New Thoughts (09/24/08-9/26/08)
Given the gap in dates, I shall simply note that I needed to take a few of my morning study times to prepare for the men’s retreat which begins tomorrow. May God see fit to bless those who are able to make it to that retreat, and may each one who ministers do so in full accord with His purposes.
It seems to me that there is really but one lesson that needs to be taken from this passage, and it is really quite simple. Jesus lays it out in stark contrast, black and white. There are only two possibilities for us. Either we accept and pursue God’s interests or we are serving Satan’s. There’s no neutral, third way. It’s one or the other. If we assess ourselves honestly, I suspect we will find that we serve Satan more often than we would care to admit. We are fine with accepting God’s plan when everything’s running smooth and life is good, as we measure it. But, when circumstances seem to be against us, when we are discovering a taste of what Job went through, that picture changes.
Even so, there’s a wonder to be seen in this for the man of God. That wonder is that the picture doesn’t remain changed. That wonder is that as we grow, it doesn’t even stay changed for as long as it used to. Indeed, through the power of God in us we are able to come to a place where the picture barely flickers. How Satan is frustrated by this marvelous truth! How he works at us, trying to get us to work his plans once more. But, God is greater! He Who is in us is greater! Through His strength, we are made strong, and we discover that things which used to set us off no longer phase us in the least.
We are growing. We are coming to a point where we can join Job not only in the suffering, but in the ‘nevertheless’. We are becoming more and more Christ-like as He works within us. We are beginning to understand that perspective which could be there in Gethsemene, knowing what was coming, wishing above all things that God would modify His plans to avoid it, but still reaching the place of ‘nevertheless’. Your will be done, God, however it may pain or inconvenience me. Your will be done, because You are good and working for good, and if the things I see in my part of Your plan don’t seem good to me in my limited vision, yet I know they are good because they are by Your will.
The way in which Jesus explains the coming events to His disciples here reveals in part where the strength lies by which He stands. It is there in His introduction of this lesson. “The Son of Man must”. Young’s translation offers us, “It behoveth the Son of Man to suffer many things” (Mk 8:31). That being a word that is no longer all that commonly in use, it yet conveys the absolute of the situation. ‘Must’ doesn’t really do that for me. For, we live in a day where must is maybe as often as not. But, when the Amplified version says that the Son of Man ‘must of necessity’ suffer, that clarifies the picture greatly for me. Perhaps it is the theological side of me that gains clarity by that phrase, but it clarifies nonetheless.
That necessity is the very nature of those things which God wills, and that is exactly what we are looking at here: the things which God wills. Jesus doesn’t say so outright, at least at the outset. But, the will of God is the only legitimate reason for any ‘must’. It is only when He declares that He will have it so, that we reach that point of the outcome being ‘of necessity’.
When it comes to matters of salvation, the necessity of God’s will ought to be of great comfort to us. Yet, many are so worked up over their sense of free will that they find it disturbing instead. In reality, though, our salvation is in exactly the same state as the things Jesus lays out here. We must of necessity be saved because this is what God has willed for us. Now, the course of our salvation may well involve – indeed, is guaranteed to involve – our own part in sufferings. You will have suffering, they will hate you, they will deliver you up. But, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15).
This last is something I have always tended to hear more like a proof. I tend to hear it like one hears conditional love. If you loved me, you would do this for me. But, that’s not love talking. That’s greed. Jesus knows no greed for He has no need. No, that’s not love’s demand, that’s God’s promise! You do love Me, and therefore, you can rest assured you will keep My commandments. How can that be? I know I fail daily. But, this is the same God who tells me that He is the one who is at work in me both to will and to work for His good pleasure. In other words, by His work in me I work in Him. I accomplish His good pleasure because it is His good pleasure that I do so. It must of necessity be the case.
Seeing this, who am I to complain if His will may also include things I don’t like? Who am I to complain if I must suffer a bit of hardship on the way to perfection? What, after all, are these trials in the face of an eternity in glory? That’s Paul’s point! He had to go through some stuff that I have not (at least to date) had to face, nor have many in our day and in our land. We consider it pain and suffering when we are asked not to preach in the workplace. We consider it pain and suffering when we have to tolerate the unrepentant sinners who share the land with us. What is that? We have not yet been called to resist to the point of bloodshed. We have not been required to deal with the likes of Nero, called to renounce our faith or die most painfully. But, what if we were? Does that change anything? If it is what God has willed, and He is working out His good and perfect purposes through these things, should we not gladly face them?
Now, again, I can take heart from the example of my eldest brother Jesus. To face them gladly doesn’t necessitate me to rejoice in the pain. God is no sadist, nor is He looking for sadistic worshipers. Jesus knew great sorrow in what He had to face. His joy was not in those events. His joy was in what He knew God was going to accomplish by those events. His joy was not in the evil of circumstances. His joy was in the God Who is able to take the worst of circumstances and yet work them for good. His joy was in and is in the One Who turns Satan’s every vile treachery and turns it around to bless His own. It behooves us to align ourselves with such a One. Indeed, if we are right to call ourselves His children, it is necessary.
