Have you noticed how misunderstood Jesus can be in today's American cultural context?

I sometimes worry about my faith needing to be understood. 

I mean, I want people to understand and "get it."

Perhaps you do, too. 

Some people may say Jesus started a new religion. Others might say Jesus came to free them to be spiritual and not religious. And many of us have seen the dangerous convictions that Jesus is at the center of modern social and political movements.

Apostle Paul, who saw Jesus with his own eyeballs describes it like this: Jews demand signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).

The Apostle Paul says that Jesus is misunderstood because He is a stumbling block (literally, a scandal). Why would the God of the universe love people so much that He took the curse and punishment of sin for people who wouldn't love Him back upon Himself? For some, Jesus was misunderstood because he challenged their religious beliefs about God and themselves.

The Apostle Paul also says that Jesus is misunderstood because He made irrational choices. Why would a Palestinian Jew go to a Samaritan well and bond with a woman by asking her for a drink of water? Why would a rabbi wash his disciples' feet? Why would the movement leader back down in the moments when he could rise up? For Greeks, Jesus was a fool.

Much like the 1st-century Greco-Roman culture on the isthmus of Asia and Italy, I am seeing how people today are struggling to live in a world that is increasingly polarized in every way. And I am convinced that the gospel is still the dynamite of God (Romans 1:16) that changes how we feel, think, and act — no matter how misunderstood it (and those who share it) might be.

The gospel did and continues to change how all people feel, think, and act because Jesus didn't come to start a new religion or to free us from religion to become more spiritual. And Jesus surely didn't come to bring a social justice or a political perspective.

Jesus came to seek and save people from the death penalty for their sins as well as their own devices. Taylor Swift is right: they come with prices and vices, and we end up in crises - it's a tale as old as time.

And if that’s true, then we are invited to live like Jesus to look, listen, and love the people in front of us - wherever we are... always... no matter how misunderstood it might be for us or for others looking and listening in.

If you want to get your heart and head into this week's message before Sunday, read Acts 19:1-19.

Lamentations 5 begins with the word, remember.

Chad Bird helps us understand the significance of this word. You can click here to read the article.

If you read Chapter 5, you might realize that Jeremiah doesn’t share anything he hasn’t already said before. It’s as if he knows that only an act of God can change reality.

And perhaps that’s the point of the entire collection of laments… that only divine acts of mercy like healing, humility, servanthood, a crucifixion, and a resurrection can bring complete restoration and freedom to love and serve God and others.

Which means that all of life is remembering to die to ourselves so that we can rise again with Jesus.

This lament, without the anointed one, is hopeless. But, with Yahweh’s anointed One, Jesus, there is always hope in moments of despair.

In Hebrew religion and culture, three roles were designated to represent God’s presence and power.

• A prophet
• A priest
• A king

Prophets were people who were individually called by God to forthtell truth. We think of people like Elijah, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Prophets are often beaten up and ignored either out of ignorance or fear. Ultimately, prophets bring conviction and comfort to their recipients - even if (or perhaps especially when) they don’t completely understand the message themselves - like Jonah. Without prophets, there would be no real-life truth-telling.

Priests were the people who stood between God and His people. If you think of them as bridges, priests will carry God's people's sins, burdens, and praises by offering sacrifices on behalf of a community. In turn, the priests would also echo God’s words of forgiveness, cancel the debt caused by people’s sins, and instruct God’s Word to the people. Without priests, there would be no reconciliation or justice for sin between God and people.

Kings were the royal representatives of God’s authority and power in human space. At one point, God’s people saw that other nations had kings who ruled with efficiency and human energy. Forgetting that they already had a King in Yahweh, they asked for a king - and God gave them kings. Some of them were Godly, like David. Others were ungodly, like Saul. Regardless of their character, kings were to execute God’s human laws among communities of people. Without kings, there would be no legal, moral, or ethical order, only chaos.

This context is essential to understand when it comes to Lamentations 4 because this Hebrew poem is lamenting the loss of all three unique relationships with God. The prophetic voices have gone silent. The priests have been taken from the temple. The king has been killed. In every sense, for the Hebrew people, God is gone.

