everyday unbelief

“On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. ” (Luke 9:37-45, ESV)

Jesus comes down from spending the night on the mountain with a few of his disciples, who have been given the opportunity to see Jesus in all his glory. As they sat there on the mountain watching Jesus talk about what was going to take place in Jerusalem in a few days, they saw the kingdom. They saw God’s selfless love for his people and his creation.

As they make their way down the mountain the events of the night run through their mind. They wonder what this all means. If only everyone else would be able to see what they saw, then everyone would follow Jesus. If only the crowds would be able to see that display of glory, they would all be saying he was the Messiah.

When Jesus asked the disciples what the crowds were saying, they had a great time telling him all of the crazy things they were saying. They just didn’t seem to get it. Some thought he was John the Baptist come back to life, which is a bit crazy seeing as how they were contemporaneous. I mean Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan river.

Kinda hard to do if they are the same people.

Others were calling Jesus one of the big prophets from the past come back to life. But when Jesus asked them who he was Peter pipes up with the right answer.

“Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” ” (Luke 9:20, ESV)

Jesus does not deny this statement, in fact he commends Peter for it. Matthew records Jesus as saying that this was revealed to Peter from God himself. But you see, when the disciples heard Jesus agree to this, they heard something very different from what we do.

The disciples heard Jesus say that he had come to overthrow Rome. They heard him say that he was coming to finally set the people of Israel free and usher in the fullness of the kingdom. The problem was, their expectations of the kingdom were not what Jesus had come to bring.

This is why he immediately begins to teach them about the coming crucifixion.

“And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” ” (Luke 9:21-22, ESV)

The freedom Jesus brought was not simple freedom from human oppression on earth. The freedom Jesus brought was freedom from spiritual oppression and death. Jesus’s kingdom was not about setting up an earthly throne, it was about ushering in the restoration of the whole creation. This is why Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain was not just about the bling and flashing lights. The glory revealed on the mountain was the true heart of God toward us.

When they come down from the mountain these things do not really seem to mesh. All of their assumptions about who Jesus is and what the Messiah was ’supposed’ to bring make it impossible for them to process what is going on.

They are unable to hear Jesus’s prediction of his own death.

At the bottom of the mountain a crowd has gathered, waiting for Jesus to come back down. As they approach a man shouts out at Jesus.

“And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”” (Luke 9:38-40, ESV)

This poor man brings his son to Jesus as his last hope. There is a sense of desperation in his voice as he calls out, “I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. Come and look at him. Come and see if there is anything you can do for him. He has this condition, which causes him extreme pain. I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t do anything for him. Maybe you can?” There is this challenge to who Jesus is and what he can do. It appears as though maybe this demon might be too strong for him.

Maybe this condition is more than he can handle.

We get there sometimes, don’t we? We come to Jesus with a prayer request, and we wonder not if he is willing, but if he is able. We wonder if there is anything he CAN do about the cancer raging through the body of a loved one. We wonder if he is ABLE to relieve the pain that cripples. We wonder if he CAN. After all, we see so few miracles around us.

So we meekly approach Jesus and ask him to have a look at our grandparents, our parents, our cousins, our daughter, our son.

Everyday we seem to be faced with our own unbelief.

“Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”” (Luke 9:41, ESV)

Jesus is exasperated. When will they get it? When will they understand? When will Jesus’s true purpose be made clear to them? Jesus is not just some wonder worker. God is not simply the dispenser of miraculous healing, though that seems to be all that we want from him. God sent Jesus so that he could have his people back. In Jesus, God was redeeming his people.

In this address to the crowd, Jesus compares them to the people of Israel who so easily walked away from God. tonight we are going to look at the story of the Golden Calf, how the Israelites could turn away from God so quickly because they were so focussed on their current situation.

Jesus calls them a “twisted generation” the same word that Moses uses to describe the Israelites just before they enter the promised land. Israel camps on the edge of the Jordan, ready to enter into their promises land and Moses gives them the book of Deuteronomy to help prepare them for their life there. He reminds them of all the things that God had done from them. He warns them that turning away from God will result in destruction. In the end he issues a prediction that they will not be able to remain in the land, they will turn away from God because their hearts have not been changed. They are a crooked and twisted generation.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you? Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” (Deuteronomy 32:4-9, ESV)

The Lord’s portion is his people.

What God wants is us.

The ultimate goal of all of Jesus’s work? A people who will be able to live with him in perfect relationship for all eternity in a renewed creation.

But all we want are his miracles.

“Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”” (Luke 9:41, ESV)

If you want to see that I can do this, fine bring him here. I will show you what I can do.

“While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.” (Luke 9:42, ESV)

Jesus gave him back to his father. This miracle was not just about healing a condition, this miracle provided a restoration of relationship. Jesus gave this boy back to his father.

“And all were astonished at the majesty of God.” (Luke 9:43a, ESV)

Once again the crowd is awed at what he can do. They are impressed by the fantastic things that Jesus can do, but it always seems as though Jesus has to keep upping the ante. Giving life to a woman who bled for twelve years, and a twelve year old woman was not good enough. Feeding five thousand people with a bit of bread and fish is not enough. Healing a man possessed by a legion of demons is not enough. Calming a raging storm is not enough.

When we look to God for miracles, what he gives will never be enough. There is always some other miracle we want performed. There is always something else we want. There is always another person suffering. There is always someone who is poor.

There is always something else that we want God to do, and then we will believe in him.

“And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”” (Luke 9:43-44, ESV)

While everyone is praising this latest work of Jesus, he turns to those who profess to follow him and says, “This is not what it is all about.”

“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”” (Luke 9:44, ESV)

“Pay really close attention to what I am about to say to you now. This is really important. If you grasp anything about my ministry, you need to grasp this. If you understand anything about who I am and what I have come to do, understand this. I am going to be betrayed into the hands of men.”

If we understand anything about who Jesus is and what he came to do, we need to understand the centrality of the cross. Sure he gives us some good teaching. Sure he did some really cool things that would make some pretty incredible films.

But the most important thing that Jesus did and came to do, was to make himself like us in every way, without sin. To submit to everything that we have to experience, including death, so that we could become like him, children of the heavenly father.

This is what we are.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.(1 John 3:1-2, ESV)

Those who trust in Jesus, who trust his words, are God’s children; now. What we will be, we don’t really know. All we know is that we will be like him. I was working with a friend on a philosophy project while I was in graduate school in England. She was a non-Christian and we began talking about faith. She has struggled with a sense of purpose and direction in her life.

“Every time someone talks to me of evolution,” she said, “I sort of glaze over. Evolution may give us the answers as to when, where, and how, but these are all scientific questions which I am, quite frankly, not all that interested in. What I want to know is why, and pure naturalistic explanations of this world do not provide a satisfying answer.

“Why is there something rather than nothing?”

Jesus answers the “why” question, because in Jesus we see the true heart of God. This world was created, and is sustained, because it is headed somewhere. We do not live in a world that is randomly floating along on a vast sea of nothingness. We live in a world that is guided and directed by God toward a port of his choosing. There is an end to all of this, and it is for this end that we were created. God made this place so that he could have a group of people whom he could have fellowship with, and who would love him. God made this whole thing, and keeps it going, so that we would be able to come to know him, be reconciled to him, and live with him in eternity.

I asked last week what the point of Christianity was all about, well this is it. The point of what God did in Christ is so that he could have us as his children, so that we could be redeemed, so that we could be reunited with him, and once again enjoy his company without shame.

May you stop looking at Christ’s benefits and seek after him alone.

May you trust that God will bring you through whatever you are facing.

May you believe that God’s first priority is to make you his child.