Tag: sin

Life Through Death (John 12:20-33)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (New Revised Standard Version)

The fifth Sunday in Lent is now here. We are quickly approaching Jerusalem. Holy Week will be here before you know it. 

Why is this all significant? Because Jesus is important. By taking advantage of Lent with its focus on spiritual discipline, prayer, and repentance, we come face-to-face with the shadowy parts of our selves. We discover that within us there is the pull to hold-on to unhealthy rhythms and habits of life, as well as a push to arrange our lives with the fragmentation of disordered love.

Perhaps our reflexive response to things we do not like about ourselves is to either use sheer willpower to change or try to somehow manage our brokenness, as if we could boss our way out of darkness. The problem and the solution are much more radical than we often would like to admit.

We must die. 

Yes, you heard that right. This is the teaching of Jesus – to die to ourselves. Sin cannot be managed or willed away – it must be eradicated and completely cut out, like the cancer it is. Transformation can only occur through death. 

Jesus used the familiar example of a seed to communicate his point. A tiny little seed can grow, break the ground, and develop into something which provides sustenance for others. It does no good to remain a seed in the ground.

Christ was only telling others to do, what he himself was willing to do. Jesus is the ultimate example of the one who died to himself, and literally died for us. Through suffering and death, he secured deliverance for us from guilt and shame. 

By his wounds we are healed. Through his tortuous death a resurrection became possible – and we must always remember that there must be a death if there is to be a resurrection. Death always precedes life. There is suffering before glory.

Through dying to self, and following Jesus, there is the hope of transformative change which the world so desperately needs. If we persist in making puny attempts at trying to straddle the fence in dual/rival kingdoms, we will be spiritually schizophrenic and left with a divided soul. 

Following Jesus – leaving all to walk with him – is true repentance and authentic discipleship. The act of journeying with Christ is the means to a new life. Change is possible by letting Jesus Christ be the center from which all of life springs.

Maybe you think I’m being too forceful, too insistent about this Jesus stuff. 

Yes, you have perceived well. I am being quite single-minded about the need for dying to self and living for Christ. 

Somehow, within many corners of Christianity, this wrongheaded notion that suffering is not God’s will has made it into the life of the church. But I’m here to say, on the authority of God’s Holy Word (not to mention your own internal gut and conscience) that dying to ourselves is necessary. And it hurts. The epistle reading for today bears this out:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.  Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7-9, NRSV)

Christians are not above their Master. Even Christ’s life on this earth, before his death and resurrection, was marked with suffering. Even Jesus learned obedience through struggle and adversity. Jesus Christ did what he now asks of us. 

The Son gave up himself to do the Father’s will. So, we must give up ourselves in submission to King Jesus.  Jesus offered loud cries and tears, and submitted to what the Father wanted. His followers must do no less. 

We don’t get to choose which parts of Christ’s life and teaching we will adhere to, and which ones we won’t, as if Jesus were some spiritual buffet line. All who live for Jesus, follow him into the path of suffering, of death to self, and of new life through the power of his resurrection.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

How do we follow Jesus through dying to self? What does that mean for you and me on a practical daily basis?

Surrender

Every moment of every day is an opportunity for giving ourselves to Jesus. We have hundreds, maybe thousands, of small daily decisions with the use of our time, money, energy, and relationships. 

If we have tried to fix what is broken inside of us, we will likely just try to hastily fix the problems and the people in our lives – and then move on with getting things done on our to do list. 

Instead, there is a need to surrender ourselves – to create the sacred space for solitude and silence, prayer and repentance. 

Take the time to sit with a person in pain and listen. Reflect on how to use your money in a way which mirrors kingdom values. Begin to see your life as a holy rhythm of hearing God and responding to what he says. It takes intentional surrender to do that.

Sacrifice

Holding-on to our precious stuff and time is the opposite of sacrifice. 

Are we truly willing to give-up everything to follow Jesus? 

It is more than true that we are not Jesus. Our sacrifice and suffering are not efficacious, that is, it doesn’t deliver other people from sin. Only Christ’s death does that. Yet, we are still called to sacrifice. The Apostle Paul understood this, with a statement that I’ll let you wrestle with and mull over without comment on my part:

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Colossians 1:24, NRSV)

Happiness is important; but it isn’t the summum bonum of life. There is more to life than living for self. Jesus calls us to see our communities, neighborhoods, and families as a mission field of grace to a world who needs him. That takes sacrificial love on our part.

Christianity is not really a religion that’s for people who have put neat theological answers and tidy packaged certainties to all of life’s questions. 

