Dealing With Impossible Situations

When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.

Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”  (John 6:5-7)

Sometimes we face impossible situations, where there’s no physical solution. 

That was certainly the case in this red letter passage.  There was no place to buy bread for the 5,000 plus people in the crowd.  Even if there was, there wasn’t nearly enough money to purchase it.

It’s so amazing that Jesus wasn’t fazed.  It didn’t stress him out that there was no way to fix the situation.

Because he knew that he had supernatural means to fix the situation.

And he asked Phillip where they could buy bread, not so that Phillip would try to work out a physical solution, but to test and see how much Phillip would believe in a supernatural solution.  

Does Jesus allow us to be in impossible situations to test us in the same way?  We want to say, “It’s hopeless.  I’ve looked at it from every angle, and there’s no good solution.”

It’s so appropriate that I’m reading this passage this week, because I’m facing a snarled situation, and many of my friends are, as well.  There are financial quandaries, health problems, relational dilemmas, family predicaments.

Sometimes we need to accept these things with a practical mindset, and not have this pollyanna attitude like, “Oh, I’m not worried, everything will be hunky dory.”  Realistically, we live in a fallen world, where things go wrong, health fails, and people sin against you.

But we still have the supernatural on our side, and we need to totally believe in it.  Nothing can turn the situation around except God, and God is in our court.  He listens.  He cares.  He’s the missing ingredient, our secret weapon.

I love that in this passage it says that Jesus knew what he was about to do.  It shows us three things.

1. Our impossible situations are not a surprise to Jesus. He’s not horrified and anxious, as we are.
2. Jesus always has a plan in mind.  He and God always work for the good.  Their idea of good might not be our idea of good.   There may even be some really tough fallout along the way.  Jesus’s death was certainly not the good solution his followers were looking for.  And then many them died from persecution.  But look at the next point.
3. God will always be glorified in the end.  Rather than us looking for our quandaries to be fixed the way we think they should, we should be looking for God to be glorified through them.  This was the focus of Jesus.

Sometimes God will be glorified by miracles, as he was here when Jesus fed the 5,000+.  

Sometimes God will be glorified as our trust in him defies all expectation.

Both of these are impossible.

Our job in the impossible situations is to always to look to the spiritual as the source of the possible, whether it’s to fix the situation, or to give us the strength and grace to bring Him glory.

“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen.”  I Peter 5:10-11

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Hab 3:17-18)

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” Job 1:21

How to See With Clear Eyes

“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hope.  If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.  But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?” John 5:45-47

What’s your tribe?  This is a big thing right now.  Everyone’s getting their DNA done, researching their ancestors.  I confess that I like to know my tribe.  I like to hear stories about my grandparents, and their parents, and so on.  I can trace my mother’s maiden name, Tillinghast, all of the way back to the 1600s in Rhode Island.

For the Jews, one of the defining members of their tribe was Moses.  He was their historical savior.  He wrote the Torah.  He gave them the law from God, which governed everything about their lives. 

So Jesus hit them in the gut when he told them Moses was accusing them.  He was like, “You say Moses is your man, but you don’t give cred to what he said.”

What did Moses say that they should have believed?  Here are some statements about the coming Messiah from the first 5 books of the Bible, which were widely accepted to be written by Moses. (And many of us still believe that Moses wrote them, through the Holy Spirit!)

• “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
• “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you [Abraham].” (Gen 12:3)
• “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.: (Gen 49:10)
• “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” (Deut. 18:15)

If the Jews believed Moses, they would have been watching for a prophet who had power over the devil, brought blessings, was from the line of Judah, and was a savior, as Moses was.  If we look at the life of Jesus up to this point in the book of John, we see what the Jews should have seen.  Jesus could do miracles and heal. (John 2:11, 23)  He spoke as if speaking for God.  He had a message of salvation and life. (John 3:15, 4:14)  Plus, it would not have been difficult for the Jews to determine his lineage as a descendant of Judah.  It was probably common knowledge in his hometown. 

So Jesus’s indictment here, which comes at the end of a lengthy speech, pinned the Jews to the wall.  When it came to Moses, they hadn’t put their money where their mouth was.  They weren’t walking the walk. 

It’s sobering to see how Jesus expected God’s people to understand the scriptures correctly.  Yes, he came to the simple and the uneducated, and many of them recognized him.  But it was the teachers of the law, the ones who had the scriptural knowledge. who should have had the clearest view of who Jesus was.  And they didn’t.  And they got called out for it.

