Experience Jesus and know God
Commentary
Object:
In this age of computers and the internet, there is so much information "out there" to access. Knowledge is literally at our fingertips. So much so, that some dare to speak of the disappearance of the public library as we have come to know it. Knowledge, however, is not to be confused with wisdom. There is a big difference. Knowledge has to do with facts and figures and even how they are related to other facts and figures. Knowledge has to do with identifiable pieces of information that can be located, remembered, accessed, and manipulated. Knowledge is a good and necessary thing; but, knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom has to do with discerning what to do with the knowledge. Wisdom has to do with making prudent judgments regarding the value and place of any given piece of knowledge. It is not difficult to find many knowledgeable people in the world today. With the advent of the computer and internet, more and more people are able to gather knowledge without straying too far from the comfort of their own home. What is difficult to find today are people of wisdom, who can weigh the balance of things in the world today and not come up lacking too much.
The Bible tells us that wisdom is primarily about God and God's activities/ways in the world. One is wise when one can discern and even articulate the presence of God in human affairs. Moreover, the Bible tells us that wisdom, this insight concerning God, is actually a gift from God in the first place. Ultimately, this wisdom regarding God is revealed by God himself in Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified ... the wisdom of God."
The gospel is not some esoteric knowledge that can be gleaned and passed down by storytelling, reading, and memorization. The gospel is the personal encounter with Jesus, crucified and risen, Lord of life and Savior from sin and death.
In the events of Holy Week, we have the opportunity to encounter the Lord Jesus as he comes striding into our lives through his Word. Wisdom will lay hold of him, not with the fury of those who sought to arrest and crucify him, but with the passion of those who found that in following him they had discovered "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Isaiah 50:4-9a
Words are powerful and can shape reality. Carefully chosen and timely shared, words add a depth to experience that the painter's brush and the sculptor's chisel envy.
Isaiah has choice words for the people of God, given at a time when they needed to hear God's great plans for them. That is the role of a prophet. "The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary" (50:4). The weariness comes from seventy years in exile. The judgment of God has been clear. In metaphors of divorce and creditors (Isaiah 50:1), Isaiah describes how God has dealt with Israel. She has been put away from God, symbolized by separating the people from the land given to Abraham and his descendants. Sin drives distance between the creature and the Creator. Not only is paradise lost, but also the promised land. The lover and the beloved can no longer share the same sky. There is a darkness that covers the land, like sackcloth covers the head of those who mourn. In the Hebrew poetic tradition of saying the same thing twice, this time with the image of creditors settling a debt, Isaiah describes the plight of the people being sold to cover what they owe to the Lord. There are consequences to disobedience.
This having been said, the people duly reminded, Isaiah says that his purpose is primarily pastoral. His words are intended to sustain the weary, not drive them deeper into a hole in the ground. In words that are beyond the boundaries of this particular pericope, Isaiah will go on to articulate the hope that Israel can have. The Suffering Servant will embody it and the people will live it out in the time ahead as God restores his people to the covenant (marriage) and forgives their debt. "Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?" God asks of the people as a hint of what is yet to come.
The words with which Isaiah speaks are not his own, in the sense that he made up the message that he thought the people needed to hear. He spoke words that were given by God. Isaiah admits to being taught. Unlike Israel's rebellion when the Lord sought to teach her his ways (for example, at Mount Sinai), Isaiah exemplifies how to respond appropriately to the Lord: "I was not rebellious" (50:5).
This is the first and most important response to make when God calls his people to do his bidding. Obedience! Even if there are negative consequences to that response, which there apparently were for Isaiah! He describes how he was whipped, tormented, and spit upon. This certainly is no way for one of God's messengers to be treated, but it is reality nonetheless. Isaiah's comfort is that God will indeed help him -- and in such a way that not only is he strengthened to face his adversary, but also equipped to "sustain with a word him that is weary" (50:1).
In what appears to be autobiographical references, it is rather stunning to notice the similarities between Isaiah's personal experience and the experience of Jesus. Jesus' mistreatment at the hands of the Romans (Luke 22:63-65) is tailor-made from Isaiah. Despite knowing that this would be his fate if he held to the Father's purposes for him, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), much like Isaiah "set [his] face like a flint" (50:7) to endure his hardships, both confident in the final vindication from God. Isaiah will go on in chapter 53 to express rather graphically what the "suffering servant," who is God's elect, will be like. For now, Isaiah himself exemplifies some of the suffering that is inevitable for the person who will be awakened and taught by the Lord. Philippians 2:5-11
In appreciation for the Philippian congregation (viz. the discordant Corinthian congregation about which we have been hearing so much in past weeks), Paul encourages their life together "by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord" (Philippians 2:2). He describes essential Christian characters of humility and service and then launches into a parenthetical thought that has become a platform from which to understand Christological aspects of the mystery of the Trinity.