The good news is that the lament is also a prophetic word in itself. While the lamenter expresses the collective memory that their humanly anointed prophets, priests, and kings are gone (Lamentations 4:20), the title “the Lord’s anointed” is a direct reference to the promised rescuer Messiah from Genesis 3:15.

Don’t miss that Jesus is the prophet of prophets, the priests of priests, and the king of kings. He is the One who is also carried off into foreign places, silenced, taken from the temple, and killed on the cross. He is also the One who, three days later, rises again to new life. And that new life continues to speak truth into our world today through His Word. He continues to stand between God and all people because Jesus is the Lamb of God - the sacrifice of sacrifices for all sin. And Jesus is the king of kings who rules and judges with the equity of grace and mercy.

This lament, without the anointed one, is hopeless. But, with Yahweh’s anointed One, Jesus, there is always hope in moments of despair.

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​Hebrew poetry, while intimidating, is a beautiful work of art. Beyond literary awe, by faith, we trust that it is God’s Word and message to us, inspired by His Holy Spirit, announced through human voices, demonstrated in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and extended through the Body of Christ, the church (you and me).

At first glance, Lamentations 1 looks like a sad poem. It begins with loneliness and weeping. It continues to describe being abused and bullied. And then there is a deep remorse and repentance that we have rebelled against God and mistreated others. In the end, all we want is to be seen by God.

And the poet, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, gives us hope in the middle of the disaster he describes happening all around him and to him.

The poem is written as a chiasm.

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. If you divide them into two sections, you’d have 11 letters in each section. If you arrange the first 11 letters to form a downward arrow and the last 11 letters to form an upward arrow and then join them together, you form an “X” (chi). And in the perfect middle of the “X” are the last two lines of verse 11: “Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised.”. 

When it comes to chiasms, the center where the two sides of the alphabet meet signals the most critical point of the entire poem.

I think the English translation is somewhat lacking because the Hebrew word zalal, while translated as despised, carries the understanding that to be despised means to be a squanderer, worthless, or insignificant.

​Interesting.

Fast forward several centuries, and Jesus shares a story about a squanderer.

Once, a son rudely asks his dad for his share of the inheritance, as if his dad is dead. Surprisingly, the dad agrees and gives him the money. The son leaves for a faraway place and squanders everything away through foolish living. He feels worthless and insignificant - so much so that he chooses to live in a pig pen.

Feeling ashamed for squandering his dad's stuff and believing his dad despises him because of his foolishness, the son decides to return home and work as a slave-servant. On his way back home, the dad, who has been looking for him, spots him from afar. The dad rushes to him, hugs him tightly, and they walk home together.

Before the son can say anything, the dad dresses him in the family robe and puts a ring on his finger (showing he's a full part of the family). Then, the dad throws a huge party to celebrate his son's return, because he was lost and now he's found.

 “Look, O Lord, and see, for I am a squanderer.” is the cry of Jeremiah (individually), the Hebrew people in Babylon (collectively), and you and me today.

The good news is that God our Father loves welcoming us squanderers home.

So, next time you feel worthless, insignificant, or despised - remember, while you might be a squanderer - Jesus already sees you as He is running out to welcome you home.

As I prepare for our next sermon series, Lord, Have Mercy, one of the two questions I've been wrestling with is, how can God be good and allow bad things to happen?

I think that everybody can agree that bad things are happening today. In a world filled with human injustice, every kind of abuse, extortion of vulnerable people, food insecurity, economic chaos, or murder and genocide - it would be difficult to say that the world is void of bad things. I will let the philosophers debate whether the bad things we know to be happening are unavoidable, products of human consequence, or can be solved.

I do know that bad things were happening in 586 BC, too.

History tells us that Jerusalemites felt threatened because a foreign power, Babylon, surrounded their city to intimidate them into surrender. There was also a food crisis happening. Food insecurity quickly gave way to no food for anybody to eat. The hand-to-hand combat began. The government was overthrown. The king was arrested, impeached, and sentenced. Masses of people were murdered. Buildings were burned. Homes were destroyed. People with potential were captured and forced into slavery. Poor people were extorted and left to work the land.

You can check out all the details in 2 Kings 25 and a Near East History volume (start with searching "First Temple Period").

