Look Through the Cross

Title:  Temptation – Look through the Cross By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Luke 13:   5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Most people have seen the movie Forrest Gump.  That opening scene where he is sitting on the bus bench and the feather floats down is classic.  It seems to promise some deep philosophical statement.  Then from that bus bench Forrest spouts his philosophy of life to all who come by as he waits for his bus.  I’d like to begin with a reference from that great philosopher named Forrest Gump.  He said: My momma says: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” Now that’s a pretty good philosophy on life, but even though there is some truth to it, It’s still very weak.

I. Now we’re normally not as great philosophers as Forrest and normally we don’t even have as clear a philosophy has he does.  But our  philosophy does tends to look at life through circumstances like his. But our philosophy is often tainted because we always want to know why we get the chocolates we get.

A. When we get the good chocolates life is OK in our eyes.

1. We expect the good chocolates to continue and even get better.

a. Somewhere along the line we’ve reached the point in our thinking that we deserve to have good days, and when we have a bad day we get all upset and wonder what we did to deserve it.    b. We think we deserve to have good health, and we complain when we have aches and pains and when we have to constantly take medicine.    c. We think we deserve to have cars that run well, appliances that work well, and we complain when our power goes out because of a lightning storm.

2. But even when we receive all the good chocolates we aren’t truly satisfied, either.

B. And inevitably when we get the bad chocolates we complain and feel put upon.  Our text has two instances of people receiving bad chocolates.

1. Both reports are about atrocities visited upon innocents. These two headlines pretty much cover the waterfront of any modern headline that deals with suffering. It’s either a bad person caused it or someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time -- malice or chance, take your pick.

a. Our underlying assumption seems to be: these people must have done something really, horribly bad to cause God to abandon them in this way.    The assumption is that these were bad people in some way we don’t see.     b. And we may go so far as to say we’re not like that.  We say, "Look, I never slit anybody's throat. I never designed a shoddily constructed building that collapsed on anybody." And you would be right. But Jesus is saying today, at least in part, that the headlines that grab our attention and raise our moral revulsion are a smokescreen for a subtle sin that is in each of us. It is far easier, you see, to locate evil in somebody or something else rather than in ourselves. Far easier to rant and rave at the evening news rather than see the subtle sin in us.

2. Today Jesus turns his audience’s philosophical gymnastics squarely back on them.  He turns them back to see their own sin. He turns us back to see our own sin, too.

a. One of our subtle sins is to try and blame God – as if we were His judge.  We try to place ourselves above God.  As if God were answerable to us. This in effect puts sin in and on God and we accuse Him of being unjust.  This is sin of the most grievous kind.   b. And also in this we try to put the sin on others and not on ourselves.  But Jesus brings us to ask, “Is there such a thing as an innocent man or woman??”   If we are really honest and look at it from a Scriptural perspective we have to say, “No, there is no innocent man or woman.”    c. And it goes even further.  If we are really honest we must realize that we deserve only death and hell.  One of my favorite scenes in a movie has an evil man falling from a tree and dying.  He immediately he continues to fall.  He hits bottom in someplace strange and hot.  He says, “Where am I.” A demon like thing says “you’re in hell.”  Then he is hit repeatedly  and says, “I deserve this, I deserve this.”  Yes, that’s all we each deserve.

3. The fact that we have gotten one moment past birth is a testimony to God’s grace.   That we receive anything, anything at all, is more than we deserve.  When we see suffering my reaction shouldn’t be: “Oh, Yes, they must have sinned” -- implying I’m better – I’m innocent.  But my reaction should be: “I repent for I deserve that suffering and more.”

II. Jesus wants to bring a change in our philosophy of life.  He’s bringing us to look at life through the cross no matter what chocolates we get.

A. All in all, Jesus' abrupt statements here deal a blow to our sinful pride. He tells the people that the normal safety of their lives is far more than they deserve; it's a gift of a merciful God, not something they've earned.

