If anything, Jesus is Beautiful (Psalm 27)

Despair in death, disappointment in life

In this week's episode of the hit sci-fi TV series, Dr Who, there is a tense, poignant scene where a man dies. He gets shot by an alien, while trying to protect his wife from harm. And as his wife is holding him in her arms watching him disintegrate before her very eyes (did I mention that this is a sci-fi TV show?) - as she watches him die, she turns to the hero, the Doctor, and pleads with him, "Save him. You save everybody. You always do."

The Doctor replies, almost under his breath, "No, not always."

And in this moment of stillness, when you can see that this woman is obviously grieved yet profoundly shocked at the situation, she says to the Doctor - looking straight at him, with zero emotion in her voice - she says,

"Then, what is the point of you?"

The dialogue was not simply meant to convey grief over death. The woman's statement communicated an even more powerful emotion - despair. She was expressing disappointment in someone she thought she could trust to save her husband, but who had let her down in her time of greatest need.

1. Confidence in God's Salvation

I think that a Christian's faith is not put to the test when he faces suffering, pain or even death. A Christian's faith is truly put to the test when he begins to doubt whether God will save him from suffering, pain and death.

That is why Psalm 27 is so relevant, and indeed, so precious to us as Christians. For Psalm 27 speaks about salvation, but more importantly, the Christian's confidence in a God who is able and willing to bring salvation. We want to know that God can save. We want to be able to trust that God will save me.

The LORD is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?

(Verse 1)

The author of this psalm, David, is confident that the God of the bible, the LORD or YHWH, will deliver him from his troubles. He calls God his "salvation" and his "stronghold" - a description of a place of safety and security. As we read on, we get a better idea what David is being saved from.

When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,

when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

(Verse 2)

David is facing personal "enemies" and "foes". They advance to "devour his flesh": A very colourful, and rather gross, illustration that the footnotes in my NIV bible tell me is an expression meaning "slander". They want to bring down David's reputation and regard as King. But they also want to bring him down as God's chosen King. He calls them "evil men", meaning they are enemies, too, in God's sight. This is related to verse 12 where "false witnesses rise up" to confront David.

In spite of their attacks and accusations, David is confident. (You might be forgiven for thinking that David appears rather overconfident!) "Whom shall I fear?" he says in verse 1, a rhetorical statement, as the answer in the following verse implies "Absolutely no one!"

Though an army besiege me my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

(Verse 3)

It doesn't matter that his enemies gather in large forces, ganging up against him. Even war will not shake his confidence one bit.

But you only need to read the account of David's life to realise that David is not boasting of the figurative, but the factual. The mortal threats he outlines at the beginning of psalm 27 are not hypothetical; instead the enemies, the foes, the armies - these constant threats to his life are very much biographical.

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel in the Old Testament record for us David's career as soldier, fugitive, rebel leader and subsequently, king and ruler over Israel. His was a life full of conflict and battle. He was always going into battle and leading other men into battle. There was always someone out to kill David; most notably Saul, the former king who was hell-bent on hunting down David and taking his life. (The one time when David tried to step back from conflict - this was after he had ascended to the throne, and he tried to stay at the palace and let the soldiers do the fighting for once - that was the time he fell in to sin. He slept with another man's wife, had her husband murdered, and tried to cover it all up. He couldn't hide it from God, of course, who cursed David's career with further ongoing restlessness and conflict.)

So we shouldn't get too romantic with the word "salvation". For David, the dangers were real, the enemies were real - but God's salvation was all the more dependable. Here was a man who had faced the prospect of a gruesome death again and again, but could testify that God's protection had seen him through each and every one of these situations. Salvation for David meant deliverance from death. Verse 13 which speaks of David's confidence of God's goodness in the "land of the living" is a reference to an earthly existence. Elsewhere in the bible, the expression is found in Isaiah 38 on the lips of King Hezekiah worried that he would succumb to his illness and would no longer "see the LORD in the land of the living." Here, it means David hopes that at the end of the day he will still alive; that he is still breathing.

David is describing mounting opposition. The "enemies" and attackers in verse 2, gather as an "army" in verse 3. Yet notice that point of conflict is not external but internal. The battle is not "out there" but in his "heart" (verse 3). That is, the real battle is occurring on the inside - and the focus of David's resolve is his internal struggle and anguish.

The enemies advance against "me"; to devour "my flesh"; they "attack me" - in verse 2. And the army in verse 3 does not march up to lay siege on Jerusalem. No, they "beseige me". Even the declaration of "war" is against "me".

