good friday and Easter musings

It's Good Friday today. You know the story right? It's the day we remember when all of God's perfectly justified wrath on mankind was all placed on his son. A few thoughts have been in my head all day.

At the start of his ministry, Jesus is baptized, and as he comes out of the water, the Bible says,
"And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Mark 1:11

At the end of his ministry, Jesus is on the cross, and he finds himself alone, crying out,
"My God my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46

The same Father who found great joy in his beloved son, now has to turn his back on him as the full wrath of God that was intended for mankind, for you, for me, is placed completely on Jesus.

That's what happened because of our sin. Sin isn't just something that makes us feel bad about ourselves. It is our sin, that as a great hymn says, "held Him there, until it was accomplished." Our sins were the nails in his hands, the spear in his side.

We are all like Peter. We will deny Christ as we pretend that we don't know him as we live our lives in sin. We abandon him. Yet even though our sins condemned him, Jesus decides to save us.

A man without sin can't be held by the grave. If the wages of sin is death, then the grave has no reason to hold Jesus, the one without sin, but the one who took on the sins of the world so we didn't have to.

A good man who taught lessons through metaphors couldn't do that. Jesus is not simply a good moral teacher. He is not just a historical figure who was crucified for causing a ruckus in Roman occupied Israel. He is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords who fights for a world he loves, and wins.

So Jesus rises from the dead. He conquers it. He defeats it forever. The battle, the war, the victory is his, and he shares that with us. That's grace. When we were the ones that put Christ on the cross, yet when Jesus complete's the ultimate comeback story, he wants us to share in the victory with him. So we rejoice, we sing hymns, we worship, we celebrate.

The greatest story ever written as a dramatic ending. The hero dies in the middle, but he wins in the end.

#TrueStory

Happy Easter

what's the story?

If you had to define Christianity, or what it meant to be a Christian, what would you say?

I ask that to students who claim the Christian faith as the religion that they subscribe to. I get a variety of answers. Most of the time, I hear something along the lines of this:

It means you believe in God. It means you try to be a good person. You know follow the golden rule. Don't curse, don't drink, don't smoke, don't have sex before your married. You know stuff like that. You go to church.

I always find it curious that students neglect an important part of their definition. They complete leave out the "Christ" aspect. Christ is the Greek translation of Messiah, which of course means savior.

Christianity is all about the need for a savior.

The suffix "ity" is used to form nouns expressing the condition corresponding to the root word. Therefore, Christianity encompasses those who have a savior, those who have been saved.

What makes you a Christian is not some high moral code that you abide by. It's not about how many Sunday's you've gone to church.

It's about admitting your need for a savior. It's about having a personal relationship with the God of the universe. It's following a man who died, but you won't find him in any burial site. Instead, you'll find him on a throne.

It's about knowing a God who loved the world, even a world that hated him and wanted nothing to do with him. Despite the rebellion, God offers an olive branch. An exchange, a trade, a substitution took place that looks like a poor business transaction, a poor career move. Jesus abandons his post by the side of the Father to walk in  a world that mocked him and put him to death? The very world he was trying to save? What kind of a God does that?

A God that loves the world and wants to dwell with his people. Who wants to know every single of us intimately. One that hates sin and loves righteousness.

It's Holy Week. It's the home stretch of the Lent. For some that means next Friday you don't have to eat a fish sandwich from McDonald's or Wendys. For others, they can resume drinking pop and eating chocolate. 

Jesus didn't die so you could go on a diet for 40 days. He didn't die because he wants you to live by a moral code. He died because he wants to know you, he wants to walk with you, and live with you for eternity.

He died because he loves you.

That's a #truestory

basketball and medieval theology

I just graduated from college this past week. That should alone be the cause for a lot of excitement this March, but honestly, I'm probably more excited about March Madness, where I typically dominate bracket pools, year in and year out ( two keys to domination: 1. always ride a Tom Izzo coached team deep into the tourney, 2. Always pick a 5 vs 12 upset in the first round, 3. never be in the same pool as me, because I will destroy you).

