Tag Sin

Surprising Answers to Prayer

Todd R 1 Comment

Jesus told many parables, often in response to situations or people He came across.  These parables are full of great lessons, but sometimes there’s also a lesson in the prelude to the parable.  One such example happens in Luke 12:13-15, which says:

“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”   But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”  And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.””

Jesus goes on to tell the “parable of the rich fool,” who loses his soul because he only cares about worldly goods.  The parable is a lesson about coveting, greed and priorities, but I believe there’s also a broader lesson about prayer in the 3 verses above before the parable even starts.

We can put ourselves in the place of the “someone in the crowd,” who wants something, and brings it to Jesus.  Unlike him, we don’t meet Jesus physically on the street, but we come to Him in prayer all the time.  We want something and we pray about it.  When we pray, we often we want to get a particular answer, hopefully giving us what we want.

In the case of “someone” in the Luke 12 story, he wanted part of the family inheritance.  In our case, we could want any number of things like financial gain, an end to a societal problem, better governance from our leaders, success for our children or others, a safe business trip or vacation, etc.  God wants us to pray to Him about all things, and we do.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”  (1 Peter 5:6-7)

However, we often aren’t ready to listen to a different answer than the one we want.  In the story, Jesus didn’t respond to “someone” with a direct answer, but with an answer that challenged the attitude behind the question.  “You shall not covet”[1] is one of the Ten Commandments after all, and Jesus was letting “someone” know the condition of his heart was more important than the condition of his bank account.

God can respond to our prayers in the same way.  Instead of solving what we think is the problem, He may try to reveal to us a deeper problem we need to deal with.  But if we’re focused on the answer we want, we might miss the point He wants to make.  To God, our sanctification is more important than our gratification but often get that backwards.

When we pray for financial gain, God may respond by challenging our priorities, our diligence, our spending habits, etc.  In the Luke story, Jesus confronted the man’s covetousness.

When we pray for an end to societal problems, God may respond by telling us to care for a single mother[2], or support a homeless ministry, or volunteer at a food bank.

When we pray for better governance from our leaders, God may respond by telling us to control what we can control, by reminding us of His sovereignty, or by giving us practical means to work on the problems we want the politicians to solve, but on a smaller scale.

And so on.  Sometimes we do get what we ask for in prayer, but sometimes God will use prayer to do what He promises to do: make us more like Jesus.  Again, our sanctification is more important than our gratification, but sometimes we miss the point because we’re focused on our needs.

It’s ok to bring all of our needs and concerns to God in prayer, and sometimes we get what we want. However, don’t be surprised if He responds in surprising ways, but how?  He can speak to us any way He chooses, but in my experience, He usually points things out in His word, through our circumstances, and through other believers.

Listen and be open to His answers.  No matter what they might be.

“The majority of us begin with the bigger problems outside and forget the one inside.  A man has to learn ‘the plague of his own heart’ before his own problems can be solved” – Oswald Chambers

“The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.” – Warren Wiersbe

[1] Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21
[2] James 1:27

An Audience With Our King

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Do you ever feel like God wouldn’t listen to someone like you?  Who has done what you’ve done or thought what you’ve thought?  Or that He just doesn’t have time for you?  There’s an Old Testament story which shows that a good king, our King, is willing to listen to anybody.

This well-known story of King Solomon comes from 1 Kings 3, in two parts.  In the first part, Solomon asks God for wisdom to rule Israel instead of asking for “long life or riches or the life of your enemies,”[1]so God grants him wisdom, but also the riches and honor he didn’t ask for.  In the second part, an example is given of the wisdom God gave to Solomon.

This example comes in a story of two women who came to Solomon, both claiming that a newborn baby belongs to them.  One claims the other took their child after killing their own child by lying on him in her sleep.  The other claims the living child is their own.

