C, Post-Pentecost 10 Proper 15 - Luke 12:49-59 Hebrews 12:1-2 "Discerning the Division"

Luke 12:49–59 (ESV) “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.  For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.  And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.  You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

The word of God creates fire.  Fire consumes, but it also purifies what is burnt.  Jesus came to cast fire on the earth, saying, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”  (Luke 12:49–51 ESV)

With these words he says a little later to both the crowd and the disciples, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:56–57 ESV)

Many years have past since Jesus roamed the Middle East, enduring life in the flesh of humanity from his baptism in the waters of the Jordan to his baptism of blood at the cross, resurrection, and ascension to his rightful place in victory over sin and death.  He now intercedes for us sinners before God the Father, and together they both send the Holy Spirit, to bring us in daily repentance to the cross through our baptism into his death. 

In the present time his call to judge for ourselves what is right, is still relevant, as is his question, why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  Interpreting the present time with considerable time having passed since Jesus’ has returned to the right hand of the Father, is made challenging, to say the least, with the divisions we need to navigate on the way to our eternal Judge.

Divisions and splits have been occurring since just after the dawn of time.  As we’re faced with deciding what to do, who to follow, who to overlook, who to ignore, distress and disillusionment works on us.   Our society is probably more cynical than any society before us, and this cynicism puts pressure on faith in God.

It’s no surprise when cynicism overwhelms humanity, we shelter within the safety of ourselves, seeking to align ourselves with those with whom we feel safe, those who share the same views as us, and those who don’t seek to stop us from doing what we want.  And in doing so, we only add to the fostering of further divisions and distress.

Fear today is real.  Financial collapse, disillusionment with democracy, instability from political polarisation within world powers leading to weaponization and wariness, unhealthy health systems, social pleasures that produce increased social pain, and the paradoxical fear of climate change verses the fear of not wanting to give up our machines, all lead to further division and fear.

However, these things that cause divisions are distractions that lead to deception, and we’re not immune to these deceptions within the church either!

In recent times there have been divisions over whether to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated.  Churches have become divided over musical styles, in what have become known as worship wars.  In the LCA division is threatening over the ongoing debate on women’s ordination. 

On both sides of these debates, folk waist the present time, critical time, vilifying the other side as evil.  But I suspect in God’s eyes, both sides of these divisions are on the opposite side to that of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ comes to bring fire on the earth, yet we end up kindling fires of our own that have little to nothing to do with the righteousness of God, instead have everything to do with our own division from the one true faith.

Here Jesus Christ rightly stands as our accuser while we fail to judge what is right.  Jesus warns, “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” (Luke 12:58–59 ESV)

So, what is it that Jesus accuses us of?  Sin of course!

As we walk on the way to the Judge Eternal, how are we to settle with Jesus who accuses us of sin?  If we point the finger, we justify his accusation and we will surely never be able to pay neither the first nor the last penny.

God the Father delights in the truth in your inward being.  In fact, he teaches wisdom in the secret heart.  What is the truth taught within and how is it taught?

King David tells us exactly what it is in Psalm fifty-one, saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:1–5 ESV)

The secret wisdom is that we are sinners, what Jesus rightfully accuses us of!

But how is this wisdom taught in the secret place within?  Again, David tells us as he craves for it in his confession, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”  (Psalm 51:10–12 ESV)

A clean heart comes from a right spirit.  A right spirit exists within, while the Holy Spirit remains.  And when the Holy Spirit remains, he is the Willing Spirit within us.

What does he will us to do?  He wills us to walk with Jesus to the Magistrate and Judge, God the Father.

This is where the right discernment of the division occurs.  We see ourselves as one with those whom we have divisions, we confess our sin, we forgive each other.  The Holy Spirit generates faith, to will and work within us as individuals and as a faith community.  We are rightly distressed because of our sin and the divisions we have practised.  We allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to whom it is that accuses.

