The Lutheran Hour
-
"Grasping the Obvious"
- Download MP3 Reflections
-
Text: Luke 12:54b-56
-
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! A living Lord Jesus assures us that His work is complete and His sacrifice has been accepted. Today The Lutheran Hour is proud to proclaim, in the risen Christ God has said: “I love you.” Amen.
I imagine, when the Titanic was sinking there was somebody standing right behind the captain who was whispering into his ear: “I told you so.” Maybe there were a whole bunch of somebodies shouting, “I told you so.” One somebody might have said, “I told you there were icebergs around here, but no you wouldn’t listen.” Another could have said, “I told you this ship wasn’t unsinkable. You tempted fate by advertising to the world this ship can’t be sunk.” Someone else might have murmured: “I told you not to try and set a speed record the first time you crossed the Atlantic.” Yes, there probably were a whole bunch of people telling the captain, “I told you so.” And, if that captain was cut from the same bolt of cloth as the rest of us, he didn’t want to hear what they said.
When Custer was surrounded at the Little Big Horn in Montana, wasn’t it more than likely that one of his men leaned over and shouted over the gunfire: “I told you there were a lot of Indians, didn’t I?” When the Germans invaded Poland at the beginning of World War II, didn’t someone say, “I told you so. Hitler can’t be trusted.” When the Japanese began their bombing runs at Pearl Harbor, there had to be someone saying: “I told you we should have paid more attention to all those little blips on the radar.”
In the English language those four words, “I told you so,” may well be the easiest for any of us to say to someone else, and the hardest words to have someone else say to us. When someone says, “I told you so,” it means they were right and we were… we were… it means we weren’t right. “I told you so.” Like Daniel Boone, we men never admit to getting lost. True, we might get bewildered for a few days, but we don’t get lost. We don’t get lost because we don’t want to hear our spouses say, “I told you so. You should have asked for directions more than four hours ago.”
“I told you so.” None of us likes to hear another person say, “I told you so.” We don’t want to hear a friend say, “I told you taking this new job was a stupid idea.” We don’t want a family member to say, “I told you eating three-day-old sushi wasn’t very smart.” At our 25-year college reunion, we don’t need an old classmate to stand over our prone and pain wracked bodies saying, “I told you not to play football with those guys. They’re 20 years old. They’re in the prime of health. You haven’t exercised since before they were born.” We don’t like to hear, “I told you so,” but as sure as rain clouds mean things are going to get wet, and a south wind means things will warm up, whenever we do something wrong, whenever we say something stupid, whenever we don’t act our age, whenever we mess up; somebody will be there to witness our embarrassment, someone will be present to say, “I told you so.”
Sadly, there are many people who believe God is the person who is waiting for them to mess up and do something wrong. There are a fair number of folks who think God’s greatest joy in life is waiting and watching for them to commit a sin so He can zap them with some kind of unpleasant punishment which is designed to serve as a heavenly “I told you so.” Look at how our first parents, Adam and Eve, acted after they committed the first sin in the Garden of Eden. What did they do? Scripture says they went and hid themselves from the Lord. It tells us they tried to hide from the all-seeing God because they realized they had messed up; because they were ashamed of their nakedness; because they didn’t want to face the anger of the Lord; because they didn’t want to hear Him say, “I told you not to eat from the forbidden fruit. I told you what would happen if you did. I told you and now you’re gonna’ get it.” Adam and Eve didn’t want to hear God say, “I told you so.”
Adam and Eve were first to try and avoid hearing God; they certainly weren’t the last. The people didn’t want to hear God before the flood and they didn’t want to hear Him after the flood. The book of Judges is filled with stories of God’s people who… well, let me read what it says in the second chapter of that book. It says: “They (meaning God’s people) would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’S commands” (Judges 2:17). They didn’t want to hear God say, “I told you so.”
