Sinners in the Arms of a Loving God.
Lord of the Rings, rejection, and human purpose.
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When I was a kid,
one of my favorite movies was Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. There’s a scene towards the end where the main character (Frodo Baggins) is betrayed by those he trusted. He flees in a boat across a river to continue his quest alone.
Frodo’s best friend is Sam Gamgee. When Sam realizes Frodo has left, He runs after him. Frodo tells Sam to leave him alone, but Sam immediately jumps into the water after him.
The problem is that Sam can’t swim. He doggy paddles/drowns his way out to the boat, and Frodo reaches out to pull him up. From that point forward, the two are just about inseparable. Keep that in the back of your mind for a hot second.
If you’ve talked to me for a more than about a half second,
you know that I’m not from the south. I grew up in southern California, and I had a solid group of friends there.
During my senior year of high school, I didn’t always have access to a car, but I always had friends who would give me rides. If I ever wanted to hang out, I had people who’d be there in a second. If I ever had a rough day, I had a friend willing to listen. Then, college came.
I came to Nashville
without a single friend and without a car. Thankfully I was at college, so friends came pretty quick, and thankfully I was at a private school, so almost all of my friends had cars.
On a deeper level though, I stepped outside of my support system by coming to Nashville. The community I found at Lipscomb is incredible, but it took me a while to build up the same circle of friends I could trust.
About a year ago,
I thought I had found those people. I went through a really hard time personally and yet a group of my friends held me up through it. I was stoked to spend time with them coming into my junior year of college.
This fall rolled around. I slowly but surely noticed that when I texted those guys for a ride somewhere, they were busy. I’d try to hang out with them, but again, they were busy. Yet, they always managed to find time to hang with one another. Finally, I would try to talk to them on bad days, and they would have no ears to hear what I had to say.
These dudes aren’t horrible people (spoiler alert: they’re still some of my best friends and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them), but due to a combination of miscommunication and poorly-executed good intentions, their actions started to express that I wasn’t worth their time.
When I started to put together what had happened, I would up with a whole lot of hurt and a whole lot of bitterness in my heart. As a result, I pushed those dudes away a lot this past semester.
Now take a second. Lets say some of your best friends did the same thing. What would you do about it? Try to reconcile? Make new friends?
Before we move on to what I ended up doing,
lets get to our text for the day.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
You totally skimmed it didn’t you.
I don’t blame you, but before we move on, go read vv. 17. (You shouldn’t even need to scroll up; thank me later)
Now that that’s out of the way, lets talk about the Law.
I think this side of Christianity gets a bad rap. It comes from the heritage of Judaism. The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah. It’s commonly referred to as the Law, but better translated as Instruction.
The codes in the Bible were meant to direct the life of the nation of Israel towards God. When God created us, He didn’t just do it willy-nilly. Rather, He created us for a concrete purpose.
I think it could be summed up as giving glory to God, loving one another, and taking care of the world He created.
He doesn’t force us to live into this purpose. The problem is that living outside of it is like using a knife as a hammer. The blade isn’t going to last very long, and we fundamentally damage ourselves when we operate out of what God created us for.
It’s a healthy to push other believers towards their purpose. However, some people make correct living the epitome of Christian belief. It becomes a course in sin management and behavior correction.
Have you had a bad experience with this side of Christianity? Has legalism cropped up in your own life?
I think God wants us to live correctly,
but Christianity is about far more than God enforcing a code of living on His people. A friend of mine expresses it as two concepts; Justice and Mercy.
They seem to contradict, but God combines both of them in His person. Yes, He desires for us to fulfill our role in the world, but He also forgives when we don’t quite get it.
In vv. 17, it says Jesus brought both grace and truth. Throughout His three year ministry, He consistently called out people living lower than what they were meant for. On the other hand though, He always extended a hand to bring them closer.
This culminated in the ultimate display of who God is. He died on a cross for our sake.
Here’s the thing.
This life is impossibly hard for us to do on our own. There are days we cannot handle what is thrown our way, and on top of that, we all have lived outside of what God intended for us.
As such, we’ve all fundamentally harmed our identity. We’re the equivalent of Samwise Gamgee slowly sinking to the bottom of a river. So long as we’re willing to grab on, God extends His hand down into water and pulls us up. In vv. 12–13 it says;
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Part of our purpose is living as children of God, but that status has to come from God. He desires to be our Father, and I think it hurts Him to see us struggle in the water of this life.
I was thinking about the whole thing with my friends this past week.
I had a lot of bitterness towards them in my heart, but I was treating it the wrong way. In my mind, I could either a. forgive them, but then not be able to hold them accountable for hurting me, or b. hold up what they did as wrong, but then not be able to forgive them.
I was holding justice and mercy as mutually exclusive.
In my mind, an indictment for my friends to do better and open arms to grow our relationship couldn’t exist together. Then, I realized God had treated me exactly that way for my entire life.
I have broken His heart countless times, and yet He always responded with a combination of conviction and open arms. I had done just about the opposite to my friends. That absolutely broke my heart.
God does everything because He wants to know us.
Frodo didn’t just pull Sam out of the water and then leave him. Their relationship continued far beyond that point, and God desires the same for us.
He desires it so badly that Jesus came and died for your sake, and once you accept the hand He offers, you become His child. With that identity, you can know God as intimately as Jesus did (vv. 18).
He wants to know us, and as we know Him, He changes us to live into His purposes. The highest end we can achieve is to be direct extensions of His love throughout the world. I failed to do that with my friends, but God still cares.
He’s beyond good to us, and I can honestly say nothing compares to the joy that is knowing Him. I hope and pray you experience the same.
Now, we’ll finish with a benediction.
As our Lord Himself once said, “Man does not subsist on bread alone, but also on tacos, and occasionally burritos too.”
As He commanded His disciples before He ascended into heaven,
“Go therefore and eat tacos from all nations, from places including but not limited too Chipotle, Baja Burrito, and Taqueria del Sol.”
