The Thread - Jacob - A Wrestler

Everyone of us come from a family that has brokenness. When the LORD asks us to follow Him the journey often starts with very small steps of faith. He calls us to move in order get us unstuck from our comfortable lives into His greater future. And along the way we often end up more broken, more in need of His grace than ever before.
Outline: Nobody’s family is perfect: Since we are all human beings permanently marred by sin, even the best families raise imperfect humans. Sometimes faith starts with small steps: We often don’t get to see too far into the future. The LORD gives us just a glimpse beyond our nose, and then He asks us to trust Him with the rest. The LORD accepts us where we are in order to move us to where He wants us to be: Abraham is called to do something very few people on the planet would be willing to do. And yet, because of his history with the LORD’s faithfulness, he steps out and trusts, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. The the LORD touches us it often leaves us more broken than before the touch: Encounters with the Living God will change us. The best changes are those that remind us repeatedly of our own brokenness and of His greatness. Reflection: What is the step the LORD has been asking you to take that you have hesitated to take? What is preventing you from being obedient?

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Not Yet

1 John 3:2

          Dads are in a strange position for nine months in their lives. Their child is conceived and they become a father. And yet for nine months they don’t get any of the benefits of being a father. They don’t get the experience of being pregnant, and the women all say, “Why not!” They don’t have the morning sickness, the lower back pain, they ever increasing awkwardness of mobility with a twenty pound bowling ball strapped to their midsection.

          But they also don’t get to feel the little flutters and small kicks that signal in a tangible way that there is someone growing inside them. Those become almost constant reminders of the other’s presence as the time draws near. Moms get extra time being a mom.

          What moms eat during pregnancy affects their joint baby. Dad’s diet makes no difference. If dad is stressed at work, baby doesn’t feel it. But when mom is stressed, baby gets bathed in those hormones. Mom’s life touches baby’s. Mom is already being a mom. Dad just sits on the sidelines. He already is a dad, but he really doesn’t yet get any of the benefits of it. But the moment birth takes place, dads can step up to the plate and fully participate. Their fatherhood has been fully realized. That little one has a dad in a new sense, one that has whiskers and smiles.

          This already but not yet state is a condition that John talks about in our text. There are parts of our eternal life that we get to experience in only a small way while we walk here on earth. We are God’s children when we walk in the light as He is in the light. When we continue to trust in His work on our behalf, the work done to cancel our sin debt, then we become His children. But there are still more benefits of that family connection that we don’t fully understand or experience right now. We only have limited knowledge of that next experience.

          But just like fathers are fathers and then become fathers when their child is born, so the moment Jesus returns we who are children of God will become children of God in a fuller way. The reality of our identity will be more fully exposed. Something of our experience will change. We remain children of God, just as we are now already.

          But one thing will be different: we will see Jesus face to face. What we have taken by faith based on the eyewitness accounts and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, we will at that moment know in a new way. We will see Him. Just like the father who gets to see the ultrasound image of their child in the womb, we have glimpses of Jesus in the Scripture. But we will have all the details filled in when we see Him face to face.

          That is going to be some day! Are you ready?

The Last Meal

Mark 14:12-26

      Some moments in history get captured in the imagination. I remember the moment when the Challenger , exploded over the skies of Florida. I was watching the launch on TV, sitting in a small lunch place at the beach in New Jersey. I was working construction during the off-season. There were only two places to eat, this place and a small Chinese place. We alternated between the two. When the explosion happened, everyone in the place began to speculate about the fate of the astronauts. As I remember, I can see myself sitting there, head pointing upward at the screen, munching on my Reuben sandwich. The sandwich was really good, by the way.

      Some moments get so captured in our imaginations that they end up in pictures. Leonardo da Vinci captured this moment in his imagination and painted one of the most famous painting in history, The Last Supper. The subtleties of expression and position tell his understanding of the event. Although many things in the painting don’t match with first century Jerusalem, it still has captured the imagination since being painted over 500 years ago.

      The central message of our text is twofold: prediction and institution. Jesus predicts his betrayal and He institutes Communion for the Church. It is interesting that these two are placed side by side. Part of what we remember when we take communion is the ability of humans to do the worst things to each other. Judas was just like us. We are just like him.

