoided, and that will bring another reality. Now and then.
We are that free. (page 176)
So, Rob says I am free – free to “trust God’s retelling of my story” (page 173), as he puts it, and free to reject it. And not only am I free to trust and reject now on earth, but “now and then,” even into eternity. On the one hand, this is quite an enticing prospect because it allows me to trust in God’s retelling of my story even after I die. So if I mess it up here, I need not worry. I get another shot at trusting God on the flipside. It is important to note that Rob’s concern here is fundamentally a therapeutic utilitarianism. The kind of God who would do something as psychologically stressful as consigning people to an eternal hell simply won’t work! Indeed, Rob states this explicitly: “This is the problem with some Gods – you don’t know if they’re good, so why tell others a story that isn’t working for you” (page 181)? The problem is that Rob’s version of God and the gospel doesn’t work either! After all, what happens if I mess up on the flipside? What happens if I trust God’s retelling of my story in this age, but then use the generous freedom that Rob claims love requires to reject God’s retelling of my story in the age to come? Do I slip the surly bonds of heaven and wind up in a hell of my own making? And what if I trust in God’s retelling again? Is it back to heavenly bliss? And then what if I reject it…again? And then trust it…again? Am I stuck in a vicious volley between heaven and hell for all eternity? That certainly doesn’t sound very “heavenly.” In fact, that sounds like what I struggle with right now! That sounds like Paul’s exposition on every Christian’s age old struggle: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). Where’s the hope in that?
The freedom that love brings is only good if it is exercised with the sovereign prerogative that God has. In other words, love without God’s sovereign prerogative is impotent. It cannot do what it desires. It cannot, to use Rob’s book title, “win.” And indeed, love that allows this kind of freedom isn’t even really love. For it simply allows us to do what we please. Who actually loves like this – even here, even now? Love demands that when you see a child chasing his ball onto the interstate, you curb his freedom and tug him back. Love demands that heaven is an age when we are not only free to live with God, but have also been tugged, or, more biblically, “chosen” by God (cf. Ephesians 1:3-14). Love and freedom are not synonymous nor are they inextricable concomitants of each other. That is why God does away with people who persistently demand their freedom. For they cannot demand their freedom to God without demanding their freedom from God. These are the people who go to hell.
To allow me the eternal freedom to trust or reject God’s retelling of my story is only to allow me the eternal opportunity to make myself unspeakably miserable. And I’m not sure that’s a good opportunity. Because I already know what I’d choose…again and again and again. For I’m not truly free. I’m a slave to sin. And so I will always choose wrongly. As the Reformers put it, “We are unable to stop sinning.” I will always fall for the illusion that freedom from God presents rather than the joy that freedom in Christ brings. This is why God coopted my slavery to sin and set me free, only to make me a slave again, this time to righteousness – not out of some sort of sinister divinely wrought determinism, but for the sake of Christ: “Having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). This is the good news – that God does not leave things up to us. No, He loves us far too much to do that. And so He conquers sin, death, and the devil, and gives us His righteousness, apart from and in spite of our terrible choices.
Whatever so-called “problems” and questions Rob Bell may try to solve and answer in his book, he only succeeds in creating more problems and begging more questions. Not only that, but he finally replaces the good news with something that is neither good, for it leaves us in an eternal state of struggling against our own wills, nor is it news, for this struggle is much older than any twenty-four news cycle. So, whatever supposed “problems” my “traditional” story of the gospel may have (which I am not convinced there are problems, just paradoxes), this I know: When it comes to a love that is broad enough to allow me my own, dangerous freedom, “the good news is better than that” (page 191).
ABC Extra – Jesus Isn’t Gentle (At Least Not All The Time)
Even if you’ve never specifically articulated it, you have at least a general impression of Jesus. “Jesus is loving.” “Jesus was a good man.” “Jesus accepts all people no matter where they’re from or what they’ve done.” These are but a few of the most common impressions of Jesus. Even our hymnody seems to endorse these types of impressions. As a child, I learned to sing: “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child. Pity my simplicity, suffer me to come to Thee.” Yep, this is Jesus: He’s meek and mild.
As I’ve grown older and have spent more time reading the Scriptures, the impression of Jesus as meek and mild that I had as a child has been challenged. More often than not, in the Scriptures, Jesus doesn’t seem all that meek and mild. In fact, in some instances, Jesus doesn’t even seem nice! Indeed, we encountered one of these instances in this past weekend’s ABC.
