Today, God wants to work through you! Yes, even you!
The picture of God we have in the Old Testament (OT) is of one who is all powerful, totally responsible for everything, irresistible, moving people and nations at will. And the Old Testament picture of morality makes a clear delimitation between those who are good and those who are wicked. Lovers of evil, lovers of good.
Then Jesus comes.
And rather than a God who imposes his irresistible will on those around, we see a God who himself chooses to woo, to befriend, to serve. We see that God in Christ, who is able to control all things, nearly always chooses instead to let individuals make their own choices.
He shows us a more nuanced picture of morality too – as he interacts with people, he acknowledges that some people are addicted to habits they cannot break, bound by forces they cannot see. God in Christ shows us that it is not simply a neutral choice between good and evil, but more a matter of repression, slavery, struggle and freedom.
The OT, of course, is full of stories of repression, slavery, struggle and freedom – indeed it is Israel’s defining history, it has formed their national common culture. To this day, they know the story of the ancient Exodus as surely as they know the story of the modern Holocaust.
But, for the first time, in Christ we see that all this slavery and freedom talk applies to the individual struggle with good and evil.
And the way God in Christ deals with this new understanding of morality in the New Testament, is first to deal with the slavery/freedom thing, then to provide people with a truly free choice, and then to let them decide.
Again and again, Jesus frees people from the physical disability – and restores their sight, their hearing, their walking, their speaking – and leaves them with the choice of whether to follow him or not – always with absolutely no pressure.
Today, there exists in the church a healing ministry, but we have to admit that we are not that good at it. There is occasionally the miraculous healing but they are very few and far between.
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And another player is revealed by Jesus life – that of Satan, and those who follow him – the demons. Satan does not really feature in the OT hardly at all. Not sure why, but maybe his role is deliberately de-emphasised, in order to avoid the idea that there are forces of good on one side, and forces of evil on the other, and these are somehow equal in power. This idea, known as dualism, was rejected by the early church a couple of thousand years ago.
In the gospels we read of Jesus also freeing people from oppression and possession by demons. We read repeated accounts of Jesus giving people choices they never had before, as they faced a life without being bound by these forces beyond their control.
And today, there exists in the church a deliverance ministry, but again, the evidence for genuine deliverance is difficult to verify.
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As Jesus ministry continued, it becomes more and more evident, that He himself is making choices.
He’s tired, yet his concern is to meet the needs of the crowds who gather where he is. So he chooses to heal them, feed them, meet them, teach them.
And as the resistance and the enmity grows, as the establishment try to turn the crowds hostile, He chooses to continue on this collision course or to back off.
And his followers are forced to make the same choice – Thomas says famously – “Lets go with him to Jerusalem, and we can all die together!”
The way Jesus lived every day of his life and died every moment of his death are the direct result of the moment by moment choices he made.
For us, making the moment by moment choice to follow Jesus, will mean celebration and friendship and fulfillment. It will also mean sacrifice and suffering.
The Bible says that Jesus was “made perfect by the things that he suffered.” Don’t shy away from this verse – I think the experience of the crucifixion, that of carrying the sin of the world, in a sense made God complete, mature.
Yes, there is a sense in which God is unchanging – his love certainly is, his character never changes, it has been and always will be perfect – but I think just as we are brought to maturity by suffering, so God too experienced suffering shortly after he saw Adam, and consequently the entire human race, walking away from Him. I think God was changed too at Calvary, for the first time carrying humanity's sin and sickness on a human frame. I think God too will change at that mystical divine wedding ceremony, when he marries the church. Which bridegroom is not changed by that day?
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We are called to be made perfect by the suffering we undergo, we become mature as we choose to follow Jesus.
We see suffering every day. Some see it only on TV. Others, more perceptive, see it in those around. And while some ask “Why?”, our tendency can be to dismiss this as an unanswerable question. We often run away from these difficult questions, forgetting that they are keeping some people from coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Like cowards we duck and weave and avoid some very obvious facts.
Firstly, as creator and sustainer, God is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on earth – there really is no getting away from that. Get-out clauses about free-will do not free God from his responsibilities. Our society removes children from parents who let them run wild, and unchecked, inflict injury on each other.
Secondly, if God could have come up with a better plan, then he would have. This is the best that God can do.
Thirdly, nothing brings out more goodness in people more than experiencing suffering.
Fourthly, we are assured over and over again, that “God has compassion on all that he has made.”
Fifthly, we cannot see God's big picture, but we know it is much bigger than just this life on earth.
Make no mistake, God is doing something very very big here – a creation, intelligent life, called to self-determination, awareness and love, made mature by freely choosing what is right, even though it involves suffering, and then together as a new creation, a bride for God's Son.
And every one of us on earth has a part in God's big plan. You and I fit in here somewhere. Somewhere in the maturing through suffering, somewhere in creation groaning as in the pain of childbirth.
But central to our part in it, is choosing the right way, moment by moment.
The Father has not stopped wanting to do things and say things to people you know. Every week, you are presented with 'divine appointments'. Then all the influences of your upbringing, and all the characteristics and attitudes you’ve inherited from your mum and dad, and all the culture you’ve absorbed from TV and radio, and books and magazines and friends and family, will be pushing you to respond in a certain way.
And God by his Spirit, will speak to your spirit, with something different.
Can you to say to yourself,
“Everything I am and know would push me in this direction, to respond this way, but today, today, I – am – going – to – choose. I’m not going to be squeezed by the world. I’m not going to be rolled over by the inherited characteristics of my parents. I’m not going to bow to the dictates of TV. I am going to think – What Will Jesus Do - now in my life – and I’m going to choose to let him.
