Joseph had thought through his next actions in light of his financé unplanned pregnancy. He knew he wasn’t the father. He knew that it would bring much shame to both families if he married her, and in his culture it would be her undoing if he pointed out that she was pregnant out of wedlock. His line of thought was rooted in kindness. With noble intentions, he chose to avoid shaming her by divorcing her quietly. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
We should read that sentence carefully. It says, “But after he had considered this…” That meant that some time passed. The Lord is not uncomfortable leaving us in uncomfortable circumstance if it furthers His glory. Whenever we are faced with an uncomfortable choice, we should remember that.
One wonders how long Joseph wrestled with his choices. He had to carefully process every possibility. As a Jew, he would’ve known that Isaiah had prophesied Messiah would be born of a virgin. Just how believable was Mary’s story in this case, even if there was a truthful ring to it?
There is a difference between a good choice and the best choice. The Lord is purposeful in seeking that we might make the best of our choices, and not any less. Perhaps that is one reason we who follow Jesus have such a difficult time discerning His will in some matters. To be God’s disciple, we must learn how to pick between the better and the best, and then act on it decisively. That is not a habit easily gained. But God knows our frame, and He is well able to encourage us to make the right choice. In Joseph’s case, God sends an angel to speak to him. This is the first time we read of Joseph hearing God speak, even if it is through an angel:
“Joseph, son of David”. To hear his name spoken by that which is beyond his frame of reference must be both terrifying and strangely comforting – the words being reassurance that supernatural God knows him, and where he came from. “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.” His concern is dealt with straight on, and the Lord calls it for what it is. Not a mere concern for his parents, but a personal fear. No doubt there was yet some prideful fear that he would lose his place in society if he took Mary in spite of her pregnancy. “…because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” A full validation of Mary’s testimony. He could know for certain she was sane, godly and blessed. “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
This simple truth changes everything for Joseph. The promised Messiah would finally be born, and He would be born into Joseph’s house! A higher honour could not be hoped for.
In just a few sentences, the Lord had taken what looked to be a personal disaster and turned it into a tremendous blessing.
That is so like Him.
Even the ungodly can see that often what appears to be disaster is actually a blessing. Oscar Wilde said, “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise for which we are later, in the fullness of time and understanding, very grateful for!” So it is. The Lord who redeems broken and sinful people also redeems the soreness of the trials we endure. Did the Lord not turn the cross into the greatest of blessings? Dear child of God, fear not. You are in HIs hands. Perhaps He is doing something similar in your circumstance.
Marcus Verbrugge
APPLICATION:
Mediate on God’s character as revealed in His promise in Joel 2:25-27;
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.”
“Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…”
The Word of God calls Joseph righteous, and his intention to avoid shaming his bride reveals his godly character. His circumstance, character and choice have put Joseph in a place where he is about to experience God on a whole new level.
We all want that. We all desire to be like Joseph in being called righteous. We all desire to act in God’s character so as to be considered godly, and we all desire to hear God speak to us through dreams and visions. Indeed, some cross earth and sea to get to what they understand as “thin places” – places where they might be close enough to God to hear Him more clearly or see spiritual reality more tangibly. Places like where Joseph is now, sleeping. These are the enviable traits of Joseph’s story, but not many would envy where he actually is at this point in his story.
Consider: His bride to be has just revealed her pregnancy – something that in all likelihood has already destroyed their hopes for a wedding celebrated with much family and many friends. When his family and friends found out, they would be more than disappointed. Both his side of the family and her side of the family would be crushed. Even if they were to be married anyway, for reasons of propriety it would need to be done quietly and without fanfare. Joseph was finding himself between a rock and a hard place.
With that weighing on his mind, one can imagine it was not easy for him to fall asleep. One can imagine he was broiled in thought about exactly what to do. In reality Joseph was close to God. But in his mind, Joseph is in a very difficult place indeed!
Truth is, we all want the honour that God showed Joseph (in being called righteous). But we want that honour without the difficulty of living out the day-to-day decisions that result in refinement of our character. We want God to call us righteous without God first calling us to challenging circumstance. We want to be in thin places – places where the Lord might reveal Himself in a most meaningful way – but we want that without the inner pain that places us there. We want dreams and visions of God’s plans for us without crying ourselves to sleep. We want His best for us now, without first seeking to do the very best thing for those who have deeply hurt us and dashed our dreams and hopes.
But there are no shortcuts to righteousness or God’s favour, whatever our circumstance. Only choices. Choices that either put us nearer to Him, or not. Those choices are ours to make.
They are yours to make, even today.
Desire of righteousness is preceded by repentance, accompanied by humility, and followed by works of mercy.
Upon finding out of Mary’s pregnancy, we read this in Matthew 1:19; “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” That tells us three things: That Mary’s husband’s name was Joseph, that he was a righteous man, and that he did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace, so he purposed to divorce her quietly.
