A Theater Called Holy Week

by Tony Reinke | March 21, 2013

How did C. S. Lewis bungle The Chronicles of Narnia?

For some critics, a major flaw is the way he interrupts the flow of the story by butting into the story as the narrator. 

You may remember it is Lewis who tells us (twice!) that no sensible person ever shut oneself up in a wardrobe. It’s a simple line, but Lewis breaks into the story to speak a direct lesson for young readers.

Or you may remember the dizzying scene in The Silver Chair when Jill steps up to a cliff edge far above the clouds. She grows faint and wobbly, and readers wonder if Jill is about to plunge to her death. 

Here's how Lewis describes it: “She was too frightened and dizzy to know quite what she was doing, but two things she remembered as long as she lived (they often came back to her in dreams)…” Stop. With this simple parenthetical statement, Lewis breaks the tension of the story. 

Some say that’s bad storytelling, but he does this here to reassure his young readers that whatever happens at the edge of this cliff, Jill has a future life. The brief literary interruption ministers a bit of comfort to a possibly frightened child.

Splitting the Atmosphere

In the Gospels, God’s audible voice splits the atmosphere and breaks into the narrative flow at a few key points for us. 

Each time, the point is to ensure we don’t miss the supremacy of Christ. This happens at three key points in the life of Jesus:

• 
  
• At his baptism, God’s voice testifies to Christ’s supremacy over John the Baptist (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22);
• 
  
• At the Mount of Transfiguration, God’s voice testifies to Christ’s supremacy over Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35, 2 Peter 1:17);
• 
  
• And one final time, during Holy Week, God’s voice breaks audibly into history (John 12:28).

This third and final mention of the voice of God is most timely for us. Here’s the passage (John 12:27–33):

[Jesus said,] “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 

The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 

Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Here God breaks into the narrative to speak up for his own glory in the life of Christ’s incarnate life. 

Here we discover that all along — in Jesus’s teachings, in miracles or in exorcisms, in healings, in quiet obedience and in sea calmings — in every action his works magnified the glory of God.

And in Jesus’s final works, God will magnify himself again.

With John 12:28 firmly planted inside Holy Week, everything that unfolds in the story is a further revelation of God’s worth. 

Christ magnifies the worth of God in the tearing of bread and lifting of the cup of the New Covenant, in the pouring out of his bloody Gethsemane prayer, in his scourgings, and of course in his wrath-satisfying slaying at Golgotha.

Which means God’s voice has broken into the storyline to prepare us to survey the wondrous cross. 

Instead of shielding us from the tragedy of Christ’s death, the Narrator breaks into the story to prepare us and to set the bloody death of the Prince of Glory in its proper context.

Prepared for Holy Week

Holy Week begins Sunday, and the week is filled with harsh and cruel reminders. 

The Savior's broken body and spilling blood will be lifted up on the cross so our eyes can focus on the splendid theater of God’s glory in the awful beauty and holy majesty of Christ crucified.

But we watch the scene unfold in hope because we have been prepared for this moment by the very voice of God — “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again” — words meant to steady us for what we are to witness, words meant to echo in the godforsaken silence of Golgotha.

“The center of Christianity is the dishonorable, foolish, gruesome, and utterly glorious reality of the tortured God-Man, Jesus Christ,” writes John Piper. 

“The closer you get to what makes Christianity ghastly, the closer you get to what makes it glorious.”

Like a narrator’s voice breaking into a story, in John 12:28 God’s voice temporarily suspends the Holy Week narrative, not for Jesus’ sake, but for ours. 

His voice comforts us and reassures us that the darkness we are about to experience is part of God’s intentional plan to display his glory to the world in his Son on a tree. 

There he will defeat cosmic evil, he will draw us to Christ, and he will display his worth to the world. This is the theater of glory we call Holy Week.

Holy Week begins Sunday and we recently released the new eBook Love to the Uttermost: Devotional Readings for Holy Week from John Piper. Download it for free in multiple formats here.

Dude, Watch Your Jargon

Here we go again.

Have you ever thought that at the beginning of a story you’ve heard several times before? 

Once the person starts talking you know exactly where they’re going. You’ve heard it before. You get it. Here we go again.

It’s interesting how this sort of thing especially happens in marriage. 

Husbands and wives do a lot of talking and before long they know each other’s best stuff. What might be the first time we tell our story to friends could be (or feel like) the hundredth time our spouse has heard it. 

This was the theme of a recently re-aired show from This American Life. They call the show “Reruns” and though overall it’s not that great, this marriage part was really good. They interviewed three couples about the stories their spouses always tell.

We all have those stories, don’t we? Just ask your wife or husband. My “go-to” is from a missions trip in Mexico. It’s self-deprecating and serious, but ends funny. See, already I want to tell it. And if you were sitting in our living room, I would. . . even as my lovely wife would probably roll her eyes. For good reason she’d roll her eyes. It’s the same thing again and again. Same setting, same angle, same words.

It’s exactly what pastors and Christian leaders should not do when we preach, teach, and write gospel truth. It’s what any Christian should not do when we speak into the world around us. Our message is not set on mere rerun. It can’t be, not today.

