New Thoughts (04/25/10-04/28/10)
The first reaction I have to this passage is to wonder at the closing comment Luke makes upon the scene. They didn’t get it. They couldn’t so much as have a clue. From here, it is easy to find oneself asking how they could have missed His point! They were pulled aside to be spoken to. They knew this had to be important. They had been with Jesus some three years now. Surely they had figured out that when He spoke of the Son of Man He was speaking of Himself. Given our historical perspective, it all seems perfectly obvious, what Jesus was saying. And besides all that, it wasn’t the first time He had made note of it. But, Luke says they didn’t understand any of it, couldn’t put the concepts together in any meaningful fashion, and our instant response is, “How can that be? Were they that dense?”
But, if we read Luke’s statement a bit more closely, and think of God a bit more correctly, we find that the answer is right there. “The saying was hidden from them.” OK. Our first reaction, even here, is to suppose it was hidden by their own incapacity for thought. But, that’s not the point. The point is that it was hidden from them by something outside themselves. They were trying to understand. As I said, they couldn’t help but be aware that something important was being said. They were paying attention with great care. And yet, it just didn’t make sense to them, what Jesus was saying.
If I wished to take a purely logical, purely humanistic approach to this, I might suppose that it was simply their preconceptions in regard to the role of this Son of Man that made the statements incomprehensible to them. After all, everybody knew this Son of Man, this Messiah would be the eternal king when once He had come. Indeed, they had even come to the realization that this Son of Man was not merely a man, but the very Son of God. How could they be expected to believe that God was going to die? If such a thought even arose, it would strike them as utterly impossible. God die? Throughout the history of the Christian church, there have been those who had so much trouble with that concept that they had to devise other explanations for who Jesus Is. Why should it surprise us to learn that the disciples had issues with that idea, too? However, such an explanation as this, reasonable though it may be, leaves out a very important part of the picture: God.
The NRSV does a nice job of bringing this point out just a little bit more strongly. “in fact, what he said was hidden from them.” You see, it wasn’t some internal lack of faculties that prevented their understanding, it was something external to themselves. Come back, for just a moment, to this matter of understanding. This is, as Zhodiates explains it, the “activity of knowing.” It’s the effort. It’s the attempt to make sense of what has been perceived, to find the application. It’s moving beyond the mechanics of mere rote memorization into recognizing the point. As science is often spoken of as applied mathematics, understanding is applied learning.
The main point, though, is that they were working at fathoming the point Jesus was making. They weren’t being lazy about it. They weren’t just brushing Him off as if His words didn’t matter that much. They weren’t daydreaming. They were actively trying to fully absorb the lesson He was teaching them. But, they could not. As I said, it was not for lack of trying and neither was it for lack of capacity. It was quite simply that they were not permitted to perceive the message. It was, in fact, being hidden from them.
It was being concealed, covered up, in spite of the fact that it was being spoken to them in plain language. I am put in mind of that other occasion on which one of the disciples responds to what Jesus is saying with, “Ah! Now You are speaking plainly.” Yet, the words Jesus speaks are not much different on that occasion, if memory serves. What, then, has changed? Are they just more used to His mannerisms? No. The concealing cover has been drawn back.
This should really be lesson number one for us in all our modern conceit of knowledge, for that which was true for the disciples remains so for us today. What God hides remains hidden. It’s really that simple. If God does not wish for man to know a particular secret, no amount of cogitation is going to lead man to understanding that secret. No power of science is going to penetrate the cover under which it is concealed. This is more or less what Paul gets at when he talks about God making foolish the wisdom of this world. God trumps man’s intellect. He sets the bounds of learning. It may not seem that way to us. It may seem to us that science is making all manner of progress (if we can call it that) even into realms it probably ought not to go.
We read of genetic manipulations, cloning, designer ova, and the like, and we may either marvel at the things science is making possible, or we may cringe at the thought of what unexpected consequences may well flow from these discoveries. But, the fact remains that as marvelous as these discoveries may be, they are only possible where God has drawn back the covering of His secrets. Just as all authority is His to delegate, so all knowledge is His to reveal or not as He sees fit.