As a name, “Joseph” is both of solid Hebrew stock and a shout out to the patriarch of long ago, so we can know that Mary’s chosen husband was one that was culturally appropriate. Whether that was her choice entirely, or one that was arranged by the families, is not given to us. What we can ascertain is that they as a couple were likely to fit in well with their society. They were a ‘normal’ couple. But then, the truly great almost always start off as ‘normal’.
Of course, just how ‘normal’ Joseph was is a matter of subjectivity. The narrative of the Word of God details Joseph as a righteous man. That is striking, and makes him hardly average. For it is one thing to be righteous in your own eyes. It is another altogether to be actually right in your character. More than both, very few are counted righteous in the pages of Scripture, yet it is into this last category that we find Joseph placed. That is a high honour by the hand of God, and certainly something that marks Joseph as far above average. Even more than that, the text tells us he was unbelievably kind. For he hears the news that his bride to be is pregnant, and his measured reaction is to avoid exposing her to disgrace! Is that how most of us would’ve reacted? In consideration of her, after she comes and tells us she is pregnant by God Himself?
Some have suggested that it is well possible Joseph thought she had simply lost her mind, or was covering for a family member who had done something too horrible to speak of. But to conclude such would be to embark down the same faithless line of thought as Mary’s pregnancy had first suggested to the reader, and to ignore the text entirely, because the text of Scripture says that Joseph was a righteous man. He therefore would’ve been able to hear the Spirit’s silent witness to his Bride’s explanation for her sudden pregnancy. Not that it would’ve been easy news. But that she was not wrong, whatever had happened. So he determines to quietly divorce her (engagement being as legal marriage in their society). There will be no public shaming, no stoning for adultery and no demands for increased dowry. Joseph was a righteous man, and kind.
On a human scale, this is a touching story of humility and grace. But it is more than that, it is one of those rare seasons when you know God is up to something. For to display Godly character in the face of the sorest of trials (and surely it is that, when the one you’ve already committed your whole life to shares such news with you) – is to live out what His Spirit has quietly said in the depths of your soul. That, of and by itself, is a rare thing. It ought to be normal, especially among God’s people. But we all know it is not.
Realize then, that Joseph is now in a thin place, regardless of geography. He is close to God. His character and his choices have put him there.
Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical.
Tullian Tchividjian
APPLICATION: Intentionality
In light of all the kindness God has shown you, what small kindness can you do for someone else today?
In many evangelical churches, it is common to find people eager for more of the Holy Spirit. Why wouldn’t they? After all, who would not want more of the Spirit? He whom Jesus promised, whom He sent, He who imparts spiritual gifts to His children, who leads us and guides us into all righteousness – we all want that!
Yet the Holy Spirit is also Sovereign God Most High. He does what He wishes, when He wishes, as He wishes. He brings glory to Christ, is part of the Godhead, and answers to no man. The consequence of which is that sometimes – perhaps a whole lot more often than any care to acknowledge – He does that which does not seem convenient to us in the moment. Of course, inconvenience is not what most are looking for. Certainly not what any are expecting from God Most High.
The Christmas story is perhaps the single best-known story on the face of the globe. But in Matthew’s Gospel it does not start with wonder and amazement. It starts with a profound and troublesome inconvenience. Matthew writes, ”This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”
By leaving out the angelic encounter Luke informs us about, Matthew confronts his readers with the realization that Mary had to wrestle with. In fact, reading it without the benefit of Luke, one can well imagine a sinking feeling in Mary’s gut as she realized she was pregnant. She was keenly aware she had not yet slept with her husband. Humanly speaking, nothing but doubt and questions would’ve flooded her mind. Matthew’s unbelieving readers might wonder; Did someone rape her while she slept? Did she ingest some potion that removed her memory? Of course, we have the Gospel of Luke, so we know very much otherwise. An angel – well, not just any angel, but the archangel Gabriel – appears to her (see Luke 2:28-35). So we know Mary did not have a sinking feeling, but rather one of elation. Even if it was to be tempered with a healthy dose of fear for how her community – and her fiancé – would take the news.
Matthew’s omission of these critical facts leaves the reader of his Gospel startled, and perhaps deeply skeptical of the words, “she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” Yet isn’t it always that way with God’s revelation? We either take it at face value and believe, or we have a million reasons to question and disbelieve.
Matthew is not afraid of confronting this natural tension. He knows it resides in each of us, so he addresses it head on. The reader, having already been reminded of God’s work through so many of the saints over the ages, knows that God has been working and speaking to this point. They are immediately confronted with the reality that God is continuing to work. He is doing something in the here and now. Something uncomfortable in the text, and perhaps something else uncomfortable in the reader.
A most wise man once said, “Consider carefully how you listen!” Such advice is critical. Either you will read Matthew 1:18 and realize God is still speaking though His Word -even to you right now – or you will read it and listen to your own inner doubt instead. To those who choose to listen to the Spirit, the rest of Matthew is full of delight, wonder and blessing. It is God, speaking to them. But to those who choose to listen to their doubt, it is nothing but straw.