1. Not only is God merciful, but He is also gracious. Thus He has sent His Son into the world--not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Jesus is going willingly to that cross so that they might repent and live.

a. God does not want you to perish, and so He wants you to look at Jesus.  Here is Someone, the only One who had the right to say, “Why Me?  What did I do to deserve this?  What did I do to deserve the mocking, and the beatings, and the whippings, and the thorns, and the nails?  What did I do to deserve the suffering and pain of hell?”  But He didn’t!  He said not a word.   b.  Jesus did not point His finger at you as He hung on the cross and say, “You deserve this, not Me!”  Instead, He said:  Father, forgive them.  Do not hold their sins against them.  Give Me whatever they deserve, and give them your grace and blessing.

2. And that is the reason why you and I have good chocolates is because God is merciful to you for Jesus’ sake.  The fact that God cares for you and sees you through your bad chocolates is because His heart is merciful toward you.  Why do good things happen to sinners like us?  Because of what Jesus did for you; because you have a merciful God.

B. Jesus wants you to see life through the cross rather than through the chocolates you get.  So to prepare you for the chocolates that you will receive, both bad and good, I would bid you to keep the following points in mind.

1.  Because of our sin, we don’t deserve any good from God at all. So when we get uptight and ask the unanswerable “why do bad things happen” to us, it may well be a signal that we need to be blasted by the more appropriate question: “Why does any good happen to us at all?”

This question is better for two reasons. a. First, it recognizes the depth of our sinfulness. b. Second, the Lord makes that answer very clear: good things happen because God pours out all sorts of good on you for the sake of Jesus Christ. c.  I would encourage you daily to renew in your mind the truth that every good thing is an undeserved gift of God. The more we think we deserve things from God, the more we deny our sinfulness; and the more we will grow angry with God when we do not receive what we think we deserve.

2. And we need to keep in mind that in all this God treats us like children and because of that He keeps some things to Himself.

a. Sooner or later, parents find themselves saying to their kids for the best of reasons, “I can’t explain why right now. Just do what I say. You have to trust me.” God says the same to us. He treats us like children—and with good reason: we are His children! He has made us His children for the sake of Jesus, and He assures us that He is “our Father, who art in heaven.”   b. It could have been different: He could have made it a king/subject relationship. In that case, the answer to the problem of bad chocolates might well be, “Bad may happen and because I’m the King, and I’m going to do what I’m going to do. Who are you to question me?” But God doesn’t deal with you in terms of tyrannical power, but in terms of fatherly mercy. And as a merciful Father, He says, “I’ve made you My own child, and I take care of My kids. You don’t have all the answers, but you can be sure that I’m working all things for your good. I’m telling you: trust Me.”   c. And something else to consider is that because of God’s mercy to you, those bad chocolates that happen really aren’t bad chocolates at all.  We see troubles as obstacles and hindrances that prevent us from enjoying life.  But God sees them as things which build character; which teach us to persevere, to trust in Him, and to hold, not so tightly to this world because our true home is in heaven.  Even death is really not a bad chocolate for us, for Jesus has made it the gate of heaven for those who love and trust in Him.

3. And we need to keep in mind that while you don’t know why bad chocolates come our way, you do know that God is merciful and you do know there are places where you know exactly what God is up to, because He tells you.

a. One is your baptism, where He made you His child. That’s why you remember your baptism daily in the face of temptation and affliction, because it is your assurance that you are God’s beloved child, that you have a merciful Father in heaven who will deliver you.   b. Another place and time is Absolution: for no matter what else is happening around you, the Lord declares, “I forgive you. You are Mine.”   c. Third, of course, is His Holy Supper: there you know that the Lord is present with His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. In the midst of all the bad and uncertainty of the world, you are not forsaken: the Lord comes to you to give you life.

CONCLUSION: Yes, Forrest Gump has a more profound life philosophy than you might think.  But any that philosophy that’s based on chocolates just has to be anemic.  In this text Jesus is moving us to a life philosophy that is not centered in the chocolates we receive.  He moves us to a life philosophy that looks at life through the cross. In the cross we see God’s mercy is ours no matter what chocolates we receive.  Through the cross we know where God has acted in love for us.  Through the cross we know we are His children for Jesus’ sake—and sometimes children don’t know what the parents are up to, but they always should know that they have their best interests at heart.  And through the cross we know that the best chocolates are yet to come.  Amen.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.