We realise he who walks with us through this life accusing us, causing fire within, does not want to divide us from God the Father, but wants to bring us to the Father, the Eternal Judge, to put us right and divide sin from us.  Our Heavenly Father is also the Magistrate, who seeks to pronounce a sentence of forgiveness and eternal life on us too.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we realise our rightful Accuser is actually our Saviour, having  paid the last penny and freed us from the eternal prison of hell.

On realisation of this, we no longer are dragged to the Judge by the Accuser.  No!  Rather we run to him by the power of the Holy Spirit, confessing, forgiving, each other.  We praise God having been put right with him, and those from whom we were divided and with whom we were disillusioned.  The Judge now hands us over to the Officer, not to put us in prison, but to keep us in protective custody.  Who is God’s Officer?  He is the Holy Spirit!

On discerning the division, we see those from whom we were once divided and whom we waisted time fighting, actually on the same side forgiven, as we too are forgiven; running and encouraging each other to run toward Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV)

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, let us interpret the present time correctly and judge what is right.  Send your Holy Spirit to fire in us faith, turning sin to ash, and purifying us with forgiveness in the founder and perfecter of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 9 Proper 14 - Luke 12:32,37 Hebrews 11:12 "As Good as Dead"

Luke 12:32, 37 (ESV) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

Hebrews 11:12 (ESV) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Abram was a rich man, but he was as good as dead.  He had faith in God, but he wished to propagate his line, encouraged by his wife, Sarai, to take Hagar, her servant, and secure a future through her son, Ishmael.

You might find it interesting that Abram, come Abraham, after being promised by God that he would have his own heir, listens to Sarai, Sarah, has genital union with her servant Hagar, and has a son.  The faith in which Abraham and Sarah act, seems contrary to the faith they were credited with in the letter to the Hebrews.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.  (Hebrews 11:11–12 ESV)

A world of hurt follows after Hagar conceived and gives birth to Ishmael.  Ishmael receives the blessing God gave to Abraham, becoming a multitude of peoples, but he does not allow Abraham and Sarah’s faith in themselves see Ishmael as the heir.  Instead, God allows Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness to seemingly fend for themselves with bread and water that quickly run out.

Hagar and Ishmael too are as good as dead, which appears to be not good at all.  Imagine being Hagar and Ishmael.  What would your faith be like in their situation?  The laughter and joy at the birth of Isaac, I imagine, was not shared by Hagar and Ishmael having been cast out into a certainty of being as good as dead.

The picture God paints for us in his word as being as good as dead, is not as bad in God’s eyes as it is ours!  He allows Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael to reach a point at which they are no longer able to act.  Within each of these characters God kills all faith, hope, and love, exhausting every human act, erasing every idea and all sentiment. 

Not only was Abraham as good as dead, but also, he couldn’t give faith to Sarah, Sarah couldn’t give faith to Hagar, and nor could Hagar give faith to Ishmael.  God is the only one to give faith.  But first he seeks to see in us the complete annihilation and obliteration of looking to the self.  He uses death for good, making us as good as dead.

Talking about death in this way, is counter cultural.  To be made nothing and erased rightly fills us with hopelessness and helplessness.  It may be your response to busy yourself, to try to overcome the feelings of fear associated with this reality.  Worry can drive one to work with a desire to force these feelings out.

On the other hand, becoming nothing and being erased may leave you struck with fear.  So much so you are frozen by fear and are overcome by the poverty of your hopelessness and helplessness.

In a society driven by the pursuit of pleasure it is a strange paradox that we are faced by so much fear and unhappiness.  However, when faith in oneself and the pleasing of oneself no longer pleases, fear and unhappiness must come when our treasure of pleasure is dead.

This death of pleasure occurs inside and outside the church, and it seems a terrible thing, but God allows us to be as good as dead so goodness might come through death.

For you and me, inside the church, we learn a valuable lesson.  We learn about being Christian is not necessarily about doing Christian things. 

