Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order to preach – Part 2
For as we’re told in Ephesians 2: 16-17, Christ came to preach peace to those who were far off in order that they might be reconciled to God
I know this won’t be hard for some of you to believe but, were you to catch my much better half in an uncharacteristically ungracious moment, she might just reveal to you that, on occasions at least, I can be a tad irritating to live with – by which I mean ‘utterly insufferable’. Indeed, there are times that I am guilty of crimes so heinous that they make even the flagrantly improper folding of a tea towel seem like some minor misdemeanour!
Seriously though, when I have done something that genuinely spoils the relationship I enjoy with my nearest and dearest, my desire to be forgiven is not just so I no longer have to experience any unpleasant feelings of guilt – rather what I desire most is that our relationship be restored to how it had been before my foolish act.
That is to say, I long for us to be reconciled.
And reconciliation is what Jesus came to bring about too. Because through his substitutionary death on the cross, more than merely securing our forgiveness, Jesus reconciled us to God. That’s what Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans: ‘while we were still sinners Christ died for us’ [Romans 5:8], and ‘while we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God’ [Romans 5:10]
With our sins pardoned, we are at peace with God and our warfare with him is therefore over. [Isaiah 40:2].
No longer then his enemies, God is now for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us? Furthermore, ‘he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’ [Romans 8:31-32]
All of which is very good news – which is exactly what Jesus came to preach when he came to earth on that first Christmas Day.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 11 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order to preach – Part 1
Really? Yes, really! For that’s what we’re told in Luke 4:43.
But I do understand your incredulity. Because, whereas his turning water into wine marks him out as somebody worth inviting to a party, and his miraculous healings suggest he’s somebody who it would be worth travelling some distance to meet, that Jesus should come in order to preach is something that sounds…well… really rather boring actually.
I mean we’ve all been there – sat listening to the guy in the pulpit who, having droned on for 35 minutes, offers us some hope by uttering the words ‘And finally’, only to commence a seven point conclusion which means that, when at last you at last reach the sanctuary of your own home, your roast potatoes have long since passed the point of recognition.
More troubling still, some of us have been the monotoned menace who has caused us to want to stick pins in our eyes, if only to relieve the tedium.
But we should not let such negative experiences get in the way of the truth that God’s word has power – and that when God speaks, things happen.
It’s sometimes said that God creates what he commands – that what he says comes into existence as a result of him he decreeing it. Which sounds a bit weird until we realise that, in a limited sense at least, that can be true for us as well. But whereas my yelling ‘Wake up!’ at sufficient volume may once have proved effective in rousing my teenage daughter from sleep, that, sadly, is pretty much the limit of what my words can bring about.
Even so, whereas my utterances can’t even guarantee that my now semiconscious offspring would actually get out of bed, Jesus’ words are powerful enough to get a response even from those who are dead – as was the case when he commanded Lazarus to come out from the tomb wherein he’d lain for the previous four days.
Similarly, it was by a word of command that God created the world. ‘Let there be light’, says God in Genesis 1:3. ‘And there was light’. And, we’re told in Romans 10:17, ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.’
All of which suggests that, if we’re going to have faith, we’re going to have to hear authoritative words from the one who, by virtue of his authority over all that there is to have authority over, is one in whom we can rationally place our faith.
Which, when you think about it, is not really boring at all. On the contrary, when God speaks, exciting things happen. Perhaps then, rather than shutting him out of the conversation, we should listen instead to what Jesus came into the world that first Christmas Day to preach.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 10 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: To become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.
Those of a similar age to me might remember wasting countless Saturday mornings watching Swap Shop. Back then, whilst the cool kids were laughing themselves silly at the antics of Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog on ITV’s Tiswaz, I was unaccountably drawn to the nonexistent drama that was being played out as Mike from Minchinhampton offered a first edition etch-a-sketch in return for a 1976 Blue Peter Annual.
But not all swaps are as insignificant as those that, in the early 1980’s, the BBC passed off as cutting edge children’s entertainment.
For the swap that Jesus offers us is far more intriguing, offering us his righteousness for our sin. That’s what it means when we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that ‘he who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.’
By accepting this great exchange, not only does it mean that, when he was crucified, Jesus was bearing the punishment for our sin, but also that, dressed in Christ’s righteousness, we can stand confidently before God. This is not because we have been good, but because Christ has been good on our behalf. And so, as well as being counted as if we’d never sinned, we’re treated as if we had always done what was right.
As a result then, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [Romans 8:1].
My sin for Christ’s righteousness is a swap that I’m very happy to make – one that makes me very glad that, to make it possible, Jesus came to earth on that first Christmas Day.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 9 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order to take away sin.
For that is what we’re told in 1 John 3:5 where it says that Jesus ‘appeared in order to take away sins.’
Wouldn’t it be lovely though to have our sins taken away? Especially THAT one, the one we’ve spent years trying to justify but haven’t been able to, knowing full well that what we did was not only wrong, but entirely our fault.
Some years ago I went on a speed awareness course and was asked, along with my fellow miscreants, to come up with a list of reasons why we might sometimes drive faster than we should. Between us we produced an impressive list. But having then been asked to listen to a recording of a Dad describing how his daughter had been killed by a speeding motorist, all our seemingly justifiable reasons looked instead like so many lame excuses.
Because the truth is we’re not the people we ought to be, each and every one of us is capable, at least on occasions, of doing bad things – some of us, perhaps, more so than others. But if we like to think of ourselves as better than most, we might do well to recognise that those who fail an important exam aren’t rewarded for merely not coming last.
What’s more, our sin has consequences – consequences that, like the driver of the car that killed that young girl, we all have to live with. Because the guilt is a guilt that, seemingly, we have always to carry with us.
If only there was forgiveness.
And that’s why I say, wouldn’t it be lovely to have our sins taken away.
But the good news is that there is forgiveness because through his death and subsequent resurrection, that is exactly what Jesus came to do. And not only does he take our sins away, he takes them as far away as it’s possible for them to be taken.
For ‘as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.’ [Psalm 103:12]
And there isn’t any place further away than that.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 8 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here.
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order to give his life as a ransom for many.
For that’s what we’re told in the second half of the verse we considered yesterday, namely that of Mark 10:45.
When we think about a ransom, we tend to think about a sum of money that is paid to secure the release of one who has been kidnapped by somebody who, in the event of the payment not being made, threatens to do all kinds of harm to the person who’s been taken captive.
Which is pretty much what we mean here too, save that, instead of money, it was the death of the son of God that secured the release of we who, bound up by our sin, had only eternal punishment to look forward to.
Now I am fully aware that any talk of hell is unlikely to be popular these days, But then I don’t suppose it was in Jesus’ either, when he spoke about it at length.
Because whilst to speak of God in terms of his infinite love is likely to offend only the most fundamental of materialists who cannot conceive of affection other than in terms of a conditioned response to a previously randomly experienced stimulus, to speak of God in terms of his righteous anger at our all too obvious wrong doing, will generally illicit an altogether more visceral reaction.
But before we get too upset at God for being the holy and righteous deity that, deep down, we know and need him to be, let’s remember that, unlike those of pagan religions, the God of the Bible is not some capricious despot with a problem with anger management, one who demands sacrifices be offered to him in order that, with his anger appeased, he might just be minded to act benevolently towards those who have offered them.
On the contrary – the God of the Bible is one who, though his holiness demands justice, lovingly provides a way of escape for those who, because of their actions, have deservedly earned his displeasure. And whilst the salvation he offers does indeed involve sacrifice, it is not a sacrifice that we have to make ourselves – rather it is one that he himself makes, at great personal cost, in the form of his own dear Son, who then willingly dies in our place to pay the price for all that we have done wrong.
He is not, therefore, a God we should despise for his righteous anger – rather he is one we should bow down before, in humble adoration of his amazing grace.
Because Jesus came that first Christmas Day in order to give his life as a ransom for many.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 7 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order, not to be served, but to serve.
For that is what we’re told in Mark 10:45, just after Jesus tells his disciples that, whoever wanted to be great amongst them would have to be a servant, and whoever wanted to be first amongst them would have to be the slave of all.
The Bible then, gives us a way of behaving that is the complete opposite of how our society encourages us to act. Far from it being determined by how much we have accumulated for ourselves, success is ultimately measured by how much we have been able to give away; it’s not how hard others have to work for us that counts, but how hard we’re prepared to work for the good of those who need our help; and it’s not pride in ourselves that we should be looking to achieve – instead we should be striving to act with genuine humility, considering others more significant than ourselves. [Philippians 2:3]
These are of course fine words, ones that, over the years, many have given lip service to. But has there ever been anyone who acted in this way?
Because I for sure haven’t.
Even so, there was one person – someone who really did show how great he was by behaving exactly like this for the whole of his earthly life.
And I’m thinking, of course, about
‘…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross’ [Philippians 2:5-8].
Jesus then was the one who, not only talked the talk, but walked the walk – the one who came to earth that first Christmas Day in order, not to be served, but to serve.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 6 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: Because that was when the set time had fully come?
For that is what we’re told in Galatians 4:4.
There is a true story that I love to tell from when I worked as a GP. It concerns the time I made a passing comment to a health care assistant who for reasons I won’t go in to, was grimacing at me like some latter day pirate.
‘Who do you think you are?’ I asked her, loudly enough for the whole waiting room to hear, ‘Long John Silver?’ – just as the patient I’d called moments before arrived at my side…complete with his wooden leg!
And so the question arises, was I just unlucky with the timing of my words, or was the whole incident somehow determined by God’s sovereign will?
Well, as one who believes that nothing happens outside of God’s absolute control, I have to conclude that it was the latter. Quite why he should have ordained things the way he did, I do not, of course, know – though I like to think it might be because God has a sense of humour and thought it’d make me, my healthcare assistant and the patient laugh. Which I’m glad to say it did.
But be that as it may, I believe that all things happen when they do for a reason – including the birth of Jesus which, as the verse above suggests, happened exactly when God ordained that it should.