My final quarter at OSU, I needed to take more classes to be a full time student, so for fun, I decided to take a class that sounded interesting, Medieval Christianity, which happened to be a 500 level history course. Word of advice to all you students out there: don't ever take a difficult class you don't need the last year you're in college on the basis that you'll be interested in the subject matter and actually want to do the work. You might be interested, but you definitely won't want to do the work, especially when that work involves writing a ten page research paper on a text from the 13th century.

Still, that class was very interesting, and looking at Christianity through a medieval lens gave me new insight into how people acted then, and how eerily similar that people today act.

In the early middle ages, if you were to ask a clergyman what was the biggest problem or sin that the church dealt with, his answer no doubt, would be pride. A thousand years later, in Mere Christianity, CS Lewis would agree that pride is the great sin that plagues people in the modern world. As time progressed, thanks to a period of unseasonably warm weather that allowed crops to grow and the advent of the heavy plow, Western Europe experienced a period of economic growth and a middle merchant class emerged out of society. A clergyman in this period would say that the biggest problem that plagued people was the sin of greed. Medieval art depicts images of people being dragged down to Hell because of the weight of money bags that hung around their necks, as demons laughed in the shadows, grasping a money bag of their own. I suppose not many of you out there would disagree with the statement that this world would be a whole lot nicer if people weren't so selfish with their money and wealth.

When it comes to filling out a bracket each March, I'm reminded of how pride and greed still hold sway over me. In years past, I would put down a small wager of $10 that would hopefully increase ten fold in a month as the teams I picked would surely advance further in the tournament. This year, there is no money involved, but still, I find myself checking my phone and computer for results and standings to ensure that I'm still the leader of the group (at the time of this posting, I am #1 and in the 92nd percentile of all brackets on espn.com!). Interestingly enough, I'm probably even more invested personally in this year's tournament, even though I have nothing to gain monetarily from winning, just the satisfaction of looking my friends in the eye and letting them know that I my knowledge of college basketball vastly exceeds their own. I'm playing for pride. For some reason, I want them to know that I'm better than them in what is honestly, a pointless competition. After all, I won't be the one cutting down the nets in New Orleans after the championship game is played. In about a month, we'll all forget that this pool even existed anyways.

I'm not saying that bracket pools are of the devil, and are sinful. But they do reveal sinful tendencies. It's easy to go to the Bible and read in Proverbs 3 that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul writes that money is a root of all kinds of evil. You don't have to look too deeply into the scriptures to find out that prideful people and the greedy aren't all that receptive to the Lord's call on their lives.

As a new college grad, I have to remind myself of this every day. Just because I got to wear a special cap and gown this past Sunday and shake the hand of some dean, (I have no idea what her name was), I am in no way entitled to a job. God isn't somehow obligated to provide me with a cushy lifestyle just because I've graduated college, or just because I've been following Jesus for most of my life. 1 Peter 4:12-13 instead says,

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."

A follower of Christ isn't entitled to a life of luxury, but rather a life marked by suffering. And if the Lord so chooses to bless me with financial security, will I still remember that all that I have belongs to him, and at anytime, he may take it away? Will I give back to his Kingdom, and store my treasure in heaven or invest in myself (Matthew 6)? Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions to follow him. If Jesus asked me to do the same, could I?

Pride and greed will always plague humanity, from the monarchies of the middle ages, to the democratic system of today. No social structure will ever change the sinful nature of human beings. The only solution is to put your faith in Christ. To recognize that God's way is better, that his treasure is worth eternally more than anything we could ever muster up here on earth. We must recognize that no matter what we do, we can't achieve God's standard of perfection, but instead exchange our own works for the work of Christ. Prideful people don't want to admit that they can't earn their way into heaven. The greedy can't bribe God with their money. But a humble Jesus, the only man who didn't deserve death, allowed himself to be put to death on the cross for the prideful, the greedy, the lustful, the idolaters, the gluttons, the selfish, the hateful, so that we could have the opportunity to know God.