Rather, Christianity is a dynamic religion of learning to follow Jesus, discovering how to die to self, and struggling to put Christ’s teaching and example into practice. 

Those who don’t struggle are in big trouble. But those who go through the pain of dying to themselves for the sake of their Lord, find that the fruit they harvest leads to eternal life.

May you struggle well, my friend.

A Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
    Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
    purify me from my sin!
Because I know my wrongdoings,
    my sin is always right in front of me.
I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
    I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
    completely correct when you issue your judgment.
Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
    from the moment my mother conceived me.
And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.

Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean;
    wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and celebration again;
    let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
Hide your face from my sins;
    wipe away all my guilty deeds!
Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit. (Common English Bible)

Sin. The word is rarely used anymore in places outside of churches. And when it is used within the church, sometimes it is grossly misrepresented, as if humanity’s identity is sin.

Although everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, our inherent personhood is not sinful. Every human is made in the image and likeness of God. Sin is like a permanent putrid abscess which never seems to go away.

Sin is everywhere – in our hearts, in our world, in our institutions, and in our families. It is on television, the internet, social media, and moves in and out of smartphones. Sin, apparently, is even in our desserts (oh, the decadence of chocolate!). If it takes one to know one, we are all experts on being sinners.

From a biblical vantage point, sin is serious business. Sin involves both the things we do (1 John 3:4), as well as the things we leave undone (James 4:17). Sin is both the breaking of God’s commands, and the lack of conforming to the teachings of Jesus.

Christians throughout the ages have generally understood that the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ’s law of love (Luke 10:27) constitute a brief summary of God’s holy and moral instruction for humanity.  This is all based in the character of God as both holy and loving. 

Sin, then, can be defined as anything present within a person which does not express, or is contrary to, the basic character of God.

All sin, whether in actions or inactions, has at its root an attitude and activity of self-centeredness. It is a selfish bent of thinking, feeling, and acting. And, oh my, the consequences!

Sinful attitudes bring about an obsession with lust (1 John 8:34; Galatians 5:16); a broken relationship with God (Romans 3:23; Galatians 5:17); bondage to Satan (1 Timothy 3:6-7; 2 Timothy 2:26); death (Romans 6:23; 8:6); hardening of the heart (Hebrews 3:13); and deception (1 Corinthians 3:18; James 1:22, 26) just to a name a few.

Sin lurks in the shadows of the heart, drips from the tongue of the wicked, and lingers in the actions of the selfish and proud. Sin is not something to trifle with, dabble in, or even manage. No, sin, at its core, is a rebellion against God, a stiff-arm to the Lord that claims we know better than God about how to run our lives. 

Sin will eventually break us. It may initially look good and meet a quick emotional need, but in the end sin is like a poisonous snake bite that will kill us unless it’s treated.

People are guilty of transgressing basic morality, as well as failing to be ethically virtuous people on any on-going consistent basis. 

Well, that sounds like a total Debbie-Downer. Actually, it’s total depravity. Being depraved people does not mean we are never capable of doing good; it just means that sin has profoundly touched everything in our lives, without exception.

When we come to the realization that we are in dire straits, then it is high time we blurt out a prayer of confession along with David. The book of Psalms is the Christian’s prayer book, and there is no better prayer to pray when we come to the end of ourselves than the psalmist’s plea for mercy, based in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.

The ironic paradox of all this is that experiencing true joy and comfort comes through knowing how great our sin is. 

We can live above sin by being set free from it by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. If a person is to be redeemed from sin, then a provision must be made. Sin has been dealt with once for all through the person and work of Jesus. Christ is our representative, taking our place with the punishment we deserved (Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:9-15; Hebrews 2:17-18; 1 John 2:1).

Jesus Christ is our ultimate substitute (Romans 5:8) which resulted in: our redemption (Galatians 5:13); satisfying all justice (Romans 3:25); and reconciliation to God (Romans 5:10). Therefore, the person who believes in Jesus is forgiven of sin because Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to deal with all the effects of sin. The Christian is complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

A genuine prayer of confession asks for mercy based upon God’s character and ability to heal, rather than trusting in the attempted quality of our petition. 

When it comes to offering a confession in prayer, neither the eloquence of the speech nor the sheer word structure itself is the proper basis for a prayer of confession; utterances of a broken and contrite heart, submitted to God, trusting solely in his grace to transform, are the only words appropriate for approaching God with our sin. 

Such prayers are not to be few and far between; they are to be a regular regimen, engaged on a daily basis. Just as we take pills each day for all that ails us, so we need to take in the mercy of God through prayers of confession that link us to the true healing power which brings spiritual health and life.

Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me. Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit. Amen.

Spiritual Spring Cleaning (2 Chronicles 29:1-11, 16-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old and was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. In God’s opinion he was a good king; he kept to the standards of his ancestor David.

In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah, having first repaired the doors of The Temple of God, threw them open to the public. He assembled the priests and Levites in the court on the east side and said, “Levites, listen! Consecrate yourselves and consecrate The Temple of God—give this much-defiled place a good housecleaning.

Our ancestors went wrong and lived badly before God—they discarded him, turned away from this house where we meet with God, and walked off. They boarded up the doors, turned out the lights, and canceled all the acts of worship of the God of Israel in the holy Temple. And because of that, God’s anger flared up and he turned those people into a public exhibit of disaster, a moral history lesson—look and read! This is why our ancestors were killed, and this is why our wives and sons and daughters were taken prisoner and made slaves.

“I have decided to make a covenant with the God of Israel and turn history around so that God will no longer be angry with us. Children, don’t drag your feet in this! God has chosen you to take your place before him to serve in conducting and leading worship—this is your life work; make sure you do it and do it well….”

The priests started from the inside and worked out; they emptied the place of the accumulation of defiling junk—pagan rubbish that had no business in that holy place—and the Levites hauled it off to the Kidron Valley. They began the Temple cleaning on the first day of the first month and by the eighth day they had worked their way out to the porch—eight days it took them to clean and consecrate The Temple itself, and in eight more days they had finished with the entire Temple complex.

Then they reported to Hezekiah the king, “We have cleaned up the entire Temple of God, including the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering and the Table of the Bread of the Presence with their furnishings. We have also cleaned up and consecrated all the vessels which King Ahaz had gotten rid of during his misrule. Take a look; we have repaired them. They’re all there in front of the Altar of God.” (The Message)

Hezekiah Destroys the Idols, by Maerten de Vos, 1585

This is the time of year when many of us begin to plan for some Spring housecleaning. And it’s definitely needed! All the rooms of the house, along with the garage, are in need of going through all the contents contained in them, as well as a good old fashioned scrubbing down and thorough cleaning.

And that is really what the Christian season of Lent is intended for on the spiritual level of things. We seek to identify any and all hindrances to living the Christian life and get rid of them; spruce up the things we keep that are helpful to us; and do the hard work of scraping off all the encrusted barnacles on our hearts.

Hezekiah was a faithful king, having come from a long line of faithless ones. In the beginning of his reign, Hezekiah’s first act of royal business was to thoroughly cleanse the Temple. And did it ever need a serious cleaning!

The evil kings who reigned before him did not treat the Temple as a sacred space devoted specifically to the prayer and worship of the one true God, Yahweh. Instead, they defiled it by introducing all sorts of unhealthy practices from other gods. As a result, the holy implements used in the Temple, as well as the structure itself, fell into terrible neglect.

Therefore, Hezekiah assembled an impressive team of people, and tasked them with getting the Temple in shape again with a complete and thorough purification that would make any German house frau proud. Hezekiah sought to restore things so that the Temple could once again be used as it ought. 

The team of Levites meticulously took their time and worked diligently to consecrate the Temple and give it a good and sacred cleaning, tossing everything unholy into the Kidron Valley – the garbage dump.

Perhaps there is no better passage of Scripture than today’s Old Testament lesson, in order to embody what the season of Lent is really all about. We are to do the holy work of carefully consecrating our hearts, so that our lives are prepared and ready for the new life of Easter. 

This task of spiritual Spring cleaning and heart purification is hard and courageous work. Just as Hezekiah had the bravery to uphold the Temple’s true purpose through cleansing it, so we are to bravely enter the shadowy places of our hearts, bring out the sin within, and toss it in the metaphorical incinerator. It’s definitely not a pretty process, but a necessary one.

One of the greatest needs that many believers have today is the courage to be vulnerable, to expose and bring into the light our besetting sins, so that they can be carried away and tossed into the dump. 

Instead of spending inordinate amounts of energy and time trying to hide our true selves, it is much better to let the example of Hezekiah clear a path forward by confronting the darkness within.

Holy God, my life is a Temple of your Holy Spirit. I invite you to come in and do the sort of cleansing work that needs to be done so that my words and actions are thoroughly consecrated to you. Help me have the courage to go to the places within that frighten me, for the sake of Jesus, my Lord. Amen.