But there is another incident in Jesus’s life that we’re told happened at just the right time too. And that was his death.
Jesus died during the feast of Passover, when the Jewish people sacrificed lambs in remembrance of the time they had to do just that to avoid God’s judgement falling on them in Old Testament times.
And, because what took place in Exodus Chapter 12 was only ever meant to point us to Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, it was fitting that he too should die during Passover.
Which is exactly what happened – despite the fact that the feast of Passover was the one time that those plotting Jesus’ death didn’t want him to die. [Mark 14:2].
All of which goes to prove that, whilst he was crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, Jesus was ultimately delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. [Acts 2:23]
And that, in part at least, is why Paul could write in Romans 5:6 that ‘at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.’
And it’s also why we can be sure that Jesus came to earth on that first Christmas Day, because that was when the set time had fully come.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 5 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order to call sinners to repentance
For that’s what we are told in Luke 5:32, just after Jesus, having been criticised by the religious types of his day for hanging out with ne’er-do-wells and scallywags, explains that, just as it is the sick who need a doctor, so it is sinners who need a saviour.
Two groups of people – who both need to get better.
Some people confuse how much God loves us with how wonderful God thinks we are. They imagine that, because Jesus was sent to die for us, it indicates just how terrific he considers us to be.
But it was whilst we were still sinners that Christ died for us. [Romans 5:8] He loves us, therefore, not because of our awesomeness but despite our wickedness – not because we are lovely, but because he is loving.
And so, whilst it is true that God, in sending his son to suffer and die for us, does indeed reveal his deep deep love for us, we need to also realise that the sacrifice made is an indicator of how horrible our sins actually are
And to imagine that it was because he considered us worthy of the sacrifice that was made for our salvation, would be a bit like Al Capone bragging that the $1 million reward being offered for his capture was evidence, not of the seriousness of his crimes, but of how highly he was esteemed by the Chicago law enforcement agencies.
And so we must recognise that, whilst it is true that, as we considered yesterday, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he didn’t come to leave us that way. Rather, he came to call us to repentance, to a better way of life, a life lived according to his good and perfect law.
And for that, there will need to be a change of heart on our part, a turning both away from the life that we have long felt appropriate for us to live, and toward the life that we now see as the one we really always ought to have aspired to.
And that is the meaning of the word ‘repentance’ – a word that conveys, not only a sense of sorrow for how we have been living in the past, but also an acceptance that we need to change our ways such that we try to live better lives in the future.
That’s not to say that we will be fully successful in our endeavours – but the desire to do better should nonetheless be there. Because it is impossible to appreciate how much we have been forgiven by Jesus, and not to love him more as a result. And it is impossible to love Jesus more, and not desire to keep his commands. [John 14:15]
As such, if we find we are content to go on living our lives with no regard for his law, then we must conclude that we have no real love for God. And if we do not have any love for God, then we must conclude that we have yet to know his forgiveness and remain, therefore, unrepentant sinners who are still dead in our sin.
But there is yet hope. For Jesus came to earth that first Christmas Day to call sinners to repentance.
I wonder, can you hear him calling you?
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 4 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order to save sinners.
As we’re told both succinctly and reliably in 1 Timothy 1:15 where we read that ‘this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance – that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’.
Has there ever been a plainer statement of what Christianity is all about? Has it ever been made clearer hatt being a Christian ISN’T first and foremost about keeping a set of rules?
I doubt it. And yet far too many people still erroneously believe that you get to heaven by being good.
So let me try to tell you the truth in words of one…sound!
You do not get to…hmmm, let me think…the nice place where God is that we all like to think we will go to when we die…by works – that is to say, we do not earn our way in by the good things we might do in our lives. No – not at all! If we get to… that place I just said… it will be due to grace and by grace…that does not need one thing more..
So what do I mean by that last bit? Well let me tell you, but as I do, I trust that you’ll forgive me for now resuming the use of polysyllabic words in order not to sound any weirder than, as a Christian, I no doubt, already do!
When Christians say that they are saved by ‘grace alone’, what they mean is that their salvation is undeserved – dependent wholly on the unmerited kindness of God. They themselves contribute nothing to their salvation – nothing that is, except the sin that made it necessary.
As such Christians do not consider themselves to be good. On the contrary. Though, as a result of the love that God has shown them, they now seek to be obedient to his commands, Christians know that they remain sinners who will forever be dependent on God’s amazing grace – a grace that is sufficient to guarantee their forgiveness, no matter how great their wrongdoing may be.
And that is the message that the apostle Paul preached. Because he knew that God’s grace was sufficient even for ‘the chief of sinners’, a title he gave himself in recognition, at least in part no doubt, of his involvement in the persecution of the early church which saw him standing by and watching as Steven, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death.
No wonder then that Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. For he knew that the good news of what was achieved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was the power of God for salvation, and not only his own but that of all those who put their trust in Christ.
And that’s why, no matter what you’ve done wrong, you, like me, can take comfort from the fact that our hope of heaven depends, not on sufficiently cleaning up our act such that God is impressed with us, but rather on the rock solid assurance that on that first Christmas Day, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 3 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: In order to seek and save the lost.
For that’s what we’re told in Luke 19:10 after Jesus invites himself to the home of the diminutive Zacchaeus. And it’s there that the newly found tax collector, in a move unlikely to be copied by the Inland Revenue, not only returns all the money that he’d previously fraudulently obtained, but also compensates those affected to the tune of four times the amount that he’d taken from them in the first place.
It’s worth noting here that, whilst Zacchaeus appears to have been curious about who Jesus was, it wasn’t Zacchaeus who found Jesus. Rather, what Zacchaeus discovered was that he’d been found by Jesus.
Which brings me to the time when, after an extensive search, I once found my passport in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. Whether I should be concerned by such an occurrence, I will-leave it for you to judge, along with whether I should still be permitted to drive, but suffice to say, I was mightily relieved that, not only could I still recall the name of the Prime Minister, but also, having somehow secreted itself in amongst the dog food and fairy liquid, my most important of personal documents was as spotlessly clean as it was, for the time at least, uneaten.
All of which is to make the point that when something, or someone, is found, it’s not just the rescued that rejoice. There is huge satisfaction for the seeker too.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables in which the finding of something that was lost prompts seemingly excessive rejoicing in the one who was doing the searching. In one of the parables it is a coin that goes missing – and one can’t help wondering if the cost of the ensuing celebration was more than the value of the coin that had been originally mislaid.
If so, the joy expressed could be considered as somewhat over the top. But that’s the point I think Jesus is making in the parables he is telling, all of which are meant to teach us something about him.
Namely that to seek and save the lost is something that Jesus himself absolutely delights to do. What’s more, Luke 15:10 tells us that there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who, like Zacchaeus, repents. And so we can say that it makes God happy too when sinners are saved. And when I say happy, I mean really happy – exuberantly, extravagantly, abundantly happy.
For such is the love that he has for the lost.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 2 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here.
Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day? Answer: Because God loved the world enough to send him.
For that’s what we’re told in the first half of what is, perhaps, the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3.16. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only son…’
‘Where-ere-ere-ere-ere is Love?’
So sang the titular character in ‘Oliver!’, the archetypal Christmas Day film of my youth. But leaving aside, for the time being at least, the unseasonal yet overwhelming desire that arises within me, to poke that poor whimpering orphan in the eye, the moment he starts to sing that particular song, one has to admit that it is a good question?
Though a better one would be, ‘Who is love?’ – to which the answer is, of course, God [1 John 4:8] – the one from whom all love ultimately flows.
That the love of God is at the heart of Christmas is important for us to realise. Because, unlike all the best detective dramas, where the villain eventually cracks under interrogation by a good cop, bad cop combination, all three members of the godhead are all equally good – and all equally loving too.
As such we must not imagine that an ultra nice Jesus had to twist the arm of his ultra vengeful Father in order to persuade him to save those he wouldn’t otherwise have been inclined to.
Because that would be a huge error on our part.
All three members or the godhead, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, who, each fully God, together make up the one true God, in a way that our finite minds cannot even begin to understand – are all equally loving.
And with that bit of heavy trinitarian theology rattling around your brain, you may find yourself wanting to lie down in a darkened room. But even as you do so remember this – God the Son came to earth on that first Christmas Day, because God the Father loved the world enough to send him.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 1 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here.
Today in the UK, MP’s vote on Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill.
But whilst I do not doubt that those who intend to vote in favour of the bill will do so for reasons that are well meaning, I nonetheless believe that such a move would be a mistake.
I have previously written of my concern that legalising physician assisted suicide will produce a slippery slope, one which risks seeing the weak and vulnerable feeling under pressure to end their lives. And I’ve written too of how we will all be diminished by allowing the killing of those whose existence might be said to be either burdensome, or somehow lacking in value.
But there is a yet more fundamental reason why I am opposed to the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia – one that reflects my Christian faith.
But contrary to what you may be thinking, I am not here principally referring to the nonetheless hugely significant sixth commandment that prohibits us to murder. [Exodus 20:13]. Rather I am thinking about scripture’s counterintuitive claim that suffering is not without meaning or purpose. Because irrespective of how intense or prolonged our affliction may be, it remains, we’re told, ‘light and momentary’ in comparison to the ‘eternal weight of glory’ that it is preparing for us. [2 Corinthians 4:17]
Inevitably, there will be those who say that I have no right to impose my Christian beliefs on those who do not share my faith. And they would of course be right. Unless, that is, Christianity is true.
And so, as is the case with so many things in life, it all comes down to this simple question:
‘Was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ just one more meaningless death, or was it, alongside his subsequent resurrection, the most important event in history?’
And it’s because I believe the latter, that I hope the bill will not be passed today.
Related posts:
To read ‘Assisted Dying – we all need to be happier to help’, click here
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
Halloween is a time when many people enjoy pretending to be afraid. But the truth is, to be genuinely afraid is no fun at all.