By the way, I think Jesus would be able to beat all of us in a NCAA bracket challenge, but that's beside the point.

another post inspired by my attempts at studying for a midetrm

I've been studying Microbiology at Ohio State for a few years now, and whenever people ask me what my major is like, I sometimes like to tell them that, "it's like regular biology, but smaller." Now of course that doesn't really help them understand what I study, but they get a good laugh out of it, and then they move on with the rest of the conversation.

However, if I were to give an actual answer to what I've been studying over the last year, I'd probably say something about how my most interesting classes deal with how bacteria, fungus, and viruses attack the human body, and the immune response to those invaders. 

Simply put, the human body has special receptors on cells that can "see" invading pathogens, which are marked by special molecules on the surface of the bacteria/virus/fungus. When they "see" these molecules, they begin to mount the immune response, and hopefully they can eradicate the pathogen from the system. These receptors are good at recognizing signals that are specific only to outside invaders, and in a healthy human being, will not detect molecules that are on the surface of other host cells. The body can distinguish between "good" signals from "bad" signals.

Now you may be asking, if the body can see "bad" molecules, how come people still get sick and die?  

Well, I'm glad you asked!

One of the strategies that pathogens have developed to combat the immune system is something called mimicry. And it means exactly what it sounds like. Simply put, the bad molecules disguise themselves as host molecules so that they can go undetected by the initial lines of defense of the immune system. Once they get past the front lines, they start wreaking havoc on your body, and if the body can't adjust, well, bad things can happen to you.

Much in the same way a virus can enter the human body undetected, so does sin.

Yeah it's easy to call out sin when it's obvious. Most people know the ten commandments, the go to list of things that make God angry.

Don't lie? Committing adultery? Why would anyone do that? Put God first and don't have idols? Well God gave us these commandments so I should probably follow them. Following these rules can't be too hard... right?

Except of course we make exceptions all the time.

Maybe I'll just stretch the truth a little bit, just this one time, so I don't get in trouble or make this person upset.

I'm not going to commit adultery, heck I'm not even married. But hey, I'm a sexual being. You can't fault me for being a just a regular guy (or girl) with hormones.

Yeah God is great and all, but he'd want me to enjoy all this money, this big house, this giant TV, this great job right? 

This is how sin infiltrates our lives. They put on the mask of rationalization. But why lie to a friend when true friends can be honest with one another? Doesn't Jesus make it clear in Matthew 5:28 when he says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."? How easily do we fill our time with the pleasures that money can buy, that we forget to worship and look to God for ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction. I'm not saying wealth is a bad thing, but at the end of the day, are you putting your hope a God who never fails, or the mercy of a bank account and an unstable economy?

See, we rationalize all these ideas in our lives, and when our sin is finally exposed for what it is by the Holy Spirit, we have a tough time letting go of bad habits. The disease of sin so firmly entrenched in our lives, it's incredibly difficult to remove it.

Yes, Jesus is the answer, the cure to this disease. He is the God who heals us. But will we continue and listen to what Jesus is telling us? Calling out sin for what it is, not allowing it to slip by our defenses. We must, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires," (Romamns 13:14). We don't conquer sin or grow in our walks by going about sinning with no heart for repentance, and then come back to God saying, forgive me. Rather, we look at the world through the eyes of Christ, identifying the sin in our lives, turning away from the path that leads to death and destruction. And when we lose sight, we are all the more reminded of why we needed Jesus in the first place.

Because ultimately at the end of the day, our hearts and our flesh will fail, but our God never will.

because the gym is too crowded

I find new years resolutions so entertaining. This week, I'm not going to the gym because everyone is a fitness expert this week, and the gym will be hosting amateur hour, all week long. All the weights and machines will be taken and it will smell (more than usual) and be terribly crowded. We all know that in about a couple weeks, most of these young fitness gurus will return to their televisions and gym attendance will return to normal. But I admire their desire to change and better themselves, but unfortunately, they can't sustain their desires. The few that do continue on usually have a sense of direction. They have an experienced friend who does know what he is doing, showing them what to do, teaching them correct form, spotting them, helping them. They have gone before them and understand that staying in shape is hard work.