Trending Now

There are two antithetical trends happening right now.

Trend One is that Western society is increasingly becoming post-Christian. 

Trend Two is that Christian media seems to be at an all-time high.

As our environment grows more contrarian to our message, Christians are saying more than ever. Whether the Internet or pop culture or publishing, Christian voices are beaming out all over the world. Our voices beam while we’re simultaneously marginalized, and this should affect how we talk.

How though? How should these two trends impact our speaking and writing and preaching? There are two ways, one negative and one positive.

Not Like This

The negative application is not to slip into the ditch of “same old, same old” in how we talk. It means we beware the poverty of theological vocabulary. Or, to say it straight, it means: dude, watch your jargon.

The easiest thing to do in a world where we get more air time but less ears is to nestle ourselves into a rut of discourse. We speak macro-jargon. We shrivel down into canned language for listeners who we expect already know the words we no longer define. 

We say something like the other guy did, and the guy before him, who said it like the guy before him. Let’s press each other here. Christian communicators are not hamsters stuck in their wheel. We should push ourselves to say things differently.

Extending Our Elbows

The positive side is simply that we strain to say it fresh. I don’t mean we replace (or contextualize) obscure words with words that are more culturally sensitive. That is well and good and necessary. But we need to do the hard work of incorporating new words and concepts in order to crisply articulate truths that fly under the radar of a noisy world. 

The truths don’t change. The content is unshakable. But our communication should be infused with life. Bright-eyed, soul-soaring life.

We should extend our elbows to gulp up whole systems of thought, spit out the bones, and swallow the good, for our speech. We should swallow whatever is true and honorable and just and pure (Philippians 4:8). 

We should tap into our senses and really feel what we say. We should say it fresh in hopes of seeing it fresh.

And even if someone were to say “here we go again,” we know the story we tell is more than a rerun. 

In fact, it’s good news. 

And good news isn’t jargon.

"Watch Out or the Devil’s Gonna Get You"

by Jonathan Parnell | February 3, 2013

In rural America, off a country road, on the soft soil of a weathered field, stands a sobering message for every passer-by: Go to church or the devil will get you!

The words are neatly strewn across a homemade billboard adorned with flood lights and a painted silhouette of a red figure, apparently Satan, holding a sling-blade. Go to church, the warning hisses, or be his victim.

As hokey as it sounds, the warning is right, you know, at least in a sense.

Now to be clear, if the sign means (and it likely does) that you’d better attend a weekly meeting or else Lucifer will eat your lunch, then no, that’s not right. 

That would be Anglo folk religion — more akin to African animism than anything Christian.

But, more positively, if “go to church” means be part of a gospel-shaped community, and “the devil will get you!” means you’re more susceptible to his schemes apart from such community, then the sign is absolutely right. 

By all means, if this meaning is the case, go to church or the devil will get you. Here’s why: first, Satan is real and he hates you; second, God designs that Christians persevere in faith by means of one another.

Satan Wants to Destroy You

John Piper recently shared a few stories from his years of pastoral ministry at Bethlehem Baptist, including one instance, early in ministry, when he casted out a demon. The topic is immediately riveting. Right? But in case we mismanage its significance, Piper reminds us:

Before I tell the story I should say, I think people tend to think in terms of “extraordinary” when they think of the devil. 

And the New Testament pictures the devil not mainly as doing something extraordinary, but as doing very ordinary, deadly, horrible “arrow-shooting” at our hearts. 

So lift up the shield of faith, quench the fiery darts of the devil— that’s steady state, daily Christianity. . . 

We have an enemy who is everyday trying to destroy us.

Still, truth be told, this reality doesn’t impact us the way it should. 

And as much as we’d like to believe our strong faith is behind our not thinking much of the devil, it is probably our negligence. 

Paul told the Corinthians that they showed mercy to the sinner “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11, emphasis added). 

He suggests that we know what the devil is up to.

But do we?

Let us not forget that Satan lies (John 8:44), 

that he blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4), 

that he disguises himself (2 Corinthians 11:13–15), 

that he works signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9), 

that he strangles our efforts at fruitfulness (Mark 4:1–9), 

that he causes disease and sickness (Luke 13:16), 

that he is a bloodthirsty murderer (John 8:44), 

that he hinders our ministry plans (1 Thessalonians 2:17–18), 

that he accuses us before God (Revelation 12:10), 

and that he tempts people to sin (2 Corinthians 11:3).1

This last point is really important: he tempts us to sin. We are tempted everyday — several times everyday. 

Yes, the problem is with us first. We are severely flawed individuals with indwelling sin. 

Repent, don’t blame. 

But an adversary is also prowling around, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). That someone is you. 

Satan wants to devour you — to maneuver in such a way that there be in you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12).

Our Words in Jesus’s Power

This is where gospel-shaped community comes in. 

God has designed our warfare to include one another. We can’t wield the shield of faith alone. We need brothers and sisters to come alongside us to hold up our arms. 

More specifically, we need brothers and sisters to speak faith-building words to our souls.

