Blindsided: A Rock

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.   – Matthew 7:24-29

The first hearers of Jesus message weren’t saying, “Hey, this is cute… Jesus is doing children’s ministry. Let’s turn it into a song.” No, they were astonished. In the Greek, this word carries the idea of being amazed so as to be overwhelmed. They were awestruck, floored!

My Bible has Jesus’ words in red. I gravitate to them. Don’t you?  I mean: His words are the very words of God, right? And yes, they are! But don’t overlook those other words, the words in black. This is the words of the narrator (Matthew in this case) and these words are essential.

Two quick reasons: First, they’re scripture, so they are also God-inspired. But secondly, they serve as stage directions in the gospel (see Don Everts’ God in the Flesh for more on this). In a theater or film script, stage directions are those little notes between the dialogue that says, “so-and-so exits stage left” or “so-and-so gasps.”

In the gospels, these words in black can serve a very similar purpose. Again and again, they tell us how people respond to Jesus (His presence, His ministry, His teaching). Sometimes people fall down on their faces; others break into spontaneous worship; sometimes the crowds get angry. People are offended or amazed or sacred – or sometimes all three! There are all sorts of responses to Jesus’ teachings and actions. And these responses can often clue us in to the context…

>>If the original audience is angry or offended, and I just can’t figure out why: that’s a clue that there’s some cultural context I’m missing (may Jesus was challenging some deeply held values or power structures that I’m not familiar with).

>>If the original hearers break into praise and worship, and I don’t get what they are so excited about: it’s a clue to me that I’m not picking up on some underlying context (maybe Jesus was speaking to an expectation from scripture or Jewish literature to which my ears aren’t attuned).

>>And here in our text this morning, if the crowd is astonished (amazed so as to be overwhelmed) by Jesus… but I’m just like, that’s a cute story, or hey, that could be a cute kids song… I’m probably missing the point!

So let’s ask the question: What are we missing?  Why is the crowd astonished?

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I was a joy to preach through this text last month at LifePoint. You can download the message here (right click – or control click – to save file) or just listen below.

In Suffering

[Be sure to check out part 1 (Follow Me) and part 2 (On Mission) of this series on discipleship.]

I get it: We want to accentuate the positive. We Christians like to emphasize the positives of following Jesus – and minimize the negatives. But Jesus is pretty straight forward about the costs of discipleship. Matthew 8:19-22 is a great example.

And a scribe came up and said to [Jesus], “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus isn’t very seeker friendly here. He essentially calls this first scribe clueless; this guy doesn’t understand what he’s saying. Following Jesus means sharing his values and priorities – which are sometimes in direct opposition to our nature instincts. Jesus just doesn’t make comfort and security the kind of priorities that we do! Jesus is pushing this would-be disciple: “You say that you will follow… but do you know what that will cost you?” In speaking of foxes and birds, I don’t think that Jesus is just being cute. In the Old Testament (esp. the prophets), the opponents of God are compared to various animals. In fact, Jesus himself calls Herod Antipas “that fox” (Luke 13:32). I think Jesus is making a point about his purposes here: His opponents (the foxes and birds they are) have the comforts and security of home, but the Son of Man knows none of it. Jesus knows the suffering that is ahead of Him. Jesus demands that His disciples’ priorities reflect His own. And Jesus suffered greatly to accomplish His purposes. 

And this second interaction is interesting as well. Again, Jesus pushes back: “You say that you want to follow me… but do you understand what that means for your priorities?” Burial was likely a yearlong process. At death, the father’s bones would be set in a cave/niche for one year. On the one-year anniversary, the oldest son would see if the bones easily separated. If they did, the father’s remains would be set in a bone box and buried. A proper burial is the penultimate way that a son honors his father. It’s the ultimate act of obedience for an older son. The Mishnah (a later rabbinic text) says that this burial is the only thing that excused a son from reciting the Shema (a daily recitation from the Torah). Burial was a huge deal. Yet Jesus is saying that even your family obligations must come second.

