Powerful foolishness

But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

- Luke 23:34, NASB

Paul refers to the cross of the Messiah as the foolishness of God, which is wiser than the wisdom of men (1 Corinthians 1:25). And no wonder. Because it does not make sense to us that we can conquer evil by suffering. By submission. By forgiveness. And yet there he is, on his way to his death, and he proclaims forgiveness for the ones pursuing his death. And by that act, he has conquered evil forever.

Many of these same themes were interwoven into last week's episode of The Walking Dead. Yeah, I know...

Wait, what?!?

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

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If you are one of the 16 million people who watched last Sunday, you know the background well. Our band of survivors in this zombie apocalypse have been on their own for at least a couple of years and have beaten the odds on all sorts of perils. But now they are face-to-face with a different challenge - a naive community (Alexandria) of people that have no idea of the danger outside their walls. How will they fit in? Will the things they have learned help them protect their new community? Or will it get them kicked out?

(For more, read a synopsis here.)

Well, the path to getting control of the situation was surprising.

• Glenn, who was there when his friend Noah was killed through the negligence and cowardice of Alexandria native Nicolas, confronts Nicolas out in the woods. Nicolas shoots Glenn in the shoulder, attacks him, and leaves him for dead as "walkers" pounce. Somehow, Glenn turns the tables and has Nicolas on the ground with a gun to his head. He has the power of revenge and maybe even justice right in his hands. But he lets Nicolas go. Forgiveness? Well, at least the first step.
• Sasha is still struggling with the deaths of her brother and her boyfriend, and is not handing it well. She comes face-to-face with Father Gabriel in the chapel, and two lost souls come face-to-face.
• Maggie recently overheard Gabriel condemn the entire group in a private conversation with Deanna, the leader of Alexandria. Somehow, she sees through his hypocritical actions and sees a lost and hurting man in desperate need of forgiveness. Reaching back to the faith her father taught her (and which she seemed to have lost for a while), she reaches out her hand - literally - and pulls Gabriel up. The three of them end up praying together:

• Then there's Morgan, whose connection with our group is a past connection with Rick Grimes. He helped Rick get his feet under him shortly after the world changed. When we last saw him, he seemed lost after facing the death of his son. But now, he has come to the conclusion that all life is precious. He rescued Daryl and Aaron from certain death, and seems to be on a mission to show you can survive and keep your humanity.

The name of the episode was "Conquer." That seems like a very strange name; there was no conquest in sight. Not in the traditional since. But.....

Glenn conquered his bitterness over Noah's death as he let Nicolas off the hook.

Sasha is at least on her way to conquering the deep hurt over the death's of Bob and Tyreese.

Maggie has conquered the hopelessness she felt after the deaths of her father and sister.

Maybe Gabriel is on the verge of conquering his shame. We'll see about that one.

And, as the people of Alexandria witness selfless sacrifice by these flawed characters, including Rick - who was out protecting them from intruding walkers when he could have been trying to save his own skin - our group seems to be conquering. Conquering fear, conquering mistrust, conquering the disconnect with their new community. Rick thought they would have to do it by force.

Not so much.

Forgiveness. Suffering. Sacrifice. Nor conquering by force, but conquering with love. Does that work? 

Is it foolishness to think so?

Which brings us back to Jesus. Love, self-sacrificing love, forgiving love, is the only thing that can conquer evil. And that's exactly what happened on the cross, when the King of the universe was crowned with thorns, bore our sins, and destroyed the works of the devil.

And then rose from the dead to claim that victory.

This is the foolishness of God, wiser than all our wisdom. Amen.

Happy

Doesn't this just make you feel good?

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof,

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,

Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.

Before starting, let me say: I love the song. Catchy tune. Feel-good message. And it does have some elements of godly joy in it, especially the idea of not letting anything bring you down.

But it does have a problem right smack in the middle of it. How so?

Happiness is not the truth.

You see, in our society we have made being happy the ultimate goal. Whatever makes you happy, that's what you should do. We use it to justify all sorts of things:

• We pursue pleasure with every spare moment, instead of taking time to serve others. Because, well, that makes me happy.
• We drown out the voices of Scripture and our consciences when it comes to certain behaviors, because if it doesn't make us happy it can't possibly come from a loving God, right?
• We think that being happy is the reason to get married. So when we are no longer happy, well...that's what divorce is for.
• And it's not just marriage. We quit when things get tough in all sorts of areas. Whether it's at work, church, or just a friendship that's hit some rocky times. "This doesn't make me happy anymore. I'm done."
• We blame God when we encounter death, sickness, or financial troubles. "This doesn't make me happy, God. You must not love me. Do you even exist?'

Yep, we've bought the lie..."happiness is the truth."