It’s a heavy expectation, so I want to protest, “But the scriptures are complicated.”   The thing is, it wasn’t like they were missing a nuance.  It was like they were missing the whole shooting match.  Everything in the Bible is about Jesus.  The Fall in the Garden hints of a time of redemption.  Abraham set in motion blessings which would be fulfilled in Christ.  Moses saving the people was a foreshadowing of Christ saving the world.  And so on.  For more on this check out “From Shadow to Reality,” by John Oakes. 

Even if the Jews didn’t see the fulfillment of Moses’s words, or the foreshadowing, one thing in the Old Testament is so clear and huge, it should never be missed — the repeating message of redemption, hope, good will, faithfulness, loyalty, and salvation.  If they got that, how could they not see that those qualities were embodied in Jesus?  All of the things that should have thrilled them about God had come to life in a man.

What can we learn from this?  That it’s highly important for us to seek to understand the Bible correctly.  What gets in the way?  Our tendency to look at it through the wrong lens. 

We can look at it through the lens of our culture.  For instance, due to popular opinion, many Christians are now saying that a loving God wouldn’t condemn homosexual behavior.  Another big trend today is postmodernism.  One pastor summed it up, “The postmodern era is where everyone just wants to decide that they can believe in everything, in nothing, or in some things. If someone wants to believe that Jesus did not exist, that can be truth to him or her. If another person wants to believe that Jesus did exist but he didn’t die on the cross and rose to everlasting life that could be truth for them.”

We can look at it through the lens of our upbringing.  Many have a tough time seeing God as a caring Father because they’ve had bad experiences with their fathers, or just with life.

We can look at it through the lens of our personal needs and agenda.   I have a great desire to affirm myself, so I can make the Bible about how I can be good and pat myself on the back.

Perhaps what happened with the Jews is that they looked at the scriptures through the lens of tribalism.  They focused so much on their identity from their forefathers that they got away from the focus on God.

Let’s not fall into any of these traps.  Let’s make it our goal to have a clear lens, so we can understand the scriptures correctly.  How can we do this?  By making it our primary pursuit to find and know God and Christ, through reading the whole Bible.  And then, as we know them better, to seek to see through their eyes, and have their heart.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (I Tim 2:15)

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.” (Jer 9:24)

Losing the Crown, Finding Jesus

“You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.” (John 5:29)

This red letter passage paints a picture of people who are very diligent in their efforts to live righteously.  I see them approaching scriptural reading like they’re doing a doctoral study, devoting much time, memorizing large swatches of it, pondering and debating, seeking to learn.

Yet when Jesus comes, they miss him.  It’s so crazy.  It’s like when you’re looking for something all over the house,and someone says, “There it is, right there,” and you barely look, and insist, “Naw, that’s not it,” and keep searching.

It’s stupefying that the Jews couldn’t see the very thing they were looking for.  How did this happen?  Jesus gave this answer, “How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” 

The Jews wanted the wrong kind of glory.  They wanted to look good, and feel good about themselves.  And this blinded them, because their eyes were on one another and themselves, instead of God.  

How can we avoid the same mistake? How do we seek the glory that comes from God?  I love this verse in Romans, “A man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:29)

We seek the right kind of glory when we make the daily decision to circumcise our hearts to God.  We don’t try to figure out how we can straddle the world and our faith.  We completely devote ourselves to him.  

How can we tell if we’re seeking glory from men or from God?  By looking at our inner fuel tank.  Self glorification depletes us.  It never works for long.  We have to keep finding ways to give ourselves props.  We get tired, discouraged and burned out.

I see this when I look at myself.  I journaled what I was feeling at the beginning of this week: “Why try?  It’s going to fail.  It’s useless.”

I’m haven’t been completely down.  I just have this sense of gloom and doom that manifests from time to time. It’s kind of like the hitchhiking ghosts at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld.  You’re going along, and all of a sudden you see there’s a ghoul riding with you.  And it’s not endearing like the picture below!

But I think one reason I’m gloomy and depleted is because I’m trying to get everything to measure up to my own expectations.  And then it’s about me.  I’m just like the Jews.  I’m having these great devotional times every day.  But I’m missing it. 

I’m wrestling with life, instead of finding the life that’s in Jesus.

You know, when we’re completely devoted to God, we have the mindset of a doting servant.  It makes our hearts happy to give ourselves to him in service, because he is everything.  It’s not about us, and our efforts. 

It’s about his glory.

It’s so crazy.  We miss the jaw-dropping splendor of God, because we’re too busy trying to put our own sparkle on. 

