He who did not...

Allow me to share something that connects with the theme of Holy Week. This is a passage of scripture I am reflecting on in preparation for a respite retreat for grieving parents that my wife and I hope to attend in April. I was given the following scripture to comment on for the Sunday morning gathering.

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:31,32

I have found that as part of a somewhat invisible community of grief that many of the questions that emerge from our soul connect to God’s purposes. First the big question. Why? Then, why my loved one? And possibly, Why me? It takes focus not to use the circumstances to define and person and character of God. Is He against us? Paul frames the discussion with an “if”. How do we know if God is for us? How do we know what He is like?

As I approach this passage, I now have a new name for God. It is not merely a title. It captures my mind and my heart.

It is “He who did not spare His own Son”.

To this reader, this is even more compelling than “The God who is Love” (as wonderful as that might be).

It is “He who did not spare what is closest to His heart”.

It is “He who loves without measure”.

It is “He who loves sacrificially” .

It is “He who holds nothing back”.

It is “He who has nothing else to prove, nor needs to…"

When I slow down and actually gaze into those words as a window into His eternal being, I encounter its weight and its beauty.

Everything else in this text is contingent upon the FACT, the truth, that God is actually “He who did not spare His own Son”. This is not merely a fact amongst facts. It is the Fact upon which all other facts depend and defer.

Prodigal Father

You are probably familiar with the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32. This story, however, is really the story of two sons and their prodigal Papa.

The youngest son began by pursuing the Father’s stuff...he didn’t want the Father Himself. He wanted what the Father could give Him. And so he asked for his inheritance and left, squandering with great extravagance what the father had given him, on his own desires. And when he came to His senses, his began to see his father’s heart and he recognized he would be able to return home and ask his father to live as his servant. And what does his father do? He is waiting for his son’s return and re-instates him as a son, in a celebration of honor and dignity.

The oldest son worked with diligence and responsibility, cultivating his father’s property with steady work. Yet when the younger brother returns and there is a celebration, he refuses to go inside. Instead, he becomes angry and the father must come outside and “plead” with him. It is here that the heart of the oldest son is revealed in his response. “Look!” he says. “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” Slaving for you. In other words, I have gone about your business because I had to, I was obliged to, I was forced to. The oldest son, though not a slave to his desires (like his younger brother), was living as though he was a slave to his own father. How this must have broken the father’s heart!

Two sons. Considering their different behavior - the youngest squandering his father’s wealth, the oldest cultivating his father’s wealth - this looks like two different problems. But at a deep level – both sons have become slaves to different masters: one to his own desires and the other to his perceived obligations. And as a result both have missed the heart of the father. Both missed the prodigal, extravagant, undignified love of their father. Can you identify with youngest son? Or perhaps you are more like the oldest? Or maybe there is a bit of both in you.

To the youngest son: the Father awaits you. Here is the prodigal Papa – who waits at the gate for the return of those enslaved to their own desires. That gate is the cross.

To the oldest son: the Father comes and pleads with you. Here again is the prodigal Papa – who awaits you to come into the celebration and have fellowship with him, to cultivate a relationship with Him before cultivating His business. This relationship is made possible in the pleading of the cross.

See His heart for you: come to Him.                                                                                         Amanda Van Halteren

Come With Me

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:30,31 NIV

Many years ago, I remember a coworker, someone who would happily describe himself as a New Ager, declaring to me that, as humanity is evolving, we have now evolved well beyond the point where we would need something as primitive as Christianity. So, I challenged him to tell me just how, and in what way,  we had evolved beyond war, bigotry, envy, greed, selfishness, tribalism or any other of the age old ‘flaws’ that the  Bible would call sin. In what way, have we outgrown Jesus’s warnings about the lure of wealth and pleasure.  If anything, the human race appears to be regressing.

The truth is: there are some teachings in the Scriptures, such as those by Jesus on the power of Mammon ( the false idol of wealth ( Matt 6 ) ) that are even more poignant today than they were in the age when they were first uttered.  Another such teaching would be  Jesus’s call to come and rest. We could call it the motif of Sabbath.  Consider it.

While other generations may have worked as hard or harder, has a generation ever been more ‘busy’ than ours?  Never more options.. more demands… more temptations.  Never has a generation been more subject to the invasion of “inner space” by images, voices and other impulses. Never has there been a more compelling and bewildering variety of “stuff” to do. Never before has a force like modern media been unleashed upon our collective consciousness. And its power and prevalence is only increasing.

I was reflecting on this theme, and my own sleep and rest deprivation, when this morning the preacher opened this very scripture – Mark 6:30-31- as the text of his message. Although what he said was powerful, for my purposes he didn’t need to say anything more. The words jumped off the page and wrestled me to the floor.

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest…”

I think of the words of Dr. Leonard Sweet.  “We have not come to preach the times. We have come to preach eternity to the times.”  How much in our time of hurry, noise, stress and fatigue do we need to heed the Sabbath call of a gracious God.  “ Come away with Me…”. How much we need to recognize that without heeding this call we become hollow, empty shells. But with it … well, that changes everything. We have Him! 

I have a suggestion. Take a few moments ( if you are not too busy J), to ask yourself the hard questions. How many minutes of the 10,000+ minutes  I have each week do I give in conscious, deliberate communication with the Master.  More to the point, how many of those minutes do I give to the work of resting in His presence?  For real. With nobody to impress but myself… how many?  In the midst of everything else that competes for our time, energy and attention – you and I at least need to ask and answer the question. And if we have the courage to do so, truthfully, then may God grant us the grace to heed and obey His gracious call.

Though the Fig Tree Does Not Bud

Though the fig tree does not bud
       and there are no grapes on the vines,
       though the olive crop fails
       and the fields produce no food,
       though there are no sheep in the pen
       and no cattle in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
       I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
       he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
       he enables me to go on the heights.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

So wrote Habakkuk at the conclusion of his book. And he did not come to this conclusion easily. Struggling to the core of his being with the devastation of his homeland and the plight of his people, he grappled with God’s sovereignty and His goodness. In the light of unspeakable evil, they could not both be true.. Could they?

The key words, here,  are Though and Yet.  I call it the nonetheless clause. There is something magnificent and defiant about it. In many ways, my choice to rejoice in the LORD, in the face of circumstances is indeed a defiant act. I write this out of my own deep experience.

Each and every one of the major characters in the biblical Story had to confront disappointment. Each of them were brought to a point where they had to choose to honor God in the face of great difficulty.  It is integral to the narrative arc of their lives. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah… the list goes on….Peter and Paul and most notably, our Lord, Himself.

However we work out the equation, God’s worthiness and His goodness can never be variables if we want a clear picture of reality.

Most of us will come to a point in our lives where we need to discover that for ourselves. We will have it tested and proved. In the face of deep pain, loss, grief, devastation, disorientation or profound disappointment we are faced with a choice. Will we worship Him? Will we continue to rejoice in Him?

I don’t know what is going on in your life. God knows. And it just might be that He is bringing you to the point where , along with Habakkuk many centuries ago, you establish your nonetheless clause and rejoice in Him – and find your joy and strength in Him.