Stations of the Cross - 4

Message preached on Sunday, March 22, 2009
TAKING THE PLUNGE IN THE JORDAN

The River Gomti runs through Lucknow. When summer starts, a swimming camp is set up on one bank for school kids and others to learn swimming. I cannot understand how people would want to learn swimming in this river that gets sewage, factory effluents, and dead bodies dumped in it. That was the kind of feeling the Syrian army general Naaman expressed when he was asked by Elisha to dip seven times in the River Jordan. He felt that if it was a dip in water that he needed, he would prefer the rivers of his own country instead of muddy Jordan (2 Ki. 5:1–27). On the other hand, Almighty God Incarnate had no airs and showed no squeamishness about getting baptized in the Jordan. There was absolutely no hesitation on Jesus’ part when He had to take a dip in the river.

Giving Importance to Another
John the Baptist was Christ’s herald. He said he was not worthy to even untie the Lord’s sandals (Mk.1: 7). So when Jesus presented Himself for baptism, John’s reaction was that it should be the other way (Matt.3:14). Precisely. Have you ever heard of somebody higher going to someone lower and asking for a favour? No one does that. But Jesus did.

Paul wrote to the church at Philippi that people ought to

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves (2: 3, NRSV).

Paul affirmed that was the only appropriate response to the kenosis, the emptying of self that Christ did:

Though He was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied Himself… (2:6, NRSV).

In our world, no one gives importance to another, especially if it means that our own importance is diminished. Instead people put their importance on show—like all the people in government, who need flashing lights, sirens and security men to let people know that they are important. It has always been that way in human society. It was no different in the time when our Lord walked this earth. But He didn’t think He needed to safeguard His divine importance by clinging to it, and when He came down to the earth, Jesus didn’t feel the need to show His self-importance as He stood before John. He knew who He was. He didn’t feel that He had to assert it to be important.

Doing the Right Thing
Baptism administered by John signified repentance on the part of the person undergoing the baptism. Jesus had no need to be baptized, because He had nothing to repent of. But Jesus said to John, that it needed to be done, “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt.3:15). Jesus was saying that He wanted to keep whatever was required of people. He would be no different than ordinary folks. That is so unlike people in power isn’t it? Judges refuse to disclose their assets, as if the security of the nation would be compromised. Governors and ministers are kept outside the purview of the Law. Even petty politicians demand that they be accorded special treatment. No one likes to be treated just like a citizen. When Jesus came to John the Baptist, He said that He wanted to be treated just like one of the people. He wanted to identify with humans completely. If something was required of them, He would not refuse to meet that requirement.

Matthew records the story of how Peter committed the Lord to paying the temple tax without asking Him first (17: 24-27). When Peter came in afterwards, Jesus asked him whether citizens are taxed the way kings and rulers tax aliens and those whom they conquer and subdue. Peter said that they didn’t. Jesus expressed His opinion that the temple tax was an imposition on all God’s children. However, Jesus paid the tax for Himself and Peter. He said that He would do it so as to “not give offence”. He was saying, “Let’s meet the requirement, even though I don’t agree with it. That’s the right thing to do—even though what they are doing is not right.”

Our country would be so much better if all our citizens believed that there is no such thing as a right to do wrong, because someone else does wrong. All over our land people do wrong, and excuse wrongdoing claiming that someone above them did wrong. Even when others do wrong, we still have to do what’s right, because we’re followers of Christ, who made it a point to “fulfill all righteousness.”

Letting God Be Seen
When Jesus gave importance to another, and did the right thing, He opened the way for God to be revealed. I am not reading meaning into the order of how things transpired that day. That was simply the order of events. God revealed Himself as the Trinity when Jesus gave a lesser human importance, and chose righteousness.

The Kenosis prompted the ultimate revelation of God. Never before was God seen in this multifaceted way all at once. God was quick to affirm that this Most Humble One was on earth as His representative Son filled with the Holy Spirit (3:16-17).

The revelation of God to humans has been largely in phases: first, God revealed Himself as Creator and Sustainer and Preserver. In the Incarnation, God revealed Himself as Saviour and Lord. After that God revealed Himself as the Holy Spirit who has come to take possession of lives that opened to the Saviour.

At the moment of baptism as the Son humbled Himself to fulfill all righteousness, the Father and the Holy Spirit stood with Him to affirm that Father, Son and Holy Spirit act together in revelation and redemption. The Son was not alone in mission and purpose.