We tend to lose sight of this point, even in the church. We talk of an almighty, all powerful God, but we don’t really consider what that means. We figure that we ought to have some sort of inside track on knowledge, being family and all. We even get to the point of taking it as some sort of personal affront if God doesn’t answer all our questions, if He reserves anything for His own private knowledge. You know, we’ve got this idea that He’s not allowed to do anything without telling us first and getting our approval. But, that so twists the real situation as to render us comical in the most tragic sense of the word.
God is in control. We say it. We need to really seek to understand it, to join the words we say with a real comprehension of the implications. If He is in control, He is in control. He decides. He decides who rules and when that rule ends. He decides when nations are ascendant and when they fall into decay. He decides what advances in science are granted man and when. He decides who is brought to salvation and who is not. God is in control. It’s either true or it’s not. In this current application, the point is that it is His choice and His power that determines what is revealed and what remains hidden.
Now, in the present example, it’s the power to hide that is on display. As plain the words and as bright the students, it doesn’t matter. The meaning of the message remains closed off until such time as God decides to bring understanding. Somewhere in the course of things, I recall reading that where God ceases to provide explanations, we must be satisfied to stop explorations. I think it was something of Augustine’s. The point is that if we insist on answers beyond what God is offering, we tend to arrive at things that are not real answers, but only the product of our own imaginations. But, we are not bright enough to discern the difference, so we proceed as if we had word from on high.
The obverse is, however, equally true, and this should be of great comfort to us. What God chooses to reveal, no power can hide. Thus, behold the Son! The darkest of the Dark Ages could not occlude true faith. The coldest oppressions of the communists could not prevent the Truth of God from making itself known. The most violent censorship of Islam will not eclipse the Son of God! It is beyond the power of demons to block God’s revelation. It is assuredly beyond man.
This is what it means to know a sovereign God, and God is assuredly sovereign. He commands and creation obeys. What seems to us a world spinning out of control is in reality moving only as its Creator directs. We can quibble over which activities are the direct result of His will and which He but allows to occur unimpeded, but the difference is largely moot. God is in control, and that means He is in control of everything. For good or for ill, He is in control. He may not take an active hand in the evils of this world, but inasmuch as He establishes the bounds beyond which those evils may not proceed, can we honestly say that He is not involved? Of course not. But, we can rest assured that whatever the immediate impact, the end result is for good, for our good, and for His good purpose.
Last night our discussions turned to the topic of healing and, understandably for some who are suffering from chronic issues, there was a certain thread of belief that insisted that God wanted everybody healed and healthy. Therefore, this line of thought concludes, it must be something in us that prevents Him. But, where is God’s sovereignty in that? He rules, but I can ignore Him and my will trumps His? I don’t think so! For my own part, I find that the church tends towards foolishness and superstition when it focuses itself on these earthly maladies and makes them the central point.
How anybody can look at the ministry Jesus pursued for the few years He was active and think that healing was the main point is beyond me. Yes, He healed. No, He did not heal everybody. No, His efforts were not confined by the faith of those He encountered. The man at the pool of Bethsaida (as was noted last night) was not a man of faith. It seems quite probable that some of those others around the pool were. But, Jesus worked with this man for reasons that may not be entirely understood by us. Be that as it may, we can know this much: That man’s healing – ingrate though he proved to be – furthered God’s purposes, kingdom purposes. Were it not so, then that whole encounter would not be recorded, for it would not have transpired.
Jesus had one, pure and holy focus, and that was on declaring the kingdom of God, bringing the eyes of His people to the place where they could recognize that this kingdom of God was not only near, but upon them. That is ever and always His focus. He is not primarily interested in the light and momentary afflictions that characterize this world. He may or may not alleviate those afflictions in any given case; as best suits the purposes of the kingdom.