Which will it be for you?
When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves – that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.
NT Wright
APPLICATION: Thankfulness, Intentionality
Perhaps the next inconvenience you encounter will actually be a blessing of God for you. Choose now to make the very best of it.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.”
In consideration of the above passage, no less than Martin Luther wrote, “It looks like a useless, unnecessary writing in which he has reviewed the names of the dear fathers, since we know absolutely nothing about them, and it is of no help to us at all.”
That is quite a statement. As audacious as it sounds, it probably isn’t a statement that many Bible readers would disagree with. What then is the point of including such a tedious history in the annals of God’s own Word?
Could it be that we simply need to know that our lives might be a part of something much greater? Could it be that we need to be informed that our lineage leads somewhere? That who we bring into the world means more to the world than just adding a name to our particular family picture, and another mouth to feed? That the Lord knows where we as a family and a people group came from, and to where we as a family and as a people group are headed? Could it be that the Lord, in His sovereign and perfect will, wants to show us that He is sovereign over the lives of those who came before us, and over the lives that come after us?
Perhaps He wants us to be keenly aware, even as we look for the fulfillment of promises made long ago, that who we are and even our name are not unimportant to Him in our present generation?
Or perhaps, this particular genealogy is only here because God is committed to demonstrating that His plan is far greater than ours, so much so that even the number of our generations is counted? Or that we too might aspire to have our name written down – not in a genealogical record per se, but in the Lamb’s book of Life?
So many good and useful lines of thought, all jumping out at us!
Think not that Jesus’ genealogy is a useless bit of trivia. It is the Holy Word of God, able to make the foolish wise and to discern the hearts and motives of all who read it. Remember that, ”All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Yes, even a genealogy! Amen.
Our names are not written in either the Old Testament or the New Testament, but we who know Jesus in our day are honoured all the same. For we too are part of His story.
APPLICATION: Prayer
Today, pray for your pastor and at least one distant relative in addition to yourself. God is doing something tremendous through each of you. Thank Him for that.
After introducing us to Jesus Christ, “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” Matthew continues, “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.”
If Matthew meant to give us a complete genealogy, he would’ve listed Adam, Seth, and everyone else listed in Genesis 11. By choosing instead to start Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham, the Gospel writer is making an assumption that the readers already know Abraham’s history. That assumption is therefore a statement – out of the box, this Gospel is a Gospel expressly for those who count Abraham as their forefather.
Of course, Abraham is the man who was declared righteous by faith. So it is that even in Jesus’ genealogy one can see how it takes faith to realize the promises of God. For Abraham waited a very long time to have his son Isaac, and Genesis 25 tells us that Isaac prayed for 20 years to see his son Jacob born. On his part, Jacob undertook hard labor for seven years before he married Leah and could begin building his family. Further, Perez and Zerah were born in scandal to Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, and only after Tamar waited what Genesis 38:12 calls, “a long time”.
Not only that, but Boaz met Ruth the Moabite (with whom he had Obed) only under the extraordinary circumstance of Ruth’s Jewish mother-in-law Naomi leaving Moab after both her husband and two sons died, and on account of the widow Ruth travelling with Naomi back to the land of Israel.
One cannot help but note that the lineage of Jesus is filled with difficulty, hardship and long waits. But that is part of what Matthew wants us to see: The realization of the promise of God does not come without the struggle of faith over time. We see that in how Jesus Christ is tied to both Abraham, to whom was promised the Messiah (Gen 12:3), and to David, to whom was promised the Messiah (Ps 89:3-4). God’s great favour was on both, but both also had to endure much time and testing of their faith to see the day Messiah was born.
What then of us? Surely God’s great favour is on us also. In one sense, much more than on David and Abraham, for the New Covenant in Christ is superior to the Old Covenant through Abraham. As Hebrews teaches us, “The ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.” In that sense, the blessing of our adoption as God’s sons and daughters is far better than all Abraham received during his lifetime. So when we are faced with long seasons of waiting, difficulty and hardship, we too must lean on our faith, just as they did.
Doubt not, God is about fulfilling His promise. 2Cor 1:20 says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
Sometimes when I seek Him in prayer for a long-awaited answer, I hear the sound of swords clashing. I smell the fires of war, and I know that there is much spiritual battle going on, hidden from my eyes. For God means to answer quickly, but His answer must overcome much resistance in reaching me.
anonymous
APPLICATION: Thankfulness
Thank God for His faithfulness.
What answer/promise are you waiting for? Meditate on 2Cor 1:20.
