Who's Laughing Now?

Matthew 9:24
Jesus said, "Go away.  The girl is not dead but asleep".  But they laughed at Him.

My son wants to learn how to skateboard.  He got one for Christmas a while ago along with a really cool helmet and knee pads.  When he was all set up to go he took his first step on to the board...and promptly fell off.  He hasn't tried since. 

He was only 3 at the time, and in his little 3 year old mind, this dramatic failure was a sign of impossibility.  The pain of falling caused him to be fearful of even trying again.  I love my little guy, but he is easily frustrated by failure.  It is part of his personality makeup and will be something we have to work through with him for years to come.  Whether school work, new games or just life in general. 

Why do we keep lovingly helping him keep trying.  Because we know that sometimes things that are worth it aren't easy.  Sometimes, when you don't yet have a full perspective, you cannot see the success on the other side of trying and failing.  Bad parents support their kids giving up when something is tough.  Loving parents hold their hands and help them get up again.  What kind of adult do you think will be developed if the people in their life always tell them, "You're right, not worth it, impossible, you can't do it...."? 

A heartbroken father approaches Jesus with an impossible situation.  His daughter has died.  We have seen Jesus heal sickness, but death?  This doesn't dissuade this father though.  There is one thing he recognizes; If there is any hope of new life, it is only in Jesus.

When Jesus arrives at the home of the dead girl the funeral "celebration" is in full swing.  A crowd has gathered, musicians are playing whatever it is you play on flutes at a funeral....?  Jesus looks at all the people who have come to commemorate the end of life and has a pretty "odd" statement.  She is sleeping, not dead.  And they laugh at him...

Death is final...she is dead....what kind of idiot is this?

So they are sent out.

Jesus goes to the girl and simply takes her by the hand and she stands up.  Alive.  Healed.  A whole life in front of her.

There are three types of people we have to recognize in our lives.

1)  Those who are "dead"
2)  Those who have hope
3)  Those who mock hope


1-  Being dead takes all sorts of forms.  Sometimes it is us.  Sometimes it is those we love. Sometimes it is situations, relationships, things, communities, etc.  And like my skateboard falling off of son, we are always real quick to throw in the towel.

2-  Hope isn't a blind swinging in the dark.  The hope that this father displays is one built on the confidence of the Jesus he has come to discover and know.  The Jesus of impossible.  What is impossible for man, is possible for Christ.  He puts his hope not in a generic ambiguous idea, he GOES to Jesus to put his hope in the proper context.

3-  Everyone is a counselor.  Few are qualified.  Few care to speak truth, only what makes them comfortable.  The crowds gathered when Jesus arrives do not care to see hope in Christ.  They see life through the lens they are used to.  Death is final.  Even when the miracle worker shows up in their midst, they do not recognize Hope, they laugh at it. 

So how do we deal with these realities?  How do we make headway in the midst of death, heartache and tragedy?

First, embrace the reality that death is real.  That sometimes there are things that are beyond your reach of fixing.  This father could have stood over his daughter all day, shaking her, giving CPR, etc.  But it would have done no good.  He can't bring new life to that which is dead.  Embracing this reality doesn't mean resigning yourself to it.  It means accepting your inability to do anything about it.

Second, put hope into action.  This father doesn't just weep, he goes.  He places his hope not in new circumstances, miracle cures, special prayers...He places it in a person.  Christ.  We can say until we are blue in the face that we put our hope in Jesus to heal and fix and raise again, but we rarely go to Him.  We talk about Him, but do not dwell with Him.  Are you actively, consistently, and hopingly placing your life into His hands?
    
Third, who are your counselors?  If this heartbroken dad had gone to and listened to the gathered crowd, he would not have gone to Jesus.  What do you think would have happened if he said, "My daughter is dead, but Jesus can save her?"  The crowd that easily laughed in the face of the known miracle worker, would have talked him out of it.  With statements like, "That's just your grief talking.  Death is final.  The sooner you accept 'reality' the quicker you will heal.  Don't waste your time, false hope will just make you sadder." 

And if he had listened....his daughter would be dead.  He took his heartache and pain and hope and placed it as the feet of Jesus.  And Jesus responded.

We need to recognize that people who tell us to give up(in as many words) are lying to us.  Not intentionally.  But they are.  This does not mean that everything that YOU want to happen in the WAY you want it to happen will occur.  But without Jesus death IS final.  With Jesus, NOTHING IS OVER. 