In Mark 4:1-20, Jesus shares with His disciples what I like to call “The Parable of the Parable.” He tells His disciples a parable which describes what happens when He tells a parable! “A farmer goes out to sow some seed,” Jesus begins. “Some falls on a hard path, some falls on rocky soil, and some lands in the nearby thorn bushes. And none of these seeds last. They either do not sprout at all or they sprout and quickly wither. But there is some seed that falls on soft soil. And this seed germinates and grows up to be healthy, full, and whole.” As I mentioned, this parable describes what happens when Jesus tells a parable! There are some people who out and out reject His teaching while others get carried away by the rocks and thorny trials of this world. Some, however, not only hear and understand Jesus’ parables, but believe them. They are the soft soiled ones who take Jesus’ parables to heart.
Sadly, Jesus warns that many will not take His parables to heart: “To those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven’” (Mark 4:11-12). These are some biting words! Jesus says that to those on the outside, He intentionally speaks in coded parables, lest these outsiders actually understand Jesus’ message and believe in His mission! This certainly doesn’t sound nice. This doesn’t sound like a gentle Jesus, meek and mild!
In His words, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, where God gives the prophet a similar mission of veiling God’s Word and message, lest people understand and believe: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” There is no ambiguity in God’s commission to Isaiah. Isaiah is to specifically and deliberately “make the heart of the people calloused.” That is, he is to turn people away from God. What a strange – and harsh – mission for a prophet!
The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament from the third century BC, translates Isaiah 6:9-10 like this: “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.” Take careful note of the difference between the two versions. In the Hebrew text of Isaiah 6, Isaiah is specifically charged with hardening the hearts of the people. But in the Greek translation of this text, the hearts of the people are already calloused long before Isaiah begins his ministry. So which one is it? Is it Isaiah who callousing the hearts of the people? Or do the people who hear Isaiah come with already calloused hearts, ready to reject his message?
Actually, it’s both. Long before Isaiah arrives on the scene, the people of Israel have been busy callousing their hearts through their rebellion and carousing. Isaiah paints a bleak picture of Israel’s spiritual condition in his opening chapter: “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him” (Isaiah 1:4). Israel is already calloused. Thus, Isaiah is called only to callous hearts through his preaching which are have already been calloused by sin. This, then, is God’s warning to sinners: “If you callous your hearts by sin, I will callous your hearts in judgment of that sin.”
This, therefore, is finally what Jesus is doing in His parables. He speaks of hiding the meaning of His parables from “those on the outside” not because He hates these people or wants to see them consigned to damnation, but because they have already chosen to be on the outside, apart from Jesus. And so now, Jesus is simply giving these sinners what they want – what they demand. He is callousing their hearts through His parables.
The portrait of Jesus as purely meek and mild is surely inaccurate. In Jesus’ “Parable of the Parable,” we learn that Jesus most certainly allows people to fall under the judgment they deserve and desire. And yet, this is not Jesus’ final will. His will is that these people would indeed “turn and be forgiven,” even though He knows that some will not.
This, then, is Jesus’ invitation to you: Do not be calloused! By the Spirit’s strength, instead, be soft soil. Have a tender heart! Receive and believe God’s Word…and watch it grow in you – even unto salvation.
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ABC Extra – So Many Translations, So Little Time
This past weekend, we reflected further on the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture in part two of our series “Inspire!” In an effort to better understand the Bible we read, in ABC, I talked about some of the different philosophies which undergird different Bible translations. I identified three different major types of translational philosophies:
- Word-for-word translations seek to translate the ancient Hebrew and Greek of the biblical text word-for-word into English as far as possible. They also try to translate the same Hebrew or Greek word consistently throughout the Scriptures, even when the context of a given verse might encourage a different translation of that word for the sake of style and ease of reading. Indeed, word-for-word translations can often read clumsily since Greek and Hebrew syntax and sentence structure can vary widely from English syntax and sentence structure.
- Thought-for-thought translations seek to take phrases or even sentences from the Hebrew and Greek biblical text and translate them according to the intent of the biblical authors using smooth, readable English. This is helpful for understanding, but can also lead to misunderstandings because sometimes the biblical syntax, no matter how convoluted and confusing it may appear, is important to understanding the argument of a biblical writer.