Look at the way in which Jesus explains the situation to Peter in His rebuke. Here, the Douay-Rheims translation says, “thou savorest not the things that are of God.” Again, it’s a word we don’t use that often, especially in terms of thinking. We may savor a flavor in some meal we are enjoying. Indeed, we consider it a great hardship when our foods lose their savor. When dietary restrictions require that we leave certain favorite spices aside, it brings such sorrow, for eating has lost its savor with the departure of those spices. That’s exactly the sense that Jesus is giving the things of God here. Recall that He is the One who said, “I have food you know not of.” That food, every word of God, has a savor beyond anything that ever the tongue of man can taste!
Yet, ‘thou savorest not’. There is no sense of delight. Can you imagine that! Jesus looked at the suffering that was coming His way, and took delight in them! Again, let me stress that it was not the suffering itself that He delighted in. Who could honestly rejoice to see their own death coming by means of terrible torture? Who could delight in knowing they would be beaten, humiliated, spat upon? No! That’s not the delight. His delight was in the joy set before Him, knowing what would be accomplished through this suffering. His delight was not in His pain. It was in the salvation of humanity. It was in seeing God victorious even though it involved what Satan thought would be his own great triumph. His delight was in knowing that when He called upon His Father to forgive the very ones who would do these things to Him all unknowing, that by His submission to God’s will, His Father would find it in Himself to do just that.
Where does one find the strength to do this? In God, of course. But, notice the mindset Jesus is calling for. Have a mind intent on promoting what God wills, as the Amplified puts it. This is where the strength of a Christian lies. We must learn to accept and prefer His will over our own comfort. A comfortable Christian is really a weak Christian. He will break at the first sign of trouble, and tend to his own comfort. If threatened, he will roll up in a ball like a porcupine to defend his softness from trouble. But, a mind set on God’s will! A heart that is determined to see His will accomplished at all cost! Therein lies the strength of the martyrs. Therein lies the strength of Job. “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).
Over against this mindset, we have the officialdom of dead religiosity. Jesus will be rejected by them, but not out of hand. That rejection will come after what they deem careful examination. They will put their questions and weigh the evidence by their own standards. Only then will they make an informed decision to reject their King. Now, this rather belies the cry of Jesus on the cross, doesn’t it? “They know not what they do.” Well, if this is an informed rejection, apparently they do know at some level at least. That is not a matter I am fit to resolve, however.
Coming back to this subject on a subsequent day, I am struck by another connection between what Jesus says here and those He is speaking about. They felt they were in a position to judge. They came with their questions and their examinations. Interestingly, God has so ordered the times that I am reading about that series of exchanges later in Matthew’s Gospel as part of my Table Talk study time. Granted that their mindset was one of entrapment, hoping to tangle Jesus up in the unanswerable questions, hoping to corner Him in a situation with no safe answers. But it was fundamentally an examination for office. It was as though Jesus had come to them as job applicant, seeking their approval before He took to His throne. As Jesus declares they would do, they examined Him and upon that examination they rejected Him, refused Him His rightful office as head of their own organization.
How fitting, then, to consider that through this whole series of events, it was really they who were being examined! After all, they were but servants of the Most High God. They were not there as gatekeepers but as ambassadors. They had not just overstepped their authority, they had pole vaulted across the bounds of their authority. They had set themselves up as judges over the Judge of all mankind. They had, as C. S. Lewis expressed it, put God in the dock. And, to say that they didn’t realize who they were dealing with is at best an overstatement. They knew. They may have blinded themselves to the knowledge, but they knew. They could not have been privy to such a wealth of evidence and not have known. In the end, though, by judging Him, they served as their own judges, answered their own examinations, and were themselves rejected and ejected from their positions by their own testimony. As I have so often noted, God’s punishments tend to mirror the nature of the offense.
So, fine. We know the story well enough to recognize what the Pharisees and the Sadducees were about. We really wouldn’t expect anything different of them. But, Peter! My! I mean, we have come to know Peter through what the Gospels tell us about him. We have strong sympathy for the man because his heart is just so big and so very close to the surface. He doesn’t seem to know how to hide his thoughts. What is on his mind is on his tongue, and so it is on this occasion. So, as I say, we are sympathetic to his outburst, here. Indeed, it is easy to imagine ourselves responding in much the same way, if we will but think about it. If we will stop looking at Peter and clucking our tongues at his foolish impetuosity, we will quickly realize that we would have felt much the same. I am sure the others sitting there listening to Jesus declare these terrors upon Himself were thinking much the same thing. If not, then they were likely closer to Thomas, as we see him express himself elsewhere. Oh great, we’re all gonna die. Sure glad I signed on for this gig!