Currently, there is much in our world that is frightening. With the conflict in the Middle East spiralling out of control, and the war in Ukraine showing no sign of coming to an end, the world is a dangerous place to be. And for others, the threats are closer to home – with the fear arising from either a bad diagnosis, financial insecurity or one of any number of other problems that make the future unbearably uncertain.
What then are we to do?
One solution would be to find ourselves in the presence of someone more capable than ourselves. Someone who can cope with what we can’t. Someone who can keep us safe.
Because nobody is afraid of what they are able to deal with – it’s bug eyed monsters that we’re afraid of, not cute Labrador puppies. As a youngster, I remember watching Dr Who and, in episodes involving the Daleks, concealing myself behind the sofa like all small children did back then. But my upholstered hiding place was only necessary until the Doctor appeared on the screen. For with him alongside them, I knew his hapless assistants were sure to be safe.
So then, to be in the company of someone who knows what to do, and is able to do it is always wonderfully reassuring. Well I say ‘always’ – there is one situation when that isn’t actually the case.
In order to explain what I mean, imagine that you are walking through a very dark wood. I don’t know, perhaps you’re on the way to deliver a hamper of food to your ailing grandmother. Suddenly you discern movement up ahead and the glint of a malevolent eye that appears to be watching you. And then, before you know it, you’re up close and personal with a big bad wolf, with an uncomfortably good view of his very big, and very sharp, teeth.
Naturally you’re terrified.
But then, for reasons unknown to you, the wolf suddenly turns tail and runs howlingly away, never to be seen again. You turn around looking for something that might have caught your potential assassins eye, and are made aware of something that you hadn’t been aware of before – that you’d been accompanied through the woods by your Dad who, on this occasion, rather than wielding his customary axe, was holding an altogether more effective sawn off shotgun.
And you realise that, though your fear of the wolf had been wholly understandable, it had, at the same time, been totally unnecessary. Because your Father, by his protective presence, had been guarding each and every step of your journey through the darkness and, as a result, you had, in fact, been nothing other than entirely safe the whole time.
In the Bible there is an account of an occasion that is not all that dissimilar to the one imagined above.
Elisha, one of God’s greatest prophets, is in the city of Dotham. The King of Syria, the big bad wolf of the story, is out to get him and so sends an army to take up a position around Dotham. The following morning, Elisha’s servant goes out and, seeing the size of the enemy army is understandably anxious. And so he returns to Elisha – to tell him the news and asks him what they should do.
Elisha replies with these words: ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them’. [2 Kings 6:16]
Elisha then prays that his servant would have his eyes opened to see the truth. After which, the servant goes out to look again – and this time sees that the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire – that is to say, he sees the army of God is in attendance too – an army that is far greater than that of the relatively puny King of Syria.
All of which serves to point out that, with the God who is for us by our side, we are safe, no matter how frightening our circumstances might seem.
But, by faith, we need to be aware that he’s there.
Faith then is seeing what’s really there, even when what’s really there, can’t be seen. But unlike ‘blind faith’, that chooses to believe whatever one wants to believe without any evidence upon which to base that belief, Christian faith is one based on convincing evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb, compelling eyewitness testimony of those who saw Jesus after he rose from the dead, and the authoritative word of the one who spoke the universes into existence – the one who, through the words of the Bible, promises to never leave us or forsake us but to remain with us, even to the end of the age.
But that doesn’t mean that nothing ever frightens the Christian. Even Jesus was anxious in the Garden of Gethsemane – so anxious in fact that he sweated blood at the prospect of going to the cross. Even so, it was ‘for the joy set before him’ that Jesus endured the cross. [Hebrews 12:2]. That is to say, for the joy of the salvation that would result from his death and resurrection, Jesus bore the anguish of crucifixion, confident that his death would ultimately be for the good of God’s people.
Which indeed it was – because with death thus defeated, the Christian can laugh even in the face of death and, like the apostle Paul, justifiably ask, ‘O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?’ [1 Corinthians 15:55]
Because with death defeated, the Christian has nothing to fear.
At the risk of retelling a story that I have told many times before, some years ago, whilst out on a walk with my family, one of my children announced that they were lost. This was on account of them not having any idea where they were. But there were wrong. They weren’t lost. Because the one who held their hand – me – knew exactly where we were – and I knew the way home. The mistake my child had made was that they had forgotten who was with them or, at the very least, forgotten what I was capable of.
It was not a mistake that King David made. In Psalm 139 he writes of how he can not escape God’s presence. ‘If I ascend to heaven’, he writes, ‘you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.’ [Psalm 139: 8-10]
And then in Psalm 23, perhaps the most comforting of all the Psalms, he adds, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.’ [Psalm 23:4]
That is the reality that God promises us in his word, the reality that by faith, we can know to be true. God is with us – even when we walk the dark paths through life that he sometimes chooses to lead us. And he can be trusted to keep us safe – however frightening our present situation might be.
And that’s why, this Halloween, none of us need be afraid.
Related posts:
To read ‘At Halloween – O death where is thy sting’, click here
If you can run in woods all day, and not come once when called, If you can eat the kinds of things that leave owners appalled, If you can leave your fur in places that you’ve never been, And be to blame for countless crimes which you commit unseen, If you can chomp your masters things into a thousand bits, And still ensure he feeds you first when for his lunch he sits If you can pester picnickers that you’ve not met before And be a pain whilst fast asleep as noisily you snore, And if, e’en so, you’re loved by those that you drive round the bend, It’s plain to see, for folks like me, you’ll be a Lab my friend!
Recently, despite its sometimes bad language, I’ve been enjoying the Apple TV+ series ‘Slow Horses’. Based on the books by Mick Herron it stars the excellent Gary Oldman, and tells the story of a bunch of failed MI5 agents who, as a result of their inadequacies, are sent to Slough House, a fictional dead end department of the British secret service where they are expected to spend the rest of their working life engaged in dull administrative tasks.
But despite their unpromising circumstances, and their ongoing incompetence, they still manage to find themselves involved in a series of vital missions which they proceed to carry out with varying degrees of success under the watchful eye of the appalling yet brilliant Jackson Lamb, the acerbic head of the organisation who, despite his apparent callous disregard for those under his charge, does actually seem to care for them and frequently intervenes so as to ensure that things ultimately work out in at least a reasonably satisfactory manner.
With some very important caveats, the show reminds me of the true church, a similarly quirky body of people, one into which all manner of failed men and women are warmly welcomed. These flawed folk, despite their frequent ongoing incompetence, also become involved in all manner of vital activities that they too carry out with varying degrees of success under the watchful eye of their far from appalling and perfectly holy Heavenly Father.
And his love for them is one that is never in doubt as he too intervenes, albeit sometimes mysteriously, to ensure that all things work together for the good of his people and in complete accordance with the counsel of his will.
The program is, for me at least, a small reminder that our worth as Christians is not determined by our actions, but by the love in which we are held by Almighty God. And that, irrespective of what terrible things we may have done wrong in the past, not only can we be forgiven through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross, but our lives can continue to have great purpose, as we are sent out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit to both live and work to the praise of God’s glorious grace.
Or, as it is described through the always beautiful language of the Bible, though we all like lost sheep have gone astray, the Lord is our Shepherd who, having lovingly lain down his life for us, will bring home all who recognise and listen to his voice.
However slow we might sometimes have been!
‘Slow Horses’ Theme Tune
Related blogs:
To read ‘Foolishness – Law and Gospel’, click here
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
To read ‘Something to feast your eyes on’, click here.
‘There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance’ [Ecclesiastes 3:4]
A while back I wrote about a wedding I’d recently attended. But given my own advancing years, these days, in any given week, I’m far more likely to find myself at a funeral. As was the case yesterday.
The man who had died was not somebody I can claim to have known well but, because of the few occasions when our paths had crossed and he had shown me great kindness, I consider myself blessed to have known him. And I was blessed by attending his funeral too.
But this was not because the service was in anyway a happy occasion – the very real tears of those who loved him most were testimony enough to that. And as the congregation that filled the parish church were reminded, death is not something we celebrate – it is a horrible intruder into God’s good creation, one whose unwelcome appearance rightly leads us to weep and mourn.
Even so, I was encouraged to hear again what I have long known to be true as the minister, taking 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 as his text, spoke of how the Bible often refers to those who have died as those who have fallen asleep. And I learnt that the word ‘cemetery’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘sleeping place’ which, as was pointed out, is all highly significant – because sleep is something you wake up from.
That, to me, is a lovely thought.
But unlike so many other lovely thoughts, this is one that is so much more than wishful thinking. Because this ‘lovely thought’ is also a guaranteed reality, one that we can believe, not just because we want to, but because waking up from death has historical precedence.
By which I mean, it’s happened before.
Two thousand years ago Jesus rose from the dead and, because of this well attested fact, we can have absolute confidence that those who die ‘in Christ’ will also rise from the dead when he returns to earth, a day that, alongside those of his birth, death and resurrection, will surely complete the four most significant days in history.
As the service drew to an end, it was good to be able to recite the beautiful answer to the opening question of the Heidelberg Catechism – a question that asks us what is our comfort in life and death?
‘That I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, both in life and in death – to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing form now on to live for him’
On leaving the church we walked through the graveyard – or should I say, dormitory – passing the grave where the one we had come to remember had been buried earlier in the day. A fellow mourner whispered ‘God bless you’, but I doubt his words would have been heard beneath the six feet of freshly dug earth where my erstwhile friend now lay. Even so, as I was walked on by, I thought of the day to come when he will here his name spoken and, as surely as a sleeping child wakes when called by a loving Father, he will rise again to life.
And this is my hope too – my sure and certain hope – that though the wages of sin is death, with my sin paid for on the cross, death has lost its sting. It has been swallowed up in victory and so the free gift of God is now eternal life in Christ Jesus my Lord.
And so, like D.L. Moody before me, let me say this – if one day you hear it announced that I have died – don’t believe a word of it – for I shall be more alive then, than I have ever been before.
The news of my death will have been greatly exaggerated.