It may be that because David was king and God's chosen servant that he was at the centre of so much hatred, malice and conflict. But I think at some level he is also expressing a point of view all of us share when we are under immense pressure from those around us. That is, it feels personal. It feels like the world is out to get me, and me alone. Pain is an isolating experience. My pain and my problems make me focus on my situation and my plight.

Many students will soon be facing their finals. Yet as stressful as those two hours in the exam hall might be, it's the twelve hours beforehand that really get to you. Trying to cram in just a few more pages of notes; trying to get a good night's sleep. Not surprisingly, some Cambridge students actually thrive on this pressure. It's that gung-ho confident attitude which says, "I can take anything you throw at me", and I guess that's the kind of optimism you need to survive the pressure-cooker environment that is university, at times. Students are encouraged to be independent, confident, self-reliant, sensible...

But that's not David. He isn't facing his situation alone. I mean, he certainly fears it - in verse 10 he contemplates those closest to him abandoning him at his greatest time of need - "Though my father and mother forsake me" - yet he can face any and every external force that comes at him precisely because he knows he is never ever alone. The LORD is with him.

Verse 1: The LORD is my light and my salvation... The LORD is the stronghold of my life

If you're a student the thing to take away from David is not that he is confident, but that he is confident that God is with him in times of greatest need. Firstly, he prays about a real, physical problem - people who want to hurt him, situations that are troubling him. "Salvation" here is not talking about going to heaven, but being delivered from a very earthly hell. So if David can be honest to God about the things that are bugging him, you should, too. By all means, pray to God about your exams. Worried about a test? Ask for God's help. Can't sleep. Pray for God's peace. The worse thing you could do is hold back and not speak to God about the things that are so consuming your life, that he already sees and knows about.

But secondly, David is acutely aware of God's presence and guidance in the midst of these pressures, and not out of them.

In verse 3 he says, "though war break out against me, even then... will I be confident" The ESV has the footnote "In this I will be confident". Meaning, his confidence arises in the midst of the trouble; and not out of it.

When we are deep in our pain and problems, our prayer to God is often that he take us out of our troubles. But the bible is full of instances where God does not take his people out of trouble, but blesses them in the midst of their trouble.

He doesn't take them out, he brings them through.

David knows this. He sees his enemies. He sees all the pressures building up against him. But he knows that God will be there with him, protecting him, guiding him, accompanying him through these difficult situations for his good and God's glory.

At Rock Fellowship, we are studying the latter chapters of Genesis looking at the life of Joseph, and we learn the same lesson from his life before God. Joseph is betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Joseph is betrayed by his master's wife for refusing to sleep with her, and is thrown into prison. But God doesn't take Joseph out of slavery, and he doesn't free Joseph from prison. Indeed he is stuck there for thirteen years. Yet, what God does is bless Joseph. Again and again, Joseph finds favour with his master Potiphar and the prison guard. Again and again, Genesis says God is with Joseph. It is in the midst of difficulty that Joseph learns the presence and providence of the living God.

Paul stresses the same point for us as Christians in his letter to the Romans.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35,37)

It is precisely "in all these things" that we experience the victorious love of Christ - these things which include "trouble", "hardship", "persecution" and "sword" (which means even death) - in these trials, and not out of them, that the experience of God's saving love becomes all the more real and all the more precious.

2. Worship in God's Tabernacle

An amazing thing happens in verse 4. We have just seen David facing up to real physical threats to his life, and this motivates him to trust in God all the more for his deliverance, but verse 4 says, it also spurs him worship the living God in his tabernacle.

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek;
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.

To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and seek him in his temple.

(Verse 4)

And verse 5 reminds us of the context of trials - it is in them that God's salvation becomes all the more real:

For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling

He will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle

And set me high upon a rock.

(Verse 5)

The picture that David paints for us then, is mounting opposition that we have seen in verses 1 to 3 - with enemies, foes, attackers and armies all gathered against David - indeed, verse 6 says, they still "surround" him at this point. But here in verses 4 to 5, we learn that David has sought refuge in God's presence by residing in his temple. In verse 4, it is the "house of the LORD" and "his temple", in verse 5 he describes it as "his dwelling" and his "tabernacle" (also in verse 6).