In fact, there are many outside Christendom that do many greater things than those inside the church.  In the eyes of the world, philanthropists do good deeds spending millions on selfless works in society.  Humanitarians too, also seem to improve society with the good work they do.  Their love for their fellow human is second to none, outdoing us in the church doing “Christian things”.

Doing Christian things might please some!  But doing Christian things to be seen as a Christian, does not please God.  One needs to prayerfully consider what one’s pleasure actually is, in doing Christian things.  If I do things to feel pleased, am I not pleasing the god of myself?  I am using the things of God to worship myself.  And what happens when the things I do, no longer gives me pleasure?

Being a Christian, calls us to be in the pleasures of death; to be as good as dead.  That sounds strange.  It sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.  How can there be pleasure in death?  Death is about annihilation, becoming nothing, obliteration, or being erased from existence. 

Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  (Luke 12:34 ESV)  Where your treasure is, there is your pleasure.  If your pleasure is doing Christian things, then your treasure is the doing of the deeds. 

However, when we are as good as dead, our pleasure cannot come from doing anything.  But,  when we are as good as dead, our existence or having our being must come from God and this pleases him because he is the only one who can truly do it.

In our Lutheran Confessions it says… But before people are enlightened, converted, reborn, renewed, and drawn back to God by the Holy Spirit, they cannot in and of themselves, out of their own natural powers, begin, effect, or accomplish anything in spiritual matters for their own conversion or rebirth, any more than a stone or block of wood or piece of clay can.  [Isaiah 45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:19–24]

For although they can control their bodies and can listen to the gospel and think about it to a certain extent and even speak of it (as Pharisees and hypocrites do), they regard it as foolishness and cannot believe it.  They behave in this case worse than a block of wood, for they are rebellious against God’s will and hostile to it, wherever the Holy Spirit does not exercise his powers in them and ignite and effect faith and other God-pleasing virtues and obedience in them.[1]

It pleases God when he finds us ready.  We are made ready by the Holy Spirit, and he readies us in the Word of God and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit places us in the cycle of faith, breathing life into that which is as good as dead. 

In fact, he must make us ready for the coming of the Bridegroom by making us dead.  God finds us as nothing, so he can give us everything and make us something, a Christian being, working and moving in the being of Christ, doing the things of God as the Holy Spirit wills us.  For “In him we live and move and have our being”.  (Acts 17:28 ESV)

Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32 ESV)

We see in war movies, when one is injured on the battlefield and cannot escape the enemy patrol, looking to finish off those who are still alive, some survive by playing dead, so the killers pass by giving the injured a chance to escape. 

Opposite to this is the Christian who is ready for the Father’s good pleasure.  He needs us not to play alive, as if we do not need his help and can save ourselves.  We don’t need to play dead either, our reality is that we are as good as dead.  It pleases God when we know and trust this in his word and make ourselves ready for his coming, because “our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

When we ready ourselves in the knowledge as being as good as dead, it pleases God to rescue us from the “no man’s land” of suffering and sin.  Jesus tells us what he does for us, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12:37 ESV)

Faith that pleases God, is a faith that places its pleasure in the death of self, the death of desire and sin as well as the death of do-gooder righteousness.   A faith that pleases God is a faith that treasures Jesus Christ and his service to us in the forgiveness of sin, giving life to sinners. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  (Romans 6:3 ESV)

It is better, to be awake and ready to the reality of being as good as dead, than to be so busy pleasing and saving the self that one shuts out Christ, knocking at the door of one’s heart!

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as Jesus comes and knocks on the door of our hearts, may he find us ready, enter, and serves us with the bread of faith, hope, and love, in his word and in his body and blood.  Send you Holy Spirit to work the death of faith, hope, and love in the things of this world, our sin, and our sinful being, so he might continually serve us with your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, that each of us may remain in the goodness and treasure of his death.  Amen.

---

[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).  The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, 2:24 (pp. 548–549).  Fortress Press.

