Feature Article
WHAT JESUS OFFERS
January 2010
Hopefully you have survived the recent holiday season. I don’t mean the good times and meals with family and friends. I mean the endless barrage of sales pitches for all the new clothing lines, electronic gadgets and other material things that are presented as “necessary”. The power that the advertising media has over our minds is truly remarkable.
There are other, more subtle, sales pitches that we get throughout the year. They come to us in the guise of self-improvement schemes:
Modern day prophets of materialism offer us tactics and strategies to gain material wealth. The prophets of success offer us products and books and techniques to improve our figure, our love life, our self-esteem and our chances of professional advancement. And the false prophets of moral relativity offer us a life of pleasure and sensuality, devoid of moral commitment, appealing to our pride and our false sense of “freedom”.
All the great salesmen throughout history have always offered the “best” product, the “best” technique or the “best” philosophy.
What did Jesus offer?
Matthew 16:21-24 (NIV)
21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
In the above passage Jesus spoke frankly about a not-too-encouraging view of the future. His followers were probably disturbed by this revelation. Obviously, if their Master was going to suffer such a fate, then what was the likely result for them?
Simon Peter, always ready for action, decided that he should put some sense into the Master’s mind. Maybe, he thought, heat and fatigue were making Jesus delirious; maybe he needed the help of his best friend Peter.
What Peter got instead was a public rebuke!
Simon was not willing to give up control of his life; therefore he couldn’t accept that the Lord would be willing to give up control of His life. This is usually our main struggle in life: we want to be in control, we do not want to surrender.
Jesus, however, was willing to surrender totally to God’s will, to let the Father take full control of his life. Why? Because Jesus had absolute trust in God.
So maybe our biggest problem is precisely that: we just don’t really trust in God.
•We don’t really trust that God forgives our sins completely, so we feel that we have to earn his favor through our good actions.
•We don’t really trust that the Holy Spirit can transform hearts, so we start thinking that the reason people don’t become Christians is because we have failed.
•We don’t really trust that a brother or sister can correct us out of love, so we start thinking that he/she must have something against us.
•We don’t really trust that God has a spouse for us, so we allow ourselves to become attracted to people of the world.
•We don’t really trust that God can meet our needs, so we feel compelled to take any job even if it interferes with our commitment to church.
•We don’t really trust that the brother against whom we have sinned will forgive us, so we remain quiet and we don’t confess our sin.
•We don’t really trust that Christ has promised to be with us always, so we fear the decision of getting baptized and becoming his disciples.
What are you afraid of?
As we can see in Matthew 16:21, Jesus knew that he was going to suffer, that he was going to face tremendous opposition, and that he would also go through the ordeal of a violent death. But he also knew that God would raise him up.
Now, we sometimes forget that Jesus was a man like us, that he also had to deal with the same fears and temptations that we deal with. We assume that, because he knew what was going to happen, he didn’t face any personal crises or strong emotions.
That is not what the Bible teaches. The Lord knew anguish and pain. He felt their sting deep in his heart just like any one of us. He didn’t triumph over his fears because he was some cyborg super-being, above human experience and impervious to human suffering.
He triumphed because he trusted in the Father!
What did Jesus offer us for this life? Freedom from conflict? Material well being? Actually we read in Matthew 16:24 that what he offered was a life of surrender and sacrifice. Not an appealing sales pitch!
So how are we to live triumphantly? We need to take our sights off of ourselves and set them on the cross of Christ. Through the Cross God declared that, above everything that we may have to face, He is faithful. He will not abandon us. He delivered on his promise of redemption; he fulfilled his end of the Covenant. And, as he did with Jesus, he will raise us too.
The cross is the landmark sign of God’s commitment to us. The empty tomb is the emblem of his victory.
And, ultimately, that is what Christ offers us: eternal victory!