Ultimate Proof of Humanity
Baptism was an initiation rite in the time of Jesus Christ. For our Lord it was His initiation into His mission and ministry. The Holy Spirit came to empower Him. But there was still a fight that He had to fight in order to be fully prepared for the work. He had to be tested and tried. He had to prove Himself.

The temptations of our Lord are in a sense the ultimate proof of His humanity. Many Christians, even those who have all their doctrines right, subconsciously think of Jesus as somehow aloof and removed from our humanity, untouched by our frailties and problems. They think it was easy for Him. They keep forgetting that there was a kenosis—an emptying of Himself that Jesus did when He came to earth.

Let’s get this absolutely clear in our minds: the incarnation was not a disguise. According to mythologies when gods came to earth, they donned a disguise so that they would not be recognized. They were on surprise inspections of the world. In the end they would break out in anger against those who offended them. For them it was just an excursion that they were taking to survey their kingdom. For Jesus, the incarnation was down-to-earth reality. He became human and remained human from start to finish. God came with a view to get a “taste” of what it means to be human. He felt hunger, thirst, and weariness. He experienced pain, sorrow and despair. But it is in His temptations that we get the most vivid picture of His humanity, because He is shown as a human who experiences struggles—just like us:
He had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when He came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, He would have already experienced it all Himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed (Heb.2:17-18, TM).

Jesus was tempted. Options contrary to God’s ways were presented to Him, and Jesus was tempted. If we say, He wasn’t tempted by anything so earthy as what the Devil dangled before Him, we make Jesus a supernatural being incapable of being touched by our kind of problems.

The Self
The biggest hindrance to any ministry is selfishness. And that is what Jesus had to face. He had to face the human selfishness that was aroused by Satan’s temptations. Jesus was tempted first to use His powers as God-Incarnate to escape the pangs of hunger that He felt as a human (Matt.4: 3). The Devil drew attention to the hunger He was feeling. It was an acute feeling. Physical needs have a way of preoccupying us humans and Jesus felt that way.

The Devil aroused the thought that if Jesus didn’t use His power, how would it be known that He was the Son of God. Put that way, using His power would serve His mission. That is one thing we need to learn about temptations. They are always justifiable. There is always solid reason for doing what we are tempted to do. We make the mistake of thinking that only what is gross constitutes temptation. Most of us have been schooled in politeness and so are not tempted by what is gross. For us, as for Christ Jesus, temptations come in matters that we can justify as serving a purpose—a higher one.

The Devil told Jesus that He had to take care of Himself. That is why He was endued with power. Why should He starve when He had the power to fix the problem? Many of us have developed a theology to support such a view. We have the maxim, “God helps those who help themselves.” Using our own resourcefulness is always a big mistake, because in the end we think that all we need to fix our problems is more power and better connections.

Our resources of power and connections are never enough. We live by divine command (v. 4). It is only because God has commanded that our lives continue, that we continue to live. Bread won’t keep us alive. One can have all the bread and not be able to eat it to live. The outcome can be very different for two persons in the same circumstances. Why does one die, and the other live, when both have the same health issue, and are given the same treatment? There has to be a cause beyond—God’s command. It is God’s Word that gives us a sense of there being a higher purpose to life than to live to eat bread.

The Devil changed his tactic. Instead of using His power corruptly, Jesus was challenged to check up on God. How do you know He is watching over you? How do you know that God is alert to your present situation? For Jesus that would have been a very real question. For thirty years of His life, He had lived without any evidence that He was God’s Son. He had led an ordinary life. He had heard no voice from heaven. He had no angel visitors. There had been nothing to indicate that He was God-Incarnate. Was He suffering from hallucinations? Jesus was tempted to think that God had forgotten about Him—a temptation common to humans when they are sore-pressed in trouble.

Satan quoted Scripture to suggest his experiment in faith. God has promised to take care of you, so go ahead and do something risky (v.6). That is an illegitimate use of Scripture. God’s promise is that if something should transpire, He’ll be there for us:

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you (Isa.43:2, TLB).

We cannot take such a promise and say to God, “I’m planning on taking a risk, and you have to take care of me.” That would be similar to those who handle snakes in their worship services because the Lord said that when His witnesses pick up serpents they will not be hurt (Mk.16:18).

When I was in college I remember hearing a preacher who said that the Scripture says that we are to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (Jas.1:2), but it did not mean that we are to jump into them. If it happens, it happens, and the promise is God will be there for us. But we are not to run toward trouble and gleefully embrace it.

