Jesus was cross…a strange place to find hope!

Despite all the political turmoil, scandals, coarseness, and the polarisation of recent years threatening to drown out all hope, I see hope.

In part, what gives me hope is the public reaction towards hypocrisy, double standards, false promises, and dishonesty whenever these moral failures come to light e.g. Boris Johnson and others who set the Lockdown rules only to break them, or the Post Office scandal, or antisemitism in a Labour party espousing non-racism, or the bullying of young athletes by coaches striving at all costs to meet success criteria.

In other words, as a culture and a nation, we haven’t completely lost sight of what is right and good even if our leaders cannot reproduce the qualities we long to see in the world in their own lives.

And if we dare to look closer to home – nor do we reproduce those standards. We are all tainted with a tendency towards imperfection.

In recent years, anger, disappointment, and frustration have built up towards our political and religious leaders, so it might be a good moment and instructive to stop and listen to Jesus’ red-hot verbal attack on the leaders of his day.

Matthew recorded many of Jesus’ verbal assaults in one chapter – chapter 23. Even as a child, I can remember the profound impact this chapter and others had in forming my moral compass. Sometimes my reaction was simple, more like a pantomime – booing the Pharisees and cheering Jesus – but, I would argue, something of inestimable value has been laid in the ‘Christian’ nations by being marinaded in the Scriptures over many centuries – despite our shocking failures to steer clear of moral failure.

At least we know from what heights we have fallen.

A sample:

‘The Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, therefore do what they say but not what they do, for they say but do not do’

‘Woe to you, Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves nor allow those who are entering to go in’

‘Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup, that the outside may be clean also…you are like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you appear righteous but are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness’

How can there be hope if we are all flawed?

St Paul, a former Pharisee of course, and a target for Jesus’ criticisms, later spoke out in like manner after his conversion to Christ, and in doing so shed light on his former life as a committed Pharisee:

‘Men will…have a form of godliness but deny its power’ 2 Tim 3 v 1-5

And there, in one short verse, is the hope. Paul, formerly Saul who dragged Christians off to prison or stood by as they were, like Stephen, murdered and martyred, had discovered the secret of hope. He had abandoned the outward form of godliness in favour of the power of godliness.

What was this power that Paul had found? And can we? Can our culture find its way back from the hypocrisy of recent years? Can we as churches? Or as individuals? What was the ‘gospel’ (which simply means ‘good news’) of the kingdom that Jesus, the apostles, and Paul proclaimed?

Before we pursue the answer to those questions we need to take one step back.

Had we been alive in Jesus’ day we would have known that the ‘Pharisees-party’ was very popular, as were the Sadducees, their rivals.

Here’s a summary of their message:

1. Israel existed but only under Roman rule

2. Israel, due to her disobedience to the Law, had lost her sovereignty to the Romans

3. Therefore to earn God’s favour once again, and be restored to full sovereignty, complete obedience to the Law of Moses is required

4. In addition to the Law, traditions that ensured obedience to the Law must be observed

It’s an appealing message and offers hope: the hope of self-determination, the overthrow of Roman rule, and the recovery of Israel as a theocracy under the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Paul, and many others, were caught up in the religious-political zeal and joined the Pharisees who set about enforcing the Law of Moses with as much mercy as the present-day Taliban exhibit imposing Sharia Law on their communities. It’s comparable.

As a result of his conversion to Christ Paul had abandoned this approach.

‘But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law has been revealed’ Romans 3 v 21

Apart from the Law! Paul argues that the Law, although good in itself, cannot reproduce its goodness in us, and that ’goodness’, ‘godliness’, or ‘righteousness’ that was in Jesus is available to us, not by human effort, but faith.

‘..the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all’ 3 v 22

It’s the difference between watching a non-swimmer trying to stay afloat in water through effort and a swimmer believing the water will hold them up. It’s the difference between human effort and faith.

