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theology

Describing the Indescribable

Posted on December 22, 2010 by jon in Christmas, theology | Leave a comment

It’s always amazed me that two of the biggest, most monumental occurrences in the life of Jesus get very little verbiage in the Gospels. Those two events are Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ death. Take Luke’s account of the actual birth of Jesus.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son… – Luke 2:6-7a

That’s it? She just gave birth? Just like that? What about the fact that she was probably scared to death? What about the fact that she and Joseph were having to give birth in a manger and had no idea how in the world to make this happen? No, Luke simply writes, “she gave birth.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Now let’s fast forward to the crucifixion. All of Jesus’ earthly life has been leading up to this point. We’ve experienced an emotional crescendo that has taken us to this climactic point where Jesus has carried the cross down the Via Dolorosa and has arrived at Golgotha, and Mark gives us this account:

And they crucified him. – Mark 15:24a

Hang on – what? That’s it? Now many scholars would agree that the reason for the short wording here is that the people who would have initially read this text knew exactly what a crucifixion entailed. They had seen them countless times as a sign of power and authority of the Roman government. But this isn’t just your average crucifixion. This is the culmination of the torture and humiliation of the One who came as God incarnate!

I think there’s a reason behind this. For Luke and Mark, both of these events were almost indescribable. How do you describe something when there are no words? How do you adequately express the birth of the One who would save the world? How do you properly convey the suffering of He who came simply to serve? Rather than do each experience injustice, these authors simply used words they had to describe the indescribable. I pray that this Christmas, our generation would live into the indescribable. Just as these events are incommunicable due to their magnitude, so is the love of God for each of us.

God Bless You

Posted on December 21, 2010 by jon in random thoughts, theology | 1 Comment

Last night, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post from someone that said something to the effect of, “A lot of people got me a lot of things as gifts. I got that one thing I’ve always wanted. I even got this really expensive other thing. I’m feeling so blessed right now.” Obviously, it’s been altered quite a bit so as to protect privacy, but the message is the same. This led me to ask the question: “What exactly is it that makes us feel blessed?”

I don’t think that being showered with gifts is a valid sign of blessing. I mean, of course, having people who are close to you give you gifts is great, but not a blessing, per se.

Let me share this quote with you from Darrell L. Bock:

To be blessed is to be happy because God has touched one’s life. Such divine benefit rains down on those who trust him and his promises. Blessing emerges from God’s ability to bring his promises to completion, but to share the benefits, we must be confident that God does what he says.

See that kicker on the end? We must be confident that God does what he says if we are to reap the true benefit of blessing. God brings “his promises to completion,” and one of the main ways in which that happens is through you and through me. By loving and serving one another, we bless one another, and in turn, we experience true blessing.

Christmas Isn’t About Peace

Posted on December 20, 2010 by jon in Christmas, culture, life, theology | 2 Comments

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36

“But I thought Jesus came to bring peace on earth!” Let me tell you – Jesus came to shake the world to it’s foundation. The things He did weren’t ordinary. They weren’t peaceful. Jesus’ own birth wasn’t peaceful. Here you have a man and woman, likely frightened beyond belief, being denied even a room to give birth, having to bring a child into the world where animals feed, not to mention the appearance of angels – ANGELS – and the visitation of magi. From the very beginning of Jesus earthly life, He shook things up.

Here in this Matthew text, I believe Jesus is saying that if you are a true believer, a true follower of Christ, your life won’t be peaceful. You’ll have such a burning desire to love others and to serve that your life will be uncomfortable at best. Jesus came to wreak havoc on the status quo.

I believe Christmas has become mundane, in the sense that anything becomes mundane. We celebrate it yearly, and though I know it’s cliche, we’ve abandoned the true reasoning behind it. We say that we have Christ in our hearts on Christmas, but we would rather bankrupt ourselves on presents than give to the needy. We make several stops throughout the holidays to visit family and friends we haven’t seen in months, yet we neglect those who literally have no one with whom to share Christmas.

If we truly want to be an embodiment of what Christmas is all about, we can’t simply live at peace with the way everything’s going. We have to constantly try to give, serve, and love unconditionally. Christmas isn’t about peace. It’s about God’s radical, revolutionary love for us that is so unbelievably intense that he sent Jesus, whose message was not peace at all, but whose destination was a cross – to ultimately die for us. How can we possibly be at peace?

What do we stand for?

Posted on December 14, 2010 by jon in culture, theology | Leave a comment

I know. I ended the title of this blog post with a preposition. However, I thought “For what do we stand?” seemed a bit odd. There are also likely to be several other occurrences of this grammatical faux pas forthcoming. I digress.

While I was reading through the first chapter of Romans yesterday, I was drawn to how Paul opens this letter. He begins with a definitive stance that told the Roman audience, “This is who I am.” Check this out:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:1-7 (NIV)

I’ve read that several times, but glanced over it. But yesterday, I thought, Wow! I mean, Paul, before he gets to the message of his letter, before he begins to write one of the most prolific, inspiring, profound works in all of Scripture, tells his audience who he is and what he stands for. He left absolutely no stone unturned. He defined his belief in plain language – he made sure that the Romans knew exactly who he was.

As I was reading this, I kept coming back to one particular phrase. I love that Paul uses the expression “set apart for the gospel of God.” Paul had a distinct characteristic: his faith. This was a man who had completely sold out to what he believed, and stuck to it even in the face of death. He made sure his audience knew that.

There’s a brilliant thought that lies within this simple phrase. Those who follow Christ are set apart for the gospel of God, in order to reach those who are set apart from the gospel of God. We must, however, know what it is “for which we stand.” In doing so, we fuel the fire of a resurgence of the Great Commission, both in our area and the world.

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