Jesus Christ – Just because

“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

Not Peace, but a Sword “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:24-39

The very first event recognizing fathers occurred on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. Grace Golden Clayton organized a church service to honour 362 men who had died in the Monongah mining disaster a few months prior. Subsequently, after much lobbying, Father’s Day was created by Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, in 1910 to recognise her single Civil War veteran father who raised and cared for her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth.

On Father’s Day, we pause to honour the physical and spiritual fathers we have in our lives, which includes those who have to be both mother and father, and all that they have done. From Psalm 103 verse 13, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him”.

There are many aspects to the perceived role of fatherhood and there are different people who may fulfil this role for us. For some it is their Dad, for some their Mum, for some a Grandparent, for some a carer or a foster parent and for some a trusted mentor or friend. All these people are loved by those they love and care for and we thank God, our Almighty Father, for these people, for all they do and for the way they touch our lives.

Fear causes failure. Fear causes failure in discipleship.

Sometimes one of the harder jobs of a parental type role is having to tell us things that are tough to prepare us for what lies ahead.
Jesus is preparing His disciples for their mission and does not hide from them the threats they will come up against but He also explains why they must not let this fear control or hinder them.

The disciples are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God; even though they will face arrests, beatings, opposition (including from family and friends), hatred and persecution.

Why tell the disciples the trials they will suffer? Wouldn’t this put them off the task assigned to them?

By warning them in advance, not only do the disciples have the opportunity to be prepared, but also saying aloud the suffering and trials to be faced is the first step to being freed from the grip of fear.

Jesus doesn’t just tell the disciples the worst case scenarios, He also gives reassurance and instructions to resist fear. The most important part of this reassurance is the relationship between the disciples and Jesus, and through Him God.

Jesus warns His disciples that the fate of the Master or Teacher also awaits their disciples and so the disciples should be ready to receive a similar response from the leaders of Israel that Jesus Himself receives and to have no fear of them.

Proclaiming and living the Gospel is the most powerful tool the disciples have against world powers.

Death threats can be a powerful way of controlling people through fear. Whilst humans try to use this power, Jesus reassures the disciples that humans only have power to destroy the body, not the whole person. Only God can destroy both soul and body. However, God is not like human rulers. God has ultimate power over our whole being and exercises this power with mercy and love.

The call to discipleship has priority and is above all other claims on identity, allegiance, family and friends.

To take up our cross aligns the discipleship mission and fate with that of Jesus which can include humiliation, suffering, shame, opposition and death. It implies identification with marginal people who do not “find their lives in this world”. But it comes with the promise from Jesus that anyone who loses their life for Him will “find it” whereas those “finding their life in the world” will lose it.

Jesus shows us that the answer to fear includes recognising and naming it. Fear of the unknown or unacknowledged is a far greater fear than the fear of the known and spoken.

We need to be honest and transparent in recognising the elements of human power including those rooted in the threat of death and suffering. We need to be aware of the conflict and division that proclaiming and living the Gospel inevitably produces. We need deep awareness and conviction of God’s presence in the world in love, mercy and compassion.

Today’s society is guilty of having a lack of commitment and has left its cross on the side of the road.

Every organisation that relies on regular and committed volunteers – churches, Girl Guiding, Scouts to name just a couple – all are having trouble finding people to take on running these groups, to take on responsibility for the different elements that need doing, to run and to support events. People don’t mind making use of these various groups when it suits them but they will not commit to regular attendance, regular giving or taking on responsibility.

There are all kinds of reasons used and excuses given to explain this such as working hours or childcare but, whilst that does affect some, it most certainly does not affect everyone. What about the childless? The unemployed? The retired? Those with compatible working hours or who work part time? Those who do have the talents and time to take an active part but who won’t? And so forth.

People today would rather keep their interpretation of freedom, stay at home watching the television or surf the internet. People think less about being or don’t want to be part of something whether that be a cause, a group or community of believers (in anything) and think more about individual pleasure and activities. And we are all guilty.

Today, people are told to just do what they can and this encourages people to not put the effort in.

Jesus does not say that to us. He did not say it to the disciples. Instead He told a group of scared men that it required commitment and was going to be very tough. He told them this in no uncertain terms.

Did they decline – No
Did they give up – No
Did they say actually Jesus I don’t really feel like doing that today – No

What they did do was to rise to the challenge in total commitment to Jesus.

People, regardless of age, will be what society expects them to be. If a child is told they can’t do something then they start to believe they can’t do it and won’t even try. If you tell a child they can’t behave they won’t even try and the more they don’t – whether that is leaving rubbish on the floor, not putting things away, being rude causing damage, shooting catapults or any action that the adult considers misbehaviour. If they are constantly told they can’t behave they don’t.

Likewise, the more people are told not to overdo it or to be careful because they are frail or that they don’t need to then the less they do and the more fearful and frail they become.

We must train ourselves to take a risk and be willing to commit and do.

Jesus told His disciples not to be afraid, that they would be guided and protected, that they were precious to God and that even if their bodies or feelings got hurt no harm would come to their souls.

God’s love and protection surrounds and insulates us from the worst human powers and earthly life can throw at us. We might suffer as all typical humans suffer but we are precious to God, He holds us in His hand and keeps our souls safe. We can and will endure.

In a society that encourages lazy, self indulgent life on the sidelines it can be difficult to be as committed and courageous as those first Christians.

We must not be complacent. As the world is, it is easy to become. We must be on our guard always to ensure that the world does not drain us of our commitment to others and to God. We must resist the temptation to be lazy and uninvolved.