When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome he declared his aim, his purpose:

‘We have received apostleship for the obedience of faith among all nations’ 1 v 5

Not obedience to man-made Pharisee-like efforts to obey the Law but the ‘obedience of faith’. A father stands at the bottom of a wall on which he has placed his 5-year-old son telling him to ‘jump and I’ll catch you’. If he trusts that his father will catch him, he’ll jump and it’ll be the obedience of faith.

So…back to the question What was this power that Paul had discovered?

‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; it is the power of God for salvation for everyone’ Rom 1 v 16

Christianity is not an externally imposed set of rules and commandments and our attempt to live by them, good though they are. True Christianity is not a religious duty participating in outward forms e.g. taking communion, being baptised, lifting hands in worship, kneeling to pray, or helping our neighbours – all of these things we may do, once we have become Christians, but, attempting to reproduce this righteousness without the ‘power’, we fall headlong into the Pharisaical ‘holier than thou’ trap of establishing a self-righteousness.

Christianity is not an externally imposed set of rules and commandments

True Christianity is inward not outward. We need the power inside us, like the water we need to believe in the water to hold us up to become a swimmer, we need Christ Himself in us, not just his teaching, or Moses’ Law.

This is the ‘gospel’ the good news that is utterly surprising to so many of us in England surrounded by so many churches and immersed as we have been for centuries in Christian culture and tradition.

In the hours before Jesus’ arrest he spoke to the disciples about this remarkable future in front of them:

‘I will pray to the Father, and he will give you the Spirit of truth who dwells with you but will be in you…then you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you…if anyone loves me…my Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him’

John 14 v 16f

When I heard this, and particularly when I read this for myself, I was astonished; I had thought Christianity was a religion to be adhered to, a set of (good) commandments to follow, an external set of rules, and the teachings of Jesus to obey.

By the time I had reached my teens, I had serious doubts about the reliability of the New Testament, whether Jesus had existed, and, in particular the resurrection. This is not the place to tackle all those questions, but I did find convincing answers to these questions but that still left me with a decision.

I could see that if Christ – in fact, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit - could take up residence in me – then I could be changed from the inside out. But like the non-swimmer struggling to believe the water will hold him/her up, I struggled to come to that point of faith and to ‘take the plunge’, ‘the leap of faith’, or to be more accurate to the New Testament receive the gift of righteousness freely given

Eventually, I did take the plunge and receive the gift.

And that is my source of hope. Not only do I retain hope within a world beset with political and social ills, flaws, and failings, I have hope for myself and all who have stumbled across this secret, the secret that Paul discovered, and many millions of others have since the resurrection of Christ…that He isn’t far off in heaven demanding our obedience but living out His life in us and through us in this world.

I like Paul’s phrase ‘…to all who believe…’. It’s not just Paul’s, it’s the ‘note’ or the music throughout the New Testament.

I could see that if Christ – in fact, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit - could take up residence in me – then I could be changed from the inside out

I wasn’t sure whether to use the title Jesus was cross. The risk is that we think Jesus is cross with ‘me’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Think of Nicodemus the Pharisee who was too scared of his peers, so he came to Jesus at night. Jesus treated him with respect and welcomed him. Or what about St Paul, who had participated in violence and murder against believers? When Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, he said: ‘Why do you persecute me?’ He came to Paul to choose him to be an apostle to Europe. None of us are unloved.

Or, to counter the double negative: All of us are loved.

From its opening pages, the bible is full of this curious love in the face of our sin. When Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves to cover their sense of shame having failed by eating the forbidden fruit, God came to them – He didn’t remain offended and aloof - and provided for what they needed. He came with love.

When Jesus came, he was criticised by the Pharisees:

‘The Pharisees complained saying, ‘Why do you eat with…sinners?’ Jesus answered and said ‘Those who are well do not need a physician, only those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ Luke 5v31,31

So, I have hope, the same hope of any doctor.

Diagnosis complete, we can move on to healing and wholeness, to forgiveness and being filled with God Himself, and therefore…hope.

POSTSCRIPT: Try saying these words as a prayer if you are serious about abandoning everything to follow