Challenge Accepted?

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! (Isaiah 53:3-4)

We often hear this passage quoted on Easter. It carries the message of a Messiah - the rejection of the one who would come to save us from our sins and restore our relationship with God the Father. Yet, do we hear the real message of this passage? "And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God..." We thought...just how many things do we get wrong when we think one way, all the while forgetting there could just be a different perspective we aren't privy to at all? God gave this prophecy so many years before the Messiah came, yet many missed it because they 'thought' one way and refused to see Jesus as the redeemer of all mankind.

Our weaknesses he carried - our sorrows weighed him down. He didn't go to the cross because he was evil, or there was any guilt with which he could be condemned. He went to the cross carrying a burden too great for any one man and more misery than any of us could ever endure. In the most literal sense, he took our place that day. He stood in for us as the perfect sacrifice for the most awful of sinners - bearing all our sins and weaknesses - none of his own. Probably the saddest part of this passage: "He was despised...and we did not care." We were being given the greatest gift of all time and we didn't care!

We may try to look the other way, but Jesus stands before us today and asks us to look his way. To see the tremendous gift of his love and grace. To do more than 'note it' as a nice thing to do, but to acknowledge our need of both his love and his unending grace. What will you do with the message of Easter today? Will you embrace it, or will you remain 'uncaring' and 'untouched' by it? The choice is yours, but I challenge you to embrace it! Just sayin!

The news is going to get out...

I have met church-goers who seem to treat their 'religious life' as though it was something they could hold so close to the cuff that no one else could actually know the God they serve. It is as though they think they have some 'inside track' with this God-thing, but in reality no one really has found a 'more right' way to heaven than to believe in the finished work of the cross accomplished by Christ himself. No one who really serves Christ whole-heartedly is able to 'shut-off' their 'religious life' just because it a workday and not the sabbath. In truth, our life isn't 'religious' if we are followers of Christ - it is a genuine relationship that carries into all the days and hours of our week.

He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. (I Timothy 2:5-6)

The news is going to get out - God wants everyone saved - not just some, not just the 'special' or 'elite' - but everyone. That means the dead-beat dad, the street person begging for a few dollars on the side of the roadway, and the single mom struggling to work two jobs and raise three snotty-nosed kiddos on her own. Truth be told - the dead-beat dad just didn't know how to take his responsibility seriously, but God can set that straight in his life. The down and out street dweller may not have chosen his lot in life, but circumstances just stacked up against his favor - God can set him in a place of honor once again. That mom desires only good for her kiddos - God can bless her life fully. 

The 'news' isn't super-secret - it is that there is ONE God and ONLY ONE. That may seem like it isn't the main part of this message - if you thought that, you are right! There are two messages here - the first being the one I just told you. The second being that Christ is our means of access to this ONE TRUE GOD. Simple faith and plain truth - they go hand in hand. We make 'religion' about all the complicated 'rules' or 'means' by which we may approach a holy God. Jesus sets us straight on that one - there are no complicated rules and there is only ONE means by which we access this holy God - HIM.

The message is clear - get to know him - through the good news God shared with us - his Word. No one gets to heaven on his own merit - there is a way made for each of us by the blood of Jesus. There is only way into that 'way' - simple faith and plain truth. We place our faith in this finished work of the cross and then we trust the truth we are given in his Word. In turn, his Word begins to do the work the cross began - taking that initial 'grace infusion' and building upon it each and every day of our lives. Christianity isn't about a one-time work, it is about a continual renewal of that 'grace infusion' accomplished at the cross those many years ago. As we celebrate Easter today, let's never forget the news that was shared that day and every day since - God, the ONE TRUE GOD - desires relationship with ALL of us. Just sayin!

Consider the cross

But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed! We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us! (Isaiah 53:5-6 TLB)

It wasn't for HIS sins, but OURS. What kind of a man would take upon himself the penalty of so many without consideration of his own pain? It was for us that he died - no sin of his own - for he was the perfect lamb sacrificed to all. In the Old Testament worship practices given down to Moses by God, God taught of the need for an "atonement sacrifice" - a perfect sacrifice whose shed blood would 'cover over' the imperfect sins of the many. Christ was that "atonement sacrifice" - his blood shed for the imperfect condition of each of our souls. Believe it or not - it is your choice. But...if you do choose to place your trust in that finished work, oh how wonderful life is!

Who would ever think a man's beatings would prove to provide the greatest of peace for the hurting and wounded souls of so many? Who would ever believe the innumerable lashes cutting deeply into the flesh time and time again of an innocent man would provide so profound a healing of so many? In reality, we think first about ourselves, and perhaps we may venture into the realm of thinking of others just a little bit more than we think of ourselves. In truth, we don't usually get to the point on our own of moving out of the place of our own need - we need the help of Christ to actually do that! 