When reading through the Bible, one cannot help but notice that God creates a covenant with Adam (Gen 1:28-30), a covenant with Noah (Gen 6:8, 9:8-9,11-17), a covenant with Abraham (Gen 15:18), a covenant with Moses (Ex 6:5, 24:1-8, 34:10-28), and a covenant with David (2Sam 7, 23:5, Ps 89:3; 132:12; 2 Chr 13:5). They are all written by God and directed to His people. That tells us that God Most High designs that His people should be in a covenant relationship with Him.
In fact, if you look closely at all of those covenants, you will see that although they each build on each other in terms of complexity and understanding, they each say something to ordinary human beings to the effect of, “God is our God and we are His People”. In that sense they are all really the same covenant – each is a solemn commitment we enter into by His unilateral command. Each lays out what we are to do to honor Him as King. Each explains how God will bless us as His people. And in each there is some signal of death that God’s people will know that there is a grievous penalty for abandoning the Covenant.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord promised another Covenant. This New Covenant (from which we get the words, “New Testament”) is not like the Old Covenant in that it offers forgiveness for disobeying the terms of the Old Covenant. On that basis alone it is a greater covenant. But it is far greater yet, because by the New Covenant, God offers us full reconciliation with Him – so much so that all who are part of it can enter His presence day by day, just as a single man (the high priest) was able to do only once a year under the Old Covenant. In that sense it is a tremendous fulfillment of the Old Covenant. It allows that we are all to be made like the greatest high priest. It is made with the same God (through His Son), and the penalty for disobeying is still eternal separation from Him and all the creation He rules over. To that end we can rightly say that the earlier expressions of His Covenant pointed to the New Covenant.
Two of those expressions were most pertinent to the Jews; The covenant with Abraham – which established the Hebrew race, and the covenant with David – which established the temple, the dwelling of God among the Hebrew people. All Jews knew all the Old Testament covenants, but it is these two that they could look at to see both the demarcation of their nation as unique out of all the nations of the earth, and the pinnacle of their nation at its very best.
So when Matthew begins his Gospel with, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham,” he is making a pointed declaration that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Jewish people group could aspire to become. That he also starts off by naming Jesus as Christ – meaning, “anointed one”, and “son of David” (a messianic title), means we can also understand that he writes from that viewpoint.
So then, the Gospel of Matthew should not be read as a treatise arguing toward understanding Jesus as Messiah. Rather, it should be understood from the start as a revelation of what God’s people are called to become. For it is a record that starts with who Jesus is, but ends with the common calling of all Christ’s followers to be like Him in reaching and restoring God’s people.
After all, that is exactly what Jesus our Messiah and High Priest ultimately offers – that we, mere fallen human beings – might become perfect children of God through Him, engaging in His work with Him. As Paul would later put it, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Glory to God!
“The same Jesus Who turned water into wine can transform your home, your life, your family, and your future. He is still in the miracle-working business, and His business is the business of transformation.”
Adrian Rogers
APPLICATION: Thankfulness
Think about the fact that God had a holy purpose in mind in creating your family line. From the beginning He meant for you and all your relatives to be part of His work. Praise Him for that high calling, and pray that it would be fully realized in your generation.
It is considered common historical knowledge that only two of the four Gospels were written by the apostles; Matthew being one, John the other. Though the writer of Matthew does not clearly identify himself at any point, we gather his identity through a combination of revealed fact (within the Gospel itself) and largely undisputed tradition. In modern times some scholars debate whether the writer actually is the apostle Matthew (some date this Gospel past Matthew’s lifetime). But one cannot doubt that the writer is a Jew, speaking to other Jews in the first century AD.
Matthew 1:1 says, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” In this single sentence the writer discloses that it is of primary importance to firstly understand the genealogy of Christ. More than that, that in so doing we will find Jesus to be directly from the line of David, and directly the descendant of Abraham. A more Jewish history cannot be considered. To put this first and foremost in his book, the writer must have been addressing Jews (who would grasp the significance of that fact).
But there is even more in this first sentence. For to summarize Jesus as the son of David and also the son of Abraham, the writer (we’ll call him Matthew from here on) is making it clear that Jesus is in some way the embodiment of Jewish history. So while we might read Matthew as a Jewish book for Jewish people, we further understand that “Matthew also wrote as a Christian for Christians.” As the Baker encyclopedia of the Bibles notes, “Matthew takes the form of a theological textbook, a handbook for the church, to instruct the people of God concerning the person and work of Jesus. That these teachings may be more readily and firmly grasped, Matthew presents them in a highly organized and memorable way.” Speaking of a popular theologian, the same authors state, “According to Wright, Matthew is a revision of the story of Israel as understood in contemporary Judaism.”
Wow. “A revision of the story of Israel as understood in contemporary Judaism!” In other words, Matthew wrote his Gospel to purposefully reframe his people’s history so they might understand the significance of Jesus. He contextualized the Gospel of Jesus to his own people group, so that they might ‘get’ Jesus! A more significant lesson for us in our time could not be gained, most especially when you consider that this Gospel was written (at the earliest) ~60AD. That means that Matthew would have been an elder among his people. He therefore needed to write this down if his message was ever to transcend the limitations of his own physical age.