Read the stories of the Old Testament prophets. These are men whom God sent to proclaim words of warning, to call people away from their sin and back to God’s righteousness. By the Holy Spirit’s direction, these prophets spoke boldly and acted bravely in telling the people that their transgressions of thought, word, and deed were taking them out of the favored-nation status that God had given them; were taking them out from under the umbrella of God’s grace and protection. Generation after generation, century after century, God sent His prophets to His people; and generation after generation, God’s people rejected the message, refused to listen, and rebuffed God’s efforts to warn them. Jesus sums up those frustrating, futile years when He cried: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
All of Scripture bears witness to the darkness of human hearts which misread God’s goals; misinterpret His words, misconstrue His grace; and misunderstand His desire to save them. The people who lived during the time of the prophet Ezekiel never believed the Lord when He spoke through His representative and said: “As I live, declares the LORD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but (I prefer) that the wicked turn from his way and live; (O house of Israel, I want you to) turn back, turn away from your evil ways, for why will you die…” (Ezekiel 33:11).
While it is true God hates sin and will justly punish the unrepentant, unbelieving sinner, it is also true that the words of Ezekiel do not come from some sort of terrible, twisted, terrifying divinity. You need to know that these are not the thoughts of a God who has nothing better to do than cruelly cackle at His children when they slip and stumble into sin. These are not the desires of a Lord whose greatest satisfaction is to punish His people and thunder down from heaven, “I told you so.” God is a good and gracious Father who, in grace wants to bring back His wandering children; who wants to clean them up; who wants provide a place for them in His heavenly home. In short, God would rather warn than punish you; He would prefer to rescue and redeem you rather than reprimand, reproach, and reprove you. God has no desire to say, “I told you so.” He would far rather give us the path to go.
On Judgment Day God doesn’t want to say to a bunch of unsaved sinners, “I told you what would happen if you broke My Commandments. I told you that I was going to have to send you to hell.” On the contrary; on that day God would prefer to look at all of gathered humanity, see every one of us as His forgiven children, throw open the doors of heaven, and invite each of us into the eternity of unending peace, joy, and happiness. So God wouldn’t have to punish us and say, “I told you so,” He sent His Son into this world. Jesus Christ was born so that all who believe on Him would not perish but, instead, be given eternal life. So we might be saved, Jesus lived His entire life surrounded by, but untouched by, sin.
Each day, you and I break God’s commandments and transgress. Even the best of us have hearts which are envious, adulterous, murderous, and idolatrous. We have, both willingly and unwittingly fallen victim to Satan’s temptations. The prince of darkness, the father of lies, holds out this thingamabob or that doozafritz and we simply have to have it, will sell our souls to get it. We will compromise what we know is right; we will concede our integrity; we will cooperate with evil; doing anything and everything to get what we want. Which is why we need Jesus who, for our salvation, refused to compromise, concede, or cooperate with evil.
So we might be saved, Jesus, with single-minded purpose, sacrificed His life. The Gospels tell the Savior’s story. They speak of how Jesus, with crucifixion being the alternative, still refused to be crowned king by a crowd which had become enamored of His ability to feed them. They tell of how Jesus didn’t seek the approval and acceptance of the wise and rich who came to hear Him. Read the narrative of His life. You will see how His best friends ignored His requests for prayer support and deserted Him; how a trusted student sold Him to His enemies for a few coins of silver; how the leaders of His church which best knew the signs which spoke of His coming, who understood the predictions He made about His death and resurrection, still felt it their duty to arrest Him, bring in witnesses to lie about Him, and unfairly condemn Him to death.
So the Lord might never have to say, “I told you so,” so He might give you the path to go, Jesus was denied justice and condemned to a cross. So you might know just how much God loves you, Jesus allowed Himself, yes, allowed Himself to be crucified. The Savior didn’t hang on that cross for hours because He was frail and feeble. He didn’t die because He had suddenly grown fragile and faint. Jesus willingly and voluntarily gave up His earthly life so you might have eternal life, so all who believe on Him as their Savior might be forgiven of their sins and be saved. And this, dear listener, is not just wishful thinking on my part. So everyone, including you might know everything Jesus said about Himself and the Father’s love was true, Jesus rose from the dead. The numerous appearances of a living Lord are irrefutable, incontrovertible evidence that our heavenly Father is great, good, and gracious enough to want us saved.