There are two key verbs Paul uses that describe the activity of Christ in heaven and on earth. They are kenaw (to make empty) and tapeinaw (to make low, humble). In heaven, Christ emptied himself of divine privilege. He set aside whatever claims were rightfully his for the sake of his beloved. This was an act of self-giving and self-denying. He gave himself fully to the beloved out of an unparalleled love. This was a unilateral movement within the very heart of God, unsolicited and unmerited by humanity. In this self-giving, he denied himself the advantage of divinity in terms of splendor and power. He emptied himself of this advantage to identify truly with the beloved. Søren Kierkegaard's profound analogy in Philosophical Fragments about a king who loved a maiden illustrates this well for the imagination of faith.
On earth, Christ humbled himself. This was demonstrated most pointedly in his obedience unto death. Not just any death! There was no observable nobility in his suffering and death at the hands of a Roman prefect. No glory as in battle, defending the mother land or the poor against the ravages of a despot. No honor after living a long and productive life, with crowds adulating him and waiting on his last words of wisdom by which to live. His was a death on a cross -- crucifixion -- the most painful and humbling demise, surrounded by thieves and murderers and a jeering mob.
The most significant noun in this passage, doulov (slave), is the word that connects heaven and earth in Jesus. He is a slave, a servant -- not having the advantage of rank (emptying) but having the status of those poor, old pensioners and potato diggers (humbling), who were often the subjects of nineteenth-century impressionist artists. As the architect of servanthood, Jesus models the life in which Christians "do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3). The servant really has nothing with which to commend himself or herself to someone other than the service being provided. The service that Jesus provides us is his battle with sin and death on our behalf. When the service is actually "unto death" (2:8), then the aspect of self-sacrifice adds a vital dynamic to the nature of the doulov, who is Jesus. Isaiah 53 describes all this under the image of the Suffering Servant, whom Jesus embodies with striking fulfillment of detail.
In return for his self-giving, self-denying, and self-sacrificing, he is "highly exalted" (2:9). The words of Mary's Magnificat come to mind, where God exalts those of low degree (Luke 1:52). Jesus' name reigns supreme, every knee bowing to him for what he has accomplished in the way in which he accomplished it, every tongue confessing that he is indeed Lord. The Father is glorified through him. The angels, humanity, and the dead (and demons?) will all have to acknowledge the truth that has been made known through Jesus.
In this "kenosis hymn," Christmas and Holy Week come together. The incarnation and the passion are one in the same story of God's great love for the world. Through this Christ-event, God has revealed himself in a most particular way at a specific time in the course of human history. As we experience Jesus, we discover the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Trinity touches our lives with a revealing light.
Luke 22:14--23:56
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a story is worth a thousand truths. In the passion narrative, we have pictured before us the truth of God's extensive love -- self-initiating and self-fulfilling -- for all the world. It is a love to be experienced; it is a love worth knowing. It is a love to be lived in for a thousand lifetimes.
The passion narrative for this day begins with the Passover meal, which is rooted in animal sacrifice and climaxes in human sacrifice. This may prick our sensitivities; too bad! This is the way it is. Israel gained its freedom from Egyptian bondage with the death of a lamb in a Hebrew house and the death of the firstborn child in an Egyptian house. Blood was poured out so that new life may emerge.
When Jesus announces at the meal that he will "not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (22:18), he is in effect saying that everything from now on is to be understood as the coming of the kingdom. He transforms the meal into the symbol and sacrament of his passion that will soon reach its climactic moment on the coming weekend. The disciples do not fully realize it yet, but the kingdom is about to be revealed before their very eyes on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning!
Because of their lack of understanding, they quarrel among themselves about greatness. Jesus intervenes with instruction on servant leadership. He then authorizes their apostolic authority over the new Israel, the church. He even gives Peter an encouraging word with which to deal with his forthcoming denial; Jesus hands to Peter the responsibility to "strengthen your brethren" (22:32) when all these passion events have come to pass.