Now, all these describe the one and same place - the temple, dwelling, tabernacle and house of God is the place where God has made provision for man to enter into his presence. It was given to Moses together with the regulations for worship, sacrifice and the service of the priests. The word "tabernacle", I should point out, simply means "tent". If you remember during the time of the Exodus, God would travel with the wandering Israelites in the desert. And this "tabernacle" or "tent" was sent up in the midst of the peoples' tents.

We see that the "house of the LORD" is central to David's one main request in verse 4. "One thing I ask of the LORD". There he is facing trouble, facing death, and the one single thing he desires most from God (it's the ONE thing!) is this - to "dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of (his) life".

This does not mean that David wants to hang out at the temple all day. It has nothing to do with coming to church on Sundays, then CF, then FOCUS, then CICCU, then Joshua, then Rock Fellowship, then Paul Group... and filling up your entire week with Christian activities. Though there is nothing wrong with any of this. It's just not what David is talking about.

David doesn't just say where he wants to be (in the house of the LORD) but what he intends to do there; what his motivation for wanting to "dwell in the house of the LORD" all the days of his life. Similarly for us, what is the main motivation for us to gather frequently as God's people around God's word. What draws us to meet together as brothers and sisters in Christ?

David's answer? "To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD."

David wants to experience God's goodness. In verse 13, he says "I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living". But more than just see it, he desires to gaze upon it - and that word "gaze" implies a contemplative, reflective and meditative approach to experiencing God. Now, how on earth do we do this?

The key to this is the word "beauty". Human beings are hard-wired for appetites that go beyond physical needs and functional gain. Beauty is something we find satisfaction in our sight and soul - that, though similar to food filling our stomaches - is utterly different in that, beauty is satisfying in an off itself. It is that piece of music, that you can play over and over again, to the annoyance of your neighbours, but for you it changes you, it captures you. Or a work of art you could sit in front of all day and just stare at. Beauty is appreciated - we gaze upon it, we long for it, we are satisfied by it.

Which is why, "beauty" can be utterly devastating when it is the sole foundation for a meaningful relationship. It is one thing to apply our appreciation to an inanimate object, but quite another to say to your husband or your wife, "I will be with you as long as you stay attractive; as long as you stay beautiful to me."

We live in a world where beauty fades. The whole cosmetic industry relies on the fact that we age, that we are constantly losing the beauty of our youth. Yet we will always have this insatiable need to be more and more beautiful.

And even if; even if we could preserve beauty. Through technology - the way we can now digitally capture music; or using some sort of 3D advancement - if we could somehow recreate perfectly the experience of a performance, exactly the way it was meant to be experienced. Even so, we would change. Our subjective desires are fickle and transient. Given enough time, we get bored of anything. People who produce pornography know this: there is always demand for another photo, another model, another issue.

Those of us who are constantly on facebook, know this. It's an addiction - looking for that next high (a video, an update, a funny quip!), and the more and more time we spend on feeding our addiction - we get more absorbed yet less and less satisfied.

You know what the amazing thing is with Psalm 27? David seems to have found the exception! He wants to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD - and he can say "This is the one thing I want; the one thing that will satisfy me!". He can say, "I can do this all day - every day - and I will just want to focus on God alone more each day!"

Now how can he say this? What is David's secret? Look at verse 4 again. Notice how his request is sandwiched between two actions:

One this I ask of the LORD,

this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

David seeks God. Twice it says (in the NIV) he will seek God in the temple. He actually says it twice again in verse 8 (we will look at it just a little later). The ESV renders the second "seek" as "inquire". But what do these words mean - to "seek" and to "enquire" of God?

In part, David knows it is going to be process. It is going to take time for him to build his appreciation for God's beauty. He will have to seek God. It sounds a bit like prayer. It sounds lot like contemplation and reflection upon God. Taking time not just to take in God's holiness, goodness but also taking time for his senses to develop an appetite to fully appreciate God's holiness and goodness.

Yet, whenever you find these words "seek" or "enquire" in the bible, and in the Psalms in particular, they usually have a more exact application. It is usually talking about God's word. I mean, you "seek"... God's will, and God's will is revealed in God's word. David is talking about the law of God. He knows he has to spend time reflecting on what God has said in his word about himself.

At first glance this can seems strange! What does appreciating God's beauty, have to do with reading God's word? The last thing a student wants to hear, is that he has to study more! Read more of this book! Learn it, spend time in it! Because the student has spent the past year in books and he has just grown sick of it!