      And yet, Jesus died for us, and for Judas.

      The reason Jesus is in Jerusalem with thousands of other Jews was the celebration of the Passover Feast, a required ceremony for every devout Jew. It was the focal point of the religious year. Every other sacrifice and ritual that was performed during their year pointed to Passover and the death of the lamb. That lamb’s death was the symbol of the consequences of sin. Sin required someone’s death. The lamb died in the place of firstborn. If the lamb didn’t die, the firstborn did.

      A place had been chosen to eat this meal together, and preparations had to be made. I don’t know about you, but family gatherings can sometimes be difficult. It seems as though so many little things can go wrong, so many things that could tip the balance. Some families can’t get together without some huge drama. Guns get pulled, fists get thrown, drunken stumbles, shouts of rage and insult. I am so thankful for the family I have!

      Looking back over the timeline of the texts’ few days, we can see how foolish the disciple’s denials became. They all betrayed Him! Although they all asked if it was them, they all became Judas. Judas might have taken the thirty pieces of silver, but every one of them walked away from Jesus. Every one of them turned their back.

      And that is one of the central truths of the Good News. We all deserve to wear the label “Traitor”. And yet Jesus offers us forgiveness, friendship, fellowship, restoration. We gave Him death. He gives us life. He bore the penalty for our sin. He gives us the benefits of His righteousness. He got what He didn’t deserve so what we would get what we don’t deserve. He took what we deserved and we got what He deserves. What a great exchange.

Getting Personal

Mark 13:12-13

      Some of the most difficult injuries to work through are those that come from our family. When a family member hurts us, it can be very difficult to heal. The closer the relationship, mother, father, sister, brother, the more pain that it often causes. That is because we are supposed to be safe at home. Family is there to meet that important safety need.

      God provided the family as a means to provide a safe place in the world. We are supposed to be able to ‘go home’ when things get tough and know that our family will be there to catch us. When the world out there gets too challenging, too scary, too intimidating, too hostile, we should be able to retreat to our family and find support.

      So when abuse, neglect, incest, or violent assault happens in the home, where are we supposed to turn for safety and support? When the one place that is supposed to be safe isn’t, what are we to do? Where are we to go? How are we to find refreshing?

      Jesus tells His disciples about what things will be like before Jerusalem is destroyed. He also tells us what it will be like before His promised return. He told us there would be wars and rumors of wars, that we would go on trial for our faith, and now He tells us that our families will turn us over to the authorities. Ouch! No one will be safe. Parents turning in children. Children turning in parents. Siblings turning on siblings. And the cost is high. Death results.

      But not just family will turn us in. Because of Jesus, we will become bounty for everyone. Everyone will be looking for Jesus-followers. We will be singled out as the object of hate. The ‘tolerance’ of those in the politically correct crowd will show its true colors. ‘Tolerance’ is only a way to control speech, to silence the opposition. Tolerance as it is used today is ideologically sanctioned and empowered bigotry.

      Notice carefully that this hatred is because of Jesus in us. I am afraid that many who claim Jesus don’t have enough Jesus in them, to warrant this hatred. The thin veneer of religion that many people wear will be cast off as soon as the least trouble arrives. They will step across the line and pick up the darts of accusation and derision. They will be some of the most vocal opponents, trying to convince everyone that they aren’t part of that group of people. Remember Peter’s reaction as he betrayed Jesus three times.

      And we could all fall victim to our own weakness when facing torture and death. That is why Jesus gave the promise of this verse. If we stand firm to the end, we will be saved. We must persevere. We can’t quit in the middle of the race. We must finish. Faithful to the end.

      This won’t be a popular stance. We will be part of the few, the proud, the Marines… Oops, I dropped into commercial mode. The many will be against us. They will throw every accusation against us, but nothing will stick. We must stand. We must stand firm. We must stand firm to the end. And by God’s strength given to us by the Holy Spirit in that moment, we will.

Just Words

Mark 10:7-9

      There are few places where our culture clashes with the Truth of God than in passages like this. It lays out God’s role in creating man and woman, and the institution of marriage. There are no grey lines here, no dashes or dots, no easy escape, no get out of jail free cards.

      So many of us have had the words of our text read at our weddings. And yet, there are still so many broken marriages. So what goes wrong?