If life and Scripture combine to tell us anything, it's that God wants to shape us back into his image through our time here on earth. Paul consistently wrote about how suffering was part of God's plan to shape us into the image of his Son, using his own suffering as an example. So did Peter. Jesus told us to take up our cross (an instrument of death!) and follow him.  He also told the religious leaders that a man who was born blind did nothing to deserve it and said that the Father causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall equally on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). 

There is nothing in the words of Jesus or his followers indicating that being happy was the goal of life.

And then there's Job. In the first two chapters of this amazing book, we learn that Job is going to suffer and suffer a lot. And then it happens, and we are told that none of it is because of his sin. How happy do you think Job was? Exactly. And yet he was right smack in the center of God's will, as the Lord used his circumstances to teach him and make him more of an image-bearer.

But really, go ahead...clap along. I do. Through faith in the Messiah Jesus, I am determined not to let life bring me down.

But when I'm not happy, when life is pressing down on me, I've got something better than happiness to carry me through.

Faith. Hope. Love. These are the truth.

The Wonderful Cross

As we spend the day contemplating the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah Jesus on our behalf, and the amazing depths of his love...



Thanks be to God!

Done

Done.

It can be the most dangerous word in the English language. With this one word, you can slam the door on relationships with a chilling finality.

Sometimes we say it out loud, with venom, and follow up on it. I have seen many relationships, both within families and among friends, that ended when one or both people decided that the hurt was too great to forgive. Some healed eventually, and some continue to this day.

More often, we say it to ourselves, for offenses both large and small:

Someone speaks to us unkindly...done!
Someone takes advantage of us financially...done!
Someone betrays our trust...done!
Someone hurts our feelings on Facebook…done!
Someone leaves us to do all the work...done!
Someone fails to call us back a few times...done!
Someone hurts someone we care about...done!
Someone embarrasses us in front of our boss...done!

You could probably add a hundred more without breaking a sweat. We are imperfect people and we hurt each other, and whether it's intentional often doesn't matter to us.

And whether we follow up on our internal outburst or not, we see the spirit of unforgiveness crouching at the door of our hearts every time we perceive that someone has wronged us. I know I do. Done...at least for a while.

We want to know how much we are supposed to endure. Peter came to Jesus and basically asked him, How many times do I have to forgive before I can say "done!"? (Matthew 18:21-23) And the answer Jesus gave was hard to swallow; our fragile egos crave a limit for having to endure pain.

When I think of all the times the word done has crossed my lips, I am overwhelmed with the love, mercy and forgiveness of God for me. No matter how many times I hurt him, he is waiting for me to return with open arms, extending infinite love. When you have some time, go read the book of Hosea in the Bible. In that book, the prophet Hosea's marriage is used an as illustration of God's unfailing love. God was heartbroken at how far his people had strayed from him, but the book ends with a declaration that he is always there, loving them and waiting for them to return to a rich relationship with him.

And then there is the ultimate statement by God that he is not done with me...

We take offense so easily. But even for the big ones, the ones where everyone can understand our bitterness, this strikes me: No matter how I have been mistreated, abused, ignored, or betrayed, God's Son endured that and worse on my behalf. He came from infinite glory to endure the shame of death, even death on a cross. And as he did it, he cried out for his Father to forgive the ones who were doing it. He never said, "Done!"

Oh, wait a minute...yes he did. Just before breathing his last breath, he cried out, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) Or, translated loosely, "Done!"

The ultimate sacrifice for my sin...done!
The dominion of darkness over this world...done!
The punishment that I deserve....done!
The power of death and the grave...done!

And because his grace and mercy are so limitless, he calls us to the same. Because the debt we have been forgiven is so massive, we must forgive the smaller debts that our friends, family, and yes, even enemies owe us.

Because he said, "Done!" to sin and death, I have the power to stop saying it to others. May it be so.

A daring rescue

So have you heard about the boy who was rescued from a waterfall this week. It's an amazing story. Watch:



Wow! I can't even imagine how scared this kid must have been. Or how much pressure the rescuers must have felt. And it's obvious they were risking their lives to save him.

My favorite part of story is something that was shared on the news today. According to interviews, the boy - clinging to the rock for his life - asked the rescue worker, "Do you have a plan?" When he got a positive response, he then asked, "Is it going to work?" What presence of mind by such a young boy!
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It did remind me of my own condition as a human being. There was a time when I was clinging to whatever I could hold on to, desperately trying to avoid slipping into the abyss created by my sin and selfishness. I don't think I was smart enough to ask God if he had a plan. But he did. And it worked.

Thanks be to the Father, whose plan was to send Jesus to take on my punishment. And to rescue me from the kingdom of this world to be part of his Kingdom.