Related blogs:
To read ‘A Time to Dance – Reflections on a Marriage’, click here
To read ‘On death – my first and last’, click here
‘You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.’ [Psalm 60:3]
‘You have fed [your people] with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.’ [Psalm 80:5]
‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’ [Psalm 85:6]
Sometimes, when we imagine that all is well with the world, it is easy to praise God and rejoice in all that he is and all that he has done. But sometimes, when the world is seen to be what scripture declares to be a ‘vale of tears’, it’s hard. Very hard. Sometimes, therefore, it’s right that we weep with those who weep.
What can we say on days when the anguish is intense? What words might bring a degree of comfort when there seems to be nothing but sorrow? And how do we answer the question that inevitably arises. Why? Why does God allow some to suffer as he does? Why does he allow bad things to happen?
This is mysterious ground and we should step carefully. The answer may never be ours to know and the wisest counsel may be to keep silent when asked to give a reason for such circumstances – there is certainly no easy, concise, one size fits all answer. God’s answer, from out of the whirlwind, to the questions Job asked of his suffering was
“I will question you” [Job 38:3]
G.K. Chesterton writes:
‘…God comforts Job with indecipherable mystery, and for the first time Job is comforted…Job flings at God one riddle, God flings back at Job a hundred riddles, and Job is at peace. He is comforted with conundrums. The riddles of God, Chesterton writes, are more satisfying than the solutions of men’
In the prologue to the book of Job, we see that Job was tormented, not because he was the worst of men, but because he was the best. There is a sense, therefore, in which Job points us towards Jesus. Job is not told that his misfortunes were due to his sins, or part of any plan for his self improvement – but we are, none the less, told that he was allowed to suffer under God’s sovereign care. That a good man should suffer at the hands of a loving God is a paradox. Chesterton calls it ‘the very darkest and strangest of … paradoxes‘ which is, nonetheless, ‘by all human testimony the most reassuring‘. Because the infinite mystery of God is enough to inspire our trust in his sovereign goodness, even when the specific reasons to why we suffer remain a mystery.
As the words of the psalms that I quoted earlier confirm, the Bible is honest about the reality of suffering. If we are to find any comfort, if we are to be revived that we might again rejoice in God, our words and our thoughts, will not be enough. We need a word that transcends our sadness, a word from outside of ourselves, a word from God that can speak truth into our sadness and in so doing bring us hope.
So what do we need to know when bad things happen? What might we find ourselves doubting when events grieve us so deeply? Of what do we need to be reassured?
Firstly we need to know that God is still in control. Nothing happens outside of his sovereign will. We may not understand why God would chose to allow things that we would not, but he is God and he is sovereign over all things – he has supreme power and ultimate authority.
Isaiah Chapter 6:1 assures us of this.
‘In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.’
Nearly 3000 years ago King Uzziah died, and the future seemed uncertain for the people of Isaiah’s day. Isaiah, however, saw behind the immediate apparent disaster, behind the current uncertainty, and saw a vision of one who was in total control, utterly in command of everything that was taking place. He saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up. The immense train of his robe, a symbol of his absolute authority, filled the temple. God was in control 3000 years ago. And he is still in control today.
John 9 is also helpful here. There we read about a man born blind. At the time of his birth, his parents were, no doubt, devastated at the discovery that their son could not see. But when we meet him he has grown up to be a man . Who knows how many years have gone by – twenty, thirty, maybe more – and for all that time the man has suffered, reduced to a lifetime of begging in order to stay alive.
The disciples, like, no doubt, so many others, find themselves wondering why the man had suffered in the way he had? And so they ask Jesus,
‘Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’.
But Jesus answers them by saying,
‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’.
And so we see that the man was born blind for a God ordained reason, one that, for decades would have been unknown to neither the man himself and his parents, nor indeed anyone else.
In seeking an explanation for the man’s blindness, they asked their question ‘Why?’, expecting an answer regarding what caused it. But Jesus answers their question of ‘Why’ in terms of what was God’s purpose. And the reason he gave for that was so that the works of God might be displayed.
It should, therefore. be of no suprise to us that God’s purpose in bringing about certain events in this world are, for the time being at least, similarly beyond our understanding. Maybe we will not see the reasons for them in our lifetime, indeed the reasons may never be ours to know. But though the sadness remains, we can, by faith, have confidence that God was and is in control of them. He does have a purpose.
But is God loving? He may be in control, but can he really love us if he allows us to suffer so? This is something that is also addressed John’s Gospel
‘Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.’ [John 11;1-6]
Lazarus was ill. And his sisters call for Jesus to come in the hope that he will heal Lazarus. But Jesus doesn’t respond in the way that they want and Lazarus subsequently dies. But notice versus 5 and 6 where we read
‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.’ [John 11;1-6]
Jesus loved these people. And yet the passage tells us that Jesus delays his departure. Indeed, verse 6 begins with the word ‘So’. It is precisely because Jesus loves Mary, Martha and Lazarus that he delays his visit and allows Lazarus to die. There is the. a higher, better, more loving purpose underlying Jesus’ actions – Lazarus’ suffering is for the glory of God too, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Sometimes when bad things happen, we will have been calling on God to prevent that thing from taking place. Perhaps we will have been praying for someone’s healing, for war to come to an end or someone’s life circumstances to dramatically change. But for reasons that we currently can’t comprehend, rather than answering our petitions in the way we would like, God choses to act differently to how we would have chosen. Even so, though our sorrow remains, we can, by faith, know that his actions are still loving. Jesus loved – and continues to love – those that suffer..
And we can find comfort in the rest of John chapter 11 too. In verse 35 we find Jesus himself weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. He is deeply distressed by the death of his friend – and that anguish is no less real for knowing that he will soon raise Lazarus from the dead.
Similarly. I believe Jesus is with those who are sad today. He too weeps with those who weep.
Even so. We can be sure that he won’t leave them to grieve forever.
Because Jesus, who declared himself to be the resurrection and the life, later raised Lazarus from the dead. And so, though we will sometimes have cause to mourn, we do not need to mourn as those who have no hope. For we believe in a God who saves, a God who redeems, a God who raises the dead.
Our salvation does not depend on how happy we are in this life. Our salvation depends on the grace of the God in whom we have faith, regardless of how weak that faith might sometimes be. We are not saved by virtue of how meritorious our life has been, but on account of the life of Jesus whose death on the cross paid for all our sins – those we have committed and those we are yet to commit,. We are saved by Jesus’ sinless life, his perfect righteousness being credited to us and making us acceptable to God.
We are saved by grace alone – a grace that, unlike our sometimes wavering faith, will never falter.
‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. Great is [his] faithfulness’ [Lamentations 3:22]
That is the gospel, the good news, the hope to which we cling.
God has made promises – promises he cannot fail to keep. We often find that what we experience now and what we hope for in the future stand in contradiction to each other. Our hope though is directed at what is not yet visible, and it is our faith in God’s promises that assures us that what he promises we will surely one day experience. God’s promises do not always throw light on the reality that exists today, mystery often remains, but they do illuminate the reality that will one day be.
So let’s remind ourselves again of some of those promises. Though the grief remains, there is a day coming when the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise. [1 Thessalonians 4:16]
There is a day coming when what is sown perishable, will be raised imperishable; what is sown in dishonour, will be raised in glory and what is sown in weakness will be raised in power [1 Corinthians 15:42-43].
And there is a day coming when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away [Revelation 21:4].
What then shall we say when disaster strikes?
Is God in control? – Yes, the sadness remains, but God is in control. Is God loving? – Yes, the sorrow remains, but God is loving. Is there still hope? – Yes, the grief still remains, but there is still hope.
God remains worthy of our worship. Retuning to John 9 we read how, having said that the beggar was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed, Jesus restores his sight. And in so doing he declares himself to be God.
As he does so. Jesus makes use of some mud – mud that he himself had made which provoked controversy with the Pharisees who considered such an action unlawful on the Sabbath.
They didn’t understand that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. They didn’t understand that, because man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man, in order that man might rest and be restored, it was wholly appropriate for God to heal on that day.
Having anointed the mans eyes with the mud, Jesus instructed him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam which, we are told, means ‘Sent’. And there his sight was restored.
Interestingly, Jesus had just told the man that he, Jesus, has been ‘sent’ by God. Jesus, therefore, is giving us a picture – because going to the pool that is called ‘Sent’ is analogous to going to Jesus – the one who was ‘sent’ by God.
Jesus is, therefore, the place where spiritual sight is restored. And it is the restoration of spiritual sight that we then see, through a series of conversations that the beggar has, first with the Pharisees and then, finally with Jesus.
In verse 11, the beggar describes Jesus as a man, in verse 17, he describes him as a prophet, in verse 33 he acknowledges that Jesus is from God and finally, in verse 38, as well as calling him Lord, the man is seen worshiping Jesus.
First the beggar had his physical sight restored and then, a greater miracle takes place – he has his spiritual sight restored enabling him to see Jesus for who he really was.
It is no different for us. If we are to see who Jesus is, then we need to be the recipients of God’s grace. We need to have had our eyes miraculously opened as a result of the gracious act of a sovereign Lord.
An act that, as it did for the beggar, may involve years of suffering along the way – suffering which, if we do experience it, we can be sure it will have been both worth it and purposely ordained for our good by our loving Heavenly Father.
In order to be able to see, we need the Light of the World to shine in our lives. Praise God that when it does, we can see Him on even the darkest day.
And like the beggar in John 9, offer him our worship too.
Recently I have been reading through John’s Gospel and last week I came to chapter 16, and those verses where Jesus says to his disciples,
‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’.
As if often the case with the disciples, they are confused by Jesus’ words and so he expands on what he had said by adding,
‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.’
And it got me thinking as to what Jesus would want us to understand from what he said.
Jesus said these things the day before he knew he would be crucified. And so it seems pretty clear that he was referring to the sorrow his followers would feel following his death – a sorrow, he claimed, that would last only as long as the three days it would take for him to be raised back to life.