In both of these encounters, Jesus is emphasizing the cost of following Him. Jesus came suffering – as with the master, so with the disciple. In order to follow Jesus, He must be more important than comfort, safety, even family (a theme which Matthew returns to again and again). Disciples of Jesus are called to share in His suffering and sacrifice. Matthew emphasizes this in Mat. 16:21-24 [as well as a ton of other places; see 10:38; 17:22-23; 20:26-28; 26:35].

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus tells His disciples that He will be killed, then raised up again. And what happens? Peter steps in… and gets burned, “Your mind is not on the things of God, but the things of man.” Jesus is showing his disciples that there is a great purpose to His suffering. Jesus knew that God would be doing something amazing, not in spite of His suffering, but right in the midst of Jesus’ suffering and death.

Can Jesus’ disciples share this faith that God will do something redemptive through their suffering? That question is posed to us as well. If you would follow me, Jesus says, deny yourself (your comfort and security are no longer your first priority), take up your cross and follow me. The picture here is death. And ironically, Jesus is talking about death as a way of life for His disciples! Death as a way of life? That sounds a bit extreme, but it’s exactly Jesus’ point. Take up your cross – and keep on following me (present, active, imperative). This isn’t ‘take up your cross, go die and be done with it.’ It’s a paradox: life in the midst of death; a life of dying.  Jesus talks about suffering, sacrifice, and self-denial as a way of life – as a way of discipleship. This is what it means to follow in the way of Jesus – as with the master, so with the disciple.

Jesus bids us to follow. But He warns us not to be blind to the costs. As Bonhoeffer notes, in speaking of costly grace, “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life” (The Cost of Discipleship, 47).

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What does it look like for you to live out the cost of discipleship?

What does “a life of dying” look like in practical terms?

How do we help those we are discipling to identify with Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice (best practices, failures, experiments)?

On Mission

A few weeks back, we talked about an accessible working definition of discipleship (see here). By way of Matthew 4:19, we said that a disciple follows Jesus (head), is being transformed by Jesus (heart), and shares in Jesus’ mission (hands).

It’s worth narrowing in a bit on that final competent: a disciple shares in the mission of Jesus. In fact, I think that this may be exactly Matthew’s point as lays out his gospel in chapters 4-10.

In Matthew 4:23 and 9:35, Matthew gives two parallel summaries of Jesus’ mission: Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and affliction. Remember, Matthew didn’t write with chapters and verses. He relied on literary devices to divide his work into smaller sections – or to show the relationship between sections. Matthew uses these two parallel summaries as bookends of sort (the technical term here is “inclusio”).  And what’s in between these bookends? We see Jesus doing just what Matthew describes. Jesus is teaching, proclaiming the Kingdom, and healing. It’s almost as if Matthew is using that classic public speaking formula: “telling them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; and then tell them what you told them.” Matthew summarizes Jesus’ ministry (4:23), shows Jesus in ministry (4:23-9:35), and then summarizes Jesus’ ministry again (9:35, which shares the almost identical language of 4:23).

This isn’t just a description of Jesus’ ministry though. This informs our purposes as disciples. In fact, I think that Matthew draws a straight line from these summaries of Jesus’ ministry to what Jesus, in turn, asked His disciples to do as He sends them out. What do I mean? Immediately after these bookend parallel summaries of Jesus’ ministry, we see Jesus commissioning the Twelve. What exactly does Jesus send these Twelve out to do?

The disciples are sent out to do just what they have been seeing Jesus do. The language of Matthew 10:7-8 (where Jesus commissions His disciples) is very much the language of Matthew 4:23 and 9:35. Jesus tells them to do the very things that they saw Him doing: proclaim the kingdom, heal the sick (the teaching is absent here, but picked up in Jesus’ final commission to His disciples, Matt. 28:20). Not only did Jesus preach and heal… He asked his disciples to do that same thing. That’s the point here. Disciples join the mission of their leader. We are about His purposes.