Yet, what you are reading in the bible is not another book - you are reading a person. That's what you have to do to grow in appreciation of an individual. You get to know that person. You find out more about what he or she is like - their likes and dislikes, their experiences, their character. And when you read the bible, you are learning more about God. What he is like. What he has done. Did you know you could do that? You could come to God's word and ask questions about his will. You can come to God's word to hear his voice speaking to you.

And David is saying, the more and more you do this - the more you seek God in his word, the more you will want to. You will begin to see God's character, his holiness, his goodness - his beauty - in his revealed word. You will want to do this, all the days of your life.

3. Mercy from God's Judgement

So, to recap: David is facing mounting opposition from his enemies. He paints a worst-case scenario whereby he is surrounded by attackers, gathering to wage war against him. Yet David is secure in his trust in God. We find him in God's temple, worshipping God in the presence of his beauty and holiness. He is confident, he is fearless, he is full of praise (verse 6 - I will sacrifice with shouts of joy) - but when we come to verse 7; we find him broken and vulnerable.

“Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;

Be merciful to me and answer me.”

(Verse 7)

David is struggling! Not with man, but with God! He cries out to the LORD saying, "Hear me! Answer me!" What is more, we soon find David struggling with himself!

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD I will seek.

(Verse 8)

Earlier David had resolved to seek God in his temple, and now his heart reminds him to do just that - "Seek his face!" - it says to him. As if his own heart and conscience knows that David is prone to wandering. As if, he himself knows how tempted his not to seek God's direction and will. The original Hebrew is hard to translate at this point. It could just as well be God speaking through David's heart saying "Seek my face". In which case, God knows that David needs reminding. God is holding David to his promise.

But the shocking revelation comes in the next verse. You see, David might be fearless when it comes to man. In verse 1, he confidently proclaims "Whom shall I fear!" Well, verse 9 reveals that David does fear someone, deeply and profoundly. David fears God.

Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
You have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Saviour.
(Verse 9)

Do you see hear what David is saying? "Do not hide your face... do not turn me away" ... in anger? Why would God reject him? Why does David plead that the LORD not forsake him in his time of need?

It is at this point of the psalm that we need to remind ourselves: where is David? He has told us again and again in verses 4 to 6. Where is he, right now, as he engages with God at his time of greatest need?

He is in the temple. The temple: where sacrifices are offered up to God for the sinfulness of man. The temple where God's anger of the sinfulness of man is quenched through the offering of bulls and goats. Everything around him is a grim reminder that God is utterly holy, and man is utterly sinful. But mercifully, everything around him also reminds David that God is loving and gracious. That is what he cries out for in verse 7 - "Be merciful to me!" he says. For God does not deal with his people as they deserve, but provides the sacrificial system, through the temple, as a way for our punishment for sin to fall on the animals and blood sacrifices. David knows this well. The joy he experiences in verse 6 (I will sacrifice with shouts of joy!), is the joy of forgiveness!

Look again at how David addresses God at the end of verse 9. He calls him, "O God my Saviour". O God. My Saviour! In verse 1, David confidently says of God - he is my salvation. But here, he feels like he desperately needs to reminds God of this fact - "You are my helper! You are my Saviour!"

What is he asking God to save him from? It isn't his enemies. It is God's anger.

"Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger"

So much so, that the only thing that would cause David to fall into the hands of his enemies, is God's righteous judgement. He says in verse 12, "Do not hand me over to the desire of my foes." Israel as a nation has seen threats from its neighbours - Assyria, Syria, Babylon, Rome; the people of God have always had its enemies. Yet, the bible is clear that whenever the nation fell into the hands of its enemies, it wasn't because God had not been able to protect them, rather it was precisely because God had ordained these forces to punish them in their continuous rebellion against him.

These verses paint two complementary pictures of God's judgement over sin. First, all God need do is hide his face from us. He only needs to let us go. I am reminded of Romans 1 which declares in verse 18, "The wrath of God is being revealed against the godlessness and wickedness of men..." followed by the repeated phrase, "There God gave them over" (verse 24), "God gave them over" (verse 26), "God gave them over" (verse 28). He hands us over, not just to the desires of evil men (verse 12), but to the desires of our own evil hearts - to experience the fullness of our wickedness and the fullness of his wrath.

But secondly, God's judgement is also seen in his rejection. To understand this, we have to understand how David's anguish is not at all expressed physically, but relationally. He doesn't want to be abandoned! He fears that he will be left alone!

Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
(Verse 10)

David compares God to his closest kin - his father and mother. So precious is the bond of love and relationship and approval that he treasures with God, that he places it above his own family. And for a man of God like David, he knows the true horror of God's judgement is seen in the severing of this relationship with the Creator, the Author of Life, but also the Source of his Joy. That's why David can long for God's beauty. He isn't merely expressing hope that he will be saved; David is expressing love for his Saviour!

4. Beauty in God's Sacrifice

The question remains - what does this Beauty, or Pleasantness (as in some translations) of God look like? It is his glory? Is it God's power? Perhaps some kind of radiance that is projected from his presence? Can we even see it?

Actually, David isn't describing something in the abstract when he speaks of the beauty of the LORD. It is obvious, isn't it? David it talking about the sacrifice.

The whole temple serves but one purpose. It was one big slaughterhouse. Animals were cut up and their blood and carcasses were offered up to God. The tabernacle (or tent) itself contained one main thing. It housed the ark of the covenant - essentially a huge ornate box - that had as its cover what was known as the "mercy seat" or "atonement cover". And on this, and everything else in the temple was sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice.

What does David see in the temple? It is the blood. He sees the sacrifice for his sins.

For us as Christians, we too, have a sacrifice for sins. We see Jesus on the cross. God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us. And in Jesus, we become the righteousness of God.

That is, Jesus died on the cross to pay the full price of David's sin, and our sin. Everything that David was afraid of yet knew he deserved - Jesus took on the cross.

The evil men gathering to "devour" his flesh. The false witnesses rising up against him, breathing out violence. Jesus was delivered over to the evil desires of men to be forsaken. On the cross, Jesus died at the hands of his enemies. The Creator was subject to his creation. On the cross, God was forsaken by man.

But more profoundly, on the cross, God was forsaken by God. For Jesus, the eternal Son was forsaken by the everlasting Father. God the Father turned his face away from the perfect humble servant, instead pouring out the wrath reserved for the entire world upon the only innocent man that ever lived - his one and only Son. We need to see: the true punishment lay in the severing of a relationship that had existed since eternity past. On the cross, Jesus would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"

Friends unless we see how precious Jesus was to his Father, we will not see him as precious to our hearts. The unique lesson of Psalm 27 is that it calls us to look upon a broken man, grotesquely tortured with scars and stripes on his back, in agony and immense pain, bleeding and suffocating to the point of death - the bible calls us to look to Jesus and say with David, he is beautiful! To look upon the blood of the sacrifice and not turn away, but acknowledge the most glorious display of God's love, holiness, and yes, even beauty.

That is, Christians need to come to the point where we seek God not to get his blessing, but just to get God. Not just to be saved, but for God to be our salvation.

I wonder if you noticed that about verse 1. It's an odd thing: David calls God his salvation. He defines salvation not as an event, but a person. As long as he has God, he is saved. The implication being, he might very well be exposed to his enemies gathering around him - but that's OK. What he is truly seeking for, he already finds in God. They might come at him at full force, but he knows where he needs to be - not in a fortified city, but in a tent; in God's presence before God's sacrifice that makes David acceptable in God's presence.

How does Paul put it again?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
(Romans 8:35)

You see, the Christian can face danger, pressure, even death, because he knows that in Christ, he is secure. There is no more condemnation for those in Christ (Rom 8:1) - Jesus has taken it all on the cross. So while we still live in a world ravaged by sin and death - we are equipped to face it with confidence and trust - for it is in these very trials and dangers that God's love in Jesus is made all the more real and all the more glorious.

Jesus isn't just useful. Jesus isn't just powerful. If anything, Jesus is beautiful. His death, his sacrifice, his work on the cross - O, that we might gaze upon Jesus and be satisfied in our souls with him! No need to prove ourselves through accomplishment. No need to strive for our own righteousness. But to look only to Jesus and know full assurance, confidence and love.

But one last thing. In Jesus, we are beautiful in God's eyes. He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). So that in Jesus, we become sinless in God's sight. In Jesus we are beautiful to God.In Jesus we will always be accepted, loved and treasured.

If anything, Jesus is beautiful.

Calling Matthew - The Cambridge Chinese Version (CCV)

(An illustration used in today's sermon)
Based on Matthew 9:9-17

One day, Jesus was walking down Downing Street when he met a rich tax collector named Matthew Brown. Matthew Brown was in his office looking very depressed, worried that he was soon about to lose his job.

Matthew invited Jesus to his home and there Jesus met Matthew's friends whom no one liked because they were all wicked sinful tax collectors who kept raising taxes and giving the money to an oppressive European government.

Outside however, a small pool of protesters were gathering from a religiously conservative group. They were called the ConserPharisees.