That means that from the very first verse, Matthew had the end goal in mind.
He understood the Christian’s calling to successfully communicate the wonderful news of Jesus Christ – not only to our own generation, but to the next generation and the generations after that.
Let us therefore know that to intentionally grow in the grace and knowledge of God is to also intentionally have God’s purpose’s in mind. Especially that we might bring the Jesus we found to others who do not yet know Him, and that we might do so in a way that they will understand. If they are a digital generation, we cannot communicate our message via a vinyl disc. We have to “speak their language” as it is. Just as Matthew does, even from the very first sentence.
Amen.
“Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
APPLICATION: Prayer, Intentionality
Think about the next time you will communicate with someone of another generation. Who are you hoping and praying will one day come to faith in Jesus Christ?
How does their culture differ from yours? What can you use to bridge that difference?
Pray that God will use you to speak into their lives about Himself.
What a privilege it is to bring the Word of God to you this morning.
A few weeks back I went over to my neighbor’s house to check on them, because I knew from my previous conversation with them that he had recently been ill. When I asked how I could pray, they shared that he was facing an uncertain diagnosis – he was suffering severe abdominal pain, and all the Xrays had revealed was that the doctors saw a need for a more detailed MRI. That’s not usually a sign of really good things to come, and it was distressing to them. So I spent some time in prayer with them.
As I walked across the lawn back to my place, I thought about the difficulty they were facing. I thought about suffering. I thought of all the many people in my circles who are in pain right now. The many people that Dan leads us in prayer for each Sunday morning, and so many other dear friends, family and acquaintances. Some dealing with life-threatening disease. Some with handicap and limitation. Some with other physical issues. Many suffering in non-physical ways. Some suffering through the loss of loved ones, estranged children, struggling marriages, stress at work. Others suffers mentally and emotionally on account of trauma or abandonment or abuse or addiction or loneliness. Some are suffering financially through under-employment and unemployment. And some – some suffer all of the above. I think of the Syrian newcomers who have lost virtually every meaningful thing in their lives over the last few years in their effort to get to safety in Canada, and now listen with dread to the news coming from the Turkish border. For them, every thought of what their relatives are now enduring causes them to re-experience their own trauma, all over again. (long pause)
Suffering is a subject that we just can’t seem to get away from. It dogs us. It keeps coming up, every year, every month, really every week, and in all manner of ways. If not for us personally, then for someone we know and love and care about. Suffering is always in view, and all the more as you get older.
Why, just last Sunday Pastor Gary concluded a wonderful look at the book Philippians, and we were reminded that the book of Philippians was written by a man who was suffering much while he wrote it! Paul was imprisoned and awaiting trial for a capital offense. He was isolated. Cold. Immobile and facing potential execution while he wrote Phillipians. And ironically, Pastor Gary was suffering terrible back pain while he preached it. Suffering is always in view, and there are seasons in life when you just can’t seem to back away from it.
That pun about the back (BTW) was all the humor I could muster for this message. There is nothing funny about suffering. That lesson was brought home again last Sunday afternoon as my wife and I found ourselves unexpectedly eating Thanksgiving alone. We knew Deb’s kids and our siblings and parents wouldn’t be there, but we had prepared a big turkey anyway, thinking that my son Kyle would. But as it happened, that afternoon he was too physically ill to join us. (pause) I thought about the pain he was experiencing. Watching someone you care about deal with complications of diabetes is hard. (pause)
And then in my morning devotions, I’m slowly going through the book of Matthew. After three and a half years, I am in chapter 27, which is a narrative about the suffering and execution of Jesus Christ. Friends, I would’ve liked – I would have liked very much – that the first time I am asked to speak to you, the Lord would have given me message that is celebration and joy. But in His timing and for His glory, there is something else He wants us to consider this day. Something much more applicable than any of us would care to admit. Something I don’t really want to talk about but find myself compelled to.
Today we are going to look at how God sees suffering – specifically, human suffering. For God has a particular view of it. He has a way of looking at it that is wildly different than the way we look at it. His philosophy of suffering is unlike ours. It is a totally different view. God sees purpose in suffering. And if you bear with me this morning, you will see that our suffering (whatever kind of suffering it is) also has purpose. A purpose (my friends) that we will not be sorry for on the day we see His face. Let us pray. (PRAY)
In Matthew 27, the Gospel writes records, “Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
Now – that is a very dramatic scene. Let me give you the background. Just hours before this all happened, Jesus was rejoicing in the fellowship of His disciples as they shared a Passover meal in the upper room. But then He suffered the crushing betrayal of His friend Judas – a man He had shared three years of ministry with, a man He trusted to hold their common purse. Judas betrayed Him. And as Jesus thought through what was to come of that, He was sorrowful. He led His band up to the garden of Gethsemane. There He suffered in prayer. Three times He fervently prayed for reprieve. Three times the Father was silent. In the middle of the night, the chief priests and armed guards arrived. Jesus was arrested. Brought to the house of the chief priests, He faced the frustration of a kangaroo court – a court that was set up just to pass sentence, not provide any kind of meaningful search for justice. He suffered that three times actually – only the first was under Jewish leadership. But they couldn’t legally execute Him, so they sent Him – in the very early hours of the morning – to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.