C, Post-Pentecost 8 Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 "The Rich Merry Fool"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”  And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,  and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

When someone in the crowd says to Jesus, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  Let’s say Jesus says, “Okay!  I will.”  And they go, so Jesus can tell the enquirer’s brother to divide the inheritance.  The inheritance is divided, what then.  Does everyone live happily ever after?  Maybe, but most likely not!

What type of relationship do you think the two brothers had, after Jesus intervened in the dispute?  If the two could not settle their differences beforehand, there is a very good chance the relationship would have deteriorated even further after the fact. 

What would the two brothers’ opinions be of Jesus?  Both would have been wrong!  One brother would have been bitter and resentful for Jesus doing what he did, and the other although he may have been pleased with Jesus’ intervention, would have believed the wrong things about Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world.

But no!  Jesus is not a divider of inheritances, and nor is he a divider of relationships.  He came to be a reconciler, resolving each person’s relationship with God the Father.  And only in our reconciliation with God, can a person expect to have a God-pleasing settlement with another person.

Jesus does not name the person in the crowd, nor does he call him friend.  Rather, he impersonally and abruptly says, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14 ESV)

Jesus cannot be a friend of covetousness, justifying and mediating a person’s greed for riches that don’t allow God the Father to be first.

He says to the man and the crowd, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  (Luke 12:15 ESV)

Possessions here are literally, “things under which you submit first”, or the things you serve as your gods. 

These things we call goods.  But the problem with making these goods our gods, they destroy human relationships and ultimately our relationship with God the Father.

Jesus tells a parable to demonstrate to the crowd, what happens when we make gods out of his gifts by conserving them, trusting them for our security.  Or liberally using them, to extravagantly serve ourselves in pleasure.

If Jesus had helped the man to get his share of the inheritance, Jesus would have helped him become like the rich man in the parable.

Notice in Jesus’ parable to whom the rich man speaks…

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully,  and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” (Luke 12:16–19 ESV)

Who does he talk to? No one!  In the culture of Jesus’ day this would have immediately stood out for the listeners.  Not so much for us today!  Which says something in itself for us who perhaps are more like the rich man than we would like to admit. 

In the middle eastern culture of the day, the rich man would  have discussed with his contemporaries, what he might do. 

Here though however, he only has himself to talk to.  No children, no brothers, no parents, no community, no one!

It’s here we begin to understand why Jesus does not do one’s bidding, telling the brother to divide the inheritance.  A lot more than the inheritance would have been divided if Jesus followed the wishes of the one whose life consisted in the abundance of possessions.  Jesus does not serve the sinful self in its sin.  Rather he serves the sinner in being freed from the power of death, freeing the sinner from the deeds and desires of sin.

The rich man in the parable has possessions and property,  but he is all alone.  The wealth he received from his land producing plentifully, reveals the poverty of his position in life.  He has made himself god of his dominion.  The rich man has taken the place of God, forgetting God the Father, and also fails to remember the problem humanity has, when it takes God’s place.

Because we are not God, we fear losing our identity as top dog, and to protect our position in life,  rid ourselves of the competition, and find our self only with our self for company.  As the saying goes, “it’s lonely being at the top!”  Humans were never created to be God or to be alone.

However, in our wealth-based society that’s exactly what’s happening.  The greater our wealth grows, the more we withdraw from our neighbours, the higher the fences and walls become around us.  Time is spent submitting to and serving our wealth, and in the fullness of time we find ourselves alone separated from God and from our neighbours.

The rich man finds himself alone talking to himself, focused on himself.  Self, I have my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods, with my soul.  But are they really his?  Are the goods you have really yours?  Can you have your cake and eat it too?

It seems Jesus is pointing us to Solomon’s deliberations written in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.”  But unfortunately, the rich man in the parable and perhaps us too, when we are presumptuously consumed by our possessions, overlook the next but most important part of the verse which continues, “This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 ESV)

But really, is the rich man content?  When I observe my goods to which I attribute worth and wealth, it’s not long before the mirage of “satisfied desires” moves and I am unsatisfied once again.  Our goods as gods cannot give us the peace which is only found in God.