Keeping Sacred Space Sacred (John 2:13-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Christ Casting Out the Money Changers, by Peter Gorban

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (New Revised Standard Version)

It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to figure out that Jesus was upset. He quite literally came to the Jerusalem temple, whipped everyone into shape, and cleaned house. 

Cleaning house is what the season of Lent is really all about. This is the time of year for Christians to take a good hard look at the state of their hearts; it’s about shining light on the shadowy dark places, so that we can turn from all that hinders our relationship to Christ, and allow the presence of God to fill us and give us new life.

In the other Gospel accounts we discern why Jesus was upset. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each mention Jesus saying that the temple is to be a house of prayer, but the ones buying and selling in the temple courts were making it a den of robbers. (Matthew 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-47)

Two things were happening which angered Jesus: 

  1. Business was taking place in the Court of the Gentiles, thus pushing non-Jews out of being able to worship God.
  2. Those providing the service of sacrificial animals were charging exorbitant prices and gouging those who were just trying to offer a sacrifice during Passover. 

Disrespect of Gentiles, along with plain old greed, hindered prayer and worship for everyone seeking God. John, however, did not mention those reasons. He simply communicated that Jesus was downright mad over his Father’s house being turned into a market.

Orthodox depiction of Christ driving out the money changers

Jesus quoted from Psalm 69 saying, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” That particular psalm is a lament. The psalmist was grieving over the state of religion; it had degenerated into mindless empty ritual.

For Jesus, although worship was happening, he lamented and grieved over the state of people’s hearts, because they were far from God. The evidence was that people cared more about the presence of other people and animals than they cared about the presence of God.

Jesus stood in the Old Testament prophetic tradition of getting down to the heart of the matter (e.g. Amos 4:4-5; Hosea 5:6, 6:6). From a New Testament perspective, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away guilt and shame.

Therefore, there is no longer any temple because Jesus has come. The temple represented God’s presence on earth. But now the temple is Jesus, who is God with us, and God’s presence on earth. With the sending of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus continues to be alongside the Church. Believers are God’s temple, the continuing presence of Jesus on this planet.

This creates a problem for many people. It’s the age old predicament of caring more about the presence of other things rather than the presence of God. Jesus was not speaking to pagan kings or Gentile sinners; he spoke to people in the temple courts who professed and worshiped the name of God – but they did not seek the presence of God with all their hearts. The Lord was not their primary allegiance.

Jesus wants people to desire the presence of God more than anything else in the whole world – and to not hinder others from doing so, as well. In every aspect of life, the heart must be in it. And the heart needs to be in the right place, at home, at work, at church, in the neighborhood, and in everyplace we go and everything we do and say.

The Cleansing of the Temple, by Ippolito Scarzella (1550-1620)

Many of the religious folk of Christ’s day lost their true sense of purpose as God’s people. They neither perceived nor focused on God’s presence, but cared more about animals and sacrifices and making money and keeping their social positions secure. 

Christ not only extends grace and mercy through healing the needy of society; he also turns his burning love for the Father on those who would treat the sacred with sacrilege. There is a time for gentleness and meekness, and there is a time for zeal and action, done with flavor!

Jesus had a zero-tolerance policy toward using the representation of God, the temple, as the means to make money. As people from all over the Middle East poured into Jerusalem for the Passover, savvy marketers set up their wares. 

Knowing that not everyone could bring animals for sacrifice, the money-changers were more than ready to take advantage of the situation by providing sheep and cattle at inflated prices. The temple looked more like a marketplace than a worship space, and Jesus would have none of it.

Christ the Lord was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house. Jesus single-handedly took on the businessmen and drove them out of the temple courts with a homemade whip. Whereas the people seemed to settle for the status quo of secular Passover protocol, Jesus restored worship to its rightful place in the life of God’s people.

Jesus still has zeal for proper worship. As he did in the temple all those centuries ago, Christ rearranges the furniture and upsets how things have become. Like an extreme makeover, the Lord overturns tables designed for selfish gain and re-establishes a connection between us and God. He upholds holiness and righteousness so that you and I will have a clean and clear path of relationship with the sovereign God of the universe.

Sacred space is important, both as a physical room or building as well as in our own spiritual hearts. That space becomes the meeting place between us and God. The Lord wants a meaningful dialogue with us, and he will guard that place of connection with great zeal.

Christ Jesus, the one who zealously loves, you have gone before me and cleared the way for me to enter God’s presence. Thank you for your movement toward me, and your careful guarding of our relationship. May my time on this earth be an offering of praise and thanksgiving to you. Amen.