When they saw Jesus there, the ConserPharisees were extremely upset, and their leader, David Pharisee said, "For the good of the nation, Jesus should stop associating with these tax collectors who are responsible for our current economic and financial crisis."

Meanwhile, another group emerged from the crowd to confront Jesus. They were known as the disciples of Clegg. Everyone was surprised to see the disciples of Clegg mixing with ConserPharisees, especially since their leader, John the Clegg-tist, was well-known for condemning David Pharisee and calling for reforms in the House of Pharisees.

The disciples of Clegg questioned Jesus, "We are so disappointed you have chosen to stay with the same old party. You could have made a real difference by choosing us instead, Jesus"

Jesus answered, "I have not come to call the righteous ... but fresh elections next year."

Disappointed with Jesus (Matthew 9:14-17)

Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus encounters disappointment and disapproval. At first glance, this should not be surprising. Earlier in the chapter, the scribes accuse him of blaspheming (verse 3) and the Pharisees have only just criticised Jesus for hanging out with the wrong crowd (verse 11). Jesus isn't popular among the religious.

But look again at verse 14. This bunch ought to surprise us. They are the followers of John the Baptist. Their negative comments are surprising for at least two reasons. First, they seem to have aligned themselves with the Pharisees. If you remember, back in chapter 3, their leader John didn't have very complimentary things to say about them. "You brood of vipers!" he called the Pharisees, warning them of the fiery judgement of God. Secondly, they accuse Jesus of failing to fast. To be sure, they do dare not bring the accusation against Jesus directly. Rather, they say, "why don't your disciples fast?"

The ESV has a footnote which adds the word, "often" - "Why do we are the Pharisees fast often but your disciples do not... ?" Meaning: they are enquiring after visible signs of piety; obvious evidence of religious observance. After all, speaking publicly in his Sermon on the Mount, didn't Jesus assume that his followers would fast? "When you fast," Jesus says. But Jesus goes on to add these words of instruction, "do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting... put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting."

So Jesus had a ready comeback at his disposal. He could have turned the table on his critics. Jesus could have accused them of betraying their leader by signing up to the wrong team. He could have reminded them of the statements he did make about fasting in such a way only God could see knowing only God could reward. But he doesn't say any of this. I want you to notice how Jesus, in his reply, displays a remarkable sense of empathy, understanding and wisdom in dealing with John's disciples.

1. Religion in a poor source of comfort

Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."

These words would have struck a chord in the hearts of his hearers. You see, they were a movement without its master. Their leader, John, is in prison. In fact, news of his incarceration was what triggered the start of Jesus' ministry. "... Jesus heard that John had been put in prison" (4:12) "... From that time on Jesus began to preach" (4:17).

Jesus picks up on their sadness and loss by linking fasting to mourning. Their fasting has less to do with religious piety and more to do with personal grief. Their bridegroom, their master, their leader has been "taken" from them. In this sense, Jesus understands their loss.

Yet it is in the midst of this painful reality that Jesus appeals to their past experience of joy. "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn?" "How is it possible?" The simple answer is: they can't! There is no reason to! Instead, there is every reason to rejoice! The picture of the bridegroom at a wedding evokes the sense of expectation, excitement, celebration and fulfilment.

We should not miss the mild hint of rebuke in Jesus' answer. The disciples of John want to impose a religious regulation on Jesus' followers. And these words tell us that this is completely inappropriate. It is inappropriate not because it is not of value - Jesus says God does reward his children who fast for him and his approval alone. But here, fasting is inappropriate ("How can they fast"/"How are they able to fast"?) because Jesus is with them. Jesus is the bridegroom.

This isn't something new Jesus has just made up. It is an illustration John the Baptist himself used when referring to Jesus. "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:29-30)

Furthermore we need to remember the setting of this debate. Verse 15 begins with the word "Then". Meaning: this takes place just after, or even during, the events of verses 9 to 14, when Jesus is eating with sinners. They are at a party! With food and drink and laughter and conversation. They are with Jesus, the one who calls and eats with sinners.

Essentially, these disciples of John are saying, "How can you be rejoicing at a time like this? With these people?" Their grief has led to mourning, and they have chosen to express this mourning by fasting. But their tone reveals how religion has become a poor source of comfort. It has instead led them to bitterness and judgementalism.