Now, all things being equal, the news that our heavenly Father has used His Son’s death and resurrection to forgive and redeem us really ought to be the end of this message. All things being equal, just about everyone ought to grasp the obvious fact that Jesus’ death and resurrection shows the depth and intensity of God’s love for us. All things being equal, if you can figure out storm clouds are going to bring rain and winds which blow from the south are going to warm things up, you ought to be able to grasp this basic truth: God loves you. All things being equal, everybody ought to be brought to faith by the Holy Spirit.
Of course, things aren’t equal and not everybody believes Jesus is their Savior, or that God really cares. Things aren’t equal because sin, Satan, and this world work very hard at making people question the Lord and His intentions toward them. When Jesus was doing His ministry on earth the devil used some respected, and often well-to-do men called Pharisees who really relished telling others that God was angry with them. These Pharisees made up and tried to force people to obey laws which God had never given, which were so strange that God would never have thought of them. Let me give you an example. When the Lord handed down His Ten Commandments He said, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” The Pharisees, however, felt God’s Law was woefully inadequate and dreadfully incomplete. Believing God had not finished the job, the Pharisees felt a moral obligation to tell other folks exactly how the Sabbath day should be remembered. They drew up rules on exactly how far a person could walk; precisely how much a person should work and defining just when an individual should do that work.
Then, when people broke one of these new commandments they’d never heard of and which God had never given, the Pharisees looked down their noses and sarcastically said, “You’re a sinner. I don’t like you and God doesn’t like you either.” If some woman was childless the Pharisees were pretty sure her condition was some kind of punishment from God. If someone was born blind or lame, the Pharisees were convinced that an angry God had said, “See, I told you this kind of thing would happen if you sinned.” With the Pharisees around it’s not surprising that people felt they were in a no-win situation with the Lord.
Of course, the Pharisees are long since gone. You can take out your telephone book, go to the Yellow Pages and you won’t find the office of a single Pharisee listed. Even so, that doesn’t mean you and everybody else has been given a living faith which says, “God has shown His love for me in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus my Savior.” Even without the Pharisees you may still be convinced that God doesn’t like you, and that He’s got it in for you, that He wants to punish you and say, “I told you so.” Let me ask, “When things go wrong, what is your first thought? When a sickness comes; when you get a flat tire; when you lose a job; when a deal falls through; when your children get into trouble; when anything bad happens, anything at all; what do you say, what do you think, who do you blame?” Do you hold God responsible? Are you among the many who believe God enjoys messing with your minds, your lives, your souls in a negative way? Too many people are convinced that God really, down deep, enjoys nothing more than giving them grief, causing them problems, and telling them, “I told you you’re not good enough. I told you I was going to get you.”
If that is the feeling which is in your heart, I would like to reiterate what I said before: on Judgment Day, if you are not among God’s saved, you will be punished. But, having said that, I would also like to remind you: God has no desire to say “I told you so;” He would far rather give us the path to go. Jesus is the path which offers forgiveness and eternal life. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, He has shown you just how much God cares. What can I do to explain it better? Maybe this story might help. It’s a story sent to me by a pastor who, like me, is packing a few extra pounds. The story begins with a dad asking his five-year-old son: “How much do you love me?” The boy said, “Dad, I love you a million dollars.” With a twinkle in his eye which signaled he was playing a game, the father sadly said, “Son, with inflation, a million dollars isn’t all that much. Is a million dollars all you love me?” The boy gave the matter some thought. Then he said, “I love you a billion gazillion dollars;” which everyone knows is a great many dollars, indeed. To make sure his dad got the point, the boy added, “I love you all the dollars there are.” With a grin dad came back, “Then, how about lira? How many lira do you love me?” Then dad explained lira was the money of Italy. The boy responded, “I love you all the lira, too.” They went through Swiss francs, the German mark, and the Dutch guilder. Finally they got to England. Dad asked, “And how many pounds do you love me? Do you love me all the pounds?” With a response far faster than his years should have given him, the boy patted daddy’s tummy and said, “Dad, I think you’ve already got all the pounds.”