After the warning of temptation, Hebrews 3:12 says “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

You see, the household of God is a talking family. We say things to each other, powerful things to each other about the truth of God and the victory of Christ. 

We exhort one another — be it encouragement, warning, or counsel — and the Holy Spirit breathes upon what is otherwise babbling to effect real devil-defying faith in our lives. 

This kind of speaking is a glorious staple of gospel-shaped community. And Satan wants you to have no part in it.

Satan wants us isolated from one another. He wants to find us all alone in the thunderstorm of our own thoughts, when we’re stuck in the sounds of our sinful souls. 

It is the oldest trick in the book, that he’d catch us when we’re perusing the tree by ourselves (2 Corinthians 11:3). We’ve too often repeated that scene of Genesis 3. 

But then imagine God’s truth crashing into the picture. Imagine that happening today as we gather together.

The only reason our words have any power is because of the Word who came in person. 

The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). When Jesus died on the cross in our place he disarmed the demonic rulers and shamed them in his triumph (Colossians 2:15). 

Jesus lives. Jesus reigns! 

And he will come again for his church against whom the gates of hell will not prevail.

Love his church. 

Surround yourself with voices of gospel truth and be that for others. 

And then be assured, because you are God’s, that the devil will not get you, nor will anyone be able to snatch you out of your Savior’s hand (John 10:28–29). 

Matter of fact, absolutely nothing will be able to separate you from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:35–39).

Leadership Is About Responsibility and Sacrifice

December 20, 2012

"Jesus was not on a power trip when he came into the world," John Piper reminds us. "His aim was to die for his bride."

Expounding Ephesians 5:25, Piper shows that if men are to be leaders like Jesus, we will sacrifice, too.

This is an excerpt is from the most recent sermon by John Piper, "God Created Man Male and Female: What Does It Mean to Be Complementarian?"

The supremacy of Christ

Consider: 

The supremacy of Christ´s eternality that makes the mind want to explode with the infinite thought that He never had a beginning, but simply always was; 

The supremacy of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox and quantum physics like a first grade reader; 

The glory of his wisdom that has never been and can never be counseled by men; 

The supremacy of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch; 

The supremacy of his providence without which not one bird falls to the ground or a single hair turns gray; 

The supremacy of his word that upholds the universe and keeps all the atoms and molecules together; 

The supremacy of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers, heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear, still storms with a word, and raise the dead; 

The supremacy of his purity never to sin, or to have a two-second bad attitude or evil thought; the glory of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground; 

The supremacy of his justice to render all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell; 

The supremacy of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; 

The supremacy of his sovereign , slave-like obedience to embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly; 

The supremacy of his wrath that will one day cause people to call out for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them; 

The supremacy of his grace that justifies the ungodly; 

And the supremacy of his love that dies for us even while we were sinners.

Hi my friend !

Hi my friend !


When I woke you up this morning
just before your alarm went on
- you remember ? -
there I wished
that before your day´s stress started
we could chat a little.


I would have loved
to encourage you for the day

but I saw
that you were busy
with many thoughts.


You asked yourself
what to have for breakfast and what to wear.


When you were in the shower
I would have been happy
If you had said "good morning" to me.

I would have winked at you,
but your head was full of other things.


When you were on the way
into your daily schedule
we could have had time to talk
but you had your headphones on.


I like Music. I invented it.
Would have loved to enjoy your favourite song with you.

The second verse reminds me of something,
which you can also find in my Bible
- I would have loved to show it to you -


When after a hard day, you returned home
you were pretty done. No wonder !


I had hoped

that after lunch we could sit together a bit.
You could have read in the Bible.

I would have liked to refresh you,
but you turned on your PC.
Seems to be a pretty good friend of yours,
as you spend a lot of time with him.


I thought, after that you would certainly feel rested,
and we could talk together.

But you had many important things to do
which were definitely not easy for you.


Now you are tired,
and probably you didn´t notice
that I have been beside you all the time.

I waited patiently.


Every day I long
for your smile.

For you to ask for my help,
to give me time.


I love you and would present you with much more.

We could live a much more thrilling life.


But I am a gentleman.
I won´t pester you.


Tomorrow is a new day.
and I shall wait once again
for you to come to me.


Your friend Jesus

It is good for me that I have been afflicted ...

A hard, but precious truth, when embraced:



"It is good for me 


that I have been afflicted 


that I might learn thy statutes."

Psalm 119:71


Hebrew KJV "afflicted" ענה:



disciplined
 


looked down on


depressed


bowed down


weakened


frustrated


mishandled


violated


defiled

raped


chastened


dealt hardly with



hurt


submitted ...



= GOOD FOR ME ? ? ? ...



= TO LEARN THY STATUES



His statues:


"He hath shewed thee, O man, 

what is good;


and what doth the LORD require of thee,


but to DO JUSTLY,


and to LOVE MERCY,


and to WALK HUMBLY with thy God. " 

Micah 6:8

And what is "good" ?

"And we know that

all things

work together 

for GOOD 

to them that love God, 

according to HIS PURPOSE: 

To be conformed to the image of his Son."

Romans 8:28-29