2. Jesus is our true source of joy and assurance

We can almost understand why John's disciples are now buddying up with the Pharisees. As much as John tried to denounce their hypocrisy, they still shared the same religious heritage and practices. The temple, the law, the covenants, their national history, the patriarchs - there is so much to build upon, so much in common. It was familiar.

And in times of confusion, in times of stress and depression, we look to the familiar for comfort and direction. It was why they turned to religion, it is maybe why they were now turning to Jesus. He was a regular Jewish guy - everyone knew where he was from. He preached from the scriptures - people called him Rabbi. He talked about God's kingdom - Didn't everyone want God's kingdom to be established?

Yet, Jesus will have none of that. He didn't come to add to the Law - as the Pharisees did with their rules and regulations - he came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets (5:17). He didn't simply announce God's kingdom as a future hope, it spoke of it as present reality. The Kingdom is near because God's promised King is here.

We need to see how Jesus is talking about something radically different from religion. If you look at what he says next, getting Jesus and religion mixed up can lead to destructive consequences!

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

What do the new patch and the new wine symbolise?

• Perhaps Jesus is referring to himself. He cannot be contained by old traditions and religious rules. Instead he needs to be understood on his own terms, not to be confused with freedom fighters, learned rabbis or miracle workers. Jesus will redefine expectations of the Messiah as a humble servant, not a proud sovereign; establishing a kingdom not through conquest but by his death on the cross.
  
  
• Or maybe Jesus is contrasting the new community verses the old structures of religion. The church is not to be confined by liturgy and cultic practices surrounding the temple and its sacrifices, instead Jesus builds his kingdom through redeemed sinners.
  
  
• Still others see glimpses of a new covenant, a new promise Jesus institutes over the Old Testament laws; Instead of our outward attempts at covering our sin through sacrifices and earning God's favour through good works and moral living, it is God who inwardly regenerates believers with new hearts enabling them to turn towards him in repentance, and respond with love and obedience.

All three are possible, and I do see how elements of Jesus' identity, community and mission are evident in the imagery of the new cloth and new wine. But we also shouldn't stray too far from the issue Jesus began raising with John's disciples, which I think, Jesus is still addressing with these closing words to them. He is still talking about their grief and their disappointment. He is still dealing with their joyless faith, their religiously-motivated prejudice, and their self-confident presumptions.

Jesus is saying that they are being torn apart. That's the common theme in these words. The garment is torn, but is at risk of being ripped apart. Pour new wine into old wineskins and it gets ruined - literally, destroyed. That is what is happening to John's disciples and the Pharisees. They cannot contain Jesus with religion and it is causing their insides to explode.

Here is a sober warning for those who preach Christ solely as a model for morality and example of religious piety - you will utterly destroy your hearers. They simply won't be able to take it. Not because they will encounter a God who is too holy for their standards, but because they will meet a Jesus who is too gracious, too loving and too joyful for their comfort.

Only new wineskins, Jesus says, can contain the new wine. Both are preserved. It is important to understand what Jesus means by both - he isn't talking about the old and the new wineskins. Rather Jesus is referring to the new wine as well as the new wineskins. Only those who keep Jesus as their centre, those who see Jesus as their treasure and joy, are kept together with him and kept together in him.

Both are preserved.

Despising Joy (Luke 15)

Luke 15 is not about salvation. That is, it is not primarily about salvation. Instead Jesus tells us three parables, all familiar, all precious and all focused on the joy - the joy of salvation.

The shepherd leaves his ninety-nine sheep to find that one lost sheep. But Jesus doesn't end there. He tells us that "when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'" (verses 5-6)

Or the woman who turns her house upside down, just to find that one lost coin. She just cannot contain the news, "she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.'" (verse 9)

But it is the third parable that expands and fills in the meaning of this joy. A son insults his father by demanding his inheritance. He leaves for a distant country where, the text tells us, he " squandered his wealth on wild living" (verse 17). He comes to his senses, returns home, to the surprising embrace of his expectant father, who not only forgives instantly but rejoices over him.

"'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate." (verses 22-23)

Like the coin, and like the sheep, this son was lost. Like the shepherd, and like the woman, the father rejoices.

"For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate." (verse 24)

But the parable does not end there. This is a parable - Jesus tells us - about two sons (verse 11). And the older son now returns from working in the field. Three things we may note from the following exchange between the older son and his father.

1. The older brother justifies his anger, but also his lack of joy

The older son is not simply mad at his irresponsible younger brother. Rather he is deeply upset with his father.