Like those first disciples, as Jesus’s followers we are all involved with each other, with God’s will for the world, with His command to spread the word, and to bring in the kingdom; and we must not let the siren call of selfishness and lack of commitment prevent that purpose.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wide men came with birthday gifts.

We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.

We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled … all that is except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s His birthday we are celebrating. Don’t ever let us forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most … and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
The Bishop’s Wife 1947

But it isn’t just that stocking for the Christ-child that gets forgotten.

Every Christmas churches, and many of us in our homes, have some sort of nativity scene. It reminds us of a profound truth, the incarnation, that moment that God became flesh and walked among men. We celebrate God’s love and grace, that He laid aside His heavenly glory to be born in the humblest of ways to save us by dying for us.

Everything and everyone in these nativity scenes is glorifying the Saviour of the world.

Everyone shown in the nativity is portrayed as a worshipper of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The angels worshipped Him. (Luke 2: 8-14)

The shepherds worshipped Him. (Luke 2: 8-20)

The wise men worshipped Him. (Matthew 2:1-11)

Even the animals, in their own way, worshipped Him. (Romans 1:19-20)

And this is quite right and proper but we have forgotten someone and something.

Jesus came to this world to save us from our sins and reconcile us with God. He came to give His life for those who hated Him and wanted Him dead. As Jesus said in Mark 2:!7 “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

So who did we forget?

We’ve left out the ignorant. Let us take Caesar Augustus as an example of this. He ordered a census in order to charge more tax. We don’t know what prompted Augustus’s timing but we do know that God was behind the timing.

When God sent His Son into the world there were several factors that made the time right which we overlook, such as the conditions which made it easier to spread the Gospel. Conditions such as Roman law which protected Paul and others as they travelled around the Roman world preaching the Gospel. Roman peace which meant there was a lack of wars within the Roman Empire, enabling the Apostles and other early believers to travel freely without fear. The Roman roads which made travel easier and the Greek language – which was the most common language used at that time and which was an expressive language enabling the deep truth to be explained in great detail.

When Augustus issued his decree he did not know God was using him to fulfil the prophecy of Micah 5:2, that out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah would come the one promised. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David, their family line from Bethlehem, and so the order of census forced them to travel to Bethlehem where Jesus was then born.

Whilst being ignorant of the part he played, Augustus was part of God’s plan for Jesus’s birth. Jesus came into the world to save those ignorant of God, the lost, from their sins and from themselves.

It’s not just the ignorant we’ve forgotten, we have also left out the indifferent. Take the innkeeper for example, who kept watch over the inn and collected money from travellers. When Joseph arrived at the inn with a very pregnant Mary the innkeeper was not bothered. He turned them away telling them there was no room. Seeing their plight and that Mary could give birth at any moment, he could have, perhaps, offered them his own room but instead he was indifferent to their need and even the offer of the stable was just an afterthought. He was unmoved and indifferent but still a part of Christ’s birth.

There are many like that innkeeper – only preoccupied with themselves, not moved by the Gospel message or our witness to them. Yet Jesus came to save them too.

John 1:11 “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Jesus came anyway. He died to save the indifferent anyway so that if they do hear Him and come to Him they can still be saved.

But we haven’t just left out the indifferent and the ignorant. We have also left out the incredulous.

In Luke 2:15-18 we hear how, having believed the angel, seen and worshipped Jesus, the shepherds returned to their sheep telling everyone they met about the baby in the manger and the angel’s message. The people the shepherds told were astonished but they did not go to see and worship baby Jesus themselves. They heard the story, were impressed by the story but then did nothing about it.

Jesus still came and died for these people – those who are so wrapped up in their own lives that, despite being impressed, they ignore the invitation given to them to be saved. The message may be impressive but it can only save you if you turn to Christ in faith. Receive Him and be saved by His grace.

But it is not just the incredulous, the indifferent and the ignorant we have left out. We have also left out the self-righteousness. Those so blind to the truth and who Jesus is that they fail to see even when they see it for themselves with their own eyes. Let us take Saul as an example here. He was a very religious man and a zealous Jew but his self-righteousness had blinded him to who Jesus was. When God “opened his eyes” on the road to Damascus he sees himself as a sinner, repented and God saved his soul. Saul became Paul.

Salvation does not come by doing good alone. Jesus, in His death on the cross, did what we cannot do. Jesus opened a way to God for all who believe in Him. When we truly believe we are saved.

But we didn’t just leave out the self-righteous, the incredulous, the indifferent and the ignorant. We also left out the wicked. The wicked such as Herod, who slaughtered those precious, innocent children. Herod who, once he knew death was near, had 70 Jewish religious leaders executed for the sole purpose of having people weeping as he died. The soldiers who followed these orders of Herod should also be included here. Jesus died to save people such as these so that the wicked could be delivered from their evil.

He died for people like Herod and the soldiers following his orders, for murderers, addicts, thieves, manipulators stepping on people just to get what they want, for those who do not care about others’s feelings and needs, for those full of meanness and hate, for politicians, bankers, stockbrokers, teachers, homemakers, drivers, vicars, priests, bishops and all sinners.

Jesus Christ died for everyone who has ever or who will live, for you and for me.

If we had been there the night of Jesus’s birth then the likelihood is, sadly, that we would not have noticed, that we would not, for whatever reason, gone to worship Him at His birth. Because we are sinners just like everyone else. But He still came, out of grace and love, for us. Our salvation wrapped up in a tiny human baby.

So let us believe anew, repenting and turning to Him who forgives and loves us. And, like the shepherds, may we spread His love and the message of the greatest gift of all to all whom we meet so that they have a chance to also be a part of the salvation Jesus bought for us all.

Tag: Jesus Christ

Commit and Live

What have we forgotten?