Worshiping a Tempted Savior

And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. And when He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done." Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. And when He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation." Luke 22:39-46

It is difficult for us to wrap our minds around the sufferings of Jesus. There is first the reality of the scope and magnitude of the utter humiliation, rejection, and pain of the crucifixion. The cross is the pinnacle of human suffering and so, in many ways, outside of our experience and imagining. But there are also the doctrinal complexities surrounding the death of God’s own Son. Christ’s weakness, temptations, and passion are at once a tremendous comfort and perplexing truth for the believer. On the one hand we rejoice with the writer of Hebrews that, “since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death” (Heb. 2:14). On the other hand we are confounded by the thought of the God of the universe, through whom all things were made (John 1:3; Col. 1:16), actually and truly enduring human weakness and in fact experiencing temptation. Facing – and embracing - the truths of Christ’s divinity and humanity, especially at the point of understanding his atoning work, is critical to biblical, orthodox, and historic convictions about the person and work of Christ.

Luke brackets this brief scene in Gethsemane with the exhortation to the disciples, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation” (NIV). Before we look at how Jesus practices what he preaches, we must ask what exactly Jesus means here. These verses could be translated, perhaps more literally (as in the NAS and KJV), “pray that you may not enter into temptation”. I opted for the NIV translation ‘fall’ because it communicates more clearly the biblical reality that temptation is inescapable, yet we must stand under it faithfully without giving in to sin (1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Timothy 6:9; 2 Pet. 2:9). Either translation of the Greek verb eiserchomai is allowable. But, there is an important distinction here, lest we think that Jesus is calling us to pray that we might never experience temptation. Quite the opposite is the case. Jesus is not only exhorting us to stand up under the weight of temptation, and in a sense he promises that such temptations will come (Luke 17:1).

The writer of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). Let’s not breeze by the power of this statement. Sometimes I think we allow the perfection of Christ to overshadow the fact of his sympathy with our weaknesses. This goes something like, “Yes, sure Jesus was tempted. But he is Jesus; certainly he doesn’t understand what it is to struggle and not be Jesus, like poor me.” But a closer look at Hebrews, and in fact the entire gospel account of Jesus’ suffering should compel us to a deep adoration of Christ as our sympathetic high priest. Jesus knew the full weight of temptation and the full power of sin in that he never gave in, in any capacity. This deepens his priestly identification with us. Because of his perfection, he understands the weight of sin more, not less.

Consider as well that Jesus had the power at his disposal to cause all the forces of hell that were pressing in upon him to cease. Yet he did not utilize his divinity to alleviate his suffering. This is, in a sense, what Paul means when he says that Jesus, “did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). Here in the garden Jesus is “very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt.26:38), yet he prays, “Thy will be done”. An angel is attending to him and giving him strength, but Jesus does not command the angel to fight against the coming crowd and its treacherous ringleader. Luke tells us that his agony at the prospect of receiving the sins of world caused his sweat to pour like blood, yet he continues in prayer. Upon finding his disciples asleep in a sort of anguished exhaustion, he offers a gentle rebuke and the exhortation to follow his pattern of prayer in the cosmic struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

In the garden we meet with a Savior who teaches us how to face temptation and how to battle sin. We are to pray. I like to read Jesus words in verses 40 and 46 a little differently than the construction may allow. But it helps us to learn the essence of Jesus’ exhortation. We naturally read these verses, “Ask the Lord to keep you from sinning under temptation.” But we may also read them in this way, “The Lord will keep you from sinning under temptation through prayer.” Notice that here in the garden that we have an example of a prayer request that is answered immediately. The answer is no. But with the answer comes strength to endure. And the strength to endure comes through prayer.

The Son begs, “Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me…”

The Father replies, “That is not my will, but I have given an angel charge over you, to lift you up…”

The Son cries in return, “With your strength I will pray the more earnestly, not my will, but yours, be done.”

In the final analysis we must not reduce this passage to a lesson on facing temptation, or how to pray earnestly. We do indeed find such lessons here. But these lessons pale in comparison to the great truth that grabs us in these eight short verses. This truth is proclaimed in Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This truth is the gospel, the reality that “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This truth calls us to obedience in the face of temptation. This truth calls us to pray to the Father, as Jesus did, “not my will but yours, be done”. But most of all this truth calls us to worship Jesus as we meet him --in the manger, in the garden, on the cross, and at his Father’s right hand. In every place we find one “made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).

An Invitation to the Impossible Christian Life: Part Two

Lessons Learned from Lepers

Let’s recap Luke 17 so far.