But I can’t help thinking that there is more to what Jesus was saying because, where there is a short term fulfilment to biblical prophecies, there is very often another, longer term, fulfilment too.
In which case, just as they would have been to the disciples, Jesus’ words can be a comfort to believers who hear them today – two thousand years after they were first spoken. Because, just as the disciples were sad after Jesus’ death, and subsequently rejoiced when Jesus returned from the dead, so we who currently experience sadness can also look forward to the day when we will see Jesus and our sorrow will be turned to joy when he returns to earth at his second coming.
‘But hold on a minute,’ you might saying to yourself, ‘when Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he said it would be ‘just a little while’ before they would see him again. How can his words ‘in just a little while’ have a long term fulfilment when 2000 years have already past since he first said them?
Well firstly remember this – ‘that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ [2 Peter 3:8]
And secondly let me refer you to King David – the author of Psalm 37 – somebody else who might also perhaps, consider two millennia to be synonymous with ‘just a little while’.
I love the honesty of the psalms, I love the way they reflect the reality of how we sometimes feel, the reality of what we sometimes see around us, especially when what we feel and see around us, is not what we would want to.
Sometimes the wicked do prosper, and sometimes the righteous are oppressed and sometimes, when evil seems to have the upper hand, our sorrow is intense. If you don’t believe me, ask the people of Ukraine and those currently suffering so horribly in the Middle East.
But, says King David, all that is wrong in the world will one day come to an end – the current unsatisfactory state of affairs is but a temporary one.
And not only is it temporary, the pain and sadness associated with it will be short lived too – for, as he says in Psalm 37:10, ‘in just a little while’ order will be restored.
Soon the wicked will be no more, the meek will inherit the land and, as Revelation 21:4 later goes on to assure us, one day all our tears will be wiped away and death shall be no more.
Because in just a little while the former things will pass away.
But there will be those who might understandably say that they have already suffered for a long time. Their pain has not, as the apostle Paul describes it, been ‘light and momentary’, – rather it has been intense and prolonged. How then can David speak of all being well in just a little while, when some have had to endure hardship for decades?
Well in just the same way that Jesus can. By stepping back and considering the future – and by recognising that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will one day be revealed’. [Romans 8:18]
Make no mistake, the current pain is real. Jesus likens it to that of childbirth, pointing out how the mother’s genuine anguish turns to joy with the arrival of her child. John Piper gives a powerful illustration when he asks us to imagine walking through a hospital ward and hearing someone screaming in pain. How we feel about what we are hearing depends, he says, on whether we’re on an oncology ward or a labour ward.
In referring to the pain of childbirth, Jesus is saying that the arrival of new life is a picture of our own future glory, one that, we mustn’t forget, will last for all eternity.
Furthermore, just as our future glory is immeasurably greater than our current suffering, and our future joy immeasurably greater than our current sadness, so too will our eternity be immeasurably longer than the time we now spend in this vale of tears.
So yes, weeping may tarry for the night time – but joy will come with the morning. [Psalm 30:5].
In just a little while, the sun will rise.
‘So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’.
Which means that our suffering isn’t meaningless – it has a purpose, it’s doing something…
‘as we look, not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’ [2 Corinthians 4:16-18]
Jesus himself said, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ [Revelation 22:20] and when he returns we will see what currently we can’t
And whether that be in our life time or not until long after we have died, what we will finally see on that great and glorious day will be infinitely worth our current ‘momentary’ wait.
For the ‘little while’ we have waited will not be worth comparing with the time we have to enjoy being at home at last in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father.
Sometimes it’s a time to weep and sometimes it’s a time to laugh – sometimes it’s time to mourn and sometimes a time to dance. None of us live lives that are devoid of tears, and few of us, even in the darkest of times, are unable to find something to make us smile.
And sometimes we can be both happy and sad at the same time. We don’t have to wait until there’s nothing that makes us sad before we allow ourselves to be happy, any more than we need think we shouldn’t be sad, just because there are some things that make us smile.
So at the end of another cricket season which, because of what might have been, has, on occasions, been disappointing, here are some things that I’ve enjoyed. Because for every dropped catch there’s been a sharp run out, for every early dismissal, there’s been a spirited rearguard action.
Because whilst there are those who, on account of Somerset not having any silverware to show for their endeavours, say that this season has been a failure, there has, nonetheless, plenty that has shone brightly these last six months.
1. Craig Overton clean bowling the Nottinghamshire opener, Haseed Hameed, in the opening over of the season.
2. Tom Banton, Tom Banton and Tom Banton – somebody who has excelled this year – with a white ball, with a red ball, and with his recently acquired set of crutches. Watching him make his way to the middle to celebrate with the rest of the team after that win over Surrey, left me wondering if he needed Tom Lammonby as a runner! And seeing him hugging Craig Overton almost moved me to happy tears!
3. Archie Vaughan. Who knows if one day Michael Vaughan will be known as Archie Vaughan’s Dad, but the eighteen year old has already moved out form under his father’s shadow. We’re told he’s a better batsmen than he is a bowler, and given his maturity in a number of innings this year that may well be the case. Even so he has particularly impressed with the ball this year and I was privileged to see him take his maiden first class wicket when he trapped Durham’s Ben McKinney from the last ball of his first over in championship cricket.
4. Sean Dickson and James Rew – for that fantastic partnership in the T20 semi-final taking us from 7-3 to by which time the game was all but won. Securing that second win over Surrey in two days was perhaps the high point of the season, after which things may have dipped a little – but what a high point it was!
5. Runners up in both the T20 and 50 over competition – the latter achieved without our bigs names present. A fantastic achievement in anyone books. And with it seeming likely at the time of writing, that they’ll finish third in the county championship, it surely means that, despite not actually winning anything, Somerset can still be said to have had the best all round season of any county side this year.
6. The small things that are actually the big things. I’m thinking here particularly of the club’s support of Jacob Lunn, when he was treated so cruelly on the social media platform formally known as ‘Twitter’, and the presentation to Mary Elworthy-Coggan, for her many years of fundraising for the club and other worthy causes.
7. TKC’s interview after the T20 final where, rather than making excuses for the teams defeat, he sportingly acknowledged Gloucestershire as the better team and congratulated them as worthy winners of the competition
8. Tom Lammonby’s oh so welcome return to form. It’s been a pleasure seeing him bat this season at number 3 – even if he has, rather to often, had to walk out to the crease sooner than he or we would have liked.
9. Lewis Gregory’s captaincy. I don’t know much about cricket, but I’m pretty sure that Louie G knows plenty. And, given he always seems to be smiling, it seems to me he knows how to enjoy the game too whether the teams under pressure or cursing to victory, whether, as today, he’s hitting a straight six into the Marcus Trescothick stand on his way to a belligerent 57 or, having reduced the opposition to 2-2 off 2 balls, seeing James Vince, on his hatrick delivery, dropped dropped in the slips. He’s had a terrific first season as Somerset’s red ball skipper.
10. Making several new friends as I’ve chatted with fellow supporters and discovered, on a number of occasions, that we have more in common than just our love for Somerset.
11. The support shown on the Somerset Facebook Page. Yes there are those who only seem able to criticise, but such comments always fail to attract much support, unlike those that seek to get behind the team even after the more disappointing performances.
12. That epic game against Surrey – one that some are describing as one of the greatest of all time. Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words!
13. Other fantastic games – remember that victory over Essex inside two days, and the partnership of 134 between Matt Renshaw, and Andy Umeed to beat Kent in May – a match that saw both James Rew and Tom Banton, two of the country’s finest wicket-keeper/batsmen, score brisk centuries in a fifth wicket partnership worth more than 200 runs.
14. Whoever it was who, at the one day game against Lancashire, played ‘Crashed The Wedding’ as the most hirsute bride I ever saw was wrestled to the ground by security – the choice of being song infinitely more amusing than the stunt that inspired it.
15. The return of Jack Leach – and in T20 cricket too! It’s always a particularly warm round of applause that greats the announcement that the new bowler from the River end is the one sponsored by Joseph Casson Estate Agents. But these days it’s not just with his bowling that the slow left armer impresses – as, these days, he’s more than handy with a bat, as was shown to be the case today as he made a useful 33 not out.
16. The Second XI – winners of their T20 competition and the home of many who, if they haven’t done so already, will no doubt take their place in the first. The future really is bright with likes of Alfie Ogborne, Ned Leonard and a certain James Rew’s younger brother – because you can never have too many Toms in a Somerset team!
17. Sophie Luff being the first player to be given a professional contract with Somerset’s new women’s team – no doubt she’ll be as brilliant as she is as part of the excellent commentary team on the Somerset Livestream.
18. Learning that the news of Brian’s demise had been greatly exaggerated!
Somerset may not have won any honours this season, but it has been an honour to sit and watch them play. Thank you to the players, the coaching staff, and all the many, many others who together have once again afforded us such wonderful entertainment. It has been a joy.
Winter well everyone – until we do it all again next season!
In the preface to his book critiquing the effect of television on our culture, Neil Postman compares the concerns of George Orwell in ‘1984’ with those of Aldous Huxley in ‘Brave New World’. He writes:
‘What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture’
What is particularly astonishing is the fact that Postman’s book was written in 1985, long before the exponential rise in the number of TV channels and the dawn of Facebook and Twitter which together have only served to confirm Postman’s view that Huxley, not Orwell, was right. It is not religion, as Marx asserted in 1843, that has become the opium of the masses but rather it is entertainment that numbs us to what is real and valuable. It was for good reason that Postman’s book was entitled, ‘Amusing ourselves to Death’.
Because the truth is that, whilst we will all die as a consequence of our sin, the world seeks to distract us from that fact by filling our minds with things of negligible value compared to the infinite worth of a God who can save us from the very thing we long to forget.
Today, a week does not go by without some new ‘must see’ televisual feast being presented before us to distract and lift us from our otherwise supposedly tedious lives. Now there is nothing inherently wrong about watching the endeavours of a dozen amateur cooks but does ‘The Great British Bake Off’ really warrant the attention it generates in our newspapers each year when another new series begins. Thoroughly enjoyable though it is, our lives would not be so very diminished if we were never to see another disappointing signature bake, another plucky attempt at a technical challenge, or another triumphant showstopper.
