Easter: Why All The Fuss?

Millions upon millions of dollars are spent each year in advertising trying to get people to associate with one brand over another.  Super Bowl Sunday is famous not just for the pigskin, but for the usually very creative and extremely expensive commercials that are shown.  All to get us to choose one brand over another.  Marketers want us to wear their label for all the world to see.

                The cross of Christ is certainly one of the most lasting symbols in human history.  Once a symbol of inhumane torture, it is now worn by millions as a sign of faith and hope.   What is it about the cross that has commanded such market share in the lives of so many over the millennia?  What follows is a recollection of the key things the original audience understood about the cross, and the subsequent resurrection as well. 

Let’s make a deal: What do I have to do to get God on my side?

One frantic unemployed parent searches for a job and as he does makes God an offer: help me land a job and I’ll give up my bad habits, start going to church, and eat a page of the Bible every day for breakfast.  What he’s really saying is, “I’ll sacrifice what I want in order to gain your favor.” 

A realtor prays before she shows a house that, if sold, will give her the commission she needs to keep her own mortgage from defaulting: “God help this deal go through and I’ll make a big offering with the commission.”  What she’s really saying is, “I’ll sacrifice a little cash to get God on my side.” 

A woman has a streak of bad luck – a fender-bender takes her car out of commission, she gets jury duty, and her health insurance premium is getting raised 20%.  She thinks that God is getting after her because she hasn’t made it to church in forever and has made some mistakes that she knows probably ticked God off.  What she’s really thinking is, “if I would have sacrificed some time for church and given up some indulgences God would not have done this.” 

A guy struggling with a pornography addiction discovers he has cancer.  Surely it is God’s wrath – if he only would have sacrificed his porn, God would have laid off his wrath toward me.  What he’s really thinking is, “God is judging me because I was unwilling to sacrifice my dark desires for his acceptance.”
During Jesus' ministry, he encountered a man born blind.  Everyone assumed it was a sign of God's wrath (John 9).  But Jesus had something else to say about it.

Our ancestors used to offer animal sacrifices to win God’s favor – to make them right with God – to purify them in order that their worship – their lives – would be blessed by God.  It was an old version of Let’s Make A Deal.  But the early Jesus followers understood that something shifted when Christ endured the cross…

Hebrews 9:13-14 (New Living Translation)

 ¹³ Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. ¹⁴ Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Let’s Make A Deal may make for a moderately interesting game show, but it stinks for faith, and the cross is letting you know that that show is cancelled.  When Jesus healed the blind man, he was making a statement that he had authority to cancel the power of sin that keeps us out of relationship with God.  The cross took it to the next level.  The cross says you can’t get God to love you more than God already does – infinitely, completely, unconditionally.

Broken Dream: How can I ever make amends with God?

One of the most famous stories of Jesus involved a woman caught in the very act of adultery (John 8).  She was brought before Jesus, thrown at his feet in the middle of a sermon.  There was no denying her wrongdoing.  She blew it.  She certainly hurt herself.  But she also hurt the guy she was with, even if he didn’t know it yet.  And she hurt his wife and kids.  He was as guilty, to be sure, but we don’t know anything about him.  All we have is the woman.  She must have felt absolutely miserable and ashamed.  Her actions caused many dreams to crumble that day.

                God has made an incredible creation.  It was and is God’s dream.  It is beautiful and wonderful to behold, and is designed to work incredibly well in harmony.  When we blatantly disregard the best option and choose poorly, we begin destroying that dream which ultimately is everybody’s dream.  When we hurt people around us, when we abuse the world in which we live, when we destroy when we could redeem, it’s another ding in the dream, taking some of the beauty away.  Sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it.

                Intuitively, I think we realize this along the way, and it causes some anxiety.  We realize we’ve offended the very God of everything, and we’re not sure how to make peace with God, who holds all the cards.  The earliest Jesus followers saw that the cross addressed this as well…

Colossians 1:19-20 (New Living Translation)

 ¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
      was pleased to live in Christ,
 ²⁰ and through him God reconciled
      everything to himself.
   He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
      by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Another way to think of the cross is to see it as God making peace with us, which we could never do on our own.  The woman thrown at Jesus totally got this, because in the face of demands to stone her, Jesus demanded that the sinless among them be the first to throw the rock.  Nobody did, and Jesus told the woman she was not condemned.  Peace had been made, given to her by Jesus.  This alludes to an incredibly deep love that God has for us and all people.  On God’s end of things, there’s peace between you and God, and when we look at the cross, we can believe it.