- Paraphrases consult other English translations of the Bible, along with some Greek and Hebrew texts as well, and then they paraphrase these other translations into contemporary, readable English. Paraphrases are dangerous because they often explicitly, and sometimes even recklessly, reflect the theological biases of their paraphrasers.
With this brief review of translational philosophies in mind, I wanted to offer a couple of additional thoughts with regard to translating Scripture.
First, it is important to note that Bible translating is more of an art than a science. Oftentimes, people will ask me what the best translation of the Bible is. The fact of the matter is, there is no one translation that I can recommend wholeheartedly as the “best” because, finally, Bible translating is an art! This means that there are some translations of the NIV that I prefer while, in other places, I prefer an ESV or an NASB rendering. In a couple of instances, the old KJV still carries the day for me! This is why, rather than simply recommending a single translation, I encourage people to compare several translations, giving the benefit of the doubt to the word-for-word translations over the thought-for-thought ones, and then consulting a commentary to shed further light on the text.
Second, it is important to note that there is no such thing as a “literal” translation of the Bible. Whether it is a word-for-word or a thought-for-thought translation, every translation involves some level of translator interpretation, especially when an ancient biblical text is especially ambiguous or when its idioms are unintelligible to the modern reader. The example I gave in ABC last weekend comes from Acts 20:37 where, after Paul says his farewell to his beloved Ephesian congregation, and with much weeping and sadness, the Ephesians, according to a word-for-word translation of the Greek, “were throwing themselves upon the neck of Paul.” Whoa! I know the Ephesians were sad to see Paul leave, but they didn’t have to try to break his neck! But this misunderstands the idiom. Even the NASB, considered by many to be the most faithful word-for-word translation available, translates this verse, “They embraced Paul.” And indeed, this is an appropriate translation. For even if the NASB does not translate woodenly the ancient idiom, it does faithfully reflect the author’s intent in using the idiom. Thus, to find a “literal” translation is neither possible nor is it always necessarily helpful.
Finally, I want to say a word about the use of inclusive language in many of today’s more recent translations. There is a move afoot to replace traditional translations of words like “brothers” or “men” with more gender inclusive language like “brothers and sisters” and “people.” Though this is certainly fine in some places (e.g., Matthew 5:19 in NIV 2011: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” rather than in NIV 1984: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”) it is dangerous in others. One prime example comes in Psalm 8:4-6. Consider the translation of NIV 1984:
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; You put everything under his feet.
Here the Psalmist extols how God has made humankind the crowing glory of His creation and how He has given them dominion over the earth. Notice that the Psalmist describes humankind collectively using the masculine singular pronouns “him” and “his” (see italics above). In NIV 2011, because the Psalmist is referring to humankind collectively, the translators opted for the more generic plural pronouns “them” and “their.” Two problems arise with this translation. First, the Hebrew of the Psalm employs masculine singular pronouns. Thus, it may behoove us to translate the pronouns as singular collectives since that is the way the Psalmist wrote his Psalm! Second, the preacher of Hebrews picks up on the masculine singular pronouns of this Psalm and applies these pronouns to Jesus:
There is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)
Thus, the preacher of Hebrews sees this Psalm as referring not only to humankind generally, but also to Jesus singularly! The Psalmist, writing some 1,000 years before Christ, prophecies concerning Christ! To discard the masculine singular pronouns, then, in favor of more generic plural inclusive pronouns, obscures the Messianic character of this Psalm. And that is a tragedy. For Christ is the center of the Scriptures. Thus, I tend to caution people against translations that commit themselves to inclusive language at the expense of Greek and Hebrew grammar and syntax.
So where does all this leave us? To use a phrase coined by President Reagan, we should “trust, but verify.” I advise people, with few exceptions, to generally trust the translations they read and not worry about missing a huge theological theme because of a faulty translation. Reading any major translation, you will still discover the gospel that Christ has come to die on a cross in your place for your sins apart from anything you do. No major doctrine of Christianity is compromised by any major translation. However, I still encourage people to verify confusing or disputed passages by consulting other translations, commentaries, and their pastor. This can help bring clarity and orthodoxy to some sticky passages.
So get to reading! The people have God have spent a lot of time translating the Word of God. And they’ve translated it so that the Word of God can be read and believed by you.
Want to learn more? Go to
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