"The Value of Knowing Christ"

Fifth Sunday of Lent, April 7, 2019 

           I have carved out an image for my life: husband, dad, pastor.  I hope it would be said of me, “he’s a loving husband, a devoted, involved father, and a caring, committed pastor.”  I am not those things without fail, but that’s what I work toward.  That’s the identity I intentionally try to embody.

            You have an identity too; everyone does.  Maybe you work on it consciously.  Maybe you are unaware of your identity and worldview,  but you have it.  You have a worldview and a carefully crafted identity, even if you are not conscious of it.  

The Apostle Paul had this as well.  Paul was a first century Christian who met Jesus in person after the resurrection.  As Paul traveled to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him in a blinding flash of light .  Paul was a Jewish legal expert, a Pharisee, and he had in his possession arrest papers.  He was accompanied by a unit of armed guards, commissioned by authorities from the temple in Jerusalem. 

Who was Paul arresting?  Jews who claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead and was in fact the Messiah and the Son of God.  Temple authorities in 33-35AD felt this new sect of Jesus-followers had to be crushed.  So the talented young Pharisee was given arrest powers.  He was headed to Damascus to arrest Christians.  Many he detained would end up executed, death by being pelted in the head with rocks: stoning. 

The resurrected Jesus appeared to Paul in a light that blinded him and told him to stop persecuting Christians and become one.  Paul did.  Have you heard the phrase “a Damascus Road experience” uttered to describe the radical change in someone’s life that comes after seeing the light?  That phrase comes from Paul’s story.  He was headed to arrest Christians and then his life took a radical u-turn.

Almost half the New Testament books are letters Paul wrote to churches he started after he met Jesus in that blinding light on the road to Damascus.  In Philippians 3:3-6, Paul describes the identity that he had carefully crafted for himself.  Jesus brought Paul’s intentionally built self-image crashing down.  

Has Jesus wrecked your life the way he did Paul’s?  

You have your job, family, relationships; you see yourself in terms of where you live, who you know, the teams you cheer for, the games you play, the accomplishments and failures of your life.  Everyone of us has built a life.

I invite you to think about if Jesus has obliterated your own identity and then remade it.  If you think that has happened, how has it happened?  What’s different about you because you have given yourself fully to Christ?

As you ponder that, listen to Paul’s description of how his life was completely changed.  He gives 7 marks of his identity in Philippians 3:3-6.  He was circumcised as a newborn, the proper way for good Jewish males.  He was a true Israelite.  He knew his tribal heritage - the tribe of Benjamin, one of the two favored southern tribes.  While he spoke Greek fluently, he was a Hebrew-speaking Jew.  He wasn’t a Hellenist as Greek-speaking Jews were derisively called, but a true Hebrew. 

This circumcised, true Israelite, Benjamite, true Hebrew was also a Pharisee.  But, Paul wasn’t just a run-of-mill Pharisee.  He was a zealous and he pointed to his persecution of the Christians as evidence of his zeal.  Finally, he states he was righteous, by which he means he kept the law of Moses.  He made mistakes, as all humans do, but he did not fail in observing the law.  

Paul believed that if he was a good Jew it would mean he was a good person, the best possible person.  This was his life.  Then he met Jesus.  “Whatever gains I had,” he writes in verse 7, “I came to count as loss because of Christ.  I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” 

To drive the point home, Paul then says, “I regard them (his accomplishments and the life he’s built) as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (3:8b).   The very heart of his life, all he worked for up to the day he met Jesus he now counts as trash. This is what Paul said.  He looked at what he thought was the very best possible life - the life of a Jewish Pharisee, a life in which he thrived, and when he met Jesus, he saw that life as garbage.  It’s a good life, but it’s nothing next to life in Christ.

Again, I put the question, a question I’ve been asking myself for a long time: has Jesus obliterated your identity and remade it?   What’s different when you and I give ourselves fully to Christ?  Do we willingly, truly say “life is not about me.  I die to self and live for my Lord, my master, Jesus?”

In the opening verses of John chapter 12 we one who met Jesus and experienced the same kind of change as Paul.  Mary was the emotional sister in the family of Jesus’ close friends, Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus.  In the previous chapter, John 11, Jesus had been away when Lazarus, whom he knew was sick, died.  

Upon arrival at their home, Martha the pragmatist, lectured Jesus and he responded meeting her where she was, giving her resurrection theology.  Then Mary confronted Jesus not with words, but with tears.  And Jesus met her where she was.  You might know the verse because a lot of people point to it as the shortest verse in the Bible.  Jesus wept.  When the tragedy of Lazarus’ death hit the family, Jesus talked theology with Martha and cried with Mary.  And then he raised Lazarus back to life. 