Who are you listening to?  People who point you not to answers, or solutions, but to Jesus?  Or people who tell you to give up, accept death, move on?  Whether Jesus brings your "child" back to "life" or not, HE WILL GIVE YOU NEW LIFE.  The power of the Cross promises that even in death, with Christ as our Hope, beauty, hope, new life, will always be the answer He provides. 

There is nothing in your life with more permanence than actual death.  And Jesus has beaten it!

1 Corinthians 15:54-56

⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”^[a]

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”^[b]

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

 

 

 

 

What Control?

John 3:8
"The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

I live with bipolar people.  If you live with people under the age of 18, you know what I am talking about.  My kids are completely unpredictable.  On any given day my four year olds taste buds can radically alter over the course of a single meal.  Yesterday he asked for more chicken nuggets to eat.  So, we bought him the same Tyson brand dinosaur shaped ones he likes.  Today, he decided that they were too meaty and he began to cry because he didn't want them.....  Every single toy he sees is accompanied by this line(word for word), "But I have always wanted "that" toy."  We have never heard of it before, but apparently he has spent 4 years pining for just that thing....

So what do we do as parents?  We deal with what is in front of us.  He is 4.  You will not logically argue him into accepting that he did indeed request this specific food item less than 12 hours earlier.  He feels the way he feels and that is all there is.  No, we are not permissive, we just don't try to "understand" how crazy it seems to us.  As he, AND WE, mature in our relationship together we will begin to understand ourselves and each other better.  Perhaps even before he graduates from college.

This section(chapter 3) of John has some of the most quoted parts of all of scripture.  Who can forget good ole John 3:16?  This is also the "born again" section that is most popular in the evangelical world that I like to run in.  You know what we often don't quote or address?  The unpredictable nature of the Spirits work(like the wind). 

We like to wrap God and His work up in a nice little box that we can understand and therefore, manipulate, to our ends.  Nicodemus is a leading Pharisee(read; really good at doing legalistic things) and he has come during the cover of darkness to talk to Jesus because he actually gets who Jesus is.  But he goes back to the same well;  "What can I do to understand and dictate the terms of this thing you are teaching me"(my paraphrase).

We pray to get things.

We fast to bring about change.

We read the bible to show our piety.

And then we get really frustrated when things aren't working out just like we were hoping.

Here is a big idea for us:  Only God is God.

This crazy and illogical behavior of ours is so destructive.  We pray for God to come to us instead of us running to where He is.  Don't get me wrong.  Pray pray pray.  Seek seek seek.  But we try to create and control formulaic Christianityism(TM).  Our Ego Centric worldview wants to see everything through the lens of our experience and what we want and how we feel.  A Christ centric worldview tells us that we are a bunch of sinful and depraved idiots who really shouldn't be relying on our own judgment. 

Have you ever been following a car that knows where they are going in a place you have never been?  Don't you panic just a bit when you lose them at a turn or a red light?  Of course you do.  Because you know that left to your own devices you really aren't gong to get where you NEED to be.

We want to try so hard to do it ourselves.  And that is rooted in self centered pride.  The wind is going to blow where it is going to blow.  You can't predict it.  You can't dictate to it.

But you can follow where it is blowing.   

Jesus tells Nicodemus that there is nothing in his flesh that can pull off the miraculous transformation of new life in the Spirit.  It is God's work, not ours. 

So here you stand.  Something is wrong.  Something is not right.  And you have been trying so hard to pull yourself back up and right the train.  Stop.  Just stop.  The work that you and I desperately need to have done is that which we cannot do.  You can fight against the wind all you want, but you will never break it.  Run with it.  Let it lift you up.  Change you and give you light feet.

Stop buying the lie of what you need to do and what you need to change.  You can't do it.  We need a new life.  One free of the shackles and chains that bind us. 

We MUST pray to be shaped by the things of God

We MUST fast to prepare our hearts to run hard after His plans

We MUST read the bible so we can learn to recognize the work of the Spirit through knowing God with an ever increasing intimacy. 

There is no formula for a new life in Christ that you can apply like some sort of medicinal balm.  Stop fighting the work of the Spirit.  Let God do His work in you.

This is what you look like when you don't go with the wind.

And it doesn't feel good either.