Solomon’s judgement?  “Bring me a sword…Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”[2]  Surprisingly, only one of the women objected to killing the baby, saying the other woman could take him.  Solomon announces that this woman must be the mother instead of the woman who just said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.”[3]  In his wisdom, Solomon preserves this child’s life, gives justice to the mother, and demonstrated the great gift God had given Solomon and his people.

But there’s another important detail in this story.  These women were “two prostitutes,”[4] and therefore both babies were probably illegitimate.  There are many conclusions I could draw from this, but for now, just notice that King Solomon (surely a very, very busy king) found time to give audience to two prostitutes and provide justice between them.  He did not send them away because of who they are.

Our king Jesus is similar.  No matter who you are or what you’ve done, He will give you an audience.  You could be a prostitute, an unwanted child, or maybe you look like a model citizen, and God will listen to you, because the blood of Jesus shed on the cross covers all sins, not just some of them.

Anyone, really anyone, who sincerely comes to Him looking for wisdom and justice will find it in God’s kingdom.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:16

[1] 1 Kings 3:11
[2] 1 Kings 3:24-25
[3] 1 Kings 3:26
[4] 1 Kings 3:16

Of Love and Forgiveness

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Fellow travelers,

Have you known Christians who love well?  Not ones who know the Bible well, or who know all the right doctrines, or who are involved in many church activities.  Not even a person who writes (or reads) a great blog.  These are not bad things, and they may help someone become more loving, but they aren’t the same thing as being a person who loves as Christ loved.  Who loves well.

Not everyone like this gets there the same way, but Jesus mentioned at least one specific way: the more we know how great God’s forgiveness for us is, the greater is our love.

This comes from Luke chapter 7, in the story about “a woman of the city, who was a sinner.”  This woman broke an expensive flask of ointment over Jesus’s feet, then wiped the ointment on His feet with her hair and tears.  What a bold statement of devotion to Jesus she made!

However, Jesus was criticized by a Pharisee for not refusing this act of worship: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”[1]  To the Pharisee, an upright, respectable religious person should have nothing to do with this sinful woman.

In response, Jesus tells a parable about a man who was forgiven a very large debt, and therefore loved the one who forgave him more than another man did who was forgiven a smaller debt.  Jesus contrasts the actions of the Pharisee – who didn’t treat Jesus with nearly as much honor as the “sinner” – with the woman, and says: “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

We don’t know much for sure about this woman’s sins, but we know the Pharisee was aware of them and hated her for it.  He thought her sins were worse than others and should exclude her from any social interactions.  We also know that she was aware of how great her sin was, but she also knew that Jesus loved and forgave her anyway, even though her sin was great.  Jesus tells us her devotion is proof of that.

This story shows us that those with “checkered” pasts, full of sin, pain, and suffering, can become the most passionate believers, as they know what the gospel is capable of overcoming first-hand, in themselves and in others.  Jesus and his early followers went to these outcast people, and the faith of that first generation of Christians changed the world forever!

So, who is willing and able to reach out to sinners in the same way God reached out to them in Christ?  Those who have a very real sense of how great are the sins God that has forgiven them. Often the greatest “sinners” are the ones who learn how to love well.

[1] Luke 7:37-39

God Loves His Unfaithful People

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The story of the prophet Hosea can be a controversial subject.  In only the second verse of the book, we learn that: “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom’” (Hosea 1:2a).

A common interpretation of the “wife of whoredom” is “prostitute,” but it doesn’t necessarily mean that.  However, it certainly means a wife who is not faithful to her husband.  An adulteress, as Homer’s wife Gomer is described in Hosea 3:1.  They have 3 children in the story, and the last 2 may have been illegitimate.

Is it scandalous, is it even believable, that God would command His own prophet Hosea to marry this way?  The God who demands that we be holy.  Could He ask one of His spokespeople to “become one flesh” with a woman like this?  What kind of lesson can we take from this?

It only really makes sense when you realize why God did it.  The full verse of Hosea 1:2 says, “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.’”