The gospel is a lot like a new years resolution. It gives us a fresh new start. When we accept Jesus into our lives, we have a fresh clean start. Our sins have been wiped away. Sins that were as red as scarlet have been made as white as snow. When you first accept Christ, you are swept up in a whirlwind of emotions and you say to yourself, "I'm going to be the best person ever!" And then a couple weeks later, you find yourself mired and stuck in the same sin that you struggled with before, left wondering, "Jesus, I thought my life with you would be changed and different. I thought it would be new." Maybe later in life, you'll renew and rededicate your life to Christ, whether it be because of a traumatic life event, a conference, a sermon, something, and you'll say the exact same things again. And again you'll fail. I don't mean to be a downer, but that's the truth. I've experienced this in my life countless times.

But the beauty of the gospel is that we're supposed to fail. Our failures show us our complete and utter helplessness and shows us why exactly Christ had to die for our sins. We have to continue to come back to the cross. We can't keep trying to better ourselves through our own efforts, through our own strengths. We have to look to Jesus to be our strength. The perfect man lived the perfect life that we could not and died the death that we deserved, and rose from the dead like we never could. There is nothing we can add to that. We can't add anything to perfection.

When Jesus said "It is finished" (John 19:30) he meant it. Hebrews 10:12 says that Christ sat down after he had offered a one time sacrifice for all sins. Unlike our new years resolutions, we can't do anything to add to our salvation. To understand the gospel means to look at where our efforts end and where the work of Jesus begins.

The call in our walks with God isn't to be a better person. Christianity is not about behavior modification. It's about striving to know God better. We want to desire to desire God more, to know Him more intimately. Yes, like the skinny college freshmen who set foot in the gym for the first time ever this year, we will stumble and lose our way as we try to build up "spiritual muscle." But we have to realize that we do very little lifting because we have a trainer with us. Actually, he's more than a trainer. A believer of Christ has the Holy Spirit. By training with the Spirit, Galatians 5 tells us that we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature, and the fruit of walking by the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. Walking with the Spirit allows us to live a life that we long to have, but it is impossible on our own strength. God does the heavy lifting for us. Our role is to show up to the gym, take a step of faith and believe that God is going to be there, and work through us. By wanting more of Jesus, by inviting him into our lives, he makes us grow.

This isn't to say that we just sit back and do nothing. We have to continue to show up to the gym.
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Philippians 2:12-13
Do you see what Paul is saying here? He says, pursue God, obey him, recognize know that mighty power, because that very same power will be at work in you. So continue taking steps of faith. Continue chasing after Jesus by spending more time with him, getting to know him better, getting to understand the character of the God of the universe who saw it fit to save us from our sins when we were helpless. By inviting Christ into our lives and making our lives revolve around him, he begins to change us from the inside out. He is the one changing our desires. True change comes when Jesus removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). God shows us that it is desirable to get to know him better and do his will for our lives.

Life may not feel easier. In fact it will probably be harder. You will be faced with the reality of living for a perfect kingdom while still in an imperfect world. Only by the Spirit leading you will you be able to continue on. But building spiritual muscle implies that you must tear down the old muscle (old sin). But only Jesus can break you're struggles with sin. You can't. And that's the whole point.

But, if you're not serious about getting into physical shape, please don't go to the gym next week, because I need to do some maintenance on this body, and I don't like having to wait for machines.

my last post about christmas

People like getting things that improves your quality of life. This past week at the doctor, I had the privilege of getting 3 shots injected in my arm to immunize me against the tetanus virus and his batch of bad guy friends. It was terrific, until later that day when I could barely move my arms, and my immune system began to act against the cocktail of weakened pathogens inside my body and as a result, I developed massive headaches and stomachaches, and woke up the next morning feeling like I was going to die. But then the pain went away, and I now I feel fantastic!

