Bloody Holiday

 

In 1 Kings 8, Solomon is dedicating the new temple to the LORD and they have a two-week festival in Jerusalem during which they sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Having just helped my family process three cows in 2 ½ days, I can attest to the enormous amount of work that must have been. In fact, I think that would be a lot of work even for some of the modern processing plants near us. 

Now why did they have to sacrifice so many animals just to dedicate the temple? Likely, it was because so many people came to the festival and they all wanted to sacrifice to the Lord and because they used much of the meat for the festival itself. But if you read the Old Testament description of tabernacle and temple worship you have to admit that God required lots of sacrifices and the whole process of worship really was bloody. The temple was really a slaughterhouse filled daily with animals being killed. 

Then when we get to the New Testament we see that Jesus is called the Lamb of God and He endured a bloody awful death on a cross. Furthermore, He even established the practice of communion in which His followers were supposed to look back on this bloody sacrifice by “eating His flesh” and “drinking His blood.” This unusual practice was so misunderstood that early in church history, other people thought Christians were cannibals. At this time of year, we especially remember Christ’s sacrifice on a day we call Good Friday even though the most evil act in history took place. The perfect sinless Lamb of God was killed on that day! 

Is all this blood and death necessary, and if so why? Do you know? We find the answer in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned they were broken and the world was broken. Not only that, but we learn in Romans 3, that it is not just Adam and Eve’s fault, but that no one is righteous and that all (you and me) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin causes death, and a holy and good God that made the world just, must balance the scales of justice. If sin causes death then for sin to be forgiven and individuals restored, Hebrews 9:22 says there must be shedding of blood. 

Sin is serious, destructive, and even deadly, and as the righteous judge of the world, God must respond and deliver punishment. We are responsible for our sins and deserve to face the judgment of death. We deserve to shed our own blood for our sins! But God is also loving and does not desire for anyone to perish, so He provides a sacrifice on our behalf. Jesus, God the Son, came down to be the better sacrifice than any ox or sheep. He shed His blood so that we do not have to face eternal death. The offer of forgiven is available for anyone who is willing to admit there own guilt and ask Jesus to take on the punishment for us.

Therefore, those who truly understand what Jesus did celebrate this bloody holiday because we know it is our blood that should be shed. He who did not sin and did not deserve death, died on our behalf. On Good Friday, I often end up contemplating my sin and the brokenness in my own life as I remember Jesus’s broken body and shed blood, but my focus eventually comes back to His love and goodness which shine bright on the darkest of days.

Repent!! For Your Own Good.

As a child, I remember my Dad, who was also a pastor, pounding the pulpit sometimes. He did not do it often, but it was certainly memorable. He was a little bit scary, which was likely his intent because he was warning us about the seriousness of sin and its consequences. He was, at times, like the old image of a fire-and-brimstone preacher delivering the message that you need to repent of your sin or face eternal damnation. In our day and age, such a display from a preacher in the western world would be recorded, put on the internet, and then ridiculed by many as a crazy fundamentalist. But Dad had a point because the Bible is clear that part of the good news about Jesus is the bad news that we are sinners who need to repent.

John the Baptist said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Jesus himself preached a message of repentance, saying, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Peter reiterated in his Pentecost sermon, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Finally, Paul said, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Repentance means changing our minds and going in a different direction. In biblical terms, it means acknowledging that we are wrong and turning toward Jesus to follow Him. Therefore, repentance leads to good results in our lives, but it can seem bad because, at first, we have to acknowledge that we have done wrong. Very few of us like admitting that we are wrong, and change can be hard. But when we know how much Jesus loves us, then turning from our own ways and towards Him is easier.

Sometimes, though, we do not deal with sin properly. In some cases, we feel bad about getting caught or experiencing the consequences of our sin. This is what Paul is talking about when we experience worldly grief. This is not true sorrow for our sin but simply a desire not to experience the consequences of our sin. We might also wrongly deal with sin by holding on to guilt and shame, thinking that what is necessary for true forgiveness from God is to punish ourselves. This can lead to depression, and for me, in my early 20s, it even almost led me to suicide.