Did God allow these bad things to happen? It appears that He did.

So, how can God be good and allow bad things to happen?

There are two faith perspectives (biases) that shape how I am thinking about this question.

The first bias is that God created human beings with free will or the conscious control of our choices and actions. The Christian scriptures tell us how human beings are made in God's image - and God has conscious control of choices and actions. This bias also leans into the conviction that God is, by nature, good (like the question assumes). As a result, human free will enables us to consciously control our choices and actions to do good. You can read Genesis 2 for the complete picture.

If you think about it, if I paid my wife to say "I love you" and to be good to me, we could say she's manipulated, coerced, or obligated to love and be good to me - but she isn't free to do so. Her payment controls her choices and actions. It isn't love. It isn't good. And it isn't God-like.

The second bias is that free will was compromised by a consciously controlled choice to listen to and act upon something not-so-good. You can read Genesis 3 for the details. It was like the human will was captured, lured, coerced, and manipulated to make this not-so-good choice.

From that time on, free will remain free, and at the same time, bound by God's goodness or everything that was not so good (usually self-seeking or painful, evil, and destructive). I believe that's why our consciences sometimes feel "heavy" or "burdened." It's also why we are often encouraged to choose to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and renew our minds (Romans 12:2).

So, bad things result from not-so-good choices made by ourselves or others. These choices lead to consequences, affecting not just us but many other people.

Sometimes, even good people make mistakes or overlook the impact of their decisions. Pride and ego can cloud our judgment, causing unintentional harm. It's part of being human - we can't always make perfect choices, which is why apologies are necessary.

Other times, bad things happen because of someone else's actions. It's unfair, beyond our control, and leaves us feeling victimized. But even though we think about the consequences of other people's not-so-good choices, we're not responsible for choices made by others. Accountability means holding those who make choices accountable for good and bad outcomes.

Ultimately, every choice we make carries consequences, affecting not just ourselves but often many others as well. It's a reminder of the ripple effect of our actions in the world.

And that's why bad things happen to good people.

I've heard well-meaning Christians say that the "bad things" that have happened in the past and are happening today are really God's wrath poured out on us.

I would disagree (though I am open to hearing your perspective in the comment section below)… and here's why.

If God's wrath is determined by a cause-and-effect relationship, then we have a God I can control through my free will. I have read many commentators who would say that what was happening in 586 BC and what is happening today is God's wrath being poured out on people for their "ungodly" choices. In other words, what they're saying is that the script would go like this: "I love God, I do this for God and for others, and now God owes me good things" or, "I disobey God, I didn't do this for God, I didn't fully do this correctly for others, and now I lose something and have bad things happening to and around me."

That's not a God of grace and love - it's a God of manipulation.

Now, I'm not saying that God's wrath doesn't exist. It very much does. The Hebrew scriptures describe it as "God's nose is burning." The Greek scriptures describe it as retribution, anger, and getting justice (leveling the playing field). The English language defines wrath as extreme anger, like losing your temper.

I believe God can be both 100% love and still have wrath (remember, I can't control God). Interestingly, God controls His anger resulting from his broken heart over human sin. His wrath is a consequence and not a punishment. If you are a parent, you probably understand the distinction. Consequences are a result of positive or harmful behavior. Of course, every choice we make has a good or not-so-good consequence. On the other hand, punishment is the intentional emotional or physical pain given to somebody else to force them to behave or do what they want.

Whether it is 586 BC, today, or tomorrow, God is not inflicting emotional or physical pain on anybody to force them to behave or do what He wants them to do. Again, God is not a God of manipulation.

But we do see God's wrath (and I hope you might, too) as Jesus dies on the cross. Jesus died, so we see how much God 100% loves us. And, yes, as Jesus dies on the cross, 100% of God's anger is placed on Him. It equals the playing field by forgiving all sin. It cools God's burning nose. It is payment for retribution for everything humanity had robbed God of with their choices and actions. The entire sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of the world is 100% God's wrath so that we can experience 100% of God's love.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! (Romans 5:8-10).

I'm curious what you've heard about why bad things happen to good people and God's wrath. You can share your comments below.

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