Catch this: Not only do we learn something here about the “what” of Jesus’ disciple-making process, but also the “how.” In effect, when we see Jesus here doing ministry (the teaching, proclaiming, and healing of 4:23-9:35), it’s a two-fold Kingdom work: there is of course the actual teaching/proclaiming/healing of Jesus here, but at the exact same time, Jesus is providing an example to His disciples of what their ministry will look like. When Jesus sends them out to proclaim the Kingdom, they’ve already seen what that looks like in practice. As Jesus is healing, at the very same time, it’s a teaching moment for His disciples looking on. When Jesus is teaching the crowds, at that very same moment, He’s giving the Twelve their very own personal ministry seminar.

This is apprenticeship. And it’s the same dynamic that is needed in our discipleship (whether one-on-one or in a small group context). Don’t just lecture… be an example, bring other’s alongside you, talk it through, debrief, wonder aloud, evaluate together. Don’t just make your ministry about your ministry, follow Jesus’ lead here: make your ministry an apprenticeship opportunity.

While our contexts will certainly be very different from the disciples’ in Mat. 10, the principle remains: Disciples share in the mission of Jesus. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are certain aspects of Jesus’ mission that are unique to Him. Jesus does the work of salvation. But what was Jesus message? “Follow me.” Jesus alone can be so boldly (and rightly) self-centered. Jesus points people to Himself as the source of healing and salvation: “Follow me,” He says; “The Torah is fulfilled in me;” “I am the Passover Lamb. Come under my protection,” Jesus declares; “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus pointed people to Himself. And as His disciples, we join Jesus in that ministry by pointing people to Him. Part of being a disciple, then, means joining Jesus in His Jesus-oriented, Jesus-exalting, Jesus-centered mission!

Blindsided: A Treasure

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44-46

I recently had a change to preach through these two short parables at LifePoint. You can listen below – or download it here (right click – or control click – to save file).  While I think that this is the shortest text that I’ve ever preached through, this passage packs a punch. In fact, the parable is as jarring as it is short. The point is sharp and singular: the Kingdom of Heaven is of incomparable value.

 

If you get the chance to listen to the message, you’ll hear the story of Button Gwinnett‘s signature. I first heard this improbable story on the RadioLab podcast. Although the vast majority of us have probably never heard of Gwinnett, his signature is very likely worth more than that of any other American – living or dead. We’re almost certainly talking seven figures here. Listen to the message, or the RadioLab podcast, for the whole story… but here suffice it to say that I find the Button Gwinnett story so compelling, because – at least to me – it exposes the strange way that we value things in our world.

In fact, as I think about what many of us might consider most important in this world, I think that we’re often taking our cues from everybody else. How often do we base value on what everyone else says?  And it’s not just economics; we play this game with our values, our priorities, our purpose, our money, our time, and on and on.  It all reminds me of the old Candid Camera bit…

We fall right in line, don’t we?  And I don’t think that it’s just elevators. We play this game with our lives, our values, our priorities. But here Jesus reminds us of an incomparable treasure – something worth letting go of everything else in order to purse. Compared to this Kingdom, everything’s worth is relative. It’s all passing – temporary. Jesus bids us to look up from our games and see that – when compared to the value of the Kingdom – our dream homes are just sandcastles slowing being dragged back into the ocean by the tide. The careers that we obsess over are fleeting. The relationships that we long for are just shadows of what it means to be known and loved by God.

Follow Me

He didn’t form a political party. He didn’t start a business or an organization. He didn’t plant a local church (at least not in the way that we usually think of it). Jesus called disciples. In fact, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ public ministry begins and ends with a call to discipleship (see Mat. 4:19; 28:19). And between these two great bookends?  Yep, more discipleship. Lots of it.