"But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'" (verses 29-30)

According to him, his father is responsible for his joyless service. All these years, the elder brother had been slaving in the fields, never even having the means (a small goat) to celebrate with his friends. In other words, the older brother felt extremely wronged by his father, moreover, extremely right in feeling angry - and what fueled this sense of indignation was his years of hard work and obedience.

2. The father justifies his love, but also his joy

The father simply responds with generous and compassionate love. "My son," he says to him. Despite all the caricatures the older brother paints of himself as a worker and slave, the father reminds him he is always his son.

"you are always with me, and everything I have is yours." (verse 31)

But ... and here is the point Jesus is getting at - not just that this father, symbolising our heavenly Father - not just that God is loving, and not just that God is generous - but that God finds great joy in redeeming sinners. "But we had to celebrate/It was fitting to celebrate (ESV)" (verse 32)

Here the father picks up on the eldest son's complaint - the elder brother wanted to celebrate but his basis of celebration was his hard work and obedience. The father replies, there is a more compelling reason to celebrate - a more fitting one - The return of his younger brother. "This brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

The father justifies his love, but also his joy.

3. Jesus draws us into the joy of salvation, but also the joy of the Saviour

Luke reminds us the context of the parable at the beginning of the chapter. The Pharisees and scribes were criticising Jesus for "welcoming and eating with sinners". And Jesus shrewdly incorporates the Pharisees into the third parable as the older brother. They cannot understand why Jesus would choose to associate himself with tax collectors, prostitutes and the like; the same way the older brother cannot bring himself to forgive his wayward brother, much less, join in his father's celebration over his younger brother's return.

But the peculiar charge Jesus makes in these three parables is not the lack of compassion, but the lack of joy. And boy, is that challenging!

The elder brother rejects the father by despising his joy. And the question at the end of the day is: do we have this joy? Or how do we get this joy? Or how do we experience this joy?

It is an important question because according to this passage, evidently the lack of this joy is symptomatic of the lack of love, a misunderstanding of God's heart, a confusion over Jesus's mission, and possibly more seriously, mistakenly assuming our false sense of self-righteousness in place to true forgiveness by the mercy and generosity of the father.

How do we get this joy Jesus talks about? I think this passage lays out the answer in at least two steps:

Beholding God's joy

Firstly, by recognising it is the Father's joy. "Rejoice with me," Jesus says in verse 6 and verse 9.

Here Jesus is doing something absolutely remarkable. He is displaying the heart of God's joy. What makes him tick. What really makes God's day. It's our salvation.

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (verse 7) He's high-fiving, chest-bumping, whoop-whopping in heaven when you turn to Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. God rejoices over each and every one of you, Christian!

So the first thing is to see that it is God's joy that is the focus, not just ours, but his as the Father, and his as our Saviour. Before we can rejoice in him, we must first see how much he rejoices over us!

Entering God's joy

Secondly, by entering into his joy. What do I mean: by entering into his joy?

In part, verses 6 and 9, clue us in on Jesus' invitation to rejoice with God. "Rejoice with me." That is: Jesus is calling his hearers, Jesus is calling us, to join him in the very activity that brings him so much joy. By bringing sinners to him. By welcoming sinners in him.

That is the heart of the father's request isn't it? "Join me in welcoming home your lost brother. He is home! He is back!" Or perhaps Jesus might even be suggesting we do even better than this elder brother might have done. Wouldn't it have been absolutely wonderful if it was the elder brother who welcomed lost son, instead of the father? Instead of having to be pleaded with, and coaxed into joining in the celebration, the elder brother should have thrown the party! Maybe even before that, the elder brother might have searched for his younger sibling when he had run away, not unlike the shepherd with the lost sheep and the woman with the coin.

In other words, God involves us in his joy and God enables us to experience his joy by getting us involved in his mission. In drawing a community of people around Jesus, who recognise their lostness and need for forgiveness. In announcing the good news of gospel, joyfully as did the shepherd and the woman. At times even lovingly pleading with tears to those who would reject the offer of the gospel, as the father does to his eldest son.

Do you realise that the greatest good God can give us, the greatest reward God can bestow upon us, is to draw us into his joy? In the parable of the talents, each servant is entrusted with a measure of gold by their master, and when his master returns, do you remember what he say to each servant, the word is actually slave, who has acted faithfully and responsibly?

"Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." (Matthew 25:21 and 23)

Jesus calls us to enter into his joy. By turning to him who rejoices over us. By joining him in rejoicing over lost sons who return home to their heavenly father.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
(Hebrews 12:2)