In an exchange reminiscent of his comment about tying a millstone around the neck of anyone who causes another to sin (Mark 9:42), Jesus warns about the changing times in which it will become more difficult for the disciples to survive: "You're going to need money and luggage and probably a sword to get by now; the going is only going to get tougher!" Of course, Jesus is not advocating literally that the disciples begin to accumulate material goods for themselves and arm themselves for what is about to happen. When two swords are presented to Jesus, he in effect says, "I've said enough. I didn't mean it that way. Listen to what I am meaning, not what I am saying."
In Gethsemane, Jesus simply prays once for only the Father's will to be done in contrast to Mark's and Matthew's accounts, which include three exchanges. He is willing to set aside his own needs and desires, again emptying himself from all claim to privilege or special consideration. He is obedient to the Father's command, like Isaiah was in times before. At the moment of betrayal, when it seems appropriate for one of the disciples to take Jesus literally about the issue of swords, Jesus excoriates the disciples and heals the lopped off ear, illustrating what he meant to be saying moments before. Perhaps doubly armed with two swords meant to be doubly prepared and strengthened to deal with the adversity that would surely befall those who followed him. Isaiah had a sense of this, and he held his course. "I turned not backward" (Isaiah 50:5).
Jesus himself would now enter into the long, dark night of denial, abuse, and mocking. The failure of religious and political leadership would become evident, as those in power and "in the know" lacked the wisdom to perceive the very coming of the kingdom of God before their eyes. Exhausted now, Jesus would be led out to crucifixion with not enough strength to carry his own cross (the custom of the day); a stranger was pulled from the crowd to do that for him. On the way to Calvary, Jesus provides a pastoral word to the women who were weeping due to his suffering; he forewarns them of the suffering they will be facing and that they should prepare themselves.
From the cross in the agony of dying, Jesus yet speaks words that cut through the tragedy of the day to reveal the triumph of what was really happening. He offers forgiveness to those who were executing him. He then offers a merciful word of hope to the penitent thief. How ironic, that from among his own disciples, namely Peter, he received a statement of denial, while from a nameless convicted thief he received acknowledgment as to who he was.
Luke's account of the death of Jesus accents his surrender into the hands of God. He speaks one word earthward -- expressing his servant leadership by welcoming the thief into the kingdom. He speaks the other word heavenward -- committing himself obediently to the will of God. He had let the Father's hands mold him in life; he will let the Father's hands have him in death. Paul's characterization of Jesus in Philippians is accurate, reflecting these emptying and humbling aspects of Jesus' passion, which so persuasively convince us of a God who is not only with us, but also for us with power actually to deliver us from evil in his own wonderful way.
Application
It would not be hard to make the case that the world is weary with sin and beaten down with the burdens of life. The incidence of teen suicide is perhaps the most striking corroborative witness. Pastors and parishioners have the joy and responsibility to "sustain... with a word [the] weary" (Isaiah 50:4). The word is not a humanly contrived one, like "Don't worry, be happy!" or "Buck up!" or "It's not as bad as it could be." The word is one that is given to us from God himself. In a name, the word is Jesus. He was acquainted with the smiters and the spitters. From the depths of human suffering, where we often feel alone, he shows us how to handle any situation by entrusting ourselves into the hands of God. There can be confidence in any circumstance, "for the Lord God helps me" (Isaiah 50:7).
Regarding the issue of sin specifically, we hear a resounding word from God that addresses our guilt. A new covenant is announced, given in the shedding of blood by which the judgment of God passes over us and sets us free. Jesus' blood poured out for us cleanses us from our sin and allows us to stand before God as forgiven. This is so because he was the spotless lamb (Exodus 12:5) whose blood was shed to set us free from the consequences of sin (death, Romans 6:23). He was truly innocent despite the charges raised against him, so that he could declare us innocent in spite of the true charges that are raised against us.
Jesus has given us a new paradigm by which to live out our lives in faithful response to his life for us. As God was revealed in terms of self-giving, self-denying, self-sacrificing, so too are we to model our lives in these ways worthy of this gospel. Discipleship is measured by emptying and humbling, as each Christian in turn becomes a doulov of God. This is a more dynamic way in which to conceive not only of God (viz. the omnis of God: omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent), but also of the nature of the Christian life. It certainly helps us to redefine what is honorable and authoritative for the world today. Our experience with Jesus helps us not only to know God, but also ourselves and who God is calling us to be.