We don’t check up on His alertness or test His performance. We cannot command God. He is not at our beck and call. He doesn’t perform for us. It is we who are to serve Him, and answer His call.

In the final phase, the Devil suggested that there was an easy way to win the world. Hey, who doesn’t like shortcuts? If we can do it the easy way, why do it the hard way? When Jesus considered what lay ahead of Him—the torture, the shame, associating with sin, bearing the burden of guilt, the despair of separation from God—He was tempted to choose another way. The temptation came again in the Garden of Gethsemane when He cried in agony, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. [Please Father, can’t You intervene and spare me from further degradation than I have already suffered?].”

Satan invited Jesus to strike a deal with Him. One brief moment of compromise, hidden from all eyes, and the world that He had come to save could be His (Matt.4:8-9). If we focus attention on the target of our mission, and lose sight of the fact that in the end it is about drawing near to God and serving Him, meeting the target consumes us. It is the Devil who makes us think about targets instead of thinking about God. If meeting targets is the be-all and end-all of our lives and work, it is really all about looking good ourselves. It is a manifestation of our selfishness. It is not about serving God. But when Jesus took the plunge in the Jordan, He knew that it was all about serving God. He knew God was there and He alone gives meaning to life because He cares. He cared enough to send Jesus to be like us and struggle like us, and to share His triumphs with us.

Midweek Village Meeting

Pastor, I just came back from the Wednesday village meeting. One lady Leelavathi asked us to pray for her. She does not have a child and she asked us to pray. There were about 40 people in the meeting, including about 75 children . Please do pray for Leelavathi.
With love
Raja

Stations of the Cross - 3

Message preached on Sunday, March 15th

LAYOVER IN NAZARETH

When we came to Lucknow in 1974, it wasn’t easy to travel South. Twice a week, a bogey was attached to a train that went from Gorakhpur (Eastern UP) to Gwalior (MP). Sometime after midnight, when the train reached Jhansi, the bogey would get detached and wait for another slow train going from Delhi to Madras. It took a long time for us to reach Madras this way. But Roshini and I preferred to do it this way, instead of getting off at Jhansi, waiting for a few hours on a platform, and then going through the hassles of boarding a fast train going south. We preferred to do our layover sleeping in the compartment instead of doing it on a station platform. Layovers are not very pleasant. 

When our Lord came on His mission to Planet Earth, He had a 30 years’ long layover in Nazareth.

 

Living Obscurely

Sometimes people describe some places as “God-forsaken.” They are not really God-forsaken, but that is an expression people use to indicate that the place is absolutely bad and hopeless. We try very hard to not have to live in such places. Those in the South think that the North is a terrible place to live in. People in UP think Bihar is worse.

 

The place that Jesus did His layover was like that. It was sort of God-forsaken. That region was called “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt.4:15). That’s like saying that it was outside the Covenant of God.

 

And in Galilee, Nazareth itself was a tiny village of about 35 families living on approximately 2.5 hectares (according to Dr Stephen Pfann of Jerusalem’s Centre for the Study of Early Christianity http://www.uhl.ac/nazareth.html)

 

If each family had plots of equal size, they would each have had about 7,700 square feet. Our home in Lucknow is on 1800 square feet. Thus the Nazareth plots were  approximately four and a quarter times larger than our middle class city homes. The entire village was not more than one block in one of our Indian cities. That is how small and inconsequential the village was where Jesus spent most of His life.

 

Matthew said in his gospel that when Joseph and Mary returned from Egypt, because  son of the Herod who tried to kill Jesus was king after the cruel Herod, the Great, they went to live in Nazareth. But he also added that the behind-the-scene reason for going to Nazareth was to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. On cross checking it will be discovered that there are no prophecies that say that specifically.

 

The term “Nazarene” was obviously a derogatory term. Like calling someone “illiterate villager”. Matthew may have been referring to the prophecies that said that the Messiah would be despised:

But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! (Ps. 22:6, NLT)

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 (Isa.53:3, NLT)

 

When Phillip told Nathaniel that he had found the Messiah and that he was Jesus of Nazareth, Nathaniel is famous for his response, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn. 1:45-46).

 

God on a mission, and yet had layover in Nazareth for 30 years. What happened? Was that according to plan or was that a diversion? But Nazareth was not the sort of place one could have a decent diversion.