To be entertained is in danger of becoming our ‘raison d’ete‘. But to simply be amused, a word, incidentally, that means to be devoid of thought, must not become the goal of our existence. Because, despite there being a God, one we were created to delight in, the world, doubting his presence, insists that we look elsewhere for our satisfaction.
Increasingly sportsmen have become those we should all aspire to be like. And when sport and television combine, as they did, for example, during the Olympics, we are all too easily persuaded that there is nothing more important than how fast someone can pedal a pushbike, nothing more amazing than someone doing a head over heels, and nothing more thrilling than someone jumping into a pool of water. Now don’t get me wrong, though not as much as a day at the cricket, I enjoyed watching the Olympics this year as much as the next person – but we simply mustn’t buy into the assertion that it has any ultimate importance.
What we glory in reflects what we consider most important. And so we must all ask ourselves what, or who, it is that we glory in – what, or who, it is that absorbs our attention. Because if, as I believe, it is God who is of ultimate importance, then we ought to fix our eyes on Jesus, and not the latest comings and goings on Strictly Come Dancing.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 reads:
‘Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’
To ‘boast’ here does not mean to brag – it is not that we should brag about the fact we know something about God. On the contrary, if we know anything about God at all, it is down to his graciousness in revealing himself to us. In this context, to boast means ‘to value’, ‘to consider important’, ‘to take delight in’. Here, then, is a warning to us as to what we should glory in.
Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.
We could go on.
Let not the tennis player boast in the accuracy of their serve, Let not the gymnast boast in their agility Let not the sprinter boast in their speed.
And less you consider that none of this refers to us, or perhaps that I am jealous of those more athletic than me, let’s bring it a little closer to home.
Let not the clinician boast in their clinical acumen Let not the craftsmen boast in the work of their hands Let not the welfare advisor boast in the sensitivity of their counsel.
And let not the Christian boast in the success of their ministry,
No, let him who boasts, boast in this. Let him who values anything, value this, delight in this, consider this important:
That he understands and knows God, that he understands and knows that He is the LORD, who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, and that in these things He delights.
We are to value the fact that we know God and delight in those aspects of his character that He himself delights in. To know God is the real meaning of our lives, the true purpose of our existence. And praise God that it is so – because only knowing God can satisfy the longings of our hearts.
The sporting endeavours of ourselves or others will not satisfy our souls The lightness of any Victoria Sponge ever baked will not satisfy our souls. Even the joys we may experience at work or home will never ultimately satisfy our souls.
But knowing God will.
Augustine of Hippo wrote in his Confessions;
‘Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee’
Augustine was right. This is no great surprise since his words were simply echoing those of Jesus who said in John 17:3
‘…this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’
To know God then is to live – to truly exist – to have eternal life. It is the whole point of our existence. What a privilege it is, therefore, to have been brought into the family of the triune God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What an honour it is to be called by our Heavenly Father, the sovereign creator and sustainer of the universe. And what a joy it is to have his Spirit with us, speaking to us through his word.
Oh that we might have ears to hear from Him, that we might know him better.
These days we are constantly hearing stories on the news that we would rather not have to be told. But even as we do so, let’s not forget to spend longer attending to God’s story, the one that is far bigger news than anything we’ll ever hear reported on the BBC. And let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted from all the bad news by the ‘bread and circuses’ that are continually being offered to us, but which never succeed in satisfying us at the deepest level of our souls. And rather than amusing ourselves to death with yet another boxset on Netflix, one more hour of watching random videos on YouTube, or filling one’s time by constantly scrolling through Facebook, let’s do as we ought, and seek instead to find contentment in the God who is there. Let’s not doubt his presence or his ability, not only to provide and protect us, but to truly satisfy us too.
For ‘some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.’ [Psalm 20:7]. ‘[He] make[s] known to [us] the path of life; in [his] presence there is fullness of joy; at [his] right hand are pleasures forevermore’ [Psalm 16:11]. Therefore, let us fix, or even feast, our eyes on Jesus, ‘the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross’ [Hebrews 12:2]. For he is ‘the image of the invisible God’ [Colossians 1:15]. In seeing and knowing Jesus we see and know the Father, and to know God, as already mentioned, is to experience eternal life [John 17:3].
It is not in ourselves, therefore, that we should boast, but rather we should boast in Jesus Christ, in his character and what he achieved on the cross. ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ [James 4:6]. May it be, therefore, ‘far from [us] to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to [us], and [we] to the world’ [Galatians 6:14].
Because to know God really is enough. His grace is sufficient for us [2 Corinthians 12:9] and ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’. [1 Timothy 6:6].
So then, even in these days of great difficulty, may we grow in godliness. And, as we do, may we all know contentment, may we all know great gain, and may we all know his amazing grace.
Related posts:
To read ‘Still weeping with those who weep’, click here
In his short book entitled, ‘The Abolition of Man’, C.S. Lewis had some interesting things to say about how the focus of what science seeks to do has changed over time.
Whereas scientists once sought knowledge in order to understand how humankind conformed to reality, Lewis suggested that, for science, the problem had become ‘how to subdue reality to the wishes of men’. Furthermore, he contended, there were great dangers inherent in such an ambition.
Lewis believed that it would be those with power who would impose their wishes on the weak, and maintained that any attempt to subdue reality to the wishes of the powerful would require nature to be conquered in order that it conformed to their desires. That, he said, would require a reducing of all of nature to nothing but it’s component parts, denying anything beyond the merely physical, and quantifying everything only in terms of what could be measured.
Lewis concluded that, since humanity is itself a part of nature, this diminishing of the whole would ultimately diminish humanity itself, and bring about what he called the ‘abolition of man’.
And so I find myself asking if Lewis has anything to say to us regarding what we now see happening in the world of cricket.
Because if Lewis is right, and rather than contentedly taking their place in their world of cricket in order to simply enjoy it for the marvellous game that it is, there are those who now seek to subdue the sport for the benefit of a select few, we might reasonably expect there to be dangers as a result of their ambitions too.
We might, for example, see the powerful imposing their wishes on the week. We might see them losing sight of the rich complexity of the game as they reduce the game to its component parts, dumbing it down and denying its beauty whilst recognising only what they themselves want to measure – namely who won, and how much money was made.
Such a state of affairs would indeed diminish, not only those who play cricket, but also the game of cricket itself.
Because, what is all too obvious for those who have eyes to see, is that cricket is about so much more than who won what when. And as anybody who has watched the excellent TV series, ‘Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams’, it’s about so much more than merely making money.
From time to time, it is, of course, nice to win. But just as a life of perpetual ease isn’t good for us, making us lazy and self satisfied whilst denying us the opportunity to suffer and so develop endurance, character and hope, winning all the time isn’t good for us either. As well as making us arrogant and proud, it denies us the benefits of defeat.
Life is stressful enough with all its constant demands on us to always have to succeed. We need cricket to be different – a place where the weak are as welcome as the strong, where hard fought defeat is applauded as warmly as exhilarating victory, and good old fashioned sportsmanship is valued above all else. These things, and not financial gain, should be our bottom line.
So I think Lewis was right when he wrote what he did back in 1943. More right, perhaps, than even he envisaged as, eighty years on, the relentless pursuit of the tangible, threatens to end with our wonderfully, ineffable game, slipping slowly through our fingers.
And what a travesty that would be – to witness the abolition of county cricket.
Other cricket blogs, with an inevitable bias towards Somerset. Those towards the top of the list particularly relate to the threat to county cricket.
To read ‘Is Cricket Amusing Itself to Death’, click here
To read ‘A Cricketing Christmas Carol’, click here
To read ‘Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Deseted Cricket Ground’, click here
Some while ago, I went to see Renée Zellweger in ‘Judy’. It’s a remarkable performance in a film that portrays Judy Garland during the visit she made to England in 1969. This was towards the end of her short life which ended, tragically early, as a result of her taking an accidental barbiturate overdose when she was just 47 years old. It reveals the effect on her of having been driven to succeed for the benefit of others, compelled to be what she may not have chosen for herself, and controlled by some to such an extent that they even decided for her when she was allowed to eat and sleep.
The mental breakdown that followed was surely inevitable. At one point she was asked whether she had ever taken anything for her ‘depression’. She replies ‘Four husbands – it didn’t work’. It’s not all she took – alcohol and a combination of the uppers and downers she was first plied with as a child fared no better in relieving her unhappiness. Paradoxically perhaps, the only place she seemed to be happy, was the place where her success had taken her, on stage, in front of the audiences that loved her.
But such happiness was only ever short lived. After the success of her opening night’s performance at London’s ‘The Talk of the Town’, Rosalyn Wilder, her personal assistant at the time, congratulated her and tried to reassure her that she was going to be alright. Garland replied, ‘But what if I can’t do it again?’ In a life where she had been shown little love, she needed the love of her audience, but knew that this was always dependent on her constantly delivering what those who came to see her wanted.
She was right to be anxious. One night, arriving on stage late and the worse for too much alcohol, the crowd turned hostile and pelted her with bread rolls. Their love was not the unconditional love that she yearned for and needed.
The unconditional love that we all yearn for and need.
There were, however, those who did seem to truly care about her. A couple of ordinary fans might seem an unlikely pair for an international star to have been drawn to, but her fondness for them becomes wholly understandable when it is seen how their genuine affection for her allowed her to be her true self. Interestingly, it was only when she broke down on stage, revealing that true self and exposing how she was really feeling, that real compassion flowed to her from her audience. Only then, as the star became an individual, did the barrier between her and her audience finally come down.
I’m not sure that Judy Garland really knew how she ended up where she did, or that where she ended up was where she ever really wanted to be. So manipulated was she, by the world she found herself in as a child, that, once she had entered it, she ceased to be who she really was.
But it’s not just Judy Garland who has felt this way.