So what does my trip to the doctor have to do with anything? Nothing. I'm not even going to try to cleverly tie that into what I wanted to talk about (although, I very easily could).

But back to this idea of receiving things. During Christmas time, people like getting gifts. But society tells us that it's selfish to only receive gifts, and that we should also enjoy giving gifts as well, so we also like to give things. This makes everyone happy in our culture. It allows Christmas time to be enjoyed by all people groups, regardless of religion because, hey who doesn't enjoy other people when selflessness is in season? It's humanity at it's best correct? Don't you get a great feeling when you give someone else a present? It draws people together right? This is the season of giving isn't it? When is he going to stop with all these rhetorical questions?

Now I enjoy the season of giving as much as the next guy. I enjoy buying my family random silly gifts for Christmas, like shamwows, a waffle maker, and the entire men's collection from Bath and Body Works (sounds impressive but there are only 3 things for men at that store, which I think smells fantastic. I'm a sucker for fruit flavored fragrances). But I'm going to suggest that Christmas should primarily be a holiday of receiving. I don't mean to sound like a selfish, arrogant person.

The true message of Christmas has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with what we can give. It has everything to do with what God has given to us. He gave us an unmerited gift, the gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus. We did nothing to earn this gift. When you were a child and you received gifts from your family, not because you deserved them, but because your family and friends love you. God loves his creation,  people who bear his image. The fullness of the high and mighty God came down to dwell among us. God walked among men. Something so powerful and holy came down to live with people who are weak and sinful. He did this so that we might be able to experience a relationship with the father, and to know God, to have eternal life in Him. That's the greatest gift of all.

But today, people gloss over that reality. On Christmas Eve this Saturday, millions of people will go to church, hear a message that they've heard several times before about God's love. They will sing some hymns without paying attention to the words, and then leave with a feeling of self-righteousness thinking that they did their cultural duty as an American and a Christian. I pray that person isn't you. I pray that you will realize the monumental occasion that you are celebrating. That you wouldn't just use this season as a season to feel good about yourself because of all you've given to charity and family and friends. Because the reality is, no matter how much you do for others, and no matter how pure your intentions are, you will never please God by your actions, by your works. A perfect God demands a perfect person. I doubt you are perfect. Only Jesus is. Only by allowing Christ to become your righteousness can you experience God. Receive the free gift that God has sent to us. It is real. Christmas isn't just a tradition, it's a celebration of a real event, the most important event in human history. Respond to the gospel. Celebrate and worship God for who he is and what he has done. Celebrate Immanuel, God with us. God with us. What a concept. We have a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting father, a Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9), dwelling with us if you have accepted Christ.

Christmas is just the beginning of a life that ended with the defeat over death. Christ became the sacrifice, taking on the death that we deserve. But he conquered death by rising from the grave to dwell with God forever. And now he stands, extending that invitation to me and you.

If you haven't received that gift, I implore you to do so. If you have, I implore you to share it with others, and to reflect on what that means for you as a child of God this season.

I want to leave you with my first attempt at embedding a video on this blog! It is from a spoken word from a Christmas Real Life meeting at Ohio State last year which I had the pleasure of being in attendance. I think it does a much better job of saying what I wanted to say. So if you skipped all that reading and just wanted to watch a video, well you're in luck!

