Muddy Waters, Mercy and the Fifth Beatitude

Posted on January 26, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

While Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s house, a woman of questionable reputation came in and worshipped Jesus by washing his feet with her tears and anointing them with perfume. A dialog ensued between the Pharisee and Jesus as recorded in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus concludes his discussion with the Pharisee by informing him that those who have been forgiven much, love much. Those who have been forgiven little, love little.

The fifth Beatitude tells us that those who are merciful will receive mercy. At first reading this sounds right to us. If you do good to others they will do good to you. It seem natural, like the popular concept of karma.

Yet reality tells us that on a strictly human level, this beatitude often proves false. Did those who hid the Jews receive mercy from the Nazis? How many missionaries and social workers have been wounded or killed while trying to treat disease and bring comfort to the suffering? How many parents have been torn apart by wayward children that they nurtured? How many children have been wounded by parents while trying to be good boys or girls?

To validate the truth of this Beatitude we must look beyond our physical existence to a larger reality. We can’t make it work in a purely naturalistic understanding of the world. I don’t even know how you arrive at a concept of mercy in a purely naturalistic system.

If nature is indeed red in tooth and claw then why place a value on mercy? Why were Hitler and Stalin wrong if naturalism is the explanation of the world? Naturalism tells us that we are products of random electro-chemical reactions and that the way we are is determined by our DNA. If this is the case, why worry about being merciful or loving? If the world is the product of random reactions and I have the power to give or withhold mercy why should one value one choice over the other?

I am not arguing that atheists cannot be merciful and moral. I’ve known many that have compassion that puts me to shame. I am arguing that you cannot find an intellectual basis or motivation to mercy in naturalism. Ayn Rand would seem to agree since in her novels she portrays mercy as a weakness and selfishness as a virtue.

Circle back to the opening story. The prostitute’s worship is accepted by Jesus. Jesus pronounced her forgiven and on the basis of this forgiveness, she had a greater love for the one who had forgiven her.

Without the work of Jesus on our behalf, we should not expect mercy from God or from anyone else. We cannot earn the mercy from God, it is a gift. But on the basis of the mercy that we have received, we are called to exhibit that mercy to others. Therefore I understand this Beatitude to be saying that display of mercy is evidence of having received mercy. Those who display mercy have gotten and will continue to get mercy both as a cause and a result.

As Muddy Waters said in an old blues song, “you can’t spend what you ain’t got.” It is difficult to show mercy if you’ve never received it. If you’d like to receive God’s mercy, drop me a line and I will tell you how. Then you will indeed be blessed.

On wineskins, graves, garlic, leeks and onions

Posted on January 22, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 5 Comments

When a new work is started, the newness brings with it a level of discomfort. We often refer to the old system as tried-and-true, even if the results were less than optimal. The danger is that the new work will be hobbled by those who are determined to force the new work into the old pattern. I have seen this tendency in industry and I’ve seen it in the church.

In Exodus 14:11, shortly after the Israelites left Egypt, it appeared that the Egyptians would wipe them out (discomforting thought). In response, the Israelites cried to Moses “were there no graves in Egypt?”, the assumption being that that death was immanent and that by staying in Egypt they would have avoided that death. They preferred the relative safety of the old way even though it included slavery.

Later on in the Exodus story, the Israelites longed for the “leeks, onions and garlic” that they had in Egypt (Numbers 11:5). During the insecurity of pursuing the new way, it is easy to distort the memory of the wold way an make it seem better than it was. God offers them freedom (with some risk and difficulty) and they prefer slavery.

Jesus spoke against the desire for the old when he warned us against putting new wine into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17, Mark 2:22 and Luke 5:37). We should not try to force a new work into an old pattern.

I have been involved in church plants and the church I currently attend was founded somewhere around 13 years ago. I observe in myself and others a tendency to want to bring pieces of previous church experience into the new church. While this is not all bad, a dogged expectation that the new church will provide a similar experience to the previous church experience can be a source of irritation and can even lead to open hostility.

Should we learn from previous experience and continue the pieces of that experience that work well? Yes! If there are methods that are effective, they should be continued. At the same time, we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit which may take us in new directions. Learn from the past, but don’t be handcuffed by it.

It is also important to choose your battles wisely. It is one thing to argue for a discipleship method that worked well. It is entirely different to argue over a music style, dress code or other preference issue. The methods can be measured and evaluated. With some issues there is no means of evaluating them and it comes down to personal preference.

The point of this is to ask that we all be wary about prefacing a comment or suggestion with, “At my old church . . . .” There may be good ideas coming out of that experience, but a determination to stick with that experience may cause you to miss out on something even better. The words of James 1:19 come to mind:

But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

What do you think?