There are those I am aware of who, having boarded the conveyer belt of medical training at an impressionable age, have felt similarly. For much of their lives, they too have felt controlled by the system in which they work, even to the extent of being dictated to by the demands of their job as to when they can eat and sleep. Whilst many have survived this ordeal, and have found satisfaction and happiness in medicine, too many have not and, to their detriment, have been left to struggle on, disillusioned and unhappy.
And what is true for some medics is, of course, true for some working in other jobs too.
And so I wonder how we cope with not being the person others demand that we are? More importantly perhaps, how do we cope with not being the person we demand that we are ourselves? Not being able to be the person we long to be, how many of us, like Judy Garland, find ourselves asking, ‘Why, O why can’t I?’.
The answer may reveal why we respond to complaints, irrespective of how trivial such criticism might be. Might our self esteem be so easily shattered because it has become far too fragile, far too dependent, as a result of a lifetime of having to please others, a lifetime of having to please everyone?
Likewise, might not the anxiety we feel as our next appraisal approaches, result from our having constantly been driven to perform at ever greater levels? Because the need for us to each year show improvement comes with the inherent implication that last year we still weren’t good enough. We must, we are constantly told, do better.
And so we strive ever harder to satisfy those who demand more from us – driving ourselves on in the vain hope that, if we could only be the better people we are told we ought to be, all would be well.
‘The Edge’ is a film that chronicles the England cricket team’s climb to the top of the world Test rankings. What becomes apparent as one watches it, is not only how hollow the team’s success felt to many members of the squad when it was eventually achieved, but also how costly it was, in terms of the adverse effect on the mental health of a number of the players, when winning became mandatory.
We live in a world which encourages us to follow our heart and promises us that, if we want them to enough, our dreams will come true. This is a dangerous philosophy to follow since it is simply not the case. We need to wake up to the fact that our dreams will not necessarily come true and that, as for Judy Garland and a number of the England cricket team, too often those dreams become a nightmare.
The emotional well-being of medical professionals is no more important than that of their patients, but neither is it any less. Because everyone’s mental health is important. And just as none of us will be helped by being burdened with the unrealistic goal of being responsible for our dreams coming true, neither will we be helped by ever increasing demands being put upon us to be perfect.
We all need to look after each other better.
An insistence that we should merely increase our resilience to cope with what is unreasonably asked of us is tantamount to being told to ‘come on and just get happy’. The justification for this, that ‘when we’re smiling, the whole world smiles with us’ may well be true, but thinking like this results in too many of us putting up with a situation we long to escape, imprisoned by a desire to be needed and seen to succeed, whilst having to resort to medicating ourselves just so as to get ourselves through the day. And when that fails, too many of us are left crying and, what’s more, crying alone.
None of us are unaffected by our past. Many struggle as a consequence of hugely adverse circumstances in their childhood and subsequent lives. Some do not understand how they got themselves into the situation that they now find themselves and look to medicine for help to escape. Some in medicine are no different. They too need to be able to drop the facade of their professional image and be honest about who they are so that they too can receive the same compassion and understanding as their patients.
And all of us need to be shown a little kindness, a little understanding, a little grace – grace that accepts the limitations that we all need to be honest enough to acknowledge that we have, grace that does not demand from us now what we can never hope to give, and grace that frees us to grow into the people we were truly meant to become.
But does such a gracious world exist? Or is it, like the elusive pot of gold that is always just out of reach, only to be found somewhere over the rainbow?
Let’s hope not.
Two further posts which to my mind form a trilogy on the subject of burn out follow.
For some related thoughts on the film ‘Joker’, click here.
For some thoughts on when responsibility for poor outcomes lies with us, click here.
Other related posts:
To read ‘Professor Ian Aird – a time to die?’, click here
It emerged today that the ECB is secretly plotting to foil Somerset’s ambitions to win this year’s county championship. In a move that many consider consistent with the governing body’s long held desire to rid the country of the hugely popular West Country club, two shady characters, licensed to use ‘unnecessary violence’, were seen loitering outside the headquarters of the England selectors in the hope of intimidating those who were gathering there to decide who would play in the final test of the summer.
Their appearance coincides with allegations that have been made regarding a plan that is said to be afoot whereby Jack Leach’s recent 7-50 will be cynically exploited so as to have him selected, alongside teammate Shoaib Bashir, for England’s encounter with Sri Lanka scheduled to start this coming Friday. Such a move would see the pair unavailable for Somerset’s next match – a potentially championship deciding game against Surrey – and thereby hinder the team’s rejuvenated title ambitions.
Challenged to respond to claims that they had ordered groundsmen at the Kia Oval to prepare a spinning wicket ‘like Ciderabad, only more so’, a spokesman for the ECB declined to comment, saying only that ‘If it wasn’t for you meddling peasants, we would have got away with it’
Ahead of getting the team back together, Andy Hurry, Somerset’s Director of Cricket, was asked for his reaction. He appeared in confident mood. ‘We’re a hundred and thirty nine miles from Kennington, we’ve a squad full of players, and we’ve all been executing our skills’, he said’ ‘More than that, we’ve all wearing replicas of Tom Banton’s sunglasses. It’s only a matter of time before the mission these guys are on is accomplished!’
Other cricket blogs, with an inevitable bias towards Somerset.
Recently I have been watching the BBC TV Series ‘Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams’, as a result of which, I have nothing but admiration for the former cricketing all-rounder Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff. Because, as well as being heartening to observe, his fatherly concern has been nothing short of life changing for some whose lives, prior to meeting him, had been taking something of a downward turn.
If you haven’t seen the programme, I would strongly encourage you to give it a try. I really can’t recommend it highly enough. And don’t be put off if cricket isn’t something that interests you – because it didn’t interest the vast majority of those featured either, most of whom, despite Flintoff being one of the game’s greatest ever players, had never heard of the man who was the key member of England’s Ashes winning team of 2005.
Because ultimately, the program is not really about cricket – rather it’s about a group of young people who, because of their difficult backgrounds, never had the opportunity to play cricket in the way that Flintoff had when he too was growing up in Preston. Recognising how much he owes the game, Flintoff wants the youngsters to have the same opportunities he enjoyed, in the hope that they too would benefit as a result.
As the second series draws to a close, it’s apparent that for some the experience really has been transformative. Irrespective of whether their cricketing skills have improved, many have found a new purpose to their lives simply as a result of being appreciated as a valued member of a team One who was once unemployed and homeless, has made new friends and found work, another with poor mental health has seen improvement in his emotional well-being, and one asylum seeker from Afghanistan is now training with Lancashire and hopes to one day make it as a professional cricketer. And then there’s Flintoff himself who, struggling with anxiety after the near fatal car crash he had whilst filming an episode of ‘Top Gear,’ finds that he himself is benefitting from the support of those he is supporting.
It’s genuinely heartwarming stuff. Perhaps I’m just a sentimental old fool, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I have been unable to stop myself from crying in each and every episode that I’ve watched thus far. It’s been lovely to see the lads change as they each have become, if not perfect, unquestionably better versions of themselves.
But as well as moving me to tears, the programme has also made me think. Specifically, regarding the claims of some who point to the changed lives of those who become Christians as evidence for the truth of the gospel. Because, if it is transformed lives that prove that Christianity is true, in what way is Jesus different from Freddie Flintoff, a man who is clearly transforming lives too.
For me this is an important question. And all the more so because it’s not just cricket that has the power to change a person’s life in the way that has been demonstrated by this excellent TV documentary. I remember reading of a former drug addict who saw his life similarly turned around after he discovered the joys of gourmet cuisine and subsequently set out to become a professional chef.
So, whilst it is certainly true that Christianity can bring about positive change into an individual’s life, it is not unique in being able to do so. As such, improved circumstances in the lives of those who become Christians do not prove the truth of Christianity any more than the improved circumstances that are enjoyed by adherents of other religions, prove the truth of their own belief systems.
Furthermore, if we think God’s goodness is measured by the degree to which our life, in human terms, seems to be going well, not only will we be guilty of mistakenly believing a health, wealth and prosperity gospel, we will also reveal ourselves to be what Martin Luther called ‘theologians of glory’ – by which he meant those who imagine that God necessary wants for them, what they want for themselves. This is in contrast to those whom Luther called ‘theologians of the cross’, those who accept that God is who he reveals himself to be, that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and that he therefore sometimes acts in ways that are very different to how we would naturally like him to.
After all, who of us would have brought salvation through the apparent foolishness of a saviour who dies on a cross. And yet, this is what God did. And if He has worked through suffering before, we must surely be open to the possibility that He might still work through suffering today.
Far then from guaranteeing that those who come to faith in Christ will see their lives necessarily getting better, the truth is that for some new Christians, their immediate circumstances remain stubbornly unchanged. Take, for example, the penitent second thief who was crucified alongside Jesus. Having asked to be remembered by Jesus, rather than subsequently escaping death, he continued to hang on a cross and, within a few short hours, suffered the same painful death that he would have, had he remained an unbeliever.
What’s more, many who become Christians find that life becomes distinctly more difficult as a result – be that as a consequence of being ostracised by their local community, discriminated against in the workplace, or suffering the far more severe persecution that leads some to flee their homes for fear of being put to death. The Bible is full of examples of those whose suffering increased as a result of their Christian faith, and Paul even goes so far as to say that, if what they believe isn’t true, Christians are to be pitied more than anyone, such is the extent of the suffering that they can subsequently expect. [1 Corinthians 15:19] And Paul’s words are born out by the fact that all but one of the disciples were eventually martyred for what that believed – the only exception fairing only slightly better by ending his days in exile on the island of Patmos.
So, if becoming a Christian doesn’t guarantee that we will all enjoy a trouble free existence, might we expect our lives to be transformed in some other way instead? Well, the answer to that question is undoubtedly ‘Yes’ – for Christians should expect to be transformed such that they gradually all become a little more like Christ.
Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t me saying that Christians are nicer people than non-Christians. Not at all. I claim only that that Christians should be becoming nicer people than they themselves would otherwise have been.
