To Encourage You

Luke 22:35-38: “And he said to them, ‘When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?’ They said, ‘Nothing.’ He said to them, ‘But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: “And he was numbered with the transgressors.” For what is written about me has its fulfillment.’ And they said, ‘Look, Lord, here are two swords.’ And he said to them, ‘It is enough.’”

Have you heard the song often heard during Christmas, “A Strange Way to Save the World”? It’s a song that gives voice to the thoughts that must have gone through Joseph’s head as he considered how his wife would give birth to the Savior. It was so strange in so many ways how this would happen. Why in Bethlehem? Why would Joseph, just a simple man of trade, be involved? And why by way of a virgin birth? The song gives voice to the truth that God’s ways are not our ways, and it’s so obvious when we think about it. For you see if it had been up to us, and if it had been as the Jews at that time had expected, the Messiah would have come as a great and powerful conquering king who would overthrow the Roman government and establish the Jews, “God’s chosen people,” as the rulers of the world. Even Jesus’ personally taught apostles were caught up in this as they argued, just prior to the crucifixion, about which of them would be greatest in the coming kingdom of God on earth (Luke 22:24-27). Surely that’s how THEY would handle things, but by this viewpoint they just made evident that they had a human perspective rather than a divine.

We get further insight to the divergence between the human and the divine in the passage above from Luke 22. These are words spoken by Jesus in the moments before He would be arrested and sentenced to die. Jesus mentions to His apostles that a great change was soon to take place. Early in their ministry Jesus had sent them into the cities of Judea to preach, heal, and cast out demons. We are told that in this, He “gave them authority over evil spirits” (Mark 6:7). In their going, and as Jesus refers to in the passage above, Jesus had commanded them to take no personal provisions with them, for surely the God Who had power over the evil spirits could certainly supply all their needs. But a change was coming. Now, rather than having authority OVER evil spirits, the evil spirits would seemingly have power over them. Satan would soon sift Peter like wheat. And Jesus Himself, would be “numbered with the transgressors.” He would be betrayed by Judas after Satan filled his soul, and He would be subject to the devil’s power, for Satan would motivate the Jewish and Roman authorities to murder Jesus on the cross. And so Jesus warns His apostles that now would be the time for them to be careful, to make sure they had personal provisions, and to even consider carrying a sword for personal protection, for surely now Jesus’ enemies would also be their enemies. As they treated Him, they would also treat them.

Which brings us back to the same sentiments that must have come to Joseph, i.e., isn’t this such a strange way to save the world?! But you see if there was a better way, surely God would have provided it. But there wasn’t. It was only in removing His hand of protection from His own Son, even forsaking Him, as Jesus would cry out, that sin’s debt for mankind could be propitiated. It was such a strange way, yet it was God’s way, to save the world.

So often in the preaching we hear today, it is man’s perspective that is portrayed as Christianity, rather than God’s perspective as revealed in His holy Word. We are told that if we just follow Jesus, and if we just give enough of our money to this ministry or that, then God will bless us with one physical blessing after another. I’ve even heard some Christians say that God wants believers to accumulate great sums of money so that they can have a greater influence on the world with their vast wealth prior to Jesus’ return! But in this these preachers and teachers are expressing the same desires and perspectives of a sin- cursed world. But the way God often works in believers’ lives is much different than this. Listen to the apostle Paul as he explains this in 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:18: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Perhaps the key idea in this section of Scripture is the proclamation of God to “Let light shine out of darkness,” for it’s in this way that so often is revealed the marvelous wisdom of God. We see it on the cross – when both physical and spiritual darkness enveloped the world (Luke 23:44). And we see it since that time so often in the lives of Christ’s followers in times of “darkness,” i.e., trials, physical suffering, Satanic attack, even the valley of the shadow of death. For, isn’t it so often the case that when Jesus’ followers are the weakest that the strength of Christ is revealed. As Paul said that he had learned after Jesus had denied him deliverance from his “thorn in the flesh,” “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). You see, so often it’s when our physical bodies, i.e., our “jars of clay,” are stressed or even broken in some way that God has ordained “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” and it is in this way that those in the world who are likewise suffering, often see the power of the gospel and are thereby opened to hearing its message, and drawn to eternal salvation by the glory of God.

Yes, it’s such a strange way that God has ordained to save the world. But that “strangeness” is only strange to us, for we are from this world and God’s ways are higher, as high as the heavens are above the earth (Isaiah 55:9). And so the apostle Paul, this one who likely suffered more than any of us, could exclaim “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”