      To answer that question, we must look at the text. First, we must recognize that God made male and female, differences and all. Men are not rough, broken copies of women. Women are not weaker versions of men. God made us both. We are different. Each has strengths and weaknesses that God placed in us.

      When we come together we have a choice. We can either fight against those differences we see in the other, or we can see how our strengths complement their weaknesses and how their strengths complement our weaknesses. We make a matched set.

      I love really old furniture. One of the most beautiful sights are dovetail joints. This is where the wood on both sides are the joint are cut out to match the other side, like fingers intertwined. When the joint is done properly, it is almost impossible to break the joint. The overlapping of the fingers create an extremely strong bond. The best examples are found on the drawer front and side connections.

      In marriage we have the opportunity to find someone to match our strengths and weaknesses, to create a perfect fit. Almost everyone I talk to can tell me how their spouses are different than they are. It is those differences that make life interesting and sometimes challenging.

      Secondly, you must leave your parents. This isn’t simply physical leaving. In some cultures living with parents even after marriage is a normal thing, and yet they are able to make it work. When we leave our parents we must create a new bond with our spouse, one that will weather the storms of life as we lean toward each other as our primary support network. Our parents are still there, but we lean first and foremost to our spouse. Our ties of dependency get cut. We establish a new family and home. Financial and emotional ties are cut and new ones are formed.

      This can be a very difficult task, creating these new connections with your spouse. Life has a way of getting in the way. Work demands and the ever present bills mean that we must make sacrifices in order to continue surviving. And then a baby throws the whole balance to the curb. Their survival demands that we take a back seat, at least for the time being.

      Thirdly, we must become one flesh. This is more than the physical act of marriage. It is more than sex. It is this process by which we begin to move in sync with each other, like a flock of swallows undulating in the evening sky, no apparent leader, no apparent communication, but moving in sync with one another. Zigs and zags, swoops and loops. And they don’t bump into each other! They are one flock. We are one marriage, one couple, one unit.

      Finally, we must make sure no other person gets in the middle. Our ties must be to our spouse, emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual.

Birth of a Murder

Mark 6:17-19

      Sometimes people will do things for others, even when they don’t want to. They feel a pull for the relationship which is greater than the pull toward doing what they had first intended to do. Relationship is more important than whatever other choice they had.

      Or perhaps embarrassment holds a stronger pull than even a relationship. You make a particular choice because of pressure you feel to keep something quiet, or keep it from getting out in the first place. Compromise comes from so many different angles.

      Herod, the King at the time Jesus was here on earth, got himself in a pickle. He was stuck. You see, he had married his brother’s wife. The relationships within this royal family would make the best soap opera or made for TV movie. Let’s just say that by marrying Herod, they both had violated family and society. One account has the Herod of our text basically kidnapping Herodias from his brother and taking her to be his wife. What a mess! And on top of this, everyone is related to each other! Yikes!

      Herod’s problem was that he didn’t want to kill John, but his wife did. You see, John had a habit of speaking the truth, even to those who were most powerful. He was not afraid of the earthly powers. His only fear was the LORD. We could sure use some people like this today, willing to speak truth to power. We have some people speaking truth, but the powers don’t seem to care!

      And what was the truth? You shouldn’t have married your brother’s wife! What we know is that his wife, Herodias, didn’t like John interfering with her life and marriage. Perhaps, like many political spouses, she had ambitions of her own. Perhaps she was using Herod to advance her own position in society, gaining more status by leaving her first husband to marry her second, both of whom had political ambitions and positions.

      What we do know is that Herodias didn’t want John broadcasting her business. Her anger was to the point of murder. She wanted John killed at almost any cost. But her husband stood in the way. Sometimes being stopped from doing evil is a good thing, even if it gets in the way of your plans. But political power has not changed over the centuries. Political power has the tendency to corrupt those who seek it.

      One of the lessons from US history that we need to remember is that George Washington didn’t want to be the first president. He only accepted the position reluctantly and for a limited time. He only did it because everyone was telling him, and he himself was convinced, that no one else could hold the fragile nation together. If only we could get politicians who took their positions reluctantly. Instead, we have people whose ambitions are to gain political power and then use it for their own ends. Not much has changed!