Instead, God wants us to deal with sin through the means of confession and repentance. The apostle John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus died to take the consequences for our sins, and we can trust God that when we repent, we are cleansed and forgiven!! I do not want to pound the pulpit, but I do desire for you to experience the freedom that God intends you to have. When you know you have done wrong, do not hold on to it, but come to Him, repent, and experience His mercy and love.

A bruised reed he will not crush.

My personal scripture reading today included Job 5 & 6. In chapters 4 & 5 Job's "friend" Eliphaz, responds to Job's lament from chapter 4 (Job had many, many bad things happen to him and he was really hurting from them.) To summary what Eliphaz says, he reminds Job that God gives good things to good people and bad things to bad people, but if you repent from the bad things, he will give you good things again. The clear implication is that Job is suffering because of the bad things he must have done.

Now it is in general true that sin leads to suffering and that a righteous life produces better outcomes, so as a proverb about the general state of the world, Eliphaz is correct. God set the world up to be orderly and moral actions just like physical actions have consequences. But Job does not know of any specific or outward wrongs that he has done to justify the trauma that he is experiencing, so he responds.

He who withholds kindness from a friend

forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Job 6:14 

In other words, it is not kindness to rebuke a person in the midst of terrible suffering. Furthermore he asks,

Teach me, and I will be silent;

make me understand how I have gone astray. Job 6:24

If Eliphaz can point to a specific sin that Job should repent of then go ahead and do it. Job would gladly repent if it meant that it would ease his suffering. We learn from earlier in the book that repentance was a regular practice, so he would not even have resisted it. At the end of the book, when God challenges Job about his sin in questioning God, Job is willing to repent. But in this moment, Eliphaz is not aware of any sin, but rather he just makes a general accusation, which adds to Job's suffering. 

I have lived and ministered long enough now to have many instances of personal suffering and to have been with many others in their suffering. In the middle of painful situation, most people will not respond well to a rebuke, even if the suffering is directly related to their sin. They will either get very angry and defensive or they will get very depressed and withdraw. 

Jesus in quoting Isaiah says this about himself,

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory. Matthew 12:20 

When someone is already down, we need to be there, show that we care, and establish connection, otherwise they will not hear us when we have to come and talk to them about anything negative. We see this in Jesus's behavior toward sinners. He often approached people who were known sinners in his society, but if they were very repentant when they came, he treated them very gently, while still calling for them to turn away from sin.

On the other hand, I know that when suffering is related to sin, it is not loving the person well to never address the issue of their sin. So I am contemplating how should I approach people who are trapped in sin when they are suffering from the effects of that sin?

I think for me the first thing has to be making sure I establish connections and show people that I care. I also want to help the church understand this. We need to be a welcoming place to those who are hurting, even if their pain is caused by their own behavior. But we cannot be scared to speak the truth about sin and its consequences, and when we have established some relationship or when we are in long-term relationship already, then we need to be loving enough to confront sin even if that is painful

The apostle Paul did that with the Corinthians. He challenged some sin in their midst and it caused them some pain.

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 

Here he distinguishes between wordly grief and godly grief. When someone is suffering the consequences of sin undoubtedly they will feel bad, but what we should desire is that it becomes a godly grief. A godly grief is not just feeling bad about the situation, but it is a pain that leads people to examine their life, discover the sin, and repent of that sin. His desire was that they use the opportunity of pain to repent of known sin (turn around and go the other way), so that they do not have to experience this pain again and so that they do not keep on causing pain and trouble for those around them.  

But for me actually knowing the right moment to talk to someone about sin in their life is very tricky. I suspect there is no one right way to do it, but rather that we need to remember some of the principles listed above and then treat each person and each situation uniquely. 

If you are reading this and are in pain due to hard situations in your life. I would encourage you to examine your life to see if there is sin for which you need to repent. God desires for you to come to Him. Jesus died for your sins, and His forgiveness is available. You may still face earthly consequences for your sin, but God wants you to come and receive His mercy, forgiveness, and love. The hard stuff is a form of God's mercy to let us know that we need to turn around and go another direction. He does not desire us to continue in painful behavior.

He can and does transform lives. No one is too far gone. His love is shown by tranforming people, and we find our ultimate joy in living in harmony with Him. Furthermore, when we allow Him to transform us, we also become the type of people that are good to those around us. 

Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary heavy laden and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28.