If God is glorified by the healing of this one or that, then it might be that such a one will be healed. If God is glorified by the perseverance of one who is refused such a healing and yet manifests such godly character as to cause all who know them to marvel, then it might be that this one shall not be healed. We cannot say, because we cannot know for certain which case is which. To fall into the game of laying the blame out our feet because we cannot comprehend how our good God would choose not to heal is to fall into the same errors that Jesus was correcting in those around Him. No, this blindness is no proof of sin, either past or present. No, it’s no proof of some lack of faith on their part, nor on the part of their family, friends, or congregation. Yes, in that case, it was to glorify God in the moment of his curing. But, that is not to suggest that God can only be glorified where there is a cure manifested.
Oh! That we had the eyes to see as God sees! Oh! That we would recognize that He is glorified as well in the punishment of sin as in the restoration of the redeemed! That we would realize that He is glorified in His vengeance every bit as much as in His mercy! Now, I cannot pretend that I do not wish to be on the latter side of each of those pairings, but as has been said before: if I glorify Him for the good stuff He sends my way, how shall I revile Him for the hard stuff? If He is God He is sovereign. If He is Good then whatever I may feel about a particular circumstance, it is none the less good, for it is from Him, directed by Him at the very least, and He has my best interests at heart, for I am His.
I know. It’s all well and good for me to state all this stuff as some sort of philosophical stance, but what about when I’m smacked in the face by reality? How will that philosophy stand up when it’s me in the hard place? Honestly, as much as I may complain, and as much as I may feel like I’ve been through some rough stuff, I have to say that I haven’t faced anything terrible. “You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed.” Yes, that’s true. Nor do I have any particular desire to. Thus far, God has chosen to be merciful to me in my weakness, allowing only such minor irritants as I might actually hope to overcome. In these, I have no doubt, I am expected to train myself, to build up such resistance as might be needed to overcome greater trials to come. How shall my beliefs hold up under fire? How shall I say? How can I pretend to know truly until that situation arises? I can only pray that when it comes, I am found playing the man, as so many witnesses before me.
For all those who think that somehow this Christian walk means God will never allow you to catch so much as a common cold, that He Who has saved you will never suffer you to experience hurt or harm, I can only say I fear for you. He has promised that there will be tribulation in this life, and suffering such as He Himself experienced. Honestly, how can I look upon what God allowed His own Son, His own Self, to undergo in this life and suppose that somehow, I am never to face any hardship as I follow after Him? Have we suddenly come to an age where the student is greater than the Teacher after all?
You know, I look at Jesus as we have Him in passages such as this one, and I am truly amazed. This man knew what was coming. He had no illusions about what was going to happen when He reached Jerusalem. Even when they paraded before Him in welcome at His arrival, He had no illusions. All those hosannas amounted to nothing. They changed nothing. (That is a thought I need to return to!) The plan and the purpose of God had been set out from before the beginning. “In the beginning God.” And, in that beginning, this day was in sight. This moment towards which Jesus was making His way was already determined, and every motion of the universe that would lead up to it had been established with absolute precision. All the apparent sloppiness of human history was, in fact, entirely choreographed to bring about this culminating moment of triumph.
Yet, who could look at that triumph and find victory in it? The Hero of mankind hung limp and dead, utterly destroyed by the hands of those He had come to save. This was victory? The body of the Hero lay behind a stone, moldering as any other corpse, and this was victory? It made no sense to us. Suffering never does. But, the glory, when this same Hero was found to be not in the grave but out and visiting with His own in the countryside! The glory when this same Hero was seen to ascend back to His throne, not in the puny state of Israel, but in the clouds of heaven itself! AHA! There was victory indeed! But, as He had explained to the pitiful ruler of Jerusalem, His kingdom is not of this earth. Why, then, do we, His people keep looking to the earth for His kingdom? Yes, it shall one day encompass the earth, but it shall be an earth renewed and restored, freed of every last vestige of the sin that has thus far plagued it.
This is not to say that no least vestige of that kingdom is to be found today. No. I can fully concur with such as R. C. Sproul who put forth that the kingdom arrived with Jesus; that it remains with us to this day, and continues its conquest. Yes! Absolutely! The King has come a-visiting and set out His claim. Like those few spies from the camp of Israel, He has entered the promised land and seen that it is good, and He has nothing but confidence for the taking thereof. But, He shall do it according to the timetables of heaven. For, as He says here, “All things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.”
