December 11, 2015

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31).

            John expected that the Messiah would separate the wheat from the chaff. He came right out and said that the chaff would get burned up, destroyed. You can understand, then, why Jesus confused him. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. He healed lepers, sometimes even touching them. He talked to Roman centurions. All that, and He still kept all manner of faithful Jews near Himself, too—Pharisees, scribes, and run-of-the-mill Jews. Jesus came across as pretty much undiscriminating in the people He hung out with. Far from a separation of wheat and chaff, it sure looked like He was mixing the wheat and the chaff all together.

            Maybe John should have seen it, but, at least as Luke tells the story, he didn’t: God’s grace is not discriminating. Jesus didn’t come for the chosen few but for the world. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him,” Jesus said (John 3:17).

            That has at least these two implications: first, you should never for a minute doubt that God’s grace is for you. Second, you should never for a minute doubt that that grace is for everyone with whom you come into contact, too. So, receive grace joyfully and spread grace generously.

December 10, 2015

Thursday: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ^‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

                ^“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

                “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

            John should have been joyfully surprised at the eruption of God’s grace in the ministry of Jesus. Grace is always a surprise. It was certainly a surprise in the parable above. The Pharisee, who did all the right things, trusted himself. He was surprised that Jesus didn’t value that. The tax collector should have been excluded, but Jesus declares him righteous. The tax collector, you see, stood before his God humble and broken (see Psalm 51:17). Isaiah once commented that our best deeds are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); our best—no matter how good it is—is no basis for God’s favor. To stand broken before God, repentant, emptied of all pretension, expecting nothing—that’s exactly the moment when God’s grace shines. That is a joyful surprise.

December 9, 2015

Wednesday: “For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Luke 10:24; NIV).

            John was a prophet and he was also a man of his time. How can we reconcile these two things: that he was God’s authoritative messenger and that he misunderstood Jesus? One of my friends put it simply: he was sinner just like us. That’s a great insight. None of us, no matter how advanced in the faith, gets it all right.

            There’s another thing to say, though. The prophets, with the Spirit’s aid, peered into an unknown future. They didn’t know how long until God would act and they didn’t know fully what form that action would take. I think part of Jesus’ response to John’s doubts (Luke 7) meant that John should have been joyfully surprised at the eruption of God’s grace in Jesus.

            We don’t know what God is up to in our lives, either. Nor do we have special insight into His timing. What we do have is a clear vision of His greatest intervention: sending His Son in human flesh to redeem us in our sinfulness. Perhaps God’s grace is no longer a surprise to us, but it ought certainly be a source of joy, even (especially!) when we don’t understand God’s action.

December 8, 2015

Tuesday: “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (Matthew 16:23).

            John was a prophet, called by God to prepare the way for His Son. He was also a man of his times, shaped and limited by the world he lived in. This is clear from the fact that John expected judgment to come and to come soon. “The ax is already at root of the tree.” First-century Judaism widely believed that God’s great day of intervention and judgment was near at hand. (In that way, first-century Judaism and twenty-first century Christianity are similar.)

            The thing is that John didn’t have in mind the things of God. Jesus describes the concerns of God this way, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Before He would visit judgment on a sin-fallen world, the Lord would provide atonement for the sins of that world. That’s important: before He will bring judgment, our God offers mercy in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it’s a good question for us: Do we lead with grace or with judgment when we think about those outside the family of God?

December 7, 2015

Monday: During the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness (Luke 3:2; NIV).

            “The Word of God came to John.” That formula introduces the ministry of 9 of the 15 writing prophets. It seems clear that the Word of God is central to what a prophet does. That’s important. So often we think of prophets in terms of peering into and foretelling the future. To be sure there’s a future aspect to the prophets’ work.  But look more closely at John: he is a prophet whose task is “to turn the hearts…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17; NIV). John doesn’t predict the future; he calls Israel to repentance.

            Similarly, preachers today call people to repentance by proclaiming God’s Word. What we hear on Sunday can seem so ordinary. Few preachers create the same image as John did. Yet the work of God continues to go on, reminding us week by week that we are sinners, calling us to set aside our sins, to see things God’s way, and to embrace His plans and purposes, to prepare our hearts to receive our Lord.

December 4, 2015

¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work (NIV; 1 Corinthians 3:11-14).

            We contemporary Christians don’t like to think about judgment. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow we have sidelined it almost completely. Somehow we’ve come to the conclusion that because our sins are forgiven how we live doesn’t matter.

            That’s not what I read in the New Testament. What I read in the New Testament tells me that I ought to pursue righteousness, goodness, and holiness—not because I want to earn my salvation but because that’s what God has called me to do. And I read that my deeds will follow me into everlasting life (cf. Revelation 14:13). I take that to mean that in some mysterious way the life I live in this age is the material from which God will shape my life in the age to come. At the final judgment those things will be read out.

            Now, if we were to pursue good works solely with the idea that we would secure greater glory on the last day, that would undermine the very basis of good works. So, we don’t labor because we desire reward; we labor because God called us to it. Still, it pays to bear this end in mind, too, and to consider that our lives in this age do indeed matter.