Photo by Worshae on Unsplash

Because of the word “for,” there’s a connection between the unfaithful wife and the people of the land: God’s people Israel.  It’s as if God commanded this marriage because Israel was unfaithful.  God had something to say about that.  While Hosea’s marriage was real, it was also a symbol meant to give a message: that, like Hosea marrying Gomer, God is willing to love unfaithful people.  After all, there is no other kind of person.  We all fit the description, yet He is willing to love us so much that the church is called the bride of Christ, like Gomer was the bride of Hosea.

While some think God’s command to Hosea is too scandalous to have really happened, it is no more scandalous than God choosing sinners to be His bride in Christ, which He did.  From the beginning of time God knew that His people would be unfaithful to Him, yet He designed and implemented a plan to bring those same people back into a right, intimate relationship with Him.  This plan meant taking on human flesh, being abused, and dying horribly for His people, but then being raised from the dead and taken back up into heaven.  This was the cost of restoring sinners to fellowship with their Maker who loves them.  And He thought it was worth it.

So, what is the lesson of God’s command to Hosea?  That there is no limit to who or how God can love.  Nobody deserves God’s love because all are unfaithful, but in spite of that, God loves His unfaithful people.  Why?  Because in His love He chooses to.

Praise God that He does!

Amen.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” – Revelation 22:17

Insurrection Ironies

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Jesus knew what He was getting into when, near the end of His earthly ministry, He determined to go to Jerusalem.  After being betrayed by one of His own disciples, arrested and turned over to the authorities, Jesus was tried up to six times as Jewish and Roman authorities passed Him back and forth.  There are a number of ironies that happen during these trials, but this post will focus on the comparison of Jesus and Barabbas.

One of the American Heritage Dictionary’s definitions for insurrection is “The act or an instance of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government.”  This idea of insurrection is important in Jesus’ final trial before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea and Samaria, who condemned Jesus to be crucified even though he saw no fault in Him.

An irony in this story is that there was a tradition whereby Pilate would release one prisoner as a way of doing the Jews a favor.  Pilate asked the crowd whether he should release Jesus or a man named Barabbas, and the crowd insisted on Barabbas.  Who is Barabbas?  He was an insurrectionist and murderer.  He had been involved in a plot started in Jerusalem to overthrow Roman rule.[1]  The irony is that the charge against Jesus according to the Jewish leaders was that He was “misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”[2]  Anyone in Caesar’s realm claiming to be king was revolting against Roman authority.  In other words, they were accusing Jesus of insurrection, while asking for the release of a man who had actually participated in an insurrection.  This is also strange because one of the reasons the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus as Messiah was that He wasn’t actually going to revolt against Rome.  They didn’t like that Jesus was not an insurrectionist.

Why did Pilate agree with the crowd about releasing Barabbas?  Pilate was a man under higher authorities in the Roman empire, and one way he could lose his position is if he didn’t effectively silence any opposition to Rome.  When the crowd grew more and more belligerent in their crying out for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified, there was a risk of riots or even a larger uprising.  Therefore, to keep from attracting unwanted attention and criticism from his superiors, Pilate decided to let the crowd have its way.  Barabbas was released instead of Jesus because of what?  The threat of an insurrection by this crowd.

There’s even another layer to this when we consider who Jesus is and what the name “Barabbas” means.  Jesus is the only human ever who never participated in a revolt against the highest authority, His Father.  He, the Son of God the Father, was condemned to die in place of an actual insurrectionist, Barabbas, whose name means “son of father.”  Since everyone has a father, the meaning of the name Barabbas could apply to anyone.  So symbolically, Jesus died in place of someone whose name represents everyone, or all of us, so we could be sons of the Father. In summary, Jesus was killed in place of an actual insurrectionist because the Jewish leaders didn’t like that He wasn’t really an insurrectionist but accused Him of being one anyway.  This all happened in spite of the fact that Jesus is the only person ever to not commit insurrection against the highest authority, God the Father.

[1] Luke 23:19
[2] Luke 23:2