Guilt for sin was ours - not his. Sinful deeds were our doing - not his. Separation between us and a holy God was our choice - not his. Yet, all he did was for US. Beaten that we might have peace. Lashed that we might be healed. Have you ever stopped to consider the weight of your sin? If all the sin of your lifetime was placed in a scale and weighed, what would it weigh to carry all that sin upon your back? Now imagine that the sin of all of mankind, from Adam till the tiny baby being born today in some hospital somewhere - ALL that weight of sin he bore on HIS back. It was his back that was lashed, allowing that burden to really sink in and the weight of it to be felt even more as the day wore on. It was that weight he sought to free us from - that guilt and shame. 

As we stop for just a moment to consider the cross today, let us not forget the tremendous love that kept Jesus on the cross that day. He could have been like us and recanted his commitment that day, but he didn't. He could have said the weight is too great and the pain too deep, but he did not. All he did was with one eye on his Father and one eye on us. He never lost sight of what the action of ONE would accomplish for so MANY who were incapable of those actions themselves! Just sayin!

The tortoise or the hare?

The twelfth chapter of Hebrews begins with the words, "...we must rid ourselves of everything that slows us down..."  Do you have things which slow you down in life?  I think we all do.  I have had to learn to do things at two different paces since my mom came to live with me over six years ago.  One pace is my normal, get-er-done pace which is almost at light-speed compared to the other, which makes mom and I look like a race between the hare and the tortoise! Mom isn't able to move at the break-neck speeds I do anymore, so I have had to adjust some of my tasks to a slower speed.  Now, I am not complaining about mom being someone who slows me down - I wouldn't want to miss a day of this life we have together.  I just wanted to show how we sometimes have very "regular" things in life which slow us down - sometimes external to us, like another person; sometimes kind of internal, like raw emotions or fear.  There is nothing which quite slows us down as much as the weight of sin in our lives, though.  No person or other weight quite exerts the same pressure which sin does - pulling us down, loading us with guilt, and holding us in miry links to our past.  Maybe this is why the rest of the verse we started with today goes on to say, "...especially the sin that just won't let go..."  Look at that again - the sin that just won't let go.  This implies sin has a way of holding us back - not letting us out of the clasp of its grip.  This kind of puts a different spin on our sin, doesn't it?  It isn't just us moving toward it and giving in to that temptation, it is that sin holding onto us like it would be losing its best friend if it let go!  If you have ever had to break ties with a relationship which just wasn't the best for you to stay in because of the influence of that relationship, you know what I am about to say - this is tough work!  It is hard to walk away from something which has a grasp on us - especially when there is ANY kind of emotional tie between the two objects!

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! (Hebrews 12:2 CEV)

The rest of the story is that there is a race laid out for us - one which we must actually engage in if we are to ever get beyond the starting blocks.  No runner comes to the starting line, assumes the position, hears the crack of the starter's pistol, and then just gets up slowly, turns around and walks away from the race. Nope - they lurch forward with determination and hope they will make it all the way around the track to the finish line!  Yet, somewhere along the way, they tire, feel the pull of fatigue, and want to just give up.  The effort comes not in starting, but in finishing.  Many a battered woman will tell you the effort needed to stay out of a damaging relationship they have walked away from is not in walking away, but in staying away from that relationship for the long-term. Why? The emotional warfare is hard - there is a hold that damaging relationship has on them which is quite difficult to break free of.  Breaking free is one thing; living free is another.

How we live free is by changing our focus.  I have said this frequently in my blog, but the truth bears repeating.  The one crossing the finish line isn't the one who just toddles along aimlessly - it is the one who keeps their focus on the prize ahead.  It may amuse some of us to see how we move toward sin at break-neck speed, but then tend to have the speed of the tortoise when it comes to turning away from it!  It doesn't surprise or amuse God, though.  He knows the hold our past has on us and he isn't surprised by how much pull it exerts on us to get us to quit once we have started this race toward a new life in his freedom.  You would think one taste of freedom would make us really ravenous for more and more freedom, but as is often the case with anything held in captivity for a long period of time, when freedom comes they just don't know what to do with it!

Here is where we need the "rest of the story", as Paul Harvey would say.  It is in keeping our eyes on Jesus that we stand the best chance of breaking free from what has held us captive.  We come to understand and function within freedom only when we are being led into it!  Christ leads us into freedom and then he helps us walk around in freedom until we become familiar with it - at first liberating, then a little uncomfortable because we don't fully understand what to do with this new-found freedom.  It gives us liberty and we don't know how to handle liberty sometimes.  Maybe we take it to excess, or just don't use it at all. He is there to help us know moderation, develop a "tolerance" to freedom, and to remind us repeatedly to forget what is behind.  It is Christ who helps us run the race at break-neck speed toward the right goal - and it is also him who helps us develop the snail's pace to return to the things we left behind!

Christ endured the cross - not because he had to - but because he wanted to on behalf of each one of us.  He had us in his mind as he took those final steps toward Calvary those many years ago.  He has us each in his mind today as we take the tiniest of steps toward the freedom he calls us into.  In his mind, we were foremost.  In our minds, he is working to make us see him as "foremost". He endured what we could not - he provides what we cannot.  He knew his effort on our behalf would be his greatest reward - for our freedom came at a huge cost - his life.  His life for ours.  Now that bespeaks love!  Just sayin!