Until Easter comes -- and it is surely coming -- we are left under the power of darkness in this pericope. Three times Peter denied his Lord under the power of fear. Three times the crowd cried for Barabbas rather than Jesus under the power of misguided passion. Three times the authorities (Jewish religious, Jewish political, Roman political) succumbed to the ignorance of human knowledge rather than yielding to spiritual wisdom from above. Yet, the temple curtain was torn in two: Is God breaking out of the confines of what we have come to expect? Yet, a pagan centurion affirms the innocence of Jesus: What new certainties will be discerned after this? Yet, the crowds show signs of repentance and the followers of Jesus obey the commandment: How will God respond to all that is happening on this dark, bad Friday?
Preaching the Psalm
by Schuyler Rhodes
Psalm 31:9-16
The old preacher throw away line goes like this. "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." It is a sentiment that is old and well worn. It lifts up the foibles and the truth of our human insistence on trying to control everything. Think, for just a moment, about the human enterprise. We are all about control. From the economy to the government to the farms and factories and back again, we try to control everyone and everything. We build dams across the rivers to control the water. We develop pesticides to control the bugs. We create countless laws to control people, and we build machines to try to control the weather.
Our history as a people is one long story of striving for control over this world. In our constant reaching for control we lose sight of a fundamental theological truth. God is the one who is in control. Human beings can kick and scream; they can invent and struggle, but at the end of the day it's the Lord God who's in charge of it all. It's not just our times, but all time that is in God's hands. Indeed, much if not all human suffering can be traced to our unwillingness to cease the struggle and acknowledge that the times are "in God's hands."
Instead of trying to conquer and control nature, one has to wonder what might happen if humans simply sat back and acknowledged God's sovereignty in all this? Rather than constantly trying to control other people and their destinies, what would our world look like if we simply let go and embraced the biblical truth that God is in charge of it all?
This isn't to say that human beings should do nothing. Of course, people need to work and build and grow. But to engage in life's processes without the drive to control would be a new thing indeed.
If, with the psalmist, we could trust in God and acknowledge that our times are "in God's hands," imagine how things might be different. If we chose not to be stubborn like a "horse or a mule without understanding" (v. 9), we just might be able to see other ways of doing things. Without our own narrow agenda governing our actions, we might be able to see things from a larger perspective. Without the blinders of perceived self-interest, we might embrace the interests of others.
If we simply stepped back and placed our trust in God rather than in our own limited abilities; if we could only acknowledge the times are truly in God's hands, then world would be a much, much better place.
Wisdom has to do with discerning what to do with the knowledge. Wisdom has to do with making prudent judgments regarding the value and place of any given piece of knowledge. It is not difficult to find many knowledgeable people in the world today. With the advent of the computer and internet, more and more people are able to gather knowledge without straying too far from the comfort of their own home. What is difficult to find today are people of wisdom, who can weigh the balance of things in the world today and not come up lacking too much.
The Bible tells us that wisdom is primarily about God and God's activities/ways in the world. One is wise when one can discern and even articulate the presence of God in human affairs. Moreover, the Bible tells us that wisdom, this insight concerning God, is actually a gift from God in the first place. Ultimately, this wisdom regarding God is revealed by God himself in Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified ... the wisdom of God."
The gospel is not some esoteric knowledge that can be gleaned and passed down by storytelling, reading, and memorization. The gospel is the personal encounter with Jesus, crucified and risen, Lord of life and Savior from sin and death.
In the events of Holy Week, we have the opportunity to encounter the Lord Jesus as he comes striding into our lives through his Word. Wisdom will lay hold of him, not with the fury of those who sought to arrest and crucify him, but with the passion of those who found that in following him they had discovered "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Isaiah 50:4-9a
Words are powerful and can shape reality. Carefully chosen and timely shared, words add a depth to experience that the painter's brush and the sculptor's chisel envy.
Isaiah has choice words for the people of God, given at a time when they needed to hear God's great plans for them. That is the role of a prophet. "The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary" (50:4). The weariness comes from seventy years in exile. The judgment of God has been clear. In metaphors of divorce and creditors (Isaiah 50:1), Isaiah describes how God has dealt with Israel. She has been put away from God, symbolized by separating the people from the land given to Abraham and his descendants. Sin drives distance between the creature and the Creator. Not only is paradise lost, but also the promised land. The lover and the beloved can no longer share the same sky. There is a darkness that covers the land, like sackcloth covers the head of those who mourn. In the Hebrew poetic tradition of saying the same thing twice, this time with the image of creditors settling a debt, Isaiah describes the plight of the people being sold to cover what they owe to the Lord. There are consequences to disobedience.