 

One family that I know, decided to buy air tickets on a low cost airline. They got tickets to London at half the usual cost. After they did the journey, they swore that they would never do that again. They had a 20 hours’ layover in Moscow—and that too in the days when the Soviet Union was there with all of its restrictiveness. Everyone who heard of what had happened to them, were sorry for them.

 

The layover in Nazareth was worse—at least by our assessment. What a dreary place to be stuck in! And in a period when modern facilities and amusements were not there. At least if the layover was in a place and time when fantastic things happened!

 

Learning Obedience

The thing that happened during Christ’s layover of 30 years was that He learnt obedience. The first twelve years after His birth are summarized in just two verses:

When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ^ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him (Lk.2:39-40)

 

There’s no record of the first word said, the first step taken, or the first tooth that fell out. No record of His Bar Mitzvah. Though Jesus was the one and only Son of God, there are no records of His life having been out of the ordinary. It was an ordinary life.

 

Three things marked His early life: he grew strong, he was filled with wisdom and God’s grace was evident in His life. These were not special blessings. After His birth there were no miraculous signs surrounding His life. He was just an ordinary boy living a life of ordinariness. By the way, parents, these are the things you should ask God for your children: a strong physical constitution, a sharp mind and evidence of God’s grace in your child’s life. Not wealth or position. They do not define your child’s personality or character. But if they have health, wisdom and grace through life, they can go through life with peace in their hearts.

 

An Escapade at Twelve

At the age of twelve, Jesus had a minor escapade (Lk.2:41-52). For eleven years, Mary and Joseph had been taking their family up to Jerusalem for the Passover. All those years, Jesus had gone with them and come back with them. But when He reached the age of 12, He stayed on in Jerusalem without telling His parents. On their part, Mary and Joseph assumed that Jesus, knowing the routine, was with the Nazareth group when they started back. Probably when travelling together in a band, kids played with friends along the way and it was only when nightfall came that they returned to their own family’s sleeping arrangements. Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus missing only at the end of the day. They had to wait till daybreak to retrace their steps because it wasn’t safe to travel after sundown. Scripture tells us that they found Jesus after three days. They didn’t imagine that Jesus would be in the Temple. They just assumed that He was lost having wandered off to take in the sights at Jerusalem during the Passover season. The Temple was the last place they looked in and there He was among the teachers. What was astonishing was that the boy was holding His own among those old scholars:

They found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers (vv.46-47, NASU)

 

He was listening to them intently, asking intelligent, challenging questions, explaining His own point of view and answering the questions raised about His viewpoint. In a word, Jesus was insightful about God’s Word.

 

Mary reacted on the spot. She scolded Jesus. She asked Him,

My son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you (v.48, GNB).

 

Though He was God Almighty, this public reprimand didn’t annoy Him. He answered gently that they should have known where He would be: 

Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house? (v.49)

 

Christ’s answer was puzzling to Mary and Joseph. For 12 years there had been no signs of divinity in His life. Possibly, they had dismissed their angel visits as fantasies of their imagination. Or, maybe they thought that God had changed His mind about Jesus. They just couldn’t understand what Jesus meant when He said that He had to be in His Father’s house. They didn’t argue with Him, they just took Him home.

 

Subject!

As with His life from birth to the age of 12, about His life from 12 to 30 years is described in just two verses:

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (vv. 51-52, NASU).

 

The King James Version describes what Jesus did more actively:  He was “subject” to them. All the other modern translations use the word “obedient.” But the word “subject” has a stronger connotation. It suggests that one is “under” another. It says that one is “ruled” by another. It is a word that implies subordination. You must remember that this is the Creator God who is being subject to creatures made by Him. How awesome and incredible!

 

Luke said that while Jesus manifested physical strength, wisdom and the grace of God during the years before He was 12 years old, after this episode of the boy Jesus asserting His independence, there was another aspect of growth that was added to His life. He began to grow in the area of relating to people. Until 12 Jesus was just a boy. He was not expected to get along with grownups. He just had to be a boy and spend His time like all children learning things and playing games.

 

When Jesus returned with His parents, that phase of His earthly life was over. He was the eldest son. He had to be taught a trade to be able to earn a living. And so Jesus started to learn carpentry from His father Joseph. He came to be known “the carpenter’s son” (Matt.13:55).

 

At some point of time, Joseph died and Jesus Himself came to be known as the carpenter (Mk.6:3). Mary learnt to depend on Him, like she had depended on Joseph while he was alive. That is why, when the wine ran out at her friend’s wedding in Cana, Mary expected Jesus to fix the problem (Jn.2:3).