That has its obvious application to those things that lay in the immediate future for Jesus and His small group of followers. But, we have yet to see this promise completed. We await the completion. There are those things that yet lay before us which were written of Him, and these, too, will be accomplished. There’s no maybe about that. It is the certainty of the Christian’s hope. What He has decreed concerning the end shall come. What He has decreed about the final victory shall come. Even so, Lord, come quickly!
There is something very important for us to understand in what is recorded of these crucial events in the life of the Christ. Were we to stop with this passage, we would have only that one hint of it: that the prophesies about the Son would be accomplished. But, this is not the only thing said on the subject. A brief scan of those passages summarizing that final week reveal a very powerful thread. In the immediate aftermath, the angel reminds His followers of what He had said to them, that He MUST be delivered into the hands of those who crucified Him (Lk 24:7). The events that had just transpired had happened so that His own words as regarded His death would be fulfilled (Jn 18:32). You know, His disciples may have been a bit slow to recognize this, but His enemies weren’t. They were mindful of His claims that He would rise again in three days, and sought to prevent any such thing from happening (Mt 27:63).
Stop there, for a moment. These were the same folks who had brought charges against Him in part on the basis that He had threatened the destruction of the temple. But, this admission from them makes clear that they understood full well that He was talking about His life, not the building. By their own testimony, their guilt is made plain as day. Yet, even their guilt, like their efforts to keep His word from being fulfilled, was in the ultimate sense a facet of God’s own plan.
This is something the apostles grasped as the Spirit of God began to empower them. Peter, in his first bit of preaching, acknowledges as much. “He was delivered up by the predetermined plan of God” (Ac 2:23). Make no mistake about that! You had your hand in it, to be sure. You handed Him over, and you insisted on His death, even when Herod was ready to let Him go. But, this was not you taking the reins of power from out of God’s hands. No! What you did was by the predetermined plan of God. Just like Pharaoh in Egypt, and just as guilty.
This is something I know I bring up repeatedly, but it bears the repetition, because this is the marvelous sovereignty of our God. This is what it means to say that God works all things for good. If all things were running smoothly all the time anyway, there would be no reason to read that God works things out for good. That message only resonates because we understand that evil things happen, even to good people. But, God can work even with our most corrupt motives to bring about His good purposes in spite of us! Listen to that prayer that Peter later sends up to heaven after he has faced that same religious court that condemned the Lord. “Right here in this city, Father, they gathered against Your Holy Servant Jesus. You anointed Him, but both Herod and Pilate (Jew and Gentile), along with the very people of Israel – Your people! The conspired together to do to Jesus what was done, but they conspired together to accomplish whatever Your hand and Your purpose had predestined to occur” (Ac 4:27-28).
For all their machinations and all their evil intent, they changed nothing. Nothing! This is a prayer of Christian confidence. Look what follows on that amazing declaration. “So, now, Lord, you see their threats. Grant that we might be confident in proclaiming Your word” (Ac 4:29). Marvelous! We’ve seen what their power accomplishes over against Yours, so whom shall we fear? Why should we shrink back? What’s the worst they could do, the same as they did to Jesus? Well, look where that got them! Look where that got Him! And, indeed, from that point, they began to speak the word of God with boldness (Ac 4:31). Why? Because this, too, was what His hand and His purpose had predestined to occur!
How silly we must seem to God when we fall into thinking that we’re really bringing something to His plan. You know, we get all impressed with ourselves; what brilliant insights we offer, what sweet worship we sing, how fine our programs are and how they move the kingdom forward. What tripe! Where is that walking humbly before God in such thinking? No, we are but making ourselves the equals of Pilate and Herod, moving along with the things He has purposed and predestined to occur. Well, thanks be to God that we are allowed to be positive contributors to that purpose, but let us never suppose that we have found something to boast about in having done so!
One last closing thought remains to be pursued. Some several paragraphs back, I commented that all the hosannas that Israel sang out when Jesus came to Jerusalem that last time amounted to nothing, changed nothing. Having written that, I sensed a certain significance to the comment beyond the current context, so I set it aside to consider further, and that is what I would do now.
