Because
God did not Spare His Son...
Application
#1: Failure is not necessarily outside of God’s plan.
Application
#2: Service is restructured in Jesus
Application
#3: Your life is changed
I
read an article this week about parenting. Among other things, I learned that
if you’re rich enough you can hire “recreation experts” to basically teach your
child how to socialize with others. If your child struggles with sharing,
doesn’t like to play at recess, or can’t manage their emotions in a positive
way – the recreation expert can teach them how. At least, this is the theory.
What
recreation experts do seems a lot like what parents are supposed to do for
their kids. The article continued by warning parents of seeing their kids as
little more than accessories or vicarious shells through which parents can
exemplify their success and popularity. There’s truth to this warning. Too many
parents today care little about what’s best for their kids, and put themselves
over their kids. Fast paced society, loads of activities, dual-income families,
and adult-centered goals have all contributed in some way to a lack of family
togetherness and time.
An
added temptation that comes along with that is farming out parental duties to
so-called experts. Teach my kid to like baseball. Force them to learn that
second or third language. Coach them to handle disappointment. Educate them on
emotion and meaning in life. The article’s point was well taken. We, as parents,
have to spend time with our kids. Not just time at the store, or the movie
theater, or the library story time – but time with them, talking to
them, helping them, teaching them, listening to them. And with that comes the
ability to let them learn, grow, and mature. The article concluded with this
thought:” “Let them build emotional muscle that is capable of enduring a
failure and seeing that they can live through it — that there really is life
afterward.”
There’s
a certain amount of Biblical truth to those principles of parenting. But, we
should also ask ourselves, are we helping build our children’s spiritual
muscle? That’s really what faith is. Do we invest in that as parents or are we
content to farm it out to the pastor, the teacher, their friends at school, or
even the media they consume daily?
What
we see today in God’s Word is that God the Father did not neglect His parental
duties. He did not take it easy on His Son. He did not farm out the
responsibility to someone else. He allowed Jesus to go through trial and pain.
Now the exact comparison to our lives and our relationship with our Heavenly
Father does not fit. Jesus was unique as the Son of Man, because He was also
God. But, there is a bearing for your life. Because of what God’s Son endured, what
He was exposed to, what He overcame without a watering down of easiness from
His Father – you have blessings eternal. As the article postulated, that we
need to help our kids see life after struggle, you have even more than
that as a believer – life eternal in heaven. And your life today will
follow a similar pattern as your Savior’s. We explore these thoughts in our
portion of God’s inspired and holy Word from John 12:23-26:
John
12:23-26 But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. 24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it
dies, it produces much grain. 25 "He who loves his life will lose
it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal
life. 26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am,
there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
The
context was early on holy week. Jesus was in Jerusalem. His death by
crucifixion was close at hand. A few Greek individuals had found Philip and
requested to see Jesus. They wanted to see what He was all about. This miracle
worker. This raiser of the dead. This controversial prophet who claimed to be God’s
Son. Philip, in turn, found Andrew and Andrew came to Jesus with the request.
The verses of our text provide Jesus’ answer.
We
don’t know if the Greeks who made this inquiry ever heard these words.
Regardless, these verses stand as a testament to all people who ask about
Jesus. Who is He? What did He do? They are the true picture of God’s Son and
our Savior. But you’ll notice, of all the things that fascinate people about
Jesus – whether past or present, there is no mention of miracles, of
supernatural healings, of spectacular demonstrations of power, not even of
wisdom from teaching. Service is really the theme. Service that leads to death.
Service that leads to love. Service that leads to glory. This is the true
Jesus.
Jesus
prefaces His answer with “Most assuredly…” a marker of divine truth. He
is speaking as God here. He is relating something that is unchangeable and
absolute in its effect for all people. In the Greek, He is literally saying
“Amen, Amen.” What we see of this true Jesus is not censored by God the Father.
When Jesus died on the cross, the Father did not intervene. Jesus would suffer
this punishment, our punishment, on His own. He would be absolutely forsaken,
in the worst way possible, the way that sinners deserved to experience. God
would not be a “helicopter parent.” He did not spare His Son from the agony to
come and Jesus knew that going in. He would be the seed that would die in
order to bear the fruit of righteousness.
This
also affects how we see Jesus, just as much as it affected the Greeks, and
Philip, and Andrew. As we approach the season to meditate on the passion of our
Savior, we do not insulate ourselves from the bitter truth. Jesus is not a
simple moral teacher. He is not someone to unite all nations of the earth under
the banner of world peace. He is not my therapeutic buddy that whispers in my
ear to inflate my self-esteem. Rather, He is the battered sacrifice. He is the
chosen object of God’s wrath – the only one who could atone for your
transgressions and my iniquities.