The Gospel of Luke also offers insight into this family and the relationship Jesus had with them (Luke 10:38-42).  He was teaching a group of men in their home.  Martha worked hard as the hostess keeping wine in everyone’s glass and bread on the table.  Mary forgot about the work.  Instead she violated convention and sat with the men so she too could hear teach.  When Marth complained, Jesus told her Mary had chosen the better path.  

Thus we come to John 12.  Jesus is again dining in their home.  Again Martha works to keep him and his disciples fed.  Again, Mary forgets traditional household duties and instead lavishes opulent, extravagant love on Jesus.  She dumps a bottle of expensive perfume all over his feet and the massages them with her hair.  John writes that the house filled up with the smell of the perfume.  

Judas complains.  The perfume could have been sold, the profits given to the poor.  His protest was a sham.  The narrator reports that Judas used to pad his own pockets from the common purse.  Jesus doesn’t call out Judas’ hypocrisy.  Instead, he commends Mary’s show of love.  Whether she knows it or not, her actions prepare him for burial.  But why did she do it? 

Why did Mary, who was probably poor herself, make such a dramatic display of affection for Jesus?  Like Paul she sees who she was before she met Jesus, and who she became after meeting him.  She had been an unmarried woman locked into her place in life in a society that assigned a second-class status to women.  Women’s value came in their performance as wife and mother, and she was neither; in society, she had little worth.  In the circle around Jesus, she was a beloved disciple.  Like Paul, she knew the surpassing value of knowing Christ.

Do we?  Our experience as his followers is anemic if we do not.  If we force our discipleship into just one small part of our lives, it is not discipleship at all, and we aren’t really acknowledging Jesus as Lord.  If, when we look to Him, we see Him, and then we re-order our lives, everything changes.  Job; pastimes; relationship; family; it all gets pushed aside as Jesus moves to the center.  

But it doesn’t happen by accident or happenstance.  Growth does not come just by showing up at church.  Growth comes when we become aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the time we spend away from church.  Work; eating out; while driving in frustrating traffic; in the public schools; Jesus is Lord in all these places.  We recognize him and begin to grasp the surpassing value of knowing him when we see him and submit to him in these places.  

All last week, I thought about submitting my weakness to Christ.  My left knee hurts a lot and I feel frustrated that I am not as strong as I used to be.  Some guys my age and older are runners and weightlifters and I just cannot do those things as well I used to.  In my physical weakness, I want to know Christ.

I am undisciplined - with my appetite, with my time, with my attention to detail.  I can work on it, but I will never be admired for my self-discipline.  I want to submit to Christ in this deficiency.  In my area of mental weakness, I want to know Christ.

When I get angry and snap, usually at people I really love, I want to submit to Christ.  If I am tired or hungry, or if expectations I have aren’t met, I become a grumpy, impatient person. In my emotional weakness, I want to know Christ.  

I have a huge ego, which parenting and pastoring has severely my bruised.   I submit the ego to Jesus.  In my identity-weakness, I want to know Christ. 

In Philippians, Paul discarded his accomplishments because he saw the worth of knowing Christ.  In 2 Corinthians, he does what I have tried to do here.  He names his weakness and submits them to Christ.  Mary stepped out of the roles her culture imposed on her because she saw the value of knowing Christ.

What needs to change in your life so that you will see the value of knowing our Lord Jesus?  Everything in life assumes its proper place when Jesus is the at the center of life.  What do you need to give up?  From what do you need to be freed?  What obsession do you need to let go? 

Paul concludes Philippians chapter 3 by urging us, his readers, to “imitate [him]” in seeing our past and our future in light of who we are in Christ.  He says, “Our citizenship is in Heaven.”  The Lord Jesus will “transform the body of our humiliation that [we] may be transformed to his glory.”  May we look to Jesus, see the worth of knowing Him, and live into our Heavenly citizenship.

AMEN

3rd Sunday of Lent

 

Sunday, March 3, 2013 - 3^rd Sunday of Lent

 

            This past week an NFL superstar quarterback negotiated a new contract with his team.  He took less money than he was owed so that his team could sign other free agents and overall become a better team.  Commentators lauded him for putting the team first.  But, others pointed out that his fellow players might be angry because him doing that would put pressure on them to also take less money so their teams could sign high quality free agents. 

The NFL has a salary cap.  There is a limit on what they can spend on players.  If a team pays one guy $20 million a year, that reduces what they can pay other players.  So this big-time quarterback enabled his team to get higher quality free agents by giving up some of his money. 

One radio personality pointed out that his sacrifice is not that great.  How much of a sacrifice is it to go from a $20 million salary to $15 million?  On top of that, this quarterback’s super model wife also makes millions in her career.  The commentator went on to say that the ultimate joy in life for a guy, a dude, is to have a good routine, a good job, and a good life. 