Things that speak to the topic of worship always have a certain resonance with me, as I have served in the worship ministry for almost the entirety of my time as a Christian. I have been blessed to work with a number of different teams over those years, and this provides an opportunity to compare and contrast, to assess what was truly worship and what was not. All of this comes to mind as I think about those crowds singing their hosannas to Jesus.
My first thought is, “at least they knew what the word means.” I don’t know. Maybe we still do, but it seems like all the hosanna songs are far too upbeat for a cry that means, “Come save us!” Where is the desperation of those who need saving? If we are all in such dire need of rescue, why are we having this party? It just doesn’t make that much sense. I’m sorry.
Then, there is that other factor: the scene from which we take the word. Do you know, the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem is the only part of the Bible that ever uses this term? And those who first shouted out these words to Him, what becomes of them? Well, like I said, all their shouting changed nothing. Most specifically, it did not change them. Give them a day or two and they have changed from “Come save us!” to “Crucify Him!” Is this really a role model we want to follow in our worship? Not I.
But, it exemplifies the problem that exists with much of what we call worship. It isn’t worship. It’s a performance. It’s a party and nothing more. It’s all about making us feel good, feel excited. But, that’s not the purpose of worship. The purpose of worship is the same as the purpose of our lives: to glorify God and enjoy the intimacy of fellowship with Him. More particularly, worship is first and foremost intended to please Him. It is ministering to Him. That we have a congregation along for the ride is somewhat ancillary to the matter.
Worship is a time to reveal to God what we have come to know of Him. Have you ever considered it from that perspective? I’m not sure I have, but I need to. If all we are revealing to Him is ‘look at me!’ we’re back with the Pharisee from that last parable I was studying (Lk 18:9-14). “Look at me, God, because really, this is all about me. And, thank You for noticing. Me.” If all we are revealing is a ‘party all the time’ mentality, what does this say of our understanding of who God is? It’s as if we thought He were the ultimate toga party organizer, not the sovereign King of all Creation.
Real worship must bring us to the place of adoration. It must bring us back to a sense of the majesty of our God and King. Just repeating the word majesty isn’t going to get us there by itself. Just repeatedly saying hosanna will not bring us to a recognition of our continued need for rescue, our perpetual and utter dependence on the Most High God for our very existence, let alone our righteousness, our salvation.
Real worship cannot be fabricated. This is something we need to relearn. You can’t somehow manipulate a believer into worshiping. You aren’t going to get there by playing the right song, or by suddenly stripping the music away until only drums remain. You aren’t going to get there by any formula. You’re going to get there by having no desire but to get there. You’re going to get there by focusing less on the mechanics of the music and more on the fullness of Who God Is.
If that’s not where we’re heading, then we’re never going to get there. Yeah, I know that’s a pretty obvious statement. But, if it isn’t said, we’ll remain blissfully unaware. If we are not seeking to express as best we can all that we have come to know God to be, then all we are doing is amusing ourselves. All our hosannas will have amounted to nothing, and we shall one day be shocked to discover ourselves in the crowd decrying the very One we called to save us. Why? Because we never really thought we needed saving. We never really thought He had any reason to. We came for the party, and when it ceased being fun, we were gone.
Oh, let this not be our story! Lord, restore us to purpose, true purpose, and to that sense of what it really means to worship You. If we are to serve in this place at Your altar, then let our hearts be wholly focused on drawing nearer to You, exalting You, rejoicing in You, yes, but honoring You as You truly are. Let us remember, Lord, that we can do nothing apart from You. Let us put all our talents back in perspective, and realize that unless You infuse Your Spirit into our talents, then our talents are worthless. Return us, oh God, to the innocent abandon of real and earnest desire to be nearer to You, to a sense of joy at Your nearness, to a sense of awe at Your presence. Let us worship You, Lord, only as You would be worshiped, and let us worship You with a heart to heed Your words through Micah: a heart that seeks to do what is righteous, that loves kindness, and most importantly, that walks humbly with You (Mic 6:8).