Regrettably in me, that anticipated change has not been as great as I would have liked. Not only has it been all too slow, it has also been all too slight. But my hope nonetheless remains – that the transformation that so far has only just begun, will one day come to completion – not because of any ability of my own to bring about such change, but because God has promised that he will do all that is necessary to complete what he has already started. As such, I fully expect that one day, when, and only when, Christ returns and I see him face to face, I will be made fully like him. [Philippians 1:6, 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 John 3:2]
In the meantime though, any transformation of our character may be brought about through the suffering that is sometimes brought into our lives by the God who only has our best interests at heart. That’s why, in our better moments at least, it is possible for us ‘to rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.’ [Romans 5:3-4]
People sometimes ask the question, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people.’ But whilst it is not for us to fully know the answer, it seems to that to me that, at least part of the reason, is so that good things can happen to bad people. For isn’t that why the worst possible thing happened to the best possible person? Isn’t that why Jesus was crucified – so that the best things, things like eternal life and our adoption into God’s family, can happen to people like us?
But whilst our being transformed into the likeness of Jesus is a distinctly Christian idea, that life circumstances can also have a positive impact on non-Christians too is not disputed. On the contrary, this is something that is wonderfully apparent in the TV series as many of the lads who make up Flintoff’s embryonic cricket team are seen becoming gradually less selfish and more respectful of others.
And whilst for the Christian, called as they are to lay down their lives for the sake of their enemies, the magnitude of the desired change may ultimately be greater, it remains the case that non-Christians are capable of great acts of self-sacrifice too. The Bible itself recognises that, though Christ was unique in being willing to die for bad people, there are nonetheless those who are prepared to lovingly lay down their lives for the sake of others. [Romans 5:6-7]
So, having acknowledged that Christians aren’t guaranteed a transformed life that is necessarily more comfortable than the one that they previously experienced, and that the transformed character expected of true Christians may be both less dramatic than the one hoped for and equalled by the personal development seen in non-Christians, is there yet another transformation possible – one that is truly unique to the Christian believer?
I believe there is. Because in becoming a Christian, the believer’s standing before a holy God has been dramatically changed. Because whilst they had once been far off, they have, ‘by the blood of Christ’ been brought near to God. So near in fact, that they are said now to be ‘in Christ’. [Ephesians 2:13]
A Christian then is one who is safe ‘in Christ’, one who, solely because of God’s grace, is viewed in the same way that God has always viewed Jesus. That is to say, he or she is counted both completely sinless and perfectly righteous. For just as ‘in Christ’ we died, so too, ‘in Christ,’ we have been raised. Clothed in his righteousness and with our sin now completely washed away, ‘there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ [Romans 8:1]
This momentous transformation is one that only Jesus can bring about. And it really is the change that matters most – for it is the change that guarantees all the future changes that we long to see, both in ourselves and the world around us.
None of which is meant to suggest that what Andrew Flintoff is doing isn’t hugely valuable. Far from it, what Freddie is up to is of immense worth. My point here is that Christianity is valuable too, supremely valuable – but not just as yet another self help programme. Because, far from being a system of ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’, designed to make one feel better about oneself whilst delivering one’s ’best life now’, Christianity is, at heart, the good news of what God has already done, in Christ, to guarantee the eternal future for a world where every tear will be wiped away and death will be no more. For along with the forgiveness we all so desperately need, this is what God secured at the cross – to the everlasting praise of his name, and the never ending joy of his people.
Because, whether our life is currently characterised by health, wealth and prosperity or filled with sickness, poverty and failure, whether we have seen some slight improvement in our behaviour, or are conscious only of how much more we still need to improve, the fact remains the same – that positioned ‘in Christ’, we are assured that, when we die, we will, like the penitent thief, be with Jesus in paradise.
It is then our ultimate future that has been ultimately transformed. And when our time comes and that is fully realised, whether we’ve enjoyed a good innings, or been given out without troubling the scorers, that will be something that will be well worth celebrating.
‘Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams’ is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.
There’s something about a day at the county ground in Taunton.
Today I arrive and take my seat high in the Marcus Treacothick Pavillion. The ground looks as beautiful as ever with the long shadows cast by the floodlights slowly beating their inevitable retreat as the sun continues to make its merry way towards its daily high point.
Along with my packed lunch, binoculars and Playfair cricket annual, I’ve brought with me a genuine sense of anticipation – will James Rew complete his century [of course], will maximum batting points be secured [comfortably] and will there be a brief but belligerent batting display from Craig Overton to help ensure that when the last wicket finally falls, the Somerset total will be within a Lewis Goldsworthy shoe size of 500 [most definitely]!
As the innings interval begins, and despite me being someone who can’t tell the difference between a googly and an exceedingly well known internet search engine, I fell to wondering if I might have noticed a bit of turn from Bristolian George Drissell in his penultimate over, and, if so, whether that might offer some small encouragement for a certain M.J. Leach later in the game.
My analysis seems increasingly likely to be correct when the aforementioned slow left armer bowls the sixth over of the Durham innings and first team debutante Archie Vaughn steps up to deliver the next – his off-breaks picking up what is his maiden first class wicket when he traps McKinney from the last ball of his first over in championship cricket.
Lunch affords the opportunity to visit both the Somerset cricket shop, to buy my soon to be three years old grandson his first ever cricket bat, and the Somerset cricket museum to peruse the displays there and watch, once again, TKC’s winning catch in last years T20 final – a catch every bit a part of history as those whose portraits adorn the wall where the flat screen TV is mounted, ready to play a selection of famous games at the press of a button.
Having been allowed on the pitch during the lunch interval, spectators are returning to their seats as I return to mine in time for the afternoon session to begin, I chat for a while with a fellow spectator who’s travelled up from Cornwall with his guide dog, a far better behaved black Labrador than the one I’d wisely left at home this morning – his presence pitch side, were he to once again gnaw his way through an overpriced lead, all too likely to distract the players far more than the seagulls that periodically leave their elevated perches on the Ondaatje Pavillion to stroll purposefully around the outfield seemingly oblivious to what is taking place in the middle.
The afternoon session has an atmosphere altogether different to that played out before lunch. The game hasn’t yet decided upon the direction it might take, and we who look on have to be patient and wait to see whether the runs will continue to flow freely or the not infrequent appeals might eventually persuade the up to now reluctant umpires to finally lift their finger.
It’s a period of play which allows me to ponder the mysteries of life – none more mysterious than why the Durham shirts advertise ‘Sir Ian Botham Wines’ when the stand that bears the great all-rounder’s name indicates that the former Somerset favourite is now a peer of the realm.
The game continues to the background hubbub of inconsequential conversation – the topics covered by the healthy crowd more diverse than the companies currently sponsoring the players, with subjects ranging from whether Somerset may yet have a chance of winning this years county championship competition, to how the solar panels on the roof of the Andy Caddick Pavillion have been positioned so as to spell out ‘SCCC’.
The gentle chitchat of the healthy crowd is briefly punctuated by a hearty roar of approval as Scott Borthwich is caught by Craig O off the bowling of Leachy, neither of the recipients of the home supporters’ praise being blessed with the most imaginative of nicknames.
The game meanders on as Kasey Aldridge is brought into the attack and I’m reminded to whom I should turn should I ever find myself in need of a speciality cheese or countless other high quality dairy products. But moments later, I forget such creamy comestibles as Leach and Overton combine again to remove Robinson and I’m overcome by an unaccountable desire to rent a property in a highly sought after area of Bridgwater and clean every square inch of its tastefully furnished living space!
Then all of a sudden, Durham are four down – Leach having bowled Turner for 4 – and with them still needing more than 200 more runs to avoid the follow on, the game appears, over the course of a few quick overs, to have decided to head away from Durham and, temporarily at least, in the general direction of the home of The Wurzels, Thatcher’s Cider and the Nempnett Thrubwell Kitchen Timer Kit, the latter a product that must surely one day enter the glamourous world of player sponsorship if it hopes to survive in the dog eat dog world of culinary horology.
Tea is taken and is once again marked by the familiar announcement that all pies, pasties and sausage rolls will once again being sold at half price. But, resisting such temptations, I chose instead to watch as the marvellous Mary Elworthy-Coggan is presented with a painting of the ground to mark her many years of fundraising for the club. Afterwards she’s hugged by Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton and Tom Abell, it is a moment that I find as moving as it is meaningful, speaking as it does to how Somerset remains a small club with a big heart.
Just as the afternoon session differs in atmosphere from that of the morning, so too does the feel of the evening session differ from those that have proceeded it. Even as the players walk out with two hours of play still remaining, the day already feels as though it’s drawing to a close.
But there is still time for Lewis Goldsworthy [IT Champion since you ask – no I hadn’t either] to be thrown the ball and have Lees brilliantly caught by Craig ‘cleaning bucket hands’ Overton at slip. As I’m sure they teach those who attend Taunton School, it is seldom a good idea to attempt a quick single to Tom Abell. And so it proves to be the case when de Leede is run out just a few overs later, leaving Durham 170-6, still 172 short of avoiding the follow on.
But as the sun hides between light cloud and it’s sufficiently chilly to crack open the flask of coffee that up until now I’d forgotten I had with me, so the chances that Somerset have of forcing the follow fade a little as Carse and Raine score briskly. But the fact that the last half hour of the days play begins with Durham passing 250 without having lost any further wickets doesn’t mean the game has been any less enjoyable to watch – on the contrary it’s just been a different phase of play, part of the ebb and flow of county cricket that makes it the most interesting form of cricket there is.
The last five minutes sees Somerset take the new ball, Raine follow Carse in reaching 50, and their partnership pass 100. The sun makes a reappearance and the long shadows of the morning return only this time they extend in a different direction.
Leach bowls the final over during which yet another exuberant appeal fails to excite the umpire and the day comes to its inevitable end only to continue once again tomorrow morning.
All in all it’s been one fine day.
Other cricket blogs, with an inevitable bias towards Somerset.
Some musings 