For his part, Pilate did not see fit to appease the Jewish religious leadership that had so rudely woken him demanding that he exercise his privilege for their benefit. Instead, he questions Jesus and when he finds that Jesus is a Galilean, passes Him off to Herod, who had authority over Galilee and just happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.
See – Pilate (and Herod, but we’ll get to that later) had a particular philosophy of suffering. A way of looking at suffering that many people share today that is not God’s way of looking at it. Pilate believed that suffering was just something to avoid. Something to avoid in even the smallest of doses. For Pilate (and Herod both) knew that dealing with Jesus – however they did that – would cost them. Not physically of course. Not financially or emotionally. But if they dealt with Jesus they’d suffer politically. For if Pilate dealt with Jesus, then the Jewish priests would have ‘won’. They would’ve succeeded in inconveniencing him and forcing him to do something they wanted for their own reasons. If that happened, Pilates’ authority would be slightly less awesome, and Pilate was not about to suffer that. So he sends Jesus to Herod. But Herod realized that if he dealt with Jesus, then the people he was personally responsible for – the people of Galilee, who he full well knew liked Jesus – they might rebel, and then he would be seen as unable to control them. Herod was not about to suffer that, or the indignation of having to do Pilate’s dirty work. So Herod sends Jesus back. Ping-pong.
So now it’s morning proper, and it’s the second time Pilate is told he has to sentence Jesus to death. Of course, Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent, but he also knows the Jewish religious authorities will incite an uprising if they don’t get what they came for. That would go very poorly for him, because Rome is always watching, and Rome would rather have the income of a suppressed population than the blood of their subjects. He also knows that the crowds adore Jesus (for it wasn’t even a week ago that they sang Hosannah as He entered the city), and he also knows they’ll come to his palace because today’s the day – today’s the day they look to him to release a prisoner as is his annual custom. So Pilate waits till a crowd gathers. He thinking ahead. He figures if he escalates the matter by making it a black and white choice between a domestic terrorist named Barrabas and the innocent man Jesus, he can expect the crowd to ask for Jesus’ release. That would mean he won’t have to put down another uprising. Best of all, he will do what Herod was unable to do, proving to his Roman masters that he is the right man for the office he holds in the first place.
And that’s where our text this morning began. Friends, in all of that background, do not miss this – Herod and Pilate did all they did with Jesus so that they might avoid suffering themselves. The fact that others suffer much so that they might not have to suffer at all in even a small way – well that was inconsequential in their eyes.
They should’ve known that when you have to manipulate others and twist circumstance to avoid suffering, you are not sharing God’s view of it. Avoiding suffering to the detriment of others is not “the answer”. It is not the answer to suffering that others suffer so we might not need to. (pause). Mind you, we might want it to be. It would be convenient if it was. We wish it was the answer. But it is not.
And although Pilate’s manipulation of the circumstances is masterful, the Lord is control – not him. As if to demonstrate that fact, the Lord ironically escalates Pilates’ responsibility. The text says, “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”Reading between the lines, you can almost see the hairs on Pilate’s neck stand up. But in the end, Pilate washes his hands and proclaims his own innocence – and then commits the crime: He passes sentence against the Son of God: “Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.”(pause)
If you’ve seen the movie, The Passion of the Christ, you have some idea of the degree of physical suffering that scourging entailed. The full horror of what was inflicted by it cannot be realized in the few words and sentences that the Gospel assigns to that event. And to be fair, neither is it truly realized when we hear someone talk about it.
We tend to tune out when we come across such things. The reality is that we don’t like coming face to face with suffering in any capacity, and you and I already know suffering well. So I’m not going to go on and on about design of the whip or it’s lacerating impact or the humilation of it all. Instead, it will suffice to remember how we feel when we suffer.
How we want to escape it. How we want it to be over. How we want it to end. To be minimized. We want to somehow get ahead of it – at least to the point where it is somehow tolerable.
But suffering it isn’t so easily dismissed. Pain – whether physical pain as was inflicted on Christ in this flogging – or mental/emotional pain as when you are dealing with addiction or divorce or abandonment or grief – or even financial suffering as when you are working through a long season of poverty – these things don’t just go away. They don’t leave you after a day of sniffles like a cold. They hang on. They pursue you everywhere you are, all the while relentlessly crying out for resolution. Every waking second as you suffer becomes a search for some measure of relief. Every cell in our bodies tells us to justmake it stop. But it does not. And sometimes it even gets worse.