This having been said, the people duly reminded, Isaiah says that his purpose is primarily pastoral. His words are intended to sustain the weary, not drive them deeper into a hole in the ground. In words that are beyond the boundaries of this particular pericope, Isaiah will go on to articulate the hope that Israel can have. The Suffering Servant will embody it and the people will live it out in the time ahead as God restores his people to the covenant (marriage) and forgives their debt. "Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?" God asks of the people as a hint of what is yet to come.
The words with which Isaiah speaks are not his own, in the sense that he made up the message that he thought the people needed to hear. He spoke words that were given by God. Isaiah admits to being taught. Unlike Israel's rebellion when the Lord sought to teach her his ways (for example, at Mount Sinai), Isaiah exemplifies how to respond appropriately to the Lord: "I was not rebellious" (50:5).
This is the first and most important response to make when God calls his people to do his bidding. Obedience! Even if there are negative consequences to that response, which there apparently were for Isaiah! He describes how he was whipped, tormented, and spit upon. This certainly is no way for one of God's messengers to be treated, but it is reality nonetheless. Isaiah's comfort is that God will indeed help him -- and in such a way that not only is he strengthened to face his adversary, but also equipped to "sustain with a word him that is weary" (50:1).
In what appears to be autobiographical references, it is rather stunning to notice the similarities between Isaiah's personal experience and the experience of Jesus. Jesus' mistreatment at the hands of the Romans (Luke 22:63-65) is tailor-made from Isaiah. Despite knowing that this would be his fate if he held to the Father's purposes for him, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), much like Isaiah "set [his] face like a flint" (50:7) to endure his hardships, both confident in the final vindication from God. Isaiah will go on in chapter 53 to express rather graphically what the "suffering servant," who is God's elect, will be like. For now, Isaiah himself exemplifies some of the suffering that is inevitable for the person who will be awakened and taught by the Lord. Philippians 2:5-11
In appreciation for the Philippian congregation (viz. the discordant Corinthian congregation about which we have been hearing so much in past weeks), Paul encourages their life together "by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord" (Philippians 2:2). He describes essential Christian characters of humility and service and then launches into a parenthetical thought that has become a platform from which to understand Christological aspects of the mystery of the Trinity.
There are two key verbs Paul uses that describe the activity of Christ in heaven and on earth. They are kenaw (to make empty) and tapeinaw (to make low, humble). In heaven, Christ emptied himself of divine privilege. He set aside whatever claims were rightfully his for the sake of his beloved. This was an act of self-giving and self-denying. He gave himself fully to the beloved out of an unparalleled love. This was a unilateral movement within the very heart of God, unsolicited and unmerited by humanity. In this self-giving, he denied himself the advantage of divinity in terms of splendor and power. He emptied himself of this advantage to identify truly with the beloved. Søren Kierkegaard's profound analogy in Philosophical Fragments about a king who loved a maiden illustrates this well for the imagination of faith.
On earth, Christ humbled himself. This was demonstrated most pointedly in his obedience unto death. Not just any death! There was no observable nobility in his suffering and death at the hands of a Roman prefect. No glory as in battle, defending the mother land or the poor against the ravages of a despot. No honor after living a long and productive life, with crowds adulating him and waiting on his last words of wisdom by which to live. His was a death on a cross -- crucifixion -- the most painful and humbling demise, surrounded by thieves and murderers and a jeering mob.
The most significant noun in this passage, doulov (slave), is the word that connects heaven and earth in Jesus. He is a slave, a servant -- not having the advantage of rank (emptying) but having the status of those poor, old pensioners and potato diggers (humbling), who were often the subjects of nineteenth-century impressionist artists. As the architect of servanthood, Jesus models the life in which Christians "do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3). The servant really has nothing with which to commend himself or herself to someone other than the service being provided. The service that Jesus provides us is his battle with sin and death on our behalf. When the service is actually "unto death" (2:8), then the aspect of self-sacrifice adds a vital dynamic to the nature of the doulov, who is Jesus. Isaiah 53 describes all this under the image of the Suffering Servant, whom Jesus embodies with striking fulfillment of detail.