Our job is to put God’s sparkle on.  Period.  The only way we are to shine is as God’s creation, and as Christ shines through us.

And I have one more thing to say about having a heart that’s devoted to God.  The literal translation of the word, “inwardly” in Romans 2:29 is “secretly.”  We’re to be devoted to God in a hidden way, not in a way to be seen by others.  It’s a special intimacy, just between God and us.

That’s not that we’re to keep our mouth closed about our faith.  The Bible is clear that we must speak out the truth, and be bold.  

But it has to start with something that feels like a private worship closet experience, free from distractions and temptations, so we can SEE Jesus better. 

We find Jesus when we take our eyes off of ourselves.

Here’s my prayer for today:  Father, I am your servant.  I go to the hidden place and worship, where it’s just me bowing at your feet. I take off every bit of the crown I’ve been creating for myself.  Instead, I want my actions to polish your beautiful crown.  Let all my joy be in loving you and serving you.  Let me hear Christ’s voice, and not the other loud insistant voices.  Let me find the power of the resurrection life that can transform the impossible situations.  Let me have hope, instead of gloom and doom. Thank you for every way you have blessed me, guided me, and taught me all through my life.  In Jesus name, Amen.

On Testimonies, Conflict and Quietness

“If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.  There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that His testimony about Me is valid. You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth.  . .  But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works I am doing—testify about Me that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me.” (John 5:31-37a)

My goal this week is for my mind and my mouth to be quiet.  That means I’m reminding myself over and over, “I don’t know better.”  I’m doing this because I can be like an editor with a red pen, always looking to correct, tweak, or  improve. It sounds useful, but it can hinder my relationship with others.  They need to be respected and encouraged.  Instead, I unconsciously feed my motivation to come out on top. 

Being at peace with God and others, is a real battle. Quibbling and conflict seem to be everywhere these days.  We see it on social media.  We see it between political parties, between countries.  I was watching the Rose Parade and looking at the live feed of comments.  Some people kept chiming in and complaining, “This is why I left California.”  The other viewers were like, “Cut it out! Quit raining on our parade!”

Today’s red letter passage comes from Jesus’s answer to those who were being contentious.  The Jews criticized him for making himself equal to God.  So he listed the testimonies that made a case for his equality with God.  But his answer ultimately had more to do with their hearts, than giving a justification, as we will see.

But first, let’s look at the three testimonies to which Jesus referred.

First, he mentioned John the Baptist.  John said about Jesus, “And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ” (John 1:33)

Second, he brought up his deeds as evidence.  These certainly convinced some to have faith in him.  Look at what happened earlier in the Book of John,   “Now while [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.” (John 2:23)

Finally, he played his trump card. The Lord God Almighty bore witness in his favor.  One instance of the Almighty’s testimony was seen at Jesus’s baptism.  “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  (Matt 3:17)

The Jews should have recognized these testimonies, and responded with faith.  That they didn’t was an indication of the state of their hearts.  Jesus indicted them with this zinger, “You have never heard his voice or seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.” (John 5:37b-38) 

In other words, he said, “Your unbelief in me shows that you have never been able to hear or see God.” 

Never.  That’s a strong word.  It’s scary to think that religious people have listened to scriptures their whole life, and still never heard God.

Yet that’s what I think is at the root of contention.  People aren’t listening.  It’s true for me.  When I focus on feeling good about myself and being “right,” I don’t hear what’s going on with others, and that causes disturbances in my relationships.  A version of the same thing has happened over and over again, all over the world, all throughout history.

I’m enjoying Douglas Jacoby’s new series on the Sermon on the Mount.  In his lesson on the beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Doug says this verse means that it’s important to have an openness to the Word.  Our attitude should be, “Not insisting on our own viewpoint, but flexible and receptive to divine truth.”

The Jews who were against Jesus were not open, flexible or receptive.  I saw a perfect illustration of this when I recently watched an episode of the TV series about Jesus, “The Chosen.”  In it, the character of Nicodemus struggled with his student, Shmuel, who was opposed to Jesus because he believed Jesus was breaking the law.  Nicodemus tried to get Shmuel to understand that there is more to the law, and to God, than he was seeing.  Shmuel stubbornly insisted, “God is the law.” 

Nicodemus retorted, “You learned nothing from me.” 

Nicodemus in “The Chosen:

As I watched this, I could see so clearly how a sincere person can also be a closed person.  

Our goal must always be to be open, not closed.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t have convictions about the truth.  We certainly do.  But we must also be able to say, “I don’t know everything about God yet.  I want to learn more.”

When we have this attitude, the testimonies will impact us, as they should have impacted the Jews.  Because when the reality of who Jesus is hits us, it shakes us to our core.  It transforms us.

We can do the things we never thought we’d be able to do, because we know Who is with us.

Our strength and humility give us confidence and assurance.  We have less of a need to prop ourselves up. We no longer feel compelled to complain, accuse or fault-find.

And for me, my mouth and mind can finally be quiet.

Maybe I can even throw away my red pen. 

“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, . . . ‘But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.'” (Luke 11:17, 20)

Of Lows, Discipleship and Kites

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A couple of nights ago, I got to feeling low.  I tried to fight it off.  I tried to look at the good side of things.  But the situation was just too heavy.  The emotions were too big.  And, just as I was feeling burdened by that, I got a text about another situation that discouraged me.  Deep sigh. It was definitely one of those overwhelming times when I was tired and didn’t feel resiliant.  I couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding.

God takes us on journeys, and my journey for the day had started earlier, with a study of Jesus’s statements on judgment in John 5.   It’s going to seem like I’m completely changing subjects for awhile, but I’ll bring it back together at the end.  Here are the verses I read:

• The Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
• I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
• The time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
• I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.

The context of these passages is that Jesus is answering the accusations of Jews that he was making himself equal with God.  The first part of his answer, which we discussed in the last blog, is that he has the power of life.  So yes, he can claim to be equal to God.  The second part of his explanation is that God has designated him as the judge who will determine what happens to people’s souls after death. And that is what we’re discussing here.

It’s super sobering.  I don’t think enough about Jesus being the judge.  But other passages back this up:

• For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (II Cor. 5:10)
• For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.  (Matt 16:17)
• “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”  (Rev. 22:12)

As much as Jesus is the face of love and compassion, he’s also the face of accountability.  We’re all going to come before him some day.

So it’s important that we look carefully at what Jesus says here.  Let’s look at the main points from the passage:

1. Jesus has been given all authority to judge.
2. He is given this authority so that people will honor him.
3. There will be a judgment, and at this judgment we will either be condemned, or have eternal life.
4. The judgment will be based on our belief in Jesus, and on our deeds.
5. The judgment will be conducted with the goal of  pleasing God and doing his will.

What does this mean for us? It means that it doesn’t matter what we think about how we’ve lived.  What matters in the end is what Jesus thinks.

This isn’t to ignore grace, or the fact that we can’t be saved through our own efforts.  That’s a topic for another time.

But it’s imperative that we endeavor to have the behavior and faith that Jesus is looking for.  I’m not talking about being good enough.  I’m talking about discipleship.  I’m talking about going to Jesus to learn how to follow him.  And he wants to teach us.  That’s why he came to earth and gave us truths and examples.  That’s why why he gave us the indwelling of the Spirit.  That’s why he promised that those who seek will find.

Jesus determines the end of our story. But he also wants our story to have a happy ending.

And this ties in with the rest of my journey a couple of days ago.  When I was feeling low, I started watching a movie to distract me.  I have a free week of Disney+ right now, so I streamed one of their offerings, “Saving Mr. Banks.”  The movie was about someone else who was feeling low, PL Travers, who wrote Mary Poppins.  Mrs. Travers was battling with the script writers at Disney over how the story of Mary Poppins would be portrayed in their film adaption.  But the deeper battle was actually her fight to come to terms with the death of her father, who had many similarities to the character Mr. Banks.  Although her father’s life had ended in tragedy, she wanted a better ending for Mr. Banks.

I enjoyed the film much more than I expected.  In its touching close (spoiler alert!), the Disney script writers realized that the character Mary Poppins came to the family, not to save the children, but to save Mr. Banks.  They changed the conclusion of the Mary Poppins movie to have Mr. Banks finally spend quality time with his family.  The result is the scene which has moved the hearts of viewers through the ages.  The Banks family goes to the park and sings, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

Mrs. Travers couldn’t control her father’s story.  But she could write the ending she thought her father wanted.  We can’t control all of the elements of our own story.  But Jesus can write the ending we want. Just as Mrs. Travers believed the best about her father, Jesus believes the best about us.

So yes, we must be sober, and make every effort to follow Jesus, knowing we will face him and be accountable one day.  But he stands ready, every day, to help us. He stands ready to “write” past the areas where we hit a wall.  

Let’s put our hand in his each morning and let him guide us.  As the lyrics of the song, he will take our paper and strings, and give us wings.

“With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You’re a bird in a flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite.”  (From the movie, “Mary Poppins”)