Matthew continues, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him.And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.”[4]The NIV says they hit Him, again and again.
Everything the soliders did in that room after Jesus was scourged was uncalled for. None of it was part of the sentence passed, and none of it was necessary. From satan’s viewpoint, this is the flourish on the icing on the cake – the cherry on the top of the sweetest dessert. This is satan reveling. Physical, mental, verbal and emotional abuse, causing as much harm as possible, and then a little bit more. The twisting of the knife, as it were.
You know what is astonishing about all that? Jesus did not shirk from it. He did not evade it. He did not dodge it. And He knew it was coming. Even before they had reached Jerusalem, Jesus had said to His disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.” Jesus knew it was part of the reason He was there. So He stood under it.
Certainly, this wasn’t His first experience of suffering. He knew the poverty of being incarnated in human form to start with. He had set aside His glory and His honor at the right hand of the Father in the highest heaven, and come to be born a human baby. To live in the dust and difficulty of an oppressed nation, before electricity, before democracy and before modern medicine. So He knew that. He suffered through the grind of daily life. He suffered hunger and thirst. He suffered lack. Oppression and threats. And He submitted to all that – and then this. (pause)
He submitted to it. He didn’t fight it. He didn’t rant to everyone around Him about it. He gave Himself up to experience it. Right up to and including arrest without just cause. Imprisonment without just cause. Verbal and physical punishment without just cause, up to and including torture unto death.
And they did that. They crucified Him.
And when they nailed Him to that cross, they gave Him a drink. Matthew says, “they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.”
Now giving Him wine sounds compassionate, but those crucifying Jesus were not about to give Him something they could use. One must remember that this is the same lot who had so visciously abused Him prior to draggin Him out to Golgotha to start with. So they do not offer Jesus a palatable drink they could consume. They offer Him spoiled wine instead, mixing it gall and myrrh and unwittingly fulfilling the ancient prophesy of Psalm 69, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” [7] The mixture would’ve speeded up death by both weaking the body and clouding the mind. It also would’ve caused great gastrointestical discomfort. That’s why the soldiers gave it to Him. So they could sit and watch and gamble on whether or not He would futher loose dignity before He died. Otherwise you would sit and not watch someone on a cross, because it might take two days or more for them to die of their injuries.
But they sat and watched, because the soldier’s philosophy of suffering was that suffering for the entertainment of others. That suffering is for the entertainment of others. That’s why they beat Him and mocked Him after He was scourged, and that is why they gave Him wine mixed with gall. Friends, that is evil. That is messed up. That is wrong on a whole host of levels. (pause) But I am compelled to mention it because that is a view of suffering that is endemic to our present way of life. That is why Hollywood puts out movie after movie and show after show. People pay to watch that. Netflix and HBO and Cineplex and the like earn good money showing what film critics gleefully call, “blood and gore”. There is scarcely a show produced that doesn’t have some of it, and in our generation there are whole movies dedicated to showing people suffer the most gruesome and painful deaths possible – a whole category of film on it’s own.
Wisely, Jesus refuses the drink after tasting it. Nailed to the cross, He has no use for wine to dull His senses or poison to hasten His death. Jesus is committed to living the whole of human experience, and that experience includes pain. One commentator noted bluntly, “Jesus refuses to decrease his suffering or to lose consciousness of his surroundings.”[8] He is totally focused on bringing glory to the Father through His great suffering.
That is something to think about. The way Jesus treated His experience on the cross speaks profoundly to us today. Our Lord did not look for suffering or teach us to glorify pain, but neither did He avoid either when it was inflicted upon Him. He accepted it and He endured it as part of His mission. For Jesus, suffering had a purpose.
Mind you, the people watching Jesus die also believed that suffering had a purpose. “Those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Matthew makes the point that three groups of people mocked Jesus as He died. The three groups represent Israel in every capacity – both local and visiting Jews, the top of Israel’s authoritative heirarchy and those who are outside of the law. They mocked Jesus while He suffered on the cross because they had yet another philosophy of suffering – because they were religious.
They had read the Scripture. They knew that God punished evil. They also knew that suffering wasn’t part of God’s original plan for earth or humankind. Suffering came into the world because of sin. Suffering was bad, and because God punished that which was bad, they concluded that suffering only comes as punishment for something bad. Therefore it is would not be wrong to mock those who suffer, because they have obviously been called out by God as having done something to deserve it. The Roman charges written over the heads of the crucified even spelt that out.
Even Jesus’ disciples thought likewise. Once, when they had come upon a blind man, “His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”” But Jesus would have us corrected of such faulty thinking. At the time He replied, ““Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.””Suffering has a purpose.