Guilty as charged:  How do I get an acquittal when I know I’m guilty?

A student cheats on a test to stay on the Honor Roll.  An employee fudges his expense report to pad his wallet.  A wife finds herself in an affair.  A man sits in a jail cell with the weight of murder on his conscience.  A man spirals downward in his addiction as he tries to cope with the gravity of his situation.  Not only has he hurt himself, but his addictive behavior has cost the future of his children, and seriously damaged his wife.  A man wakes up one day and realizes that he has never really given a thought to the plight of the poor.  He has enjoyed all the comforts that his money can afford, without considering how he might be able to make life better for many others if his apathy wasn’t so strong.  All feel horribly guilty.  All have no doubt that God sees them as guilty, too, which adds to their despair.  God may love other people, but not someone like them.  The earliest Jesus followers felt this way, too, and discovered that the Christ on the cross event spoke to their dismay…

Romans 3:23-24 (New Living Translation)

 ²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

In ways difficult for us to fully appreciate, the cross was a statement of acquittal.  We are free to go.  God is far more interested in helping us move forward than defining us by all the wrongs we’ve committed.  There were two other men hanging on crosses the same day as Jesus (Luke 23).  One of them, recognizing who Jesus was, asked to be remembered, which was really a plea for mercy.  Jesus told him plainly, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”  Our hope is not in what we can offer as our own defense – that would be absolute failure.  Our hope is in God’s mercy and love.  Because of the cross, we can stop self-defeating talk, and rid ourselves of the idea that God is desperate to judge us.  Instead, we can live with freedom every day.

Enslaved to the Script: How can I lose an old identity?

Adulterer.  Drug addict.  Alcoholic.  Workaholic.  Sometimes we feel enslaved to the system we find ourselves in.  In families, you’re the first born leader who must always perform and lead.  If you’re the youngest, you’re the clown.  If you’re in the middle, who cares?  Try to mess with these deeply entrenched roles, and you’ll meet resistance.  Or maybe it’s a school dynamic or social dynamic.  You feel like you can’t measure up to the latest fashion trends.  Or you’ve been labeled a jock or a nerd or a stoner or a slut or a nobody.  When you’re labeled, it feels like you’re on rails and can’t get off.

                There was a woman Jesus encountered in his ministry who lived with her labels in a small village every day.  Her community reminded her in lots of subtle and not-so-subtle ways who she was, and what she was (John 4).  She was stuck – a slave to what others said she must be.

                The earliest Jesus followers struggled with these same things.  When they considered the cross, they realized another really important facet…

Ephesians 1:7 (New Living Translation)

⁷ He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

Whatever form of slavery we experience, that we think so defines us, we get a huge message from God when we think of Jesus dying for the cause on the cross.  It’s like God is saying, “You are so much more than whatever has enslaved you.  You are first and foremost mine.  I am doing this so that you know how far I am willing to go to show my love and commitment to you.”  The earliest Jesus followers found a new identity.  They no longer identified themselves by their labels they earned or were put upon them.  Their lives were changed as they walked in a new awareness of who they really were – affirmed by the event of Christ on the cross.

Death in all its forms:  How can I live without fear?

Have you ever heard of the term helicopter parents?  These are parents who hover over their children at all times to makes sure nothing bad happens to them.  Ever.  It’s natural, of course, to protect your kids, but sometimes we can become so fearful of whatever looms around the next corner that it goes beyond healthy.  For some people, it’s a undercurrent of fearing the worst.  For others, it’s paralyzing.  The ultimate fear, of course, is death itself.  We spend billions of dollars just to make sure we don’t look like we’re nearing death – holding it off as long as possible.  But death comes.  Sometimes in our sleep after a good long life.  Sometimes completely unexpectedly.  Death is a scary thing.  People have been freaking out about it forever, including the first followers of Jesus.  When they looked at the cross, and the subsequent resurrection, however, they saw something really helpful…

2 Timothy 1:10 (New Living Translation)

¹⁰ … He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.

