Do we find Jesus scary?

I wonder why it is we don’t find Jesus scary...   A group of us were looking at Mark’s Gospel last night, and it is pretty clear that, faced with his power, the disciples did:

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4v41) 

The disciples have just been terrified of drowning in a storm. In their fear, they appealed to Jesus who calmly rebuked the wind and the waves, calming the storm. The result? In front of this display of awesome power, the disciples are now terrified of Jesus. 

Imagine walking down an alley-way and only to be confronted by a rabid Doberman. It bears its teeth and runs at you. Fear’s icy fingers begin to grip you. The dog leaps for your throat, and you are convinced your time is up.  Then, out of nowhere, a lion soars through the air, effortlessly catches the Doberman in its teeth, and tosses it away with disdain.  Where once there was a dog, now there is a lion.  If you thought you had problems before, this new and greater power would been even scarier!

That is where the disciples are at.  They had no control over the storm.  They were helpless before its power. But now they realise they stand before a greater power. A power that can still a storm with a few words. A greater power, over which they have no control, and which may prove an even greater threat.  Small wonder they are terrified!

And yet too often we consider gentle Jesus meek and mild.   Subconsciously, we’re thinking: “How scary can a bearded guy in a white dress and sandals be?”  The answer is "Very!" when you understand who he is.  Through chapters 4 and 5 (and throughout the gospels) we are confronted with a Jesus who is completely in control – powerful over every threat or power (nature, spirits, sickness, death – you name it).  The more we see of him, the more we realise he has absolute power. 

That kind of power is generally scary.  It seems to me there are only two reasons not to be scared of Jesus:

1) You won’t be scared if you are persuaded that Jesus doesn’t (still) have power. 

...Although interestingly, at the time nobody questioned Jesus’ power to do these things!  While his opponents questioned the origin and purpose of the power he wielded, they didn't doubt the reality of his power.  Rather, they concluded he was evil and tried to stop him by killing him. 

It turned out they had badly under-estimated Jesus. his power was demonstrated supremely in overcoming death.  

In fact, Jesus has power over everything. As Peter says to the crowds in Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension:

“…God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2v36)

But, recognising Jesus' power, there is still a reason not to be scared of him...

2) You won’t be scared if you know that Jesus will use that power for your good.

If Jesus has power over everything as the creator and King of the world, then he is supremely in control of the world, our lives and our futures. We get scared when we feel out of control… powerless! We get especially scared if someone else is in control… if they have power over us, and we don’t think they have our best interests at heart.  So what are we to make of Jesus’ control?  The million dollar question is: "How will he wield his power towards me?"

If he has the kind of power the Bible speaks of, we are helpless before him. He has power over us whether we like it or not. We have no bargaining chips. He doesn’t owe us any favours. How can we be sure that he has our best interests at heart? (After all, how often have we truly shown concern for his interests?!).  

This is how Peter’s hearers responded to his warning:

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2v37-39)

In Mark 4, the disciples had recognised Jesus’ power, but they still didn’t know how he would wield that power towards them. They were terrified. What reason do we have not to be?

Cutting the Judaisers some slack… (Galatians 5)

As we come to the end of a series in Galatians in our men’s Bible study, I have a growing sympathy for the false-teachers(!).

The first century Galatian church is wrestling with what marks an individual as a true “seed of Abraham”… the inheritors of God’s promise to Abraham. As Gentiles come into the church, the issue of the day is: “How do you rule people in or out?” “What is the boundary marker for God’s people?”

The debate boils down to “faith in Paul’s gospel alone” vs. “faith + legal observance”. False teachers are “throwing [the church] into confusion” by “perverting the gospel” (1v7) by preaching faith plus legal observance (circumcision,…). Paul teaches that the true heirs of the promise to Abraham are those who trust in Christ as the fulfilment of those promises (Gal 5v26,29).

I came to Galatians seeing the Judaisers unsympathetically - they were out and out bad guys. Until that is, I re-read chapter 5v16-26…

Paul is defending the idea that the freedom that comes through the gospel (and the gospel alone) leads inevitably to holiness (v.13), and not to license. I don’t think its stretching interpretation too far to read in between the lines, and see some of the concerns of the Judaisers in Chapter 5. It’s not hard to imagine the scenario: As they see it “Gentile sinners” (2v15) are coming into the fold. They come from a pagan culture that is probably characterised by the “acts of the sinful nature” listed in chapter 5 verses 19 to 21.

In that context, concerns for the purity of the church community and personal holiness are natural. How are these Gentiles - saved by faith - going to be motivated to “be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Lev 19v2)?

For the Judaisers, the answer is supplementing faith with the Law – Legal observance will provide the appropriate restraints on the Gentiles’ behaviour. Although their concern a right one, their answer stems from a religious bent, and an anaemic gospel.

The answer for Paul is the Holy Spirit that accompanies faith – The fruit of the Spirit is holiness (the Spirit which is given to all those with faith in the gospel; 3v3-5). Having the Spirit is inconsistent with indulging the sinful nature because they are contrary to one another (5v16-17). With wry humour Paul tells us: against the fruit of the Spirit “there is no law”.

The established Biblical pattern is for people to be redeemed by God for freedom exercised in worship (Ex 7v16), and for the LORD himself to make his redeemed people holy (Ex 31v13). That pattern is fulfilled through faith in Paul’s gospel, as Christ sets us free and Holy Spirit makes us holy.

My question is: Are we more like the Judaisers than we care to admit?

Out of a right concern for holiness, do we wrongly create cultural boundary markers for the church? Boundary markers that function as “laws”… For all our words of “faith alone” & “grace alone”, are we in practice reliant on church culture to limit behaviour?... Is functional religiousity is shown where we act on externals? Outward constraints curtail the external expression of our sinful natures – wrong belief concealed behind right behaviour.

Do we have our, unspoken, but silently communicated “laws”? Is it fear of breaking step with a Christian subculture that deters Christians from returning to the patterns of their old lifestyles? Is the young convert pressured not to sleep with his girlfrend for fear of the disapproval of his new Christian peer group? Or is God’s grace in the gospel teaching him to say no to ungodliness and wordly passions? (Titus 2v12).

Are we proclaiming a gospel that “takes the punishment I deserve” (full stop)? Or a gospel that calls people to “the obedience that comes through faith”? (Rom 1v5)… A gospel word through which the Holy Spirit works to transform us into the likeness of Christ?... Paul’s gospel which presents a new identity in Christ and calls believers to live out that identity?

That Paul is so emphatic in condemning those who supplement the Gospel with legal observance makes me more than a little uncomfortable!