The Master's Happiness

 Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! (Matthew 25:21)

The reward I think many people want is not being in charge of many things, but being relieved of any responsibility at all. It seems many of us would rather have the reward of the person Jesus called the rich fool: "I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.'" (Luke 12:19) Perhaps one of the biggest problems we have with seeking the kingdom of God is that we do not want to share in the master's happiness. We would rather hold on to our own version, our little illusion.

Both persons have plenty of good things. One has doubled the wealth given to him from ten to twenty talents, the other has to build bigger barns to keep all his wealth he thinks he has made. However, one is a servant working with his master's wealth. The other deems himself a master ready to to be served. One is living for his master and given charge of many things. The other is ready to live off the wealth he has earned and devour many things.

Apparently the master's happiness is not just taking life easy, but in making life good. The heart of the rich fool is the same as the servant who buried his talent in Jesus's parable. Both were afraid. Both saw the master as a hard man with unfair demands. We find ourselves wanting to be master because we fear the Lord God is hard and unfair.

Ironically, God wants us to master our lives, taking the little we have been given and offering it up to him rather than hoarding it for ourselves out of fear and distrust. We offer it up is many ways, but all of them involve letting it go. Whether the wealth leaves our hearts or our hands, we have to give it up and work with it. This is life: sacrifice. We cannot sacrifice if we have nothing to give. We also cannot sacrifice if we will not give it up.

God does not want us to merely bury it or throw it away. He wants us to increase and learn how to share out of our increase. We must learn how to move from loving our gifts and wealth to loving with our gifts and our wealth. Only then will we be able to enter into our master's happiness, marrying great power with great love.

The Cross Is Not Mere Sacrifice

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.  (Hosea 6:6, NIV)

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6, NLT) 

The Hebrew word for "mercy" in the NIV is chesedh, which is translated as both love and mercy.  The older translation from the King James of "lovingkindness" may capture most of the word's meaning.  In a more story-form, it is the quality of kindness that is usually reserved for close friends and family members.  "A person exercising chesadh has chosen to treat the recipient as if such a relationship did exist," whether it does or not.

To further explain this term, Hosea places it parallel to "knowing God."  Knowledge of God is nearly always understood in the Bible as an interactive or conversational relationship.  It is not merely knowing about God, but actually knowing him in a personal way.  So, when God desires lovingkindness, it is not so much as an act done to others around me, but as a quality that I live in.  God is saying he wants my love more than my "sacrifices."  He wants to know me and not just receive homage from me.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices demonstrated the love and faithfulness of Israel to God.  Hosea is pointing out a disease that had spread among the people of Israel.  They were giving sacrifices without lovingkindness.  They brought their offerings without seeking to know the God they brought them to.  Their hypocrisy became plain in how they dealt with each other, showing that God's mercy and the awareness of him did not salt their attitudes toward each other.  Hosea was saying that such sacrifices were worthless and that God had no use for them outside the context of this tender love and eager conversation he longed to have with his people.

The cross of Christ stands as the final sacrifice for all people, but it must be clear that God does not desire sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice.  What underlies the sacrifice of Jesus is this lovingkindness and this passion to know God.  Jesus' loving and willing obedience to the Father is what gives the cross its ultimate significance, not his painful, morbid death.  Without such love on Jesus' part, his death is a mere tragedy - actually pathetic.

Jesus embodiment of God's lovingkindness and his awareness of the Father's presence moved him to the cross as atonement.  Jesus death by itself does not rescue me from death - separation from God - any more than the sacrifices of the Israelites in themselves brought them closer to God.  No, Jesus himself is my atonement, my covering.  His sacrifice is the most significant proof and outcome of that great love he has from the Father for me, but in itself that death means nothing apart from the life of Jesus with me.  His continuing relationship is what atones or "covers" me, not just something he did.

When I apply "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" to the cross, I find myself drawn to he heart of Jesus.  I find that God's desire is for my heart to be the same as Jesus' more than for me to suffer for him.  That is why following Jesus in Jesus' own words is "Take up your cross and follow me" rather than "Believe in my cross and you will be saved."  The response that God wants from me when I see the cross is not merely "What a wonderful thing Jesus did!"  or "What a good example Jesus gave!"  The response that God wants is "God is love.  I want to know Jesus and his Father.  I will give up this life I try to lead on my own to the cross and enter into life with him today!"  If my understanding of the cross does not naturally move me to an interactive, conversational relationship with God, then I do not understand the cross of Christ.

Lord, let your lovingkindness saturate my life.  Let this desire to know you through Jesus guide me.  Deliver me from mere sacrifices into the joy of giving up everything to you in trust and dependence.  Let the cross be to me a landmark of your great love and my increasing desire to obey you out of trust.  Apart from your daily relating to me - walking and talking with me as your own - I will not make it.  Be not far from me, Father.  Amen.

Sin Management versus Self-Sacrifice

God did not give me grace so I could manage my sin, but so I could put my sin to death. The grace to manage my sin is grace I give to myself. The grace I depend on when putting sin to death must be God's grace. Self-management is what I do instead of living sacrifice.

Sin management comes in several flavors. One is exchange; I give up a bad habit and replace it with a "good" one, or least, another one less lethal. The key words are, "I used to[something], but now I [something]." Another flavor is comparison: I look for some person or group of people that I feel I am better than them. This is a way to management the guilt of sin. The key words are, "But at least I am better than. . . ." Another kind is masking: I try to cover up my sin with doing other good things. The keywords are, "But at least I do. . . ."

All of these methods try to retain the self and its goals, but hope to "pretty it up enough" for God. All of these are waiting for eternal life rather than trying to live eternal life. All of these methods are comparison to people and not to Christ. Exchange compares my present state with my past state. Comparison sees only the bad things and worse things; it tries to make bad things good by comparing them to worse things. Masking sees good things I do as way of excusing the bad things I do.

Sin management does not use God's grace sufficiently. It only dabbles in it, using it as fuel for self-transformation, an excuse for bad things while avoiding worse things, or a cover-up of bad things while I try to do good things. God's grace can only be used to make us into Christ. It has no other purpose. Whatever is done on the way is secondary to Christ-likeness.

So the insufficiency of grace comes from an insufficient view of Christ. Inherently we see Christ-likeness as merely "being good." Just being good enough. Christ is so much more than a mere do-good-er. Jesus did not just go around doing "random acts of kindness." His goodness was defined by his purpose. He did not come just to be good in front of us. He did not come just to say, "It's ok that you're so bad." He did not come to give us a method for self-transformation, primarily. He came that we would have life, and life abundantly. This life is one in his kingdom, under God's rule, at God's side. His deeds, his forgiveness, his promise of transformation all point to this life with God, working with him, and loving him. I must seek things above, that is, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."

When I manage my sin, I remain in control of my life. I rule. I have tried to give up certain things, or do certain things so I can retain my own life, my own kingdom where God does not have a say. I think I can mange sin because I think I can manage myself. I manage sin because I think I can manage God himself.

To find my place in God's kingdom, I must give up my own kingdom. To live in God, I must die to myself. To find what I really need, I must give up what I think I want. To have a life with Christ, I must leave everything else behind.

extremesports

Sin management dabbles at the edge of the pool. Sacrifice dives in the middle. Sin management only intends to try. Sacrifice intends to accomplish.

Rather than trying to retain control of my life and deal with sin on the side, I must throw out my own ideas of what life should be and look to what Jesus said life is. Living the "good life" is not getting what I want when I want it, but getting what God wants when God wants me to have it.

If I try to manage sin, I will find that sin manages me. Sin must be put to death unmercifully.