 

Imagine that! The Creator of the worlds, spent 18 years in His earthly father’s shop learning to make poor people’s furniture and farm tools. Nobody from palaces of kings and governors or the large houses of nobility came to their shop to place orders for drawing room furniture. If we were living then, we wouldn’t buy furniture made in the shop that Joseph and Jesus ran. If God was on a mission, surely making crude furniture was a waste of time, we would think.

 

All of us have a bit of a “do you know who I am attitude”. What Christ’s layover in Nazareth teaches us is the importance of learning subordination from Him. We need to learn humility from the Lord Jesus. Subordination is very hard. Two thousand years after Jesus subordinated Himself to His parents and later on also washed His disciples’ feet, we still have trouble following Him down this path. Almost all of the troubles among Christians can be traced to an inability to subordinate oneself.

 

Layovers are tiresome and annoying. But our Lord was willing to take a layover and spent that time learning. It will do good to our ego. We will learn subordination while we wait for God to say, “Your time to work for me starts now.”

Grace Bible Church, A--- Village

		Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 9:14 PM
		Village service Dear Pastor Today's service went well. Three more people have joined us. Two Brahmins(Sanjai Mishra and Akhilesh Mishra)  are coming from Dinesh Miashra's village. One of our teachers comes with his wife because she wanted to attend the service. I have been speaking from Ephesians chapter one (Spiritual blessings in Christ). We need to pray for Alipur village, as people are hesitant to attend the service. Malti is very sick. Now she has got ulcers also. She went for some test today; will get the report tomorrow. Please continue to pray. -- Raja

Stations of the Cross 2

Message preached on Sunday, March 8
ARRIVAL ON EARTH

Via Dolorosa (Latin for “Way of Sorrows”) is the name given to the road that is supposedly the one that our Lord walked from the court of Pilate to the hill of Calvary. Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians and others from denominations similarly heavy on liturgical practices even today walk up that road carrying a wooden cross. But we want to go with the idea that the road began in heaven. The place of departure was the first station.

The Leaving
It is good to remind ourselves of what Jesus left behind to come to our earth. It wasn’t just the glory that He left behind. He left His Father to come down to earth. Leaving His loving Father to be with people who would largely not accept Him, leave alone love Him, must have been heart-wrenching for Jesus. It had to hurt. Whenever people go on a journey they scale down what they will have on hand. They reduce the things that they will access. Our Lord stripped down for His journey. The Bible has a graphic phrase to describe what He did: He “emptied Himself.” Charles Wesley used the phrase in his hymn “And can it be”:

He left His Father's throne above
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race;
'Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

The phrase was coined by Paul when he wrote to the church at Philippi that Jesus Christ:

Who though He was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
He humbled Himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross (2:6-8, NRSV).

Some theologians say that in the Incarnation there was a “Kenosis” (derived from the Greek word that is translated “emptied”), that Jesus was divested of His divinity entirely. That is not true. Jesus knew He was God and said so, and every time He did that, the Jews got ready to stone Him to death for blasphemy. What He did was to limit Himself in terms of His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, and veil His glory with human flesh. The New Bible Dictionary (InterVarsity Press, 1962, p.689) explains the emptying thus:

The words ‘he emptied himself’ in the Pauline context say nothing about the abandonment of the divine attributes, and to that extent the kenotic theory is an entire misunderstanding of the scriptural words. Linguistically the self-emptying is to be interpreted in the light of the words which immediately follow. It refers to the ‘pre-incarnate renunciation coincident with the act of ‘taking the form of a servant’’ (V. Taylor, The Person of Christ in New Testament Teaching, 1958, p. 77). His taking of the servant’s form involved the necessary limitation of the glory which he laid aside that he might be born ‘in the likeness of men’. That glory of his pre-existent oneness with the Father (see Jn. 17:5, 24) was his because from all eternity he existed ‘in the form of God’ (Phil. 2:6). It was concealed in the ‘form of a servant’ which he took when he assumed our nature and appeared in our likeness; and with the acceptance of our humanity he took also his destiny as the Servant of the Lord who humbled himself to the sacrifice of himself at Calvary. The ‘kenosis’ then began in his Father’s presence with his pre-incarnate choice to assume our nature; it led inevitably to the final obedience of the cross when he did, to the fullest extent, pour out his soul unto death (see Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 8:9; Gal. 4:4-5; Heb. 2:14-16; 10:5-ff.)