This quarterback has played for the same team for over a decade.  He knows his city, his favorite restaurants, his routines.  He plays for a winning team.  He’s got everything anybody would want.  When I heard that, one thing came to my mind.  This radio commentator and I see things differently – so differently in fact, comparison is almost impossible. 

On the same station, ESPN radio, I heard another guy say that he only lives for his own happiness.  As he assesses people around him, he wonders how they can increase his happiness.  That is the driving force in his life.  If you never listen to ESPN radio and you think, “Well, that’s just that guy,” allow me to offer another example.  Years ago I talked to a friend who had just gone through an ugly divorce.  He went from family to a life where he lived alone.  As he described his new life as a single guy, he described the emptiness.  He did not deny it.  But his closing remark on his personal narrative was “At least now I am happy.”  We could both see he was fooling himself.  He stuck to his guns.  “At least now I am happy.”

The same type of statement came up in the debates around legalizing same-sex marriage.  What I heard from advocates is “Let people [in this case same sex couples] do what makes them happy.”  My initial thought was that is a foolish way to bolster an argument no matter what the issue is.  I am a happily married man, but I am not happy all the time.  Sometimes the source of my unhappiness is an unfortunate exchange I have with my dear, sweet, beautiful wife.  I say mean things.  I hurt her feelings.  And that is a two-way street. 

Of course most of the time, we laugh together and enjoy life.  But my point is happiness is unpredictable and fleeting.  One piece of cake makes me happy.  Ten makes me sick.  The quarterback will tell you football makes him happy.  But then he loses the big game and he’s so angry he does destructive things.  Life cannot be built around the pursuit of happiness.  It’s something that cannot be caught and if we catch it, it cannot be held.  I tell you this and I think of myself as a generally happy person.  Happiness is important and valuable, but it cannot be our ultimate end.

The radio guy said the football player has it all – a great job; a stable life; millions of dollars.  He has the ultimate success.  I happen to really like this player, but I could not disagree more.  I don’t think the ultimate is career success and financial stability.  I don’t even think the ultimate is happiness.  What is it then?  What is the ultimate thing to have in life?

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).  In the verses leading up to this, Paul cited his own resume – a list of accomplishments that would rank him as esteemed and successful in his day and time and place.  He had the ultimate.  He had it all.  He met Jesus and in the light of Christ – his crucifixion and resurrection – Paul looked what he had, what everyone like him would want, and he counted it as rubbish; millions of dollars – blech; Super Bowl rings – who cares; admiration from crowds of people – don’t want it.  Paul looked at all that we might think would bring happiness in life and he threw it all out like stinking garbage that is smelling up the whole house.  All he wanted was Jesus – the power of Jesus resurrection.

In his comment, one thing is clear.  The crucifixion and the resurrection are tied together.  You cannot have one without the other.  Last week we talked about the view from the cross.  When we see life from that angle, we align ourselves with the poor.  We live sacrificially.  And we live life in complete dependence on the Holy Spirit.  We place ourselves at the cross and live from there. 

Another point from Paul’s statement that might catch our attention is Philippians 3:11 where he finished his sentence saying “if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead.”  It certainly sounds like he’s suggesting that by commitment and spiritual achievement we earn resurrection.  Some Bible scholars think that is exactly what Paul is saying.  I do not.  In Philippians, Paul talks a lot about the effort in discipleship we make – we humans.  Our efforts are only possible because on the cross Jesus covered our sin and in resurrection, Jesus conquered death.  We receive what Jesus gives. Paul makes this point throughout his letters and especially in Romans and Galatians.  He also acknowledges in Philippians 2:13 that God is at work in us.  I won’t go into depth on this point.  I’ll just say that everything we accomplish spiritually comes because God enables us and comes after Jesus accomplished ultimate victory on the cross. 

Because of the life he’s granted – eternal life with God in God’s kingdom – Paul wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.  Paul wants to experience resurrection.  It is almost as if Paul wants to die so he can fully know what resurrection is.  It is not that Paul wants resurrection more than anything else.  He only wants resurrection.  The ultimate is not anything that we might consider would bring happiness.  The stuff of the world is crap as far Paul is concerned.  He wants resurrection. 

According to N.T. Wright, the great significance of this for Paul and for you and me is we are counted among the people of God.  What brings happiness?  $1 million?  $10 million?  Assurance that we will go to heaven?  Maybe for you none of this stuff.  For you it might be a beautiful day on which you can spend hours riding your bike on offroad trails under a glorious blue sky.  For our good friend Jonathan Elwing, it is fishing off the Florida Coast.  Bishop Tom Wright says no, those things may be wonderful, but the great significance of Christianity is that we are promised resurrection, which in turn means we are counted among the people of God. 