John 5:4-5 (New Living Translation)

⁴ For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. ⁵ And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Instead of being the arch enemy that can never be overcome, they saw in Christ a victory over death itself.  One man named Lazarus who we’ve looked at carefully the last couple of weeks was actually dead and then brought back to life by Jesus – after four days in a tomb (John 11).  You can be sure that he wasn’t too concerned about death after that experience – God could handle it.  Whatever your worst fear is, including death, Jesus was and is saying, “I can handle it.”

So, the cross as a brand has stuck through the ages.  And now you know why.  Christ’s event on the cross was a massive statement that addresses many of our most challenging questions in life.

Other than the obvious point that Jesus has victory over death, is there more to the resurrection than we thought?  Or is Easter overrated?

The Resurrection…

It’s not a new idea – happens all the time all around us.  Our stage this morning is full of Easter lilies.  Lilies are popular around the world in literature as well as gardens.  They are a symbol of death and resurrection.  You place a dead bulb in the ground in the fall, and in the spring, new life emerges.  Jesus spoke quite a bit about this reality of life coming from death, and that one must precede the other.  Our bodies live this pattern all the time – we each have a new set of skin every week or two, without paying a dime to plastic surgeons or Mary Kay.  If any of you have eaten today, you subtly celebrated this reality, too.  Nothing you ate was alive when you ate it.  Vegetables, meat – all of it dead, and all of it producing life in you.

For John, it was the sign of a new era.  There was a deep significance for one of the Bible’s most profound writer’s.  John was a deeply theological devotee of Jesus.  In the book which bears his name, John recounts Jesus’ ministry, organizing it around seven signs leading up to Jesus’ death.  Seven was a number of completeness.  In the Bible’s first book, Genesis, the creation account was spread of seven “days”.  John included the biggest sign after Jesus’ death – an eighth sign.  For John, an early follower of Jesus and leader among the earliest Christians, John saw the eighth day as a new beginning, the start of a new age, a time when new creation could begin to emerge.  For those who learned the ways of Jesus, they experienced just how true this resurrection was.  The resurrection was a story for everybody to latch onto, and it worked.

It informs how we live everyday, and is a daily pursuit.  None of it really makes much difference, however, if we don’t do anything with it.  All of the things the cross and resurrection mean are forever present and will never go away.  But whether or not any of it has any bearing on your life or creates any fruit worth eating is up to us.  Jesus modeled with his very body the cycle of death and life, and he invites us to apply the principle in our life every day.

Do you have life totally nailed?  Great.  You are free to carry on in your perfection.  It’s a real honor to be in your presence.  But for the rest of us who know there are parts of our lives that are out of synch, not in rhythm, and out of tune with God, and therefore not producing the best life has to offer, we can act.  It starts with a simple acknowledgment and acceptance of the invitation before us.  It means saying yes to the new reality that is celebrated today.  But it also means letting some things in us and about us die so that the new can be born.  Jesus said it’s like being born again, and he’s right.  New life.  New day.  Death has no power.  Life wins.  Every day is a new opportunity to follow the Spirit of God into the next chapter of better.  How do you respond?

For further reading, I highly recommend Rob Bell's book, Love Wins, in which he raises some provocative questions and offers great insight into the beauty and fulness of the work Jesus Christ came to do.  You will likely recognize his influence in this blog, particularly regarding the resurrection.

Loved by Anointing

Sometimes we learn in unexpected places…

It is always the simple things that change our lives.  And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen.  Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so.  You feel like running, but life is on a stroll.  This is how God does things.  Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 159.

This is the last week we will spend in dialogue with Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz as part of this series.  But, as many have let me know, and based on the total sales of the book, perhaps millions have been significantly messed with by Miller’s words.  My hunch is that many people, like me, were surprised to discover some great words of truth within the pages.  Surprised because Miller has an excellent way of weaving a story along, and then taking you to a rich, deep place.  The stories that fill the pages of the book are what give context to the statements Miller was making.  Pressed for time, we may want Miller to simply bullet-point the take-aways, so we wouldn’t have to wade through the stories.  But stories force us to stroll when we want to run.  And it is on a stroll where God wants to meet us.

Learning from a month with hippies…

Because I grew up in the safe cocoon of big Christianity, I came to believe that anything outside the church was filled with darkness and unlove.  Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 152.

Miller spent about a month living with hippies while working for a resort doing housekeeping.  Free lodging under the stars made for a fatter wallet by the end of a summer’s work, and also made for a fuller heart.  At first, Miller wasn’t sure what to make of these young adults.  Much of what he grew up hearing about in church made him extremely cautious around such derelicts.  But he began to see things differently as he camped with them, as they welcomed him and loved him.

When I was with the hippies I did not feel judged, I felt loved.  To them I was an endless well of stories and perspectives and grand literary views.  It felt so wonderful to be in their presence, like I was special.  Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 151.

My Christian communities had always had little unwritten social ethics like don’t cuss and don’t support Democrats and don’t ask tough questions about the Bible.  Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 153.

I began to understand that my pastors and leaders were wrong, that liberals were not evil, they were liberal for the same reason Christians were Christians, because they believed their philosophies were right, good, and beneficial for the world.  I had been raised to believe there were monsters under the bed, but I peeked, in a moment of bravery, and found a wonderful world, a good world, better, in fact, than the one I had known. Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 157.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, we read about a very profound event in Jesus’ life.  Jesus was having dinner with his disciples, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who he had commanded to come forth from the grave.  While reclining, Mary (Lazarus’ sister) broke open an extremely expensive bottle of perfume, and poured it on Jesus’ head.  It most certainly covered his body, and she wiped up the excess on his feet with her hair.  Everything about the act screamed love, adoration, committed sacrifice, etc.  Bible Scholar Gerald Borchert in The New American Commentary noted: Since Mary’s gift was of such economic significance, sociologically Mary had depleted her potential of gaining a husband.  That move is not to be understood as merely some nice act of honoring the Lord but as a tremendous demonstration of commitment to him.  As a result, Jesus graciously accepted the act of dedication that many might consider both strange and wasteful.  One person displayed her love and devotion without regard to the setting or the comfort level of the other guests – she couldn’t help herself.

Judas, the treasurer of the disciples, complained about the extravagance, drawing attention to the wasted resources that could have been used to help the poor.  The Gospel’s author questions the sincerity of Judas’ care for the poor, noting that he liked to help himself whenever he needed some extra pocket change, or a cheeseburger.

I guess everybody else just sort of sat there looking on as the scene progressed.  Except John – he probably took notes for the book.  Many of them would get their chance later…

Nobody left that dinner wondering where Mary stood with Jesus.  Nobody questioned her commitment or love for the rabbi she believed to be the Messiah.  Especially in our day and age, where our budgets are so often the indicator of our true treasure, we can be shocked by Mary’s exuberance even 2000 years removed.

It makes me wonder:  how we anoint Jesus today?  How we continue to anoint him as our journey with Christ continues?

We have some traditions in the church – baptism, communion, offerings, worship services, Bible study – all are important ingredients in our anointing perfume.  But it is certainly possible (at least for me) for these things to become mechanical to the point where they might not communicate much love anymore.  My love for God can be challenged by a hundred other not-as-good tempters that seek to steal my time, money, and attention from the very source of my life and all life.  When I slip into such temptation, everything gets colder.  I don’t care as much about others or myself.  My resources of time, money, and attention just don’t stretch as far.  But when I choose to found myself on the love of God and loving God, I discover that I’m never lacking.  Donald Miller realized this in his own way, too:

I have come to understand that strength, inner strength comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it.  I think apart from the idea that I am a sinner and God forgives me, this is the greatest lesson I have ever learned.  When you get it, it changes you.  My friend Julie from Seattle told me the main prayer she prays for her husband is that he will be able to receive love.  And this is the prayer I pray for all my friends because it is the key to happiness.  God’s love will never change us if we don’t accept it.  Blue Like Jazz, 170.

Many of the disciples sitting there got their opportunity to express their love of Christ in the years following this event.  Instead of breaking a vase of perfume, they broke their lives wide open.  And changed the world.  And lost nothing.

How do you choose to anoint Jesus in this season of your life?

The Aroma of Worship: From Stench to Perfume

Quotes on worship from Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz…

You cannot be a Christian without being a mystic. (147)

I was talking to a homeless man at a laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy.  I thought that was very beautiful and comforting because I have never been good at math. (147)

The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship. (148)

I think we have two choices in the face of such big beauty: terror or awe. (148)

Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe.  By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder. (149)

I love, love, love the story of Jesus and Lazarus.  I think the reason I love it so much is because Jesus walks right into the context of our worst fear – death – and brings grace, power, hope, and awe.

The story begins with the word being delivered to Jesus that his good friend Lazarus was very sick, and that Jesus’ healing presence was being beckoned.  Jesus states that Lazarus’ illness will not end in death, which is pretty interesting since we figure out pretty soon that he died the very day Jesus heard the news.  So, either Jesus knew something really profound, or he was clueless about reality.  Obviously, he knew where the story was headed, especially since he was calling the shots.  He knew that redemption was just a few days and miles away if he got his way.  I think that’s always the case.  Redemption is closer than we think if we let Jesus drive the bus.  If only we didn’t enjoy taking the wheel so much…

Jesus then had some dialogue with his disciples.  He spoke poetically and profoundly about deep, spiritual realities related to Lazarus’ predicament.  In response, his disciples gave their best deer-in-the-headlight stare.  So much for artistic expression…

They made their way to Bethany, where Lazarus lived and died.  Martha, Lazarus’ sister, met Jesus on the outskirts of the village.  Jesus shared dialogue with Martha.  He spoke poetically and profoundly about deep, spiritual realities related to Lazarus’ predicament.  Martha responded just like a disciple.  Sigh…

I think there is something here for us, though.  Donald Miller was onto something when he spoke of the refreshing side of worshiping a God who is mostly beyond our comprehension.   Jesus has profound thoughts that are lost even on those close to him.  This is good news, really.  Do I want a God that I can figure out completely?  Not really.  Jesus was and still is an incredibly profound Mind.  Let’s just celebrate this reality by choosing to walk humbly with a very big God.

The story continues: Jesus asked to be taken to Lazarus’ tomb.  Many people came to pay their respects, and were weeping as they crowded the village streets.  When Jesus saw this, he wept.  Anybody who knows the story has to be a little surprised at this.  Good news was just a few minutes and steps away.  Why did he weep?

The original language, correctly translated by the New Living Translation, says that a deep anger welled up in Jesus, and that he was deeply troubled.  Angered and troubled by what?  Death.  Hopelessness.  Despair.  All things that are present when God is absent.  But God wasn’t absent, right?  Then why these feelings?  Jesus knew that no matter what we face, we can prevail in hopeful strength because we know who holds our hand.  He was angered and troubled because of how blind people can be to the obvious truth in front of their eyes.  Death sucks, to be sure.  But God is bigger than death.  How much better we would do in life if we believed this great truth more than any other!

After presumably collecting himself, Jesus arrived at the tomb and called some guys to roll away the stone covering its entrance.  A really terrible idea on most days.  Martha, the “Captain Obvious” of this scene, pointed out that a four-days-decaying body would have an awful odor in their Mediterranean climate. 

Sometimes what Jesus calls us to do sounds entirely stinky to us, and yet his way is always good and better than our limited-scope perceptions.  Not too many of us have to deal with a smelly corpse, but the stench of death lingers in many other ways.  The festering wounds of unforgiveness, bitterness, rage, broken relationships, fear, greed, injustice, extreme poverty, discrimination, addiction, an unreflective lifestyle, etc. – they all reek.  Jesus calls us to roll the stones away from these buried concerns, that he might bring life where we thought and assumed only death could exist.  But how often do we refuse to roll away the stone and continue “living” with the pain that could be healed?

The scene ends: Jesus called Lazarus to rise from the dead, which he did.  Hundreds of people believed because they see a dead man walking, alive and well.  I am reminded of why Jesus did this (see Jesus’ prayer) – so that the witnesses would believe that Jesus was from God.  I think that when we read this story, we are invited to be among the audience and make our decision about Jesus just as they did.  Do you believe that Jesus was sent from God to bring us good news of God’s grace, power, hope, and awe?

We are also invited to continue the story.  Will we be faithful to roll away the stones that hide what stinks in our lives, allowing God to restore and heal so that others might now believe?