Instead of “emptied Himself” the King James Version uses “made Himself of no reputation”, while modern translations use:

• made himself nothing (NIV, NCV, ESV),
• gave up his divine privileges (NLT),
• of his own free will he gave up all he had (GNB)
• set aside the privileges of deity (TM)
  

In the end, all the different versions affirm that Jesus gave up His rights, powers, and glory to be one of us. How great His sacrifice! How great His love to do that for us! The Journey After the leaving of heaven there was the journey to earth. What was it like for Jesus? What was His travel experience? In a word, He underwent humiliation. That is what He had to feel when you consider what He had to subject Himself to. The humiliation started with God in a womb. Jesus, all-powerful God, was confined to a woman’s womb for nine months. In that womb He was restricted. He was utterly dependent on a woman for His sustenance. What followed was worse: God, who didn’t want to see any excrement in the living area of His people (Deut.23:13-14), had to come into the world through the birth canal of a woman. Nothing very pleasant about that. According to God’s own law, contact with bodily discharges rendered a person unclean (Lev.15:1-33). God made Himself unclean entering the world. People don’t knowingly choose unpleasant journeys. While in seminary, when my first summer vacation came up, I travelled after reserving a berth on the train going south. The next year, some of my friends made fun of me for being a sissy and so I travelled in the unreserved compartment. That was in 1972. It was better then, than it is now, but even then it was bad. I swore that if I could help it, I would never again travel without a reservation. But Jesus took His journey to the earth, knowing what was involved in the travel: confinement in a womb, and down the birth canal. Knowing that He would be humiliated, He chose the humiliation.

The Arrival
After all that, Jesus was delivered into a cattle shed. We choose a nice clean hospital for our babies to be born in. If we know that there is some place that is really great, we would go there if we could. Jesus could have chosen to be born when modern hospitals would be in place. But He chose that time and that place to be born. After arrival, Jesus didn’t swell up with power. He remained a baby. He needed to have everything done for Him. He needed to be fed. He needed to be cleaned up when He dirtied Himself. He couldn’t do a thing for Himself. Of course, that is what happens with all babies. But we are observing what happened when God “emptied Himself” and chose infancy with all its powerlessness and all its messiness. One aspect of being a baby must have been particularly galling for Jesus: He had to be carried around. What makes this different from all the other things that babies are subjected to, is the fact that according to the Old Testament’s prophets, being carried around was characteristic of idols:

Their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary… They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles (Isa.46:1,7).

Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good (Jer.10:5).

How awful it must have been for God to be carried around like an idol and be as unresponsive as an idol when He saw the troubles of His family and the people around Him!

The Reception

The arrival of a baby is almost always an occasion for a party. While we do have Christmas parties (in the name of Christ’s birth), there was no party when Jesus was born. His parents were too poor to afford a nice little cradle or pretty baby clothes. Cows, sheep, goats and donkeys were the ones that gave Him a reception. They were indifferent, though our pictures of the Christmas story show the animals standing around adoring the Christ Child. They continued to feed and, excuse me, to shit near the place where the baby Jesus was laid. After a while shepherds turned up. They were not the kind of people whose presence at an event would get coverage (on page 3). They were unclean because of the kind of work they did and were generally regarded as untrustworthy. Their testimony would not count in a court of law. Yet, God chose them as witnesses who went around telling people that they had seen angels, and had seen the baby King of God’s people (Lk.2:17-18). The next lot that turned up when Jesus was born were magi from pagan lands to the east of Judea. They were foreigners. Even today people are suspicious of foreigners’ motives for travelling to our land. The magi were not just foreigners, but they were idol worshippers, and to top it all, they were practitioners of astrology, an art that was associated with occultism according to Old Testament law (Deut.18:10-12). As for others, King Herod felt threatened by His birth and wanted to eliminate Him, and the priests and those who studied the Scriptures knew that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, but could not be bothered. They wouldn’t leave the court of King Herod. They preferred his favours. In the end, Mary and Joseph had to save Jesus by fleeing to Egypt. Will humiliations never end? Egypt was the land of Israel’s ancient slavery. God had liberated them from that bondage. Moses told God that if He didn’t get His people to the Promised Land, the Egyptians would say that because He couldn’t make good, He had destroyed the very people He had liberated (Ex.32:10-12). Later on when faced with the Babylonian exile, people thought they would seek refuge in Egypt. But God told them that He was against their going back to Egypt (Jer. 42:13ff). And there was God—a refugee in the very land from which God had set His people free with a display of power that was legendary. If He Himself had to take refuge, how could those old stories of His power and might be really true? There must be some mistake. God was so weak, that He was a refugee in that land of their slavery, shame and misery. When Jesus was born He was not welcome at all:

He came to His own and His own did not receive Him (Jn. 1:12).