In return for his self-giving, self-denying, and self-sacrificing, he is "highly exalted" (2:9). The words of Mary's Magnificat come to mind, where God exalts those of low degree (Luke 1:52). Jesus' name reigns supreme, every knee bowing to him for what he has accomplished in the way in which he accomplished it, every tongue confessing that he is indeed Lord. The Father is glorified through him. The angels, humanity, and the dead (and demons?) will all have to acknowledge the truth that has been made known through Jesus.
In this "kenosis hymn," Christmas and Holy Week come together. The incarnation and the passion are one in the same story of God's great love for the world. Through this Christ-event, God has revealed himself in a most particular way at a specific time in the course of human history. As we experience Jesus, we discover the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Trinity touches our lives with a revealing light.
Luke 22:14--23:56
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a story is worth a thousand truths. In the passion narrative, we have pictured before us the truth of God's extensive love -- self-initiating and self-fulfilling -- for all the world. It is a love to be experienced; it is a love worth knowing. It is a love to be lived in for a thousand lifetimes.
The passion narrative for this day begins with the Passover meal, which is rooted in animal sacrifice and climaxes in human sacrifice. This may prick our sensitivities; too bad! This is the way it is. Israel gained its freedom from Egyptian bondage with the death of a lamb in a Hebrew house and the death of the firstborn child in an Egyptian house. Blood was poured out so that new life may emerge.
When Jesus announces at the meal that he will "not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (22:18), he is in effect saying that everything from now on is to be understood as the coming of the kingdom. He transforms the meal into the symbol and sacrament of his passion that will soon reach its climactic moment on the coming weekend. The disciples do not fully realize it yet, but the kingdom is about to be revealed before their very eyes on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning!
Because of their lack of understanding, they quarrel among themselves about greatness. Jesus intervenes with instruction on servant leadership. He then authorizes their apostolic authority over the new Israel, the church. He even gives Peter an encouraging word with which to deal with his forthcoming denial; Jesus hands to Peter the responsibility to "strengthen your brethren" (22:32) when all these passion events have come to pass.
In an exchange reminiscent of his comment about tying a millstone around the neck of anyone who causes another to sin (Mark 9:42), Jesus warns about the changing times in which it will become more difficult for the disciples to survive: "You're going to need money and luggage and probably a sword to get by now; the going is only going to get tougher!" Of course, Jesus is not advocating literally that the disciples begin to accumulate material goods for themselves and arm themselves for what is about to happen. When two swords are presented to Jesus, he in effect says, "I've said enough. I didn't mean it that way. Listen to what I am meaning, not what I am saying."
In Gethsemane, Jesus simply prays once for only the Father's will to be done in contrast to Mark's and Matthew's accounts, which include three exchanges. He is willing to set aside his own needs and desires, again emptying himself from all claim to privilege or special consideration. He is obedient to the Father's command, like Isaiah was in times before. At the moment of betrayal, when it seems appropriate for one of the disciples to take Jesus literally about the issue of swords, Jesus excoriates the disciples and heals the lopped off ear, illustrating what he meant to be saying moments before. Perhaps doubly armed with two swords meant to be doubly prepared and strengthened to deal with the adversity that would surely befall those who followed him. Isaiah had a sense of this, and he held his course. "I turned not backward" (Isaiah 50:5).
Jesus himself would now enter into the long, dark night of denial, abuse, and mocking. The failure of religious and political leadership would become evident, as those in power and "in the know" lacked the wisdom to perceive the very coming of the kingdom of God before their eyes. Exhausted now, Jesus would be led out to crucifixion with not enough strength to carry his own cross (the custom of the day); a stranger was pulled from the crowd to do that for him. On the way to Calvary, Jesus provides a pastoral word to the women who were weeping due to his suffering; he forewarns them of the suffering they will be facing and that they should prepare themselves.
From the cross in the agony of dying, Jesus yet speaks words that cut through the tragedy of the day to reveal the triumph of what was really happening. He offers forgiveness to those who were executing him. He then offers a merciful word of hope to the penitent thief. How ironic, that from among his own disciples, namely Peter, he received a statement of denial, while from a nameless convicted thief he received acknowledgment as to who he was.
Luke's account of the death of Jesus accents his surrender into the hands of God. He speaks one word earthward -- expressing his servant leadership by welcoming the thief into the kingdom. He speaks the other word heavenward -- committing himself obediently to the will of God. He had let the Father's hands mold him in life; he will let the Father's hands have him in death. Paul's characterization of Jesus in Philippians is accurate, reflecting these emptying and humbling aspects of Jesus' passion, which so persuasively convince us of a God who is not only with us, but also for us with power actually to deliver us from evil in his own wonderful way.
Application
It would not be hard to make the case that the world is weary with sin and beaten down with the burdens of life. The incidence of teen suicide is perhaps the most striking corroborative witness. Pastors and parishioners have the joy and responsibility to "sustain... with a word [the] weary" (Isaiah 50:4). The word is not a humanly contrived one, like "Don't worry, be happy!" or "Buck up!" or "It's not as bad as it could be." The word is one that is given to us from God himself. In a name, the word is Jesus. He was acquainted with the smiters and the spitters. From the depths of human suffering, where we often feel alone, he shows us how to handle any situation by entrusting ourselves into the hands of God. There can be confidence in any circumstance, "for the Lord God helps me" (Isaiah 50:7).
Regarding the issue of sin specifically, we hear a resounding word from God that addresses our guilt. A new covenant is announced, given in the shedding of blood by which the judgment of God passes over us and sets us free. Jesus' blood poured out for us cleanses us from our sin and allows us to stand before God as forgiven. This is so because he was the spotless lamb (Exodus 12:5) whose blood was shed to set us free from the consequences of sin (death, Romans 6:23). He was truly innocent despite the charges raised against him, so that he could declare us innocent in spite of the true charges that are raised against us.
Jesus has given us a new paradigm by which to live out our lives in faithful response to his life for us. As God was revealed in terms of self-giving, self-denying, self-sacrificing, so too are we to model our lives in these ways worthy of this gospel. Discipleship is measured by emptying and humbling, as each Christian in turn becomes a doulov of God. This is a more dynamic way in which to conceive not only of God (viz. the omnis of God: omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent), but also of the nature of the Christian life. It certainly helps us to redefine what is honorable and authoritative for the world today. Our experience with Jesus helps us not only to know God, but also ourselves and who God is calling us to be.
Until Easter comes -- and it is surely coming -- we are left under the power of darkness in this pericope. Three times Peter denied his Lord under the power of fear. Three times the crowd cried for Barabbas rather than Jesus under the power of misguided passion. Three times the authorities (Jewish religious, Jewish political, Roman political) succumbed to the ignorance of human knowledge rather than yielding to spiritual wisdom from above. Yet, the temple curtain was torn in two: Is God breaking out of the confines of what we have come to expect? Yet, a pagan centurion affirms the innocence of Jesus: What new certainties will be discerned after this? Yet, the crowds show signs of repentance and the followers of Jesus obey the commandment: How will God respond to all that is happening on this dark, bad Friday?
Preaching the Psalm
by Schuyler Rhodes
Psalm 31:9-16
The old preacher throw away line goes like this. "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." It is a sentiment that is old and well worn. It lifts up the foibles and the truth of our human insistence on trying to control everything. Think, for just a moment, about the human enterprise. We are all about control. From the economy to the government to the farms and factories and back again, we try to control everyone and everything. We build dams across the rivers to control the water. We develop pesticides to control the bugs. We create countless laws to control people, and we build machines to try to control the weather.
Our history as a people is one long story of striving for control over this world. In our constant reaching for control we lose sight of a fundamental theological truth. God is the one who is in control. Human beings can kick and scream; they can invent and struggle, but at the end of the day it's the Lord God who's in charge of it all. It's not just our times, but all time that is in God's hands. Indeed, much if not all human suffering can be traced to our unwillingness to cease the struggle and acknowledge that the times are "in God's hands."
Instead of trying to conquer and control nature, one has to wonder what might happen if humans simply sat back and acknowledged God's sovereignty in all this? Rather than constantly trying to control other people and their destinies, what would our world look like if we simply let go and embraced the biblical truth that God is in charge of it all?
This isn't to say that human beings should do nothing. Of course, people need to work and build and grow. But to engage in life's processes without the drive to control would be a new thing indeed.
If, with the psalmist, we could trust in God and acknowledge that our times are "in God's hands," imagine how things might be different. If we chose not to be stubborn like a "horse or a mule without understanding" (v. 9), we just might be able to see other ways of doing things. Without our own narrow agenda governing our actions, we might be able to see things from a larger perspective. Without the blinders of perceived self-interest, we might embrace the interests of others.
If we simply stepped back and placed our trust in God rather than in our own limited abilities; if we could only acknowledge the times are truly in God's hands, then world would be a much, much better place.