We
don’t have the luxury of protecting our image of Jesus from the harsh and
unfair reality of His death because He didn’t have that luxury. God did not
shelter Jesus. The Son wasn’t farmed out to “recreation experts” to develop,
mature, and accomplish His mission. He was subjected to it all, down to the
final insult, and last strike of the scourge, and the concluding thud of the
hammer and nail.
Because
we have this Jesus. Because He served you in such a way, there are three
great applications to your life.
Application
#1: Failure is not necessarily outside of God’s plan.
We’re
conditioned to believe that if Christianity is true, and God is loving, then
faith should make us happy and it should make life easy. But when you are led
to such a conclusion, you aren’t able to cope with struggle, especially if it’s
connected to your faith. The true story is that struggle is often part of God’s
plan. That doesn’t mean He desires it to be that way or that He’s the author of
toil and pain. It means that even though the causes of struggle are foreign
agents to God’s design, He is able to use them for your good, nonetheless.
So,
because Jesus didn’t run and hide from His Father’s judgment, you don’t have to
either. Because Jesus wasn’t spared, you can go through more than you think.
Faith is not about seeking the easiest path. Everywhere that Christ is truly
preached, Christians who truly believe will face struggles and obstacles.
Jesus taught that a servant is not above his Master. If the world hated the
Master (in this case Jesus) they will hate His servants (you). The thing is,
what Jesus said also applies to His work. He was rejected, despised, subjected
to punishment, and killed because He didn’t backtrack from faithfulness to
God’s Word. He served His Father in total righteous obedience.
Therefore,
your life will follow your Master’s to some extent. You will fail. You will
struggle. Life under the sun of this universe is vanity and toil. Yet, God can
use that for your good and for the strengthening of your faith in Jesus. He
doesn’t have to shelter you from it either. Don’t run from faithfulness just
because it’s tough.
Application
#2: Service is restructured in Jesus
One
of the reasons we avoid service is because it involves giving up something for
the good of someone else. That means obedience, denial, humility – tough
virtues to strive for in a happiness-based cultural mindset. Service under
Jesus doesn’t change from this, but it is restructured, especially in how we
trust what Jesus enables us to do. Instead of thinking only of what we must
give up, or what we lose out on, when we serve, Jesus points us to consider the
honor it gives Him and the ways in which we can bless one another.
Here’s
where you are like that seed of grain. You are not the same as Jesus. You don’t
die to atone for your sins. You don’t walk the path to righteousness on your
own merits, or under your own power of will. But, through Christian service,
you do die a bit. Death in the Biblical sense is simply separation. When you
serve in the name of Jesus, your faith demonstrates a separation from your
sinful flesh. It is validation and proof that Jesus is the one you trust, that
He is making a change in your life. And His Word of promise to you is that your
death of giving up your self-will, pride, or whatever it may be, yields fruit.
But the opposite is true also. When the seed remains alone. When your faith is
attached to your flesh and not to Jesus, it will die alone.
Application
#3: Your life is changed
You
are probably thinking, of course this changes my life, that’s a no-brainer.
Everything we’ve mentioned from this text certainly changes your life, but
there’s an even greater point. Verse 25 reads: 25 "He who loves his
life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life. Jesus is speaking about two different
types of life here. Now, that may seem apparent with the contrast between life
on earth and eternal life, and that is a difference. But, Jesus is looking even
deeper. When He talks of loving and hating life in this world, He’s speaking of
your life in an immaterial sense. We might think soul in spiritual terms. The
Greek word is psyche, where we get psychology from. This life is the way a
person thinks of their life – their purpose or destiny. Jesus says – don’t let
that become the sum and substance of your hope. You are more than just what you
think about yourself. The psyche manifests itself in a variety of ways – do
people like me? Am I successful? How well do I fit in? What should I do with my
life? How good of a person have I been? There is no limit to the ways we can
think about our lives in this way, and also no limit to the ways in which we
can attach ourselves to worldly things to fulfill our lives.
The
one who keeps his or her psyche in God’s hands is the one who receives eternal
life. Not only is this gift eternal, it’s a completely different type of life.
This is not an immaterial life. It’s not about how you view yourself. It’s not
just an inward thought. It is life that is tangible, real, full. Biblically, it
is life in God’s presence, not just an idea, but literally, standing before
Him, sharing with Him, gazing upon Him, being with Him locally, not just by
faith – and it’s eternal. The Jesus who was not spared changes your life and
that’s really what heaven is – life (inward and outward) as God intended it
from the start.
God
doesn’t shelter you from the truth, even the difficult parts of truth, because
you need to full truth to have this hope. If you feel frustrated, lost, or
simply unsure because of the trouble of following Christ, remember that you’re
not walking that path alone. You have countless other believers with you, but
more importantly you have Jesus too. God did not spare His own Son. Just as
Jesus could not gain salvation for the world without dying, so also we cannot
hang onto the world and still have eternal life. Both the gospel of salvation
and the life of your faith involve something left and something gained. This is
the real story of the real Jesus – For you, it’s the real fruit of real faith. Amen.
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