Peter’s is the more optimistic view. No way, Jesus! Not You! You’re Messiah, they can’t do that to You! Don’t speak such things, Lord! Positive confession. What’s good and lovely, Jesus! C’mon, You know better than to say that. Put it in those terms, and you begin to hear the spirit of the modern church, to its shame. Positive confession is a new age conception. It’s that false spirituality that wants to claim that we create our own reality. Stuff and nonsense! We create nothing. God creates. We experience. The tongue may be powerful, but it is powerful in expressing the reality of our inner condition, not in manufacturing our outward experience.
In Peter’s case, what is being expressed is not insubordination, it is love. It may be mixed with unbelief, in this case, but it’s love. He so loves his Teacher, his Friend, his Messiah, that he simply cannot bear to imagine that these things might be true. Indeed, listen to how he begins his response, and it is an expression of compassion. Be merciful to Yourself! Don’t beat Yourself up like that, Jesus! That’s not reality, that’s just Your stinkin’ thinkin’. But, in his love and compassion, he has rather forgotten who his teacher is. He has quickly lost sight of how much was wrapped up in his confession that, “You are the Son of God.” Maybe he just hasn’t really thought through all the ramifications of that confession. He certainly hasn’t thought through all the ramifications of what he’s saying now. Because, what he’s saying now is, “Jesus, You’re a liar!”
Jesus has been explaining what must of necessity happen. He has been expounding upon the very specific will of God in regards to His person. This is beyond even that prophecy that was given Paul as he headed for Jerusalem. This was beyond, ‘if you go, this will happen’. There is no ‘if’. It is simply, ‘this will happen.’ No, it’s stronger than that. It is, “This must happen.” God has purposed it, and it cannot be otherwise.
Now, if this is the word of the teacher, if this is the word from the Son of Truth, then to say, “it is not going to happen,” can only be to say that He is lying. Jesus, I don’t believe You. Not on this one. No, Peter’s not thinking in those terms, but that’s what he has said. That is what his tongue has just confessed. Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus is so vehement in His correction? Understand this, as well. It was not just Peter that needed correction. Jesus understood full well that the rest of the disciples were of a similar mind. Look at what Mark says about this. He had been stating these things plainly, for all to hear, but Peter had taken Him aside privately to express his doubts. Jesus, though, turns away from Peter and faces the disciples before He answers. Mark says, He turned and saw the disciples. Well, it’s not like He didn’t know they were there. He had just been led aside by Peter. He hadn’t forgotten they were there. No. He saw them, and what He saw was their hearts and minds as unsettled and unaccepting of the news as Peter was. So, He addresses His rebuke not just to Peter, but to all. Indeed, He doesn’t address His rebuke to Peter at all, but to that lying spirit that has got hold of them. “Get behind Me, Satan!”
It is interesting that the Wuest translation, considering this scene, describes Jesus as turning His back on Peter and on Satan in delivering this rebuke. Indeed, the Douay-Rheims translation makes this such a strong rebuke that it says Jesus threatened Peter. Both of these seem a bit of a stretch to me. It’s not out of the question that Jesus was acting in a parabolic fashion, but if He was turning His back on Satan, I think He would have to turn His back from all the disciples, not just the spokesman. Folding in the extra details from Mark’s account, it becomes clear that He turned to make sure His rejection of Peter’s rebuke was as clear to all as His initial teaching had been. He is making it clear that He knows it is not just Peter that needs correcting, but all of them.
By the word of His rebuke, He makes two things simultaneously clear to His followers. First, they are not condemned for their doubts and concerns. It is not Peter who is rebuked for this, it is Satan. Likewise, they are not rebuked, Satan is. And, in that lies a warning for these followers. Not every spirit is to be trusted. Even though they are in the camp of the Christ, even though they have been with Him throughout the last few years, learning from Him daily, intimate with Him as no others have been; even so, they are vulnerable to the false wisdom of the father of lies. If they were not immune, how foolish are we to think we are?
The problem is quite simple, as Jesus explains. You are a stumbling block whenever your mind is set on man’s perspective rather than God’s. I am a stumbling block when my mind is caught up in things of man, instead of dwelling upon the things of God. That can (and does) happen right in the middle of doing my part in ministering. When it does, if anything comes of it at all, I can only be that much more certain that it is only by God’s grace and God’s power. I have set myself in His way, and yet He has done great things.
Not only this, but by my willingness to impede His work, I show that I am yet of the flesh, at least in some part. What else can I believe, when my Bible tells me that it is those who are of the flesh that are so dead set upon the things of the flesh? In contrast, I am taught that those who are working in one accord with the Spirit of God have their minds set on the things of the Spirit (Ro 8:5). What is my mind set on? That’s a worthy question to ask myself, particularly in light of last night’s ministry time and that coming up this morning.