Early church father Augustine, rightly says of God the Father, “My soul is restless until it finds its rest in you.”   When wealth and property control us, we get so easily caught up in the belief that our restlessness will stop once we have an overabundance of food and drink.  But it doesn’t.

Jesus knows this.  In fact, in the flesh of a human, he experienced the temptation in which we are tempted and fail.  But, although tempted, Jesus does not succumb to temptation as we do, but faithfully followed our Heavenly Father.

The rich man talking to himself is like a person who chases one’s own steamy breath that vanishes in a moment on a cold  frosty morning. 

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.  I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2,14 ESV)

To put it in today’s vernacular, “The rich man is full of hot air, and not much else!”  At the end of the day, he doesn’t even realise his own life is not his own.  Life is not a right but a gift to us – on loan from God.

The rich man puts his feet up in relaxation, eating and drinking in merriment.  Here Jesus uses a play on words.  The words “merry” and “fool” in Greek are both related to the word “diaphragm”.  We might say to be in a good frame of mind.  But diaphragm here suggests a good gut feeling in the torso or midriff.  Think of a relaxing sigh or breath when one has a contented tummy and is in a good frame of mind.

But in the parable God says, “Fool!”  “You, rich man, are hot air and deluded in your comfort.” When God says, “Fool”, Jesus is literally saying the rich man has no diaphragm. He doesn’t have a good frame of mind.  His gut feeling of security is vanity and a chasing after the wind since his goods and possessions are but a breath.  So too is his life!

The Psalmist says, “the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough — that one should live on forever and not see decay.”  (Psalm 49:8–9 NIV)

Our lives are on loan from God.  He is the source of life.  Our life sees decay and death because of sin.  But, despite this, God gives life through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is our daily bread.  He is today’s bread, and he is our tomorrow eternal bread too.

Saint Paul tells the Colossians, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices  and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”(Colossians 3:9–10 ESV)

Jesus gives you your new self, the Holy Spirit comes to see the old self put off, destroy your false gods, and renew you in the knowledge of your new self, Jesus Christ the new Adam, in the image of your Creator, our Father in Heaven.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 7 Proper 12 - Colossians 2:6–15, 18–19 Luke 11:13 "Pray for the Holy Spirit"

Colossians 2:6–15, 18–19 (ESV) Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,  and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.  In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Luke 11:13 (ESV) (Jesus says to his disciples.) If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Does God punish?  Does he test his people?  What is the reality of God’s discipline, for you and me? 

Christians suffer just as much as the next person does. 

When is our suffering a result of our disobedience, and when does our suffering occur because of following Christ?

Now that Christ has come and died for us, why do we still suffer?  If God is a God of love, why do we encounter evil?

A myriad of questions come to the fore when we examine God’s work of punishment because of sin and evil.

Jesus prays and his disciples ask him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples.  The disciples of Jesus did not fully understand and know that Jesus was the Son of God, but if they had they may have asked Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, why do you pray?”

We know Jesus is the Son of God, we know he was born as the Messiah, the Christ, or the anointed one.  He was born as a human being and anointed to die for our sin, yet he was without sin.  He was the Son of God and the Son of man sent to save humanity from itself.  So why does he pray?

Surely, being the eternal Son of God, he could speak the Word of God with omnipotent power and control whatever or whoever he chose.  But no, so often Jesus is found in a quiet place of prayer. 

Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray by teaching them to pray to their Father.  Just as Jesus prays to his Heavenly Father, he teaches them, and us, to do the same.  He does so for one and the same reason.  Our weakness and the weakness he assumed by being born in the flesh of a human.

At the heart of Jesus’ prayer is a prayer for the Holy Spirit.  This also might seem strange since he is the Son of God and that he has already received the Holy Spirit in his baptism.  But Jesus teaches them what he is doing.  He is praying to his Father in Heaven to continually send the Holy Spirit to him.

