Is God a killjoy?

There is a devilish lie doing the rounds. Actually, it’s been passed on and been believed for century after century. What is it? We are told that God is a killjoy. Therefore, if we sense his presence getting too close then dive for cover! Sadly, we may have encountered religious people and/or systems that have lent credence to the lie.

So, how did the lie get started? We can go back to the beginning and read about Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. Here we find our representative man and woman living in paradise – the Garden of Eden. Of the large number of fruit trees there are to feast their eyes upon and satisfy their taste buds, there is just one solitary tree from which they must not eat. All in the garden is rosy. They have everything needful for their contentment, joy and happiness: food in abundance, they had one another and, supremely, they were in touch with their creator God.

Then, along comes the devil, firstly with insinuation and then an outright lie. He takes the line that God is short-changing the man and woman; that by withholding from them the fruit of one tree, he is denying them the deeper pleasures that could be theirs. In other words, God is a killjoy. The woman, soon followed by the man, believed it. They each ate the forbidden fruit. As a result, they forfeited their ability to enjoy the peace and security which they had previously known, when they felt no need to avoid God.

Now fast forward to around 1000 years BC. King David of Israel knew from personal experience just how freely God provides for his people. David had it all: a family, power, popularity and skills in the arts.

Nevertheless, he fell for the lie that there was an additional pleasure to be taken: the lovely, but married, Bathsheba. He appears to have temporarily forgotten that the source of his life’s success story to date had been the generosity of God.

The rebuke he got from God, his Heavenly Father, started with a salutary reminder of the unique blessings he had received from his maker’s hand; blessings and pleasures which had brought him such happiness that they overflowed into the joyful poems and music that he had composed (what we know as Psalms). God finishes his rebuke with these telling words, ‘And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more’. Hardly the words of a killjoy.

So concerned is God to dispense to us joy, he gives of his own self in the form of Jesus, whose coming we celebrate at Christmas. Integral to his purpose of living on Earth as a man, was that he could show first-hand that God is no nit-picking, mean, hard task master, who is determined to curb people’s enjoyment. To those who will turn from the thought of God as a killjoy and trust themselves to Jesus, he says things like, ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ and again, ‘I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.’

Does this mean that God wants us to live it up in whatever way we may choose? No, it means that we would do well to recognise that our very Creator knows what sort of things ultimately harm us and what will give us real, lasting joy.

‘Fear not! said he; for mighty dread

Had seized their troubled mind:

Glad tidings of great joy I bring

To you and all mankind.

#heavenlyfather #generosity #allsortsofpeople #trust #belief #creation #OldTestament #devil

Out of the foreshadow into the light

Some of my mates are really into Star Trek and Doctor Who. I’m not really into sci-fi movies myself. I am a big fan, however, of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy. Perhaps I should look into this filmmaker’s earlier trilogy, the Indiana Jones adventures, the first of which was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’; all the more so as the Ark referred to is the Ark of the Covenant, which has pivotal significance to my Christian faith.

This Ark of the Covenant is not to be confused with Noah’s Ark! It was, in fact, a wooden trunk or chest overlaid in gold and in which was placed the stone tablets of God’s law, better known as the Ten Commandments. The lid was similarly ornate and was known as the Mercy Seat or Seat of the Atonement. What in heaven’s name has this got to do with anything for us living in the 21st century?

Many symbolisms and events depicted in the Bible’s Old Testament foreshadow that which is brought into clear view in the person of Jesus in the New Testament. There is a definite continuity between the two Testaments as when a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.

Now here is why I believe that this Ark of the Covenant has something to say to each of us today: The Israelite people, working to God’s instructions, placed the Ark behind a separating curtain in the most holy place in their Temple. It represented God’s close, yet heavenly, presence amongst them. No-one was permitted to touch it on pain of death and only the designated High Priest was permitted to go near it and that only once a year. This fearsome and awesome event happened on the Day of Atonement when the priest brought a sacrifice to cover the sins (i.e. wrong-doings) of the people.

Today, each one of us breaks God’s law, his commandments, represented by the stone tablets inside that Ark. There is a popular belief that if we keep more of the commandments than we disobey, that will hopefully satisfy God. The trouble with that notion is God’s Law is a single entity and so although I may not commit murder, if I commit adultery I am still a lawbreaker; if I don’t steal from the local supermarket but do tell a lie, I am still a lawbreaker. How can I atone or make up for these failings? Religious penance, doing good and kindly acts or simply trying to do better, will not give us God’s assurance of his forgiveness.

Returning to the Ark, the Mercy Seat was positioned above the tablets of God’s law. For those who will put their trust in Jesus, he is the Mercy Seat or atonement which is over and above God’s law. This is because he is able to assure us of God’s forgiveness and love in a way that our trying to keep the law of God can never do. Though I haven’t kept God’s law, Jesus did so perfectly. I cannot do anything to wipe the slate clean before God but Jesus presents his own clean slate before God on my behalf. This is the Christian Good News in a nutshell.

I understand that Indiana Jones went to great lengths to find the Ark. Someone should have told him the difference between a symbol and the reality, which is Jesus!

#OldTestament #NewTestament #Godslawandcommandments #mercy #atonement #trust #Israel #forgiveness #sacrifice #Goodnews #theGospel

A true valuation

An artwork masterpiece by Florentine Renaissance artist Cimabue, which depicts the mocking of Jesus Christ, has turned up in an elderly French woman’s home in the town of Compiegne, northern France. Thinking that it was just a religious icon, she had it hanging above the hotplate in her kitchen. It has since been valued at £5.3 million and its auction is to take place later this month.

We are told about this mocking of Jesus Christ in all four Gospels in the Bible. Jesus had stood before a hastily convened court. Here the will of the religious leaders, combined with the easily swayed crowd, prevailed upon the Roman authorities (namely the governor Pontius Pilate) to have Jesus condemned to death by crucifixion. First, however, he was handed over to soldiers to be an object of sport and amusement. This consisted of brutality and cruelty, humiliation and mockery. So, physically ‘softened up’, he was nailed to a cross and hung naked, while further insults and mockings were directed at him.

Clearly, the religious leaders, crowds, governing authority and soldiers had not understood, or they had chosen to disbelieve, just who Jesus was saying that he was, i.e. the long-promised rescuer of God’s people. Nevertheless, ignorance is no excuse for wilful, wrong behaviour. How gracious then that Jesus, hanging there on that cross of physical pain and anguish of heart, should pray, ‘Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing.’

There is a Christian hymn that has the line, ‘Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.’ The writer of these words is looking back to the time when he was ignorant as to the central relevance of Jesus Christ. He sees his own indifference or antagonism towards Jesus and the things of God as being tantamount to standing with those mocking soldiers and people. I think that I can identify with the hymn writer.

Perhaps there is someone reading this who is now sorry that they have been so disinterested in Jesus, treating him with disdain, or have been dismissive of him, seeing him as a mere religious icon and consigning him to the kitchen wall above the hotplate so to speak. Is there a way back?

Remember those words, ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do’. Christians teach that there is forgiveness to be had, followed by a new way of living. I wonder if that old French lady is sorry that she did not recognise earlier what was available to her. How different her life would have been with 6 million Euros at her disposal! May we each recognise the value of the once mocked Jesus Christ and what spiritual riches he may still bring us.

#forgiveness #thegospels #thecross #idols #Messiah #bible #religiousleaders #Jews #crucifixion