• We are never to cause anyone to stumble.
• We are to rebuke our brother and forgive our brother his sin up to seven times a day.
• If we even had the smallest ounce of faith, this is possible. Sadly, it seems that we do not, or perhaps our understanding and grasping of this faith is twisted and bent.
• Our obedience outside of biblical, living faith is merely the duty of a servant and warrants no favor or grace (and is indeed, impossible.)
  

What does all this mean? How are we to live? How are we to please God? How are we to obey him?Do all of God’s demands lose their force in the face of our inability? Do all of Christ’s commands have any value if it is a hopeless cause? I think Luke intends us to stare with frustration at the page here. He wants us to feel the weight of God’s Law and our duty to serve him through it. He also wants us to feel the impossibility of this task. And so he tells us the story of Jesus and the ten lepers.

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him-- and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:11-19)

There are three things to learn from this event. First, we are lepers. A leper has no rights, they are society’s castoffs. They can demand nothing from others, from the world, or even from God. They are cursed, lost and without hope. This is you and this is me. In our sin and depravity we should expect no favor, but rather judgment and the force of God’s righteousness. Paul and the Psalmist tell us plainly, “there is no one righteous, no not one.” Therefore, “every mouth is shut, and the whole world is held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:10-11, 19-20) The best we can do in the face of a righteous God in our sinful condition is cry out with the lepers, “Master, have pity!”

Secondly, we learn that God loves us anyway. Christ leaned in to hear the lepers cry. Jesus showed compassion and grace to those lowliest of the human race. And, even more than this, God alone has the power to heal our sinful condition. With just a word Jesus heals the lepers. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those who had been living in solitary pain and grief for years to see their sores cleansed with a word. Through faith, by grace (even the faith of a mustard seed, the grace of just a word from Christ) all the demands of the Law are met in Christ. Listen again to the glorious words of Paul in Romans 8: 3-4, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Lastly, we discover a difficult, painful, yet powerful truth. All ten were cleansed, but only one returned. This means that nine continued to ‘walk according to the flesh’ and only one began the ‘walk according to the Spirit.’ Ten were healed, but only one received grace.
In Luke’s gospel we are presented with a portrait of the true Christian life: A life that can be lived only by faith that is the gift of God; a life that can be lived only by the transforming and healing power of God’s grace; a life that can be lived not according to the world or the flesh, but by the power of the Spirit.

Take special note of the leper who returned. Luke tells us that not only was he healed, not only was he thankful, but he was full of praise. His life was now a life of joy and worship, not of duty and slavery. His life was a life of favor and grace, not of works and wages. This is what happens when one accepts Christ’s invitation to live the impossible Christian life.

An Invitation to the Impossible Christian Life: Part One

A Portrait of Faith and Grace

The Bible is full of absolutely impossible commands. Consider Deuteronomy 10:12-13:

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

What does God ask from you? Well, it is plain. Walk in all his ways. Serve him with all your heart and soul. Observe all his laws. That’s it. Got it? Good. Now you better get to work. The Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets are full of these sorts of exhortations. Jesus said it plainly, “If you love me, you will follow my commands.” He wasn’t kidding when he demanded of the rich young ruler, “if you want to be perfect, go sell everything you have and give the proceeds to the poor.” Or when he boldly demands of his followers that they, “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”

We tend to respond in one of three ways in the face of these exhortations. Either you are filled with pharisaical zeal and proud determination to indeed obey the entirety of the Law, or you are forced to cower under the weight of your dark, sinful heart and woeful inability. Or, perhaps you roll up your sleeves and give it the old college try. In any case, you lose. If you start out like a Pharisee, your pride condemns you and sin will find you out. If you simply cower under the weight of sin, well, the commands remain and your sin is ever before you. If you move out with a naïve and innocent zeal to please God with your piety, you will fall short before you can say, “scripture memory”.

Is Jesus just trying to frustrate us? Are these empty commands, considering our utter inability to realize them? Are we or aren’t we to be ‘perfect’?

I think that Luke is trying to answer these questions in Luke 17:1-19. Upon first glance, these verses seem to contain three or four disparate sections. But Luke is not just stringing a few different stories and situations together without any apparent theme or structure, there is method to the madness. Let’s take a look at the first section in Luke 17.

Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." (17:1-4)

Verses 1-4 present us with more of these seemingly ‘impossible’ commands. If you cause a little one to sin, it’ll go better for you if you just tie a big stone around your neck and jump into the ocean. Yikes. How about this one? You must forgive your brother, even if it is up to seven times in a day. Who’s going to repent seven times in one day? No one I know. And, even if they did, who is going to actually put up with this? I might forgive someone seven times in a year, or month maybe, but not in one day! Elsewhere Jesus says we are to forgive those who repent (remember, we are to forgive the repentant) even up to 490 times (Matthew 18). I know people, and Jesus knows them a lot better than I do, and this is, quite simply, impossible.

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. (17:5-6)

It is fitting that the apostles cry out in the next verse with exasperation, “Increase our faith!” They did not say, “You got it, Lord,” or “Sounds reasonable, Jesus.” They are filled with dread at the magnitude of the Lord’s demands. And they rightly understand the only possible route to satisfying them is not via works righteousness or stoic determination. It must be by faith. Remember, ‘without faith it is impossible to please God.” God tells us plainly, but we grow tired of listening, that the Christian life is impossible – without faith. But there is so often something faulty in our view of faith – exemplified by the apostle’s cry. So Jesus responds with two lessons for the apostles.

First, he tells us that in regards to faith, ‘quantity’ is not the issue. Even the smallest pinch of faith (if we are to evaluate faith in such ‘human’ terms) can throw trees into the sea (lots of stuff getting hypothetically thrown into the sea in this chapter.) Jesus seems to be saying that there is a ‘quality’ problem in their faith. Their view of faith is weak because it is rooted in a hope and focus upon the possessor of it and human evaluation of the effects of it. Rather, proper faith is rooted in the giver and source of it, and his evaluation and promises regarding the effects of it. Saving and living faith has its eyes upon God and his promises, not self and its accomplishments. Ephesians 2:8-10 so famously tells us that faith is not from ourselves, “it is a gift from God.” Even our obedience is not ours, it is also a gift of God, which he “prepared in advance for us to do.”

"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" (17:7-10)

Here Jesus gives us another lesson on faith and obedience. I think the title of this little parable should be, “The service of a servant is nothing spectacular.” A servant should not see his duties as any great shakes. He is, after all, a servant. That is what servants do. A servant cannot expect anything from his master. After a long day the servant cannot demand gifts and grace. He must get supper ready. Jesus says something even more shocking still in these verses. Yes, God’s commands are heavy, but even if we were to accomplish them all, we still merit no grace because of it. It is our duty. We cannot say, “Look God! I obeyed your law!” and expect congratulations. That is our duty. All else is sin. Mere duty and sheer obedience is nothing spectacular, even if it were possible…which it isn’t.

Let me give an example of this sort of thing. Have you ever been at one of those kitschy restaurants where the server mighty actually sit down at your table while taking your order? I’m not a fan of this. I like the distance between waiter and patron. I know this sounds awful. But, this is why I go OUT to eat. I want someone to politely take my order and courteously and efficiently serve my meal. I really don’t want someone sitting down and complaining about their aching feet or how long their shift has been. I want to say, “Hey, this is your job. Quit complaining and get my bloomin’ onion.” But, this is in essence what Jesus is saying in verse 10. Even if we do obey God (which we do not), it is only our duty, and merits none of his favor. The apostle Paul put it this way, “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” (Romans 4:4-5) Grace is the only hope for a servant. The gift of faith, by the sheer grace of God, is the only hope for those facing the impossible Christian life.

Thus far in this passage from Luke we find the unbearable weight of the law and the demands of God. We discover that even our pathetic attempts at obedience and piety is the duty of a slave and does not merit the favor of a son. In part two of this devotional we will discover that, sadly, many choose to live under the weight of sin and slavery to the world and the flesh, rather than in the power and grace of God.

Daughters of Song

My Mom, Susan Braun, has begun blogging! Many of the women of Four Oaks this summer have discovered what a great teacher of God's Word she is, now you can keep up with her insights, musings, and exhortations in the blogosphere.

Here's her bio and blog description:

I am a 64 year old wife and mother of 5 adult children, grandmother of 13 grandchildren. My only claim to fame is my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ for 43 of these 64 years. The Lord has allowed me to be involved with the women of his local churches in bible studies, women's ministries in California, Illinois, Florida, Cambridge, England, Nevada, New Jersey and back to Florida in our retirement years. My husband is a pastor, teacher of the word of God, director of Project Hungary - a translation project for Hungarians, and just plain wonderful man. We are members of Four Oaks Church in Tallahassee, Florida. I want to make this a shared blog with my daughters, Robin St. Denis and Kristen, and daughters-in-grace, Karen, Tori and Rachel.

Enjoy and be edified, encouraged, and strengthened through my Mother's work in the Word.