Hunger and Thirst for the Right Thing

Posted on January 8, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

#8 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Matthew 5:6 reads this way in the NASB:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Hunger is Natural

In this Beatitude, the word translated hunger speaks of an avid, strong desire. The word translated thirst speaks of intense longing. Hunger and thirst are part of our common experience of life. They are drives that are built into us so that we draw in the water and nutrition we need to keep our bodies going.

Jesus uses language that we can all understand. All of us have experience hunger for food and thirst for water. As he did with the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus is pointing us beyond our natural hunger and thirst to a higher spiritual reality. He is saying that in the same way we need food and water to be physically healthy; we need righteousness to be spiritually healthy.

The verbs translated hunger and thirst are in the present tense. Jesus is not referring to an event in the past on which we can rest our hope, nor is it an event only in the future. The present tense indicates current, ongoing action. He is saying, “Blessed are those who continue hungering and thirsting after righteousness.”

What is Righteousness Anyway?

Growing up, I always understood this beatitude to be encouraging us toward right actions. In other words, hunger and thirst after doing the right thing. I now think that this is not the primary emphasis.

Keep in mind that among the hearers of Jesus were the Pharisees. They would hear this beatitude and think themselves to be already achieving this. They did many “righteous” acts. Yet later in the sermon, Jesus tells us that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) So, this beatitude cannot be primarily focused on righteous acts.

What then is the righteousness to which Jesus refers? The righteousness we are encouraged to pursue is right standing before God. This is a righteousness that begins on the inside and works its way out in actions.

Righteousness has three aspects:

Right legal standing before God – those in Christ have been declared righteous (Romans 8:1)
Right heart attitude (see Psalm 51)
Right actions which result from 1 and 2 (see James 2:14-26)

The Source of Righteousness

The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 2:1-10, tells us that we are born dead in our “trespasses and sins.” But through faith in Jesus Christ, God gives us spiritual life. As a result, we are no longer trapped in our selfish, sinful lifestyle. We have the option to use the freedom given to us to walk away from our sins.

Apart from Christ, we may clean ourselves up on the outside, but we would then be like the Pharisees who were condemned by Jesus as “white washed tombs” (Matthew 23:27). A whitewashed tomb may look nice on the outside but inside it is full of rottenness and decay.

Jesus Christ is the only source of true righteousness available to us.

The Promise

Jesus tells us that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. The word literally means eat until full.

This filling is a certainty because anyone who has this desire has Jesus waiting to embrace him. There is no chance of rejection. If righteousness is your desire, if you’re tired of your current lifestyle and want something better, Jesus will accept you. Jesus invites all who are “weary and burdened” to come to him and he will give them rest (Matthew 11:28). There are no exceptions, no-one is rejected.

I love that no matter how bad I mess up, if my desire is for righteousness, that desire will be satisfied. It will be done, not in my strength, but by Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6 that God began the process in me and he will see it through to the end. I do not have to worry about the outcome, I simply need to trust in God and he will direct where and how I should go (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Jesus is waiting for you.

Thoughts on Prayer inspired by C. S. Lewis

Posted on January 6, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

C. S. Lewis ends his essay entitled The Efficacy of Prayer in a collection entitled The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays with these words:

“If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.”

In the article, Lewis builds a case that while there is mystery in prayer, one thing we do know is that prayer is not a means of tapping into a genie god that gives us whatever we want. By its very nature, a petition is a request of someone, a request that can be granted or denied based on the wishes of the one being petitioned. We are not guaranteed the request and a denial does not indicate a lack of love on the part of God.

To support his point that a denial does not indicate a lack of love, Lewis uses the example of Jesus in Gethsemane. In Matthew 26 and Mark 14 we find Jesus praying to avoid drinking the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. He feared the suffering that was to come, yet was resigned to follow the father’s will. It was God’s will that Jesus would go to the Cross to accomplish the Salvation that was planned from eternity.

God, in his mercy and wisdom, does allow us to participate, through prayer, in the accomplishment of his will. In the course of that accomplishment, we are sometimes privileged to see answers to prayer that defy explanation as coincidence. Often it is those who are young in the faith, parying with innocent boldness, who see the most striking answers to prayer. Their immature faith is nurtured by these prayers.

In contrast to this, it seems that mature Christians are sometimes stretched in their faith by trials when it seems as though God is unwilling to grant their petition for relief. God, in his wisdom knows where the believer is and what he can handle (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). Paul prayed three times to be relieved of his “thorn in the flesh,” a petition that was not granted (2 Cor. 12:7). In the case of Paul’s thorn, God thought it necessary to allow it to remain to increase Paul’s understanding and dependence upon the grace of God.

I am encouraged in that when I find myself in circumstances which seem desperate, and in which God seems to delay in responding, I am better able to remember that I am not abandoned. I can also be confident that God is using the circumstance to build spiritual strength in me.

The desperate posts in the battle can be lonely and hard, but God knows what he’s doing and he chooses well. Why then am I so reluctant to volunteer?

What about you?