But there were two kinds of people who welcomed Him:

• the unclean (shepherds) and
  
• the excluded (pagans/astrologers).
  

Truly, as Jesus said, those who know they are sick, are the ones who feel the need for the physician (Mk.2:17). If you feel unclean or excluded, Jesus came for you. And to those who received Him, Jesus gave the power to become children of God.

GRACE BIBLE CHURCH NOW IN CHINA

Geetu and Gary are working in a situation where there's no church to attend . When they were returning to China, Geetu asked me for Bible study materials that she could use to start a Bible study at the school. I told her right away that it's great because now we can have Grace Bible Church in China. Geetu has just written. Grace Bible Church has launched in China!

Geetu has written, "Gary and I are doing fine. Very busy, but fine. We had our first Bible Study on Tuesday. There were 6 people including Gary and me. It was a little different from how we do it at home. We started with the book of James, one of my favourite books. Even though I prepared to lead the study with the help of one of the books you gave us, it didn't go exactly as I planned. It was better than I expected. Nobody was shy and everybody was talking freely from personal experiences and scripture. We had a very 'positive and civilised' time, according to one of the friends who attended. We are very glad that we've started this. All of us really needed it. Thank you for encouraging me to do this and giving me the material. Also, the Bible studies I attended back home, helped me to initiate this without being anxious of how it's going to go. Gary had never attended an adult Bible Study before and was bit nervous at first, but got over it as soon as we started it. Please pray with us that this will grow and more people will be interested in studying God's word with us."

Way to go, Geetu. Maybe next time we can ordain you as a minister of our church there.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

SERMON SERIES: Lent 2009

Let’s start with a quiz. Who was Veronica? How many times did Jesus fall down on the way to Calvary? Did He encounter His mother on the way?

The answers to these questions are found in five of the fourteen traditional “Stations of the Cross”. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with having come up with this devotional exercise for the observance of Good Friday. It aims to help Roman Catholics to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer, through meditating upon the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death and has become one of their most popular devotions. Other Christian denominations that are similarly liturgical have also adopted the exercise.

The sixth station shows the woman who gave her towel to Jesus so that He could wipe His sweaty face. When He had wiped His face, Jesus gave the towel back to her, and behold, it had an imprint of His face etched on it permanently. The woman was Veronica and the Roman Catholic Church made her one of their saints to be venerated.

Straightaway from the name, one can tell that the story of Veronica is a myth. Veronica is not a Jewish name. The name could be a combination of the Latin word vera (meaning, true) and the Greek word eikon (meaning, image). The Catholic Encyclopaedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15362a.htm says, “Matthew of Westminster speaks of the imprint of the image of the Savior which is called Veronica…By degrees, popular imagination mistook this word for the name of a person and attached thereto several legends which vary according to the country… These pious traditions cannot be documented… the name has found no place in the Hieronymian Martyrology or the oldest historical Martyrologies, and St Charles Borromeo excluded the Office of St. Veronica from the Milan Missal where it had been introduced.”

Three of the stations show Jesus falling under the weight of the cross He carried. Most people think that the Bible mentions that Jesus fell while carrying the cross to Calvary as He had been brutally whipped and tortured. Actually there is not a single reference to Jesus falling. It is conjectured that He must have fallen which is why the Roman soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to help Jesus (Matt.27:32).

Again it is conjectured that Mary must have walked along while her Son carried His cross and because of her special relationship with Jesus, must have had a private moment with Him.

Pope John Paul II, recognizing that the traditional stations didn’t have total validity, in 1991, inaugurated the “Scriptural Stations of the Cross” so that Protestants will feel comfortable about observing the Stations of the Cross.

While both the traditional and scriptural versions of the Stations of the Cross begin with the condemnation of our Lord in the court of Pilate, Max Lucado in his book 3:16, The Numbers of Hope (Thomas Nelson, 2007) observes that the road to Calvary didn’t start in Pilate’s court, but in heaven (p.192).