Merry Christmas

the trilogy concludes

Welcome to part 3 of my commentary on O Holy Night. If you missed parts 1, and 2, I'd give you a link to click on, but I'm too lazy to insert the links, and I assume since you're on the interwebs, you understand the concept of scrolling down to the bottom of the page to find previous posts. As I sit down to write this post, I can't help but think that I'm following in the footsteps of some other great trilogies of the last 50 years, Star Wars (i'm reffering to the originals, obvi), Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, Indiana Jones (that last movie didn't count), Twilight, Spiderman, and the Jason Bourne Series (a very underrated set of films I might add). In the ways that those movies changed film making, I see this series of blog posts to completely revolutionize the blogoshpere. Also, I think that attaching the word "sphere" to words is cool.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

The first few lines of this section seem pretty straight forward. Jesus told us to love each other. Great! Love and peace sounds fantastic! Breaking chains of bondage, seeing slaves as our brothers? Cool. I like the sound of that also. Oppression shall cease? Awesome! But again, let's step back and think about what's going on here.

Love is an odd thing to define. There are 4 Greek words for love. Storge, which means affection, Phileo, which refers to friendship and brotherly love (hence the reason why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. Random side note: I have an odd inclination to cheering for Philadelphia sports teams because my name is in the city), Eros, which mainly concerns romantic love, and Agape, meaning unconditional love. In the New Testament, the original Greek language uses Agape, pure unconditional love to describe God's love for his people. Unconditional love is hard to come by in this day in age. Even the strongest marriages can end in divorce, and relationships between parents and children are never ideal. But God's love does not fail. The love that compels God to send his Son, that allows Christmas to even happen is truly incredible compared to human attempts at agape. What Jesus did on this earth, living a perfect life and dying on the cross for our sins is the ultimate act of love. John 3:16 is a very popular verse that does a good job of illustrating God's love for us. Perhaps a lesser known verse is found in the book of 1 John in chapter 3, verse 16 which says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." When the Bible talks about love, it goes beyond just being nice to people. It calls us to truly give of ourselves, to make sacrifices, to go beyond our comfort zone, not just during a season of giving, but for the entirety of our lives.

His gospel is peace.

Gospel means good news. The good news is peace. That's what everyone wants right? Politicians and high school seniors writing college essays always talk about establishing world peace. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon. But I can take solace in the fact that God has offered peace to us through Jesus. For there to be a peace, it is implied that there was war, rebellion going on. Humanity was in open rebellion against God, fighting God, using sin to tell God that we didn't want Him reigning over our lives (hey I worked in the title of my blog there!). But Romans 5:10 says "While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." We couldn't bring about this peace by ourselves, only Jesus can bring peace.

The song continues and states that the slave is our brother, and all oppression shall cease. By claiming that slaves are our brothers, doesn't that also imply that we ourselves our slaves? We are all slaves to sin. When you realize that everyone, you and me alike, were once seen as enemies of God, slaves to sin, wouldn't the oppression that exists between people groups fade away? No one is supreme over anybody. Comparisons become moot points when you are trying to figure out who is worse off than someone else. You're missing the point if you're doing that.

You'll notice that each section of the song ends the same way. Thanking and praising God for what he has done. The primary response to hearing the Christmas story is not to give gifts to other people in an effort to make you feel good about yourself, or even to brighten someone else's day. The first response is worship. Declaring that Christ is the Lord. If you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then forever and ever, you will praise him for his glory. You will want to proclaim his name to the world, because of what he has saved you from: the grave, sin, eternity without God. It's not something you do once a year as the calender turns to December, it's something you do with all your heart.

In some versions of the song, I noticed that instead of ending with a proclamation of Jesus's divinity and kingship, the song ends with the words "Noel" which simply means Christmas. So often, I hear people talk about "keeping the Christ in Christmas" and how they will say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". I have been known to be one of those obnoxious people. But nowadays, all I hear when people say things like that, is just white noise. Do not simply yell Noel, without reflecting on what you really mean. This isn't a time to make a political statement. It's a time to worship and reflect on the fact that 2000 years ago, God entered into the world on a holy, divine, night in the form of a helpless baby, and the life of that child would change the world forever.

Well I hope you've enjoyed my posts on this classic. And I applaud you on making it this far. I just now realized that I may have been rambling and this post is quite a bit longer than previous entries. I hope you enjoy the Christmas season, and you'll hear again from me again as I continue to share my thoughts about this wonderful season. It's been real.