That’s all fine and good. But what exactly is a disciple? Unfortunately, it’s one of those slippery words, the kind that is often used in 10 different ways by 10 different people. It can be confusing: Are we talking about spiritual disciplines? Is this the same thing as conversion? Or are we talking about some kind of ‘next-level’ faith – a call for a special few Christians?

While a definition that reflects all of the nuance of scripture may be allusive, Jesus’ call of Peter and Andrew provides a pretty good starting point. Here are Jesus’ words to these two fishermen: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mat. 4:19). This verse gives us a great way to get our hands around this idea of discipleship. In fact, I think that we can look at each phrase as an aspect of discipleship (see also Putnam and Harrington’s DiscipleShift).

Follow me…

The call to follow Jesus… is just that – a call to Himself. That sounds like a no-brainer. But it actually makes Jesus unique among His contemporaries. Other teachers in Jesus’ day said, “Follow me, and I’ll teach you Torah.” Or maybe even, “Come with me, and I’ll teaching you the traditions of the fathers.” Jesus’ call was audacious, in part, because He simply called people to Himself. So, first and foremost, the call to follow is explicitly Jesus-centered.

These first two words are an invitation… to accept Jesus’ teaching, his authority, and his path. In accepting this call, we are recognizing Jesus as our Lord. This invitation to follow means putting ourselves behind Jesus. He’s the master-teacher; I’m the apprentice.

…and I will make you

Discipleship involves being molded and shaped by Jesus. This is about transformation, that’s the work of God in our hearts, making us more like our master. A disciple of Jesus is changed by Jesus into the likeness of Jesus (Jesus’ discipleship is not primarily Torah-shaped, but Jesus-shaped; hence his defense in Mat. 5:17). We don’t make ourselves presentable, and then follow Jesus. No, discipleship is that journey of change. In following Jesus, He transforms us. We begin to reflect the character, passions, and values of our master-teacher. This is so necessarily, because fundamentally only Jesus can change our hearts.

…fishers of men

Discipleship also involves action: there is something we do. We are called for a purpose. And here it means that we join Jesus on His mission.  And Jesus isn’t just making a cute pun here (fishermen, fishers of men). What does it mean to be a Jewish fisherman in the first century? Well, it looks like casting nets, hauling in the catch, and (this is often missed) discerning the good fish from the bad. More specifically, fishermen had to discern clean/Kosher fish from the unclean (see also Mat. 13:47). Yes, Jesus is foreshadowing here the call to be disciple-making disciples… but he’s also including in that vision a process of discernment. Disciple-making demands discernment (and in a sense, judgment). Just like Jesus, we don’t necessarily share our time equally with everyone, or invest the same in everyone. I think this is a helpful detail… but don’t miss the big idea: Jesus is inviting his disciples to take part in his mission!

So, Jesus calls Peter and Andrew: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Right here we have an accessible and helpful definition of discipleship. A disciple follows Jesus, is being transformed by Jesus, and shares in Jesus’ mission. Putnam and Harrington emphasize the head-heart-hands trifecta here (Discipleshift, 51):

Putting all three attributes together, we see that a disciple is a person who (1) is following Christ (head); (2) is being changed by Christ (heart); (3) is committed to the mission of Christ (hands).

The head-heart-hand may lack nuance and may even be a little kitschy… but if helps us remember what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus, I’ll take it!

What do you think? Does this definition of discipleship have teeth? Is it helpful to you? Does it oversimplify?