This Lent I’m going to be taking you on the road to Calvary past the Stations of the Cross starting with

THE DEPARTURE FROM HEAVEN

Paul described the journey of our Lord well:

He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father (Phil.2:6-11, The Message)

The reason the road to Calvary began in heaven is that Jesus was not a mere man who lived some 2000 years ago. When Jesus came on the scene, God arrived on earth. Jesus was the Incarnation of God.

Jesus is God’s “one and only Son” (Jn. 1:14,18; 3:16,18). There aren’t many incarnations. If God was a frequent visitor, His visits would be rendered trivial, and we would feel that God has snatched our liberty by His inhibiting presence. When God visited planet earth, once was enough. He didn’t have to return again and again to accomplish His purpose. Lucado points out in his book that the phrase “one and only Son” translates the Greek word monogenes formed by the words monos (only) and genes (species, race, offspring). Jesus is not one of the many sons and daughters of God. Jesus is not even just the best son of God. As Lucado puts it, Jesus has God’s DNA.

The Old Testament prophet looked forward, without understanding, to the birth of a son who would be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa.9:6). When Jesus was to be born, the man Joseph was asked to shelter pregnant Mary and embrace her son, and give Him the name Jesus. The apostolic writer observes that that happened because it was in fulfilment of the prophecy that a virgin would give birth to a child and her son would be called “Emmanuel” to signify that “God is with us” (Matt.1: 18-23).

There have been quite a few who have suggested that Jesus Himself claimed that He was the “Son of Man” and it was the apostles, particularly Paul, who deified Him with a view to starting a religion. Even the title “Son of Man” is a messianic title from the Old Testament. It isn’t suggesting that Jesus was just a man. Anyway, Jesus very clearly claimed divinity too:

My Father is still working, and I also am working (Jn. 5:17)

Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am (8:58)

The Father and I are one (10:30)

John recorded that every time He made one of the above claims the Jews were going to stone Him to death for blasphemy, for the sin of claiming to be God. Jesus didn’t ever say that the crowd had misunderstood Him or that He was talking about some sort of mystical union that any human could enjoy. He let their accusations stand, while asking them to re-examine His claims. In the end, it was for the “crime” of answering to the charge that He was the Son of the Living God, that the Jewish Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death. They had tried to pin all kinds of accusations on Him. When they didn’t succeed, out of desperation the High Priest placed Jesus under a sacred oath requiring Him to answer to the question of His divine origin.

It was because of what Jesus Himself said that the apostles later on said,

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment (Col.1:15-17, TM).

The writer of Hebrews said that while God spoke through prophets (1:1), Jesus was the Son of God. The significance of that contrast is that the writer was saying that Jesus didn’t stand in line with the prophets as the last of them. Knowing that there would be people who would quickly say that if Jesus was not a prophet, then he must have been an angel, a heavenly messenger, and so the writer very clearly indicated that Jesus was no angel, but the Son of God (vv.5-14):

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets many times and in many different ways. But now in these last days God has spoken to us through his Son. God has chosen his Son to own all things, and through him he made the world. The Son reflects the glory of God and shows exactly what God is like. He holds everything together with his powerful word. When the Son made people clean from their sins, he sat down at the right side of God, the Great One in heaven. The Son became much greater than the angels, and God gave him a name that is much greater than theirs (vv.1-4, New Century Version).

That’s who Jesus was: God on earth. When He came into our world, He left His Father’s side. The glory of heaven is described in Revelation chapter 4. That’s what He left to come here. That’s the journey He undertook—leaving the glory, to come to our world of sin, sickness and sorrow. He voluntarily chose this journey downward into a world of moral filth, physical distress, and emotional trauma.

Who likes living out of a suitcase? We may love to travel, but sooner or later we hanker to return to our home because we love the conveniences and comforts of our own homes. However when we do travel we make all the arrangements for the travel and the stay to be as comfortable as possible. Jesus said that foxes have their holes and birds their nests, but He didn’t have a place of His own to lay His head down. Can you imagine that He left heaven for our kind of world, which didn’t even treat Him kindly?

Jesus did it all to save us. And it will do well to listen to the writer of Hebrews again:

Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? (2:1-3, NRSV)

It’s so easy to drift. It doesn’t take any effort. A ship when not sailing, must be anchored. And when sailing, it must have someone at the helm steering it. In Christ we will have both rest and direction. That’s why He came. He came to guide us to His home, to take us back where He came from. Dare we neglect “so great a salvation”?