Last night I was scheduled to give a message, one I had actually set aside this study to prepare. As we gathered to seek God’s purposes in the evening, our prayer was (perhaps inevitably) that God would make Himself known in our presence, that He would move upon the men who had come up to this retreat to be ministered to. It was, in its way, fairly standard, “Have Your way, Lord” fare. Should it really surprise, us, then, when God has His way? It’s what we asked for. It’s what He intends to do anyway. He is, perhaps, pleasantly surprised (if it were possible to surprise God) that we were with Him on this, but we were. So, no message. Just an evening of prayer.
I don’t know that I have ever truly recognized how hard it is to be prepared with a word and prevented from delivering it. But, why is it hard? God’s will was done, and this is (or certainly ought to be) my greatest desire. If I am but a servant seeking to do as He would have it done, then what cause have I to be offended if He seeks to do something by other means than my message? Is this not what I ask of all who participate? Be prepared for things to change from the schedule we think we have! It’s practically a rule of life for our church. And, we all know that it is in those times when God forces us out of our schedules and plans and into His own that things really happen.
So, why is it that I spent so much time last night asking God if I had responded correctly. I know I tried. I know I was (rather surprisingly, really) disappointed. Honestly, as things came out during this extended prayer time I was more confident than before that the message I had prepared was on spot. But, the hour was late and the word delayed for this morning. Again, I know I tried to react as I should. I also know that inside it hurt. But, God! You seemed to be preparing, and then this. What’s up with that? Did I miss the plan that thoroughly? Oh, but that came later. The immediate sensations were far more a case of flesh rising up. I may not have said it, and I don’t think I consciously thought it, but I know it was there: “It’s not fair, Lord!” Well, Jeff, look to the rebuke once again. You are setting your mind on your own interests, not God’s. Get out of the way.
Yes, Lord, and I set myself before You this morning and ask Your forgiveness for even such a deeply buried attitude. Forgive me, Father. Let this day go as You see fit. I place myself at Your disposal. You speak. You move. You direct. And, I pray that Your Spirit would so work upon me that even in those hidden places there would be no frustration, no resentment, nothing but the pleasure of being in Your good purpose. Keep me mindful of the rebuke, even as the day unfolds, if my mind returns to man’s interests, Lord, take hold of me. Turn my eyes back to You. Your will be done this day, my God and King here on earth as it is in heaven.
Before I set this section behind me, I need to take note of something that becomes clear as I read through the parallel verses to this particular passage. First, I am taken back into John’s gospel, where very early on we hear Jesus say, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days” (Jn 2:19). Now, we know that this was made into a charge against Him as His enemies, those He speaks of in this passage, sought to destroy Him. Like so much of political attacks today, they took Him out of context, and twisted His words to suggest that He had meant something much different in what He said. See? They shouted. He wants to destroy the temple! Oh, yes, and even in the immediate reactions, they tried to make out that this was His intent. What? It took decades to build this place, and You think You can rebuild it in three days? Absurd! Yes, absurd to pretend you thought that was what He meant.
Fast forward to the days after Jesus had been crucified, and we find these same ones who claimed they knew He meant the temple itself come before Pilate. Jesus is dead and buried, but still they fear Him. Hmm. Perhaps they really do know this One is the Messiah. In spite of their rejection of Him. Now, they are concerned because why? Because they had heard Him say that He would rise again after three days (Mt 27:63). Now, I suppose it’s possible that they are actually referring to these later teachings, for Mark tells us that Jesus was teaching this stuff plainly, openly. But, even were this the case, such intelligent men as the leaders of the temple should surely have been able to put two and two together on the matter. Oh! That’s what He meant. Indeed, I will state it plainly. They did put two and two together. They did know with whom they had to deal. But, their taste for power had so corrupted them that even knowing did not change their course. Truly, these were men with their minds set on the things of men. So set, that not even the Son of God could cause them to change course.
OK. I cannot say such a thing and leave it to hang there. No, Jesus’ power was not in any way constricted by their corruption. Yes, if He had so purposed, He could most certainly have moved them to change course. He did so with me. He did so with you. These men were no harder case for the Almighty. However, in His sovereign purpose, He chose not to. He allowed them their petty rebellion against the King of heaven and earth. Why? That their sins might be made complete and in their end, justice might be made manifest to all. Woe to us should we ever find God dealing with us in such a way. All praise be to the One who has sovereignly chosen to extend grace to us rather than justice. Yes, fear that One! But, not as one cringing before a malicious and unpredictable power. Fear Him as the only One worthy of your reverence. Fear Him as the only Wise God, perfect in all His ways and marvelous in His goodness and glory.