Blindsided: Lost and Found

In Luke 15 we find some Pharisees grumbling about Jesus associating with sinners and tax collectors. The Pharisees were appalled, yet these “sinners” were exactly the people whom Jesus sought to included in His Kingdom (“For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost,” Luke 19:10). Rather than argue with these grumblers (grumblers gonna grumble, right?), Jesus told a story. In fact, Jesus told three stories. These three parables are to be seen together. They follow the same pattern (until a twist at the end) and largely cover the same theme: people rejoicing when they find something that was lost. We’ve all been there. I lose my cell phone at least once a week (I’ve got a problem). And when I find it (or more likely, when Kristin finds it), I celebrate. I do a little dance.  In these stories, Jesus talks about the rejoicing of a shepherd who found his lost sheep, a woman who found her lost coin, and a father who found his lost son returning home. These aren’t just random stories… we’re talking about Jesus after all. He’s a master storyteller. These stories of celebration when the lost is found are a reflection of God’s own heart when sinners (like the ones drawing near to hear Jesus here) enter God’s Kingdom. The “just so” statements in verses 7 and 10 help us tune-in to Jesus’ purposes here. These are stories about God’s heart. But in the third story (about the lost son), Jesus goes further. Rather than finishing the third story just like the other two, right when the audience would expect the story to be ending, Jesus introduces a new tension (v. 25): between the father and the older son (the old brother to the lost son). Jesus highlights the older brother’s response to his father’s celebratory heart. The older brother is indignant. He had served him faithfully for many years… where was his party? “This isn’t fair,” the older brother protests. Rather than celebrating his father’s generosity, he has a scarcity mentality. He becomes angry (v. 28), critical (v. 30), and self-righteous (v. 29). Remember Jesus’ audience here. He is ultimately responding to the grumblings of the Pharisees. And in this older brother, we have a character who responds to his younger brother’s return home with that same Pharisaic grumbling. Jesus wants us to identify this older brother with the Pharisees. Or better yet, Jesus is holding up a mirror to the Pharisees. Jesus wants these Pharisees to see themselves in this older brother. Maybe it isn’t too late for them to repent and come home! Jesus just flipped the script. Now rather than judging others, the Pharisees must look at their own lives. They’ve been blindsided – and us too. I’m forced to ask about the state of my heart: Does it reflect God’s celebratory heart? Does it rejoice in God’s extravagant grace in my life and in the lives of others? Or do I share the older brother’s scarcity mentality? Do I grumble like these Pharisees when I see God offering forgiveness so freely? Is God’s radical grace a stumbling block – and offense – to me? Rather than grumbling or growing hard-hearted, let’s always celebrate God’s radical, extravagant grace – even when it shows up in the most unexpected of places. I recently gave a talk on Luke 15 at LifePoint. You can stream the message below, or download it here!

Something More

As we celebrate Christmas, what is it about the birth of Jesus that has so grabbed the attention of the world? Was this just a birth like any other, or something more? Was Jesus a man like any other (who simply had the misfortune of finding himself on a Roman cross), or something more?

The good people at Moving Works have been asking the same questions…

This Christmas, may you be reminded that there is indeed something more to this baby born in Bethlehem.

A Bigger Vision

People are drawn to similarity: “birds of a feather flock together.” It’s not just a cliché though… it’s a sociological reality. We don’t drift towards diversity; we drift towards those who are like us. I could give you a hundred examples, from our national politics to the ethnic enclaves in the neighborhoods of our cities… but I don’t need to give you an example, because you already know it. You see it: in the school cafeteria, and in the break room at work. It’s not just racial – although that’s usually where it starts. In general, our default is to prefer what is known, and comfortable, and familiar to us.

But hear me on this: God had a bigger vision for the church. Our default is sin, and brokenness, and division. Our default as humans is that in order to be with us, you have to become like us. Sometimes that’s “you’ve got to look like us” – or you’ve got to talk like us, or dress like us, or vote like us; sometimes it’s about economic, or status, or educational. Our actions betray our hearts: In order to be with us, you’ve got to be like us.

But God wants to smash that way of thinking (He’s breaking the mold, recalibrating our default), because in the Kingdom of God, people from every culture use all of that diversity to glorify the name of Jesus!

How does Jesus change the race question? How does Jesus inform the discussion? Here’s a message that I gave at LifePoint last month on God’s vision for a diverse people. Download here (right click – or control click – to save file), or listen below: