Luke 10:25-37

Do you realize that believers should not have to look beyond the body of Christ to have their needs met? We are meant to be a self-sustaining body. After several decades in ministry, I have seen only one way for the church to function as it should: believers must commit to give of themselves on behalf of others.

For example, a man determines to pray and struggle alongside a hurting brother until the burdensome situation is resolved or peace returns. Or a woman makes herself available to answer a new Christian’s questions about the weekly sermon–the two ladies search the Bible and fill their minds with Scripture. And there are countless other ways to serve others, such as driving an elderly member to the service, teaching a Sunday school class, or visiting a weary single mom and listening to her concerns.

Before you become overwhelmed by the variety of needs in your church, let me remind you that loving each other is meant to be a body-wide effort. One person cannot meet every need. But suppose you commit to serving a small group of folks whom God brings into your sphere of influence. If, in order to care for them, you surrender self-focused preferences about resources and time, the Lord will bless you with more joy and contentment than you’ve ever known.

To serve others before serving yourself is to practice authentic Christianity. I’m certain that if believers commit to meeting as many needs as the Lord brings to their attention, then a lazy church can be transformed, becoming a true body of believers who function together for the glory of God.

“Why Christian?” was a question put before Professor Douglas John Hall by one of the many students who discover themselves in his office asking more about the theology he teaches. It’s possible this question was asked rhetorically, maybe even a bit sarcastically, like those near Jesus who threw questions more like daggers than candid inquiries. It’s also possible the student just wanted to hear an honest explanation: In a world of so many spiritual options, in a world of reasons to reject religion altogether, Why Christianity? Regardless of tone or motive, the seasoned professor of theology decided to answer the question, laying aside the responses that must come automatically after so many years to really give an answer. “I confess, I [am answering] as much for myself as for you,” he writes. “You made me realize that after all these years I needed to face that question in the quite basic and personal way you put it to me.”(1)

On a typical day, my answer to the question of Christianity might be steeped in the signs and realities of the uniqueness of Christ. Thankfully this answer is not my own. With many who have gone before me, I cannot explain Jesus of Nazareth without concluding his uniqueness. “Surely this man was the Son of God!” “Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” “Come and see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”(2)

Christianity is not a matter of preference or pedigree, but pilgrimage chosen specifically because a follower has found one worth following. “[Jesus] was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men,” wrote Scottish nobleman James Stewart, “yet he spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God… No one was half so kind or compassionate to sinners yet no one ever spoke such red-hot scorching words about sin… His whole life was love. Yet on one occasion he demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell… He saved others but at the last, Himself He did not save. There is nothing in history like the union of contrasts which confront us in the Gospels.” Why Christian? Because there is none other like Christ.

The incomparability of Jesus Christ answers the questions of a world of spiritual options and religious hostility. Like professor Hall, facing the question “Why Christian?” is typically a matter of confessing the things I know, even as I know I now see but a reflection and will one day see face to face. Still, there are less typical days when the question comes not with hostility or sarcasm or curiosity, but from somewhere within, and the answers are somewhere caught up in despair or injustice or death. When standing over a casket or holding the hand of one whose body is riddled with cancer, “Why Christian?” takes on a different flesh—or else it wavers cold and corpselike. Christ’s uniqueness is suddenly a matter of urgency, needing to be spoken in words that have meaning even in valleys of death and shadow. Standing before this body that once breathed, what does it really mean that Christ was unique? Though with a far different kind of trembling certainty, here too Christ’s incomparability is ultimately what matters.

The apologetic of the apostle Paul was always spoken starring life’s “last enemy” dead in the eyes. Whether answering the question “Why Christian?” or standing in jail having been beaten to silence, Paul kept before him the hope of the resurrection as both the proof of Christ’s uniqueness and the assurance that this uniqueness inherently matters. He spoke of the resurrection of Christ and his hope in the resurrection of the dead before the assembled Sanhedrin, before the Roman procurator Felix, and again before Felix’s successor, Festus, who conceded that Paul’s arrest was due to his proclamation “about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.”(3) Even before king Agrippa, Paul’s answer to the first acrimonious signs of the question “Why Christian?” was an appeal to Christ’s uniqueness in the hope of the resurrection. He asked, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?…I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen–that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:8, 22). For Paul, and for all who claim the inimitableness of Jesus, if Christ has not been raised, there is no answer to the question “Why Christian?”

Instead, the uniqueness of Christ is an answer for questions that come with sarcasm or sincerity. But so it is an answer with flesh when life’s typical comforts fall by the wayside and the valley of shadows is long and lonely. “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”(4) There is none other like Christ. I know of no other god who weeps with us at gravesides and then shows us in his own dying and rising that death no more holds its sting.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) Douglas John Hall, Why Christian: For Those on the Edge of Faith (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), 11.
(2) Mark 15:39, John 9:32-33, John 4:29.
(3) Acts 23:6, Acts 24:15, 21, Acts 25:19.
(4) Matthew 28:6.

Morning  “He that was healed wist not who it was.”   John 5:13

Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease must

have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man. When

Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of Bethesda, he

was delightfully sensible of a change. Even so the sinner who has for weeks and

months been paralysed with despair, and has wearily sighed for salvation, is

very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power, and

gives joy and peace in believing. The evil removed is too great to be removed

without our discerning it; the life imparted is too remarkable to be possessed

and remain inoperative; and the change wrought is too marvellous

not to be perceived. Yet the poor man was ignorant of the author of his cure;

he knew not the sacredness of his person, the offices which he sustained, or the

errand which brought him among men. Much ignorance of Jesus may remain in hearts

which yet feel the power of his blood. We must not hastily condemn men for lack

of knowledge; but where we can see the faith which saves the soul, we must

believe that salvation has been bestowed. The Holy Spirit makes men penitents

long before he makes them divines; and he who believes what he knows, shall soon

know more clearly what he believes. Ignorance is, however, an evil; for this

poor man was much tantalized by the Pharisees, and was quite unable

to cope with them. It is good to be able to answer gainsayers; but we cannot do

so if we know not the Lord Jesus clearly and with understanding. The cure of his

ignorance, however, soon followed the cure of his infirmity, for he was visited

by the Lord in the temple; and after that gracious manifestation, he was found

testifying that “it was Jesus who had made him whole.” Lord, if thou hast saved

me, show me thyself, that I may declare thee to the sons of men.

 

Evening  “Acquaint now thyself with him.”   Job 22:21

If we would rightly “acquaint ourselves with God, and be at peace,” we must know

him as he has revealed himself, not only in the unity of his essence and

subsistence, but also in the plurality of his persons. God said, “Let us make

man in our own image”–let not man be content until he knows something of the

“us” from whom his being was derived. Endeavour to know the Father; bury your

head in his bosom in deep repentance, and confess that you are not worthy to be

called his son; receive the kiss of his love; let the ring which is the token of

his eternal faithfulness be on your finger; sit at his table and let your heart

make merry in his grace. Then press forward and seek to know much of

the Son of God who is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and yet in

unspeakable condescension of grace became man for our sakes; know him in the

singular complexity of his nature: eternal God, and yet suffering, finite man;

follow him as he walks the waters with the tread of deity, and as he sits upon

the well in the weariness of humanity. Be not satisfied unless you know much of

Jesus Christ as your Friend, your Brother, your Husband, your all. Forget not

the Holy Spirit; endeavour to obtain a clear view of his nature and character,

his attributes, and his works. Behold that Spirit of the Lord, who first of all

moved upon chaos, and brought forth order; who now visits the chaos of your

soul, and creates the order of holiness. Behold him as the Lord and giver of

spiritual life, the Illuminator, the Instructor, the Comforter, and the

Sanctifier. Behold him as, like holy unction, he descends upon the head of

Jesus, and then afterwards rests upon you who are as the skirts of his garments.

Such an intelligent, scriptural, and experimental belief in the Trinity in Unity

is yours if you truly know God; and such knowledge brings peace indeed.

 

Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.’   John 5:8

Like many others, this impotent man had been waiting for a wonder to be performed and a sign to be given. He grew tired watching the pool, but no angel came, or at least not for him; still considering it to be his only chance, he kept waiting, not knowing that there was One near him whose word could heal him in a moment. Many are in the same condition. They are waiting for some singular emotion, remarkable impression, or celestial vision; but they wait and watch in vain. Even supposing that, in a few cases, remarkable signs are seen, yet these are rare, and no man has a right to look for them in his own case—especially not the man who feels his inability to take advantage of the moving of the water even if it came.

It is sad to think of how many tens of thousands are waiting on the use of means and ordinances and vows and resolutions and have been waiting for so long and completely in vain. Meanwhile these poor souls forget that Jesus is near, and He bids them look to Him and be saved. He could heal them at once, but they prefer to wait for an angel and a wonder. To trust Him is the sure way to every blessing, and He is worthy of the most implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer to wait for the water to stir than to embrace the warm welcome of His love.

May the Lord turn His eye upon the multitudes who are in that position tonight; may He forgive their lack of faith in His divine power and call them by His sweet constraining voice to rise from the bed of despair and in the energy of faith take up their bed and walk. O Lord, hear our prayer for such as these in the sunset hour, and before a new dawn may they look and live.

Thankful reader, is there anything in this portion for you?

The family reading plan for May 7, 2012

Isaiah 5 | Hebrews 12