These bodies we have will rise at the final judgment.  In resurrection, our bodies will change.  There will be no injury that could hurt us.  The undefeated enemy, death, and his sidekicks disease and old age will be wiped out.  We will be resurrected, our bodies will be incorruptible, and we will live forever.  But the most important thing to note is we will be counted among the people of God.  The primary thing, says Wright, is “belonging to the Messiah” (Justification, p.151).  Christ.  Nothing is as important to us as the reality that we are his.

Because of the resurrection, we now see the world from the vantage point of God’s kingdom.  Last week we stressed seeing from the cross.  Now we stress seeing from the view of one made righteous, from the view of one in the kingdom.  Is this resurrection perspective the same as the crucifixion perspective?  No, but it is not contrary to it either.  As we grow in Christ, we come to realize how multiple realities are absolutely true at the same time.  When we enter Christ, we enter both his crucifixion and his resurrection. 

We can’t know fully what this means until Jesus returns.  Paul’s statement, “I want to know the power of the resurrection,” shows he did not know it fully and we don’t yet either.  But we know that in the Kingdom our joining with others in Christ is a more powerful than marriage; we are closer to our brothers and sisters in Christ than to our relatives.  The union in Christ is more important than our union with our countrymen.  Family bonds and patriotic loyalty dissolve as our connection Christ deepends. 

Our Kingdom perspective also determines the way we see people who do not know Jesus.  Our heart breaks for them because they have not experienced his joy.  We long for them to have the freedom of forgiveness and the happiness of fellowship in Jesus and with others who are in Jesus. Happiness is important, but we don’t get it by going after it.  It comes when we are in Christ.  People will waste their lives chasing happiness.  Because of the resurrection, we are in the Kingdom and we long to draw those who are outside in as well.

Scholar and Pastor Paul Beasley-Murray adds that the resurrection is a sign that Jesus is divine – God in the flesh.  Peter had declared Jesus to be Lord (Luke 5:8).  But he didn’t really know what he was saying and if we had been in his sandals and not yet known the resurrection was coming, we would not have known any more than he did.  After the resurrection, Thomas looked at Jesus and said, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28).  He knew as did Paul that in Jesus he was relating to the God of the universe.

Beasley-Murray thus writes, “In confessing Jesus as Lord, the early Christian were not saying, ‘Jesus is Lord of my life,’ they were saying, ‘Jesus is Lord of the world’” (The Message of the Resurrection, p.223).  The resurrection is the event that determines reality.  Everything we know must be measured by it.  The only conclusion we can draw is that the risen Jesus is supreme Lord of all.   When Christian apologists debate both Muslims and atheists – two extremely different opponents – the lynchpin of the Christian apologists’ argument is the resurrection.  Everything hangs on it and when the historicity of it is established, the debate is over.  Jesus is Lord. 

Paul writes “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”  Such a desire eclipses all others – money, fame, success.  It is all as nothing compared to the resurrection.  The resurrection of Jesus is our hope.  Moreover, as the scholars we’ve referenced show, it is our identification.  We are among the people of God.  It is our priority.  Because of the resurrection, Jesus is Lord and our lives are lived at His pleasure.

I remember a talk with my dad.  I saw him go somewhere.  I looked into his eyes as we talked and he was leaving and happy to be going.  It was seven years ago and we had just done my grandfather’s funeral.  My dad buried his dad.  He was sad as one always is in that situation.  He was also pensive.  It got him thinking about what he would want us to do for his funeral when his day came. 

Honestly he wasn’t too concerned about the funeral service.  He told me he wanted to be cremated.  He said wait for a day when the wind is right.  Then hike up to McAfee’s Knob.  It’s a favorite hiking spot in Roanoke with a gorgeous view of the valley.  He said to take his ashes and fling them off into the air.  “It won’t matter,” he said, “I’ll be somewhere else.”

He was and is in the process of knowing Christ and the power of the resurrection.  He doesn’t think about his funeral in terms of what might be said about him.  When he considers his own end on this earth, he thinks of Jesus and he knows he’ll be with Jesus.  He’ll be somewhere else.

When we live in the resurrection, we are from somewhere else – this world in its redeemed state.  Heaven.  God’s presence.  However you might conceptualize it, the key is we don’t fit here and our future is not here, not as this place is right now.  The resurrection grants us a Kingdom perspective where we know Jesus is Lord.  When we look around, we see everything here from there. 

I don’t have a new spiritual practice this week. Rather, I encourage you as you take up the practices we’ve mentioned in previous weeks to seek the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Seek to know it and to live your life from that perspective – the view of the risen one.  He is the Lord.

AMEN