Sometimes – as when Jesus Himself hung on the cross – suffering is not on account of one’s personal sin at all. Sometimes it is on account of our broken world. All reasonable people can see that. Sometimes suffering visits those who we know do not ‘deserve’ it. No one can look at a three year old child with bone cancer and seriously believe the child deserves that in any capacity. Thinking that suffering is always punishment for sin is an immature philosophy of suffering. Certainly it isn’t the view of suffering that Jesus had.
He was sinless, yet He suffered. He endured it without words when He was inflicted. And most tellingly, in spite of all of that mocking, He stayed on the cross. He stayed there in agony for hours – at least six hours according to the Gospel accounts. He didn’t have to, but He did. He did that because He knew the Father would not allow suffering to go unaddressed forever. He knew that God must do something with suffering, and when that happened, suffering would produce glory to His Name. It would produce a particular kind of fruit. It is part of the reversal of all that happened in the fall of mankind.
Jesus certainly saw His suffering as that. The book of Hebrews says, (and let me read this from the NIV) “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Friends, Jesus did not like suffering. He endured it. He dispised the shame it brought. We shouldn’t like it either, and it is not wrong to dispise the grief that suffering causes. But Jesus suffered so that our suffering might end. If He would’ve come down from the cross and not died to rise again, our suffering would never end. We would suffer and then die and even if we were forgiven, it would all be pointless – because we would still suffer. To be sure, suffering – when you are in the midst of it – seems pointless. It all seems “meaningless”, as Solomon once said. But when the Son of God suffered and died, God transformed both. Death is no longer a one-way gate to obscurity, and suffering is no longer infliction without redemption.
You have to know this. Jesus died on the cross to redeem humanity, amen? Amen. Jesus experienced all of life so that He could redeem all of life. And friends, redemption is more than merely buying it back. Sometimes we in the church use that language. We say redemption Christ offers is the ‘buying back’ of our souls. That is the overall effect – that our lives have been bought with a price and now we belong to Him – but redemption is not a mere transaction. Redemption is transformative. It is transformitive. It is a metamorphic experience like a catepillar, or a seed that is buried and dies to itself to become a fruitful plant. The seed does not decide to become a plant any more than it decides to suffer burial. But after burial, God turns it into a plant. God redeems its suffering for His glory.
And if He does that for a seed (a seed!) – what of us made in His image? We have to know that God redeems our experience of suffering too. After all, He has already determined (my friend), to redeem YOU. That means all of you. All that consists of YOU, including all of your experience. Did He not already take your sins and give you His righteousness? And if He did that for you, do you really think He is then to leave you with all of your pain, disappointment and grief forever? Of course not. And surely He who took your sin and gave you righteousness instead can do likewise with your pain. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
In fact, the Scripture is very clear that our physical bodies will be redeemed and made incorruptible. The Scripture is very clear that our mind and all your thoughts will be redeemed and made holy. Our bodies are not yet redeemed. They are perishing. They are breaking down – we suffer physically. And our minds are stillbattlegrounds. We face a constant barrage of hurtful thoughts, guilt, shame, depression and all manner of suffering. Only our inner spirit has been redeemed, as a foreshadow of what is to come. “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Amen? Amen! We will worship God in holiness. Not just spiritual holiness. But mental holiness and physical holiness. Is it then hard to realize that our experiences will also be redeemed and made into something glorious? Of course not. What does the Scripture say? “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.”We must expect that. Our experience will also be redeemed. That is God’s work in the context of YOU. It is His particular work in and with you. That is what He is going to do. “He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Glory to God!
The day comes when all our suffering will be nothing more than a distant memory of a time long ago, and on that day all our suffering accomplished will be fully realized to our great joy, just as the joy that was set before Jesus will be fully realized on that day. (pause) Now that time is not just yet. Till then we … suffer. But we can know that we suffer with purpose. Even better, we can apply that purpose. And I will leave you with this application:
When we are not in physical or psychological pain ourselves, we can help others in theirs. We can sit with those in hospital, we can visit those who are lonely, we can write notes of encouragement to those who wrestle with their circumstance. We can – just by the ministry of presence – participate in a small way in what Jesus did for us through His suffering. For as we minister to them, we take some of their pain – a tiny bit – upon ourselves. Maybe it is just a very small part, but it is nevertheless a comfort to them.
And that comfort that is somehow – I do not know how, but somehow – is a witness of the sacredness of their suffering. (long pause) It is a reminder that God has not forgotten them. That God weeps with them. That He feels their pain. And somehow – I do not know how, but somehow – our presence with them is a reminder of the holy purpose that Jesus imparted to suffering by His participation in it. A reminder that their suffering – because of Christ’s suffering – will come to an end. That God will yet redeem it – and that the day is coming when we will all see – with our own eyes and with joy and gladness in our bones – just what He made from it.
So until then, “let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” Amen. Let us close in prayer.
Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for suffering for us. Thank You Lord for transforming what death is through Your death, and for transforming what suffering means through Your suffering. Thank You Lord, that we can now confidently say as Paul said, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Yes Lord, Amen.