In his human weakness he continually bangs on God’s door for help.  Jesus’ help comes in the name of his Lord and God who made heaven and earth, who sends the Holy Spirit.  And so too for us!

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,  and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”  (Colossians 2:6–11 ESV)

We deceive ourselves when we stop praying to God our Father.  We take ourselves out of the cycle of confession and forgiveness when we stop praying.  Like a young child learning to walk we reject help from our Heavenly Father, and soon enough there is a buster and suffering follows.

On the other hand, Jesus still hangs on to the hand of his Father, all the way to the cross.  In doing so, the Holy Spirit guides him in the human weakness he bears.  Although he is not evil, he bears the flesh of Adam, he endures in the evil of human flesh without succumbing to the evil.

Jesus trusts in the overwhelming steadfast love of our Heavenly Father, and, bearing all the suffering that goes with the Son of God giving up his divinity and dwelling in the flesh of his own creation, Jesus teaches us to do the same.

As Paul says to the Colossians,  “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Colossians 2:18–19 ESV)

As Christians we get our identity from Jesus Christ.  But when we fail to pray in our weakness for his help, we disqualify ourselves by puffing up our human spirit in favour over the Holy Spirit.  And this is where our suffering can begin.  We let go of God’s hand and take the hand of fellowship with our visions of delusion, reasoning of the human spirit, and our own desires of worship which turn us in on ourselves and results in pain and suffering.

God tests us, and the punishment we receive is not so much what God does to us, but that he withdraws from us and leaves us to our own devices.  “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives, he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” (Hebrews 12:6,10b ESV)

What is happening here, is we as Christians believe in Jesus Christ for our help.  But once that help comes, we mistake the Holy Spirit for our own spirit, and on doing this, lose site of Jesus.  We fall out of the cycle of salvation that God has placed us in at baptism. 

It’s as if having been buried with him in baptism, we stop allowing the Holy Spirit to raise us with Jesus through faith.  The powerful working of God in the Holy Spirit is replaced with death; that death is trusting the human spirit. 

Jesus teaches us to pray, to join in with him, to receive the Holy Spirit, as he received the Holy Spirit, and needed to, while he was incarnate in flesh  and was led to his death and resurrection by the power of the same Holy Spirit.

Although God disciplines us, and we suffer, “Nevertheless, he looks upon our distress, when he hears our cry.  For our sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” (adapted from Psalm 106:44–45)

The covenant God sees is his covenant with Jesus Christ.  When God sees you, he sees Jesus.  As God allows us to suffer as a result of our sin, he wills us to see our sin in the suffering of Jesus.  He allows the Holy Spirit to return us back to trust in Jesus Christ, and this gives us peace with him, our Father in heaven.

While Jesus dwelt amongst us in plain sight, he taught us to pray.  Now that he is out of sight, how much more do we need to pray for the Holy Spirit?  We are reassured he is still with us only through faith, given only by the Holy Spirit.

We dwell in times where we need to constantly cry out in prayer to our Father for ourselves, each other and for the society in which we live.  The temptations to worship the self in the desires of one’s pleasure; physically in our achievements, sexually through unauthorised homosexual and heterosexual acts,  emotionally through the instant gratification of what we want to look at and consume, individually as we are led away from fellowship to faith in one’s own will.  When we are overcome in these temptations, they might seem pleasing to the eye but under the surface they ooze with death.

God in his steadfast love and mercy allows markers to appear that certainly do shock us from time to time.  Tsunamis, bushfires, Covid-19, war, or economic collapse may or may not occur as a result of our individual deeds, but they are a call to pray, to pester God as did Abraham when he questioned God about saving Sodom and Gomorrah, and as Jesus encourages us to, in his parable of the imprudent fellow who pesters his neighbour to get bread to feed a guest.

God the Father wants us to bother him in prayer, just as Jesus did.  He wants your trust and your prayers, he wants to help you in your sinfulness, to save you and sustain you.  When you pray to Jesus for the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly Father is pleased to oblige.  Amen.