How much does God love you? He loves you more than all the gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, francs, marks, guilders, dollars, or pounds in the world. How much does God love you? Look to the Bethlehem manger; stand before Calvary’s cross; look into the empty, open tomb. God loves you all of that. And in His Word, He’s told you so. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 19, 2007
THE SECRET: part 2
ANNOUNCER: Will our problems go away if we just ignore them? I’m Mark Eischer, and we’re continuing our discussion of The Secret by author Rhonda Byrne. My guest is Professor David Lewis, Assistant Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. How does The Secret deal with the existence of evil?
LEWIS: Yes, this is one other reason why I believe that the teaching of The Secret is incompatible with Christianity. How does Rhonda Byrne explain the problem of evil? Well, it’s simply negative thoughts, and so whenever bad things happen to somebody, her simple explanation is that these people have all brought this upon themselves through their own negative thoughts. You can think of any individual killed or injured in a car accident, anyone who gets a deadly disease. In fact, in chapter three of the book when she talks about losing weight, she makes a comment that, if you want to lose weight, you shouldn’t diet because that’s a negative process. You shouldn’t look at people who are overweight, you should only look at people who are healthy and the people you want to be like. And this is another teaching that I think is incompatible with the Christian life, where we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves; to love one another as Christ has loved us, to serve one another. Which means that we are actually to look to the poor, look to the sick, look to those who are not lovely, to those who are experiencing negative things, those who are experiencing evil. And what Rhonda Byrne says is actually incompatible with our calling as Christians.
ANNOUNCER: God expects us to serve others. But we don’t always do that like we should.
LEWIS: Yes. We have not lived up to the expectations that God has given us in His Law. And this is another weakness of The Secret is nowhere does she actually take up or consider the doctrine of sin. In other words, what’s evil in the world, according to Rhonda Byrne, is not that we are rebellious against a righteous God who has the right to expect things of us and we ought to obey but we don’t. The problem for her is simply things like poverty, poor health, and bad relationships. And so it’s not sin, it’s these things. And the remedy is: get rid of your negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. And so, is there a need for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to become human and to live a perfect life, to minister, to die as a sacrifice upon the cross, and be raised again on the third day? There’s no need for this, because sin is not really a big deal. And so all Jesus will be is one among many other teachers who happened to teach and practice The Secret. He’s not the one and only Son of God who came to die to save us from sin, because sin doesn’t factor into The Secret at all.
ANNOUNCER: Can Christians derive any benefits from reading and following the teachings of The Secret?
LEWIS: In my opinion, no. Because the problem, first the problem of the issue of God, is just too serious. When she is telling the reader, “you are God,” (with a capital g), “you create your own universe,” we’ve got a false religion. Even if she herself is not intending this to be a religious book, she does set up a false theology and a false religion where every individual is considering themselves to be the creator of their own universe. And once this is true, there’ s no need for the Father of Jesus Christ in the system. And once you consider The Secret, we’ve got a more powerful tool that’s been given to us, which is the tool of prayer. The true, faithful response to what God has done for us in sending His Son and sending His Spirit is that we as His people pray to Him and He promises to hear us. As long as you can pray to the living God, why waste your time meditating to the impersonal universe?
ANNOUNCER: We’ve been talking with Professor David Lewis, Assistant Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Jesus Loves Me” by Anna B. Warner, David K. McGuire, & Wm. Bradbury, arr. John Ferguson. From Great Hymns of Faith, vol. 2 by the St. Olaf Choir (© 2004 St. Olaf Records, Northfield MN) Augsburg Fortress/SESAC
“Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 642” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark & John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd. Ithaca, NY)
“How Can I Keep from Singing” by Robert A. Hobby. From Thine Is the Glory by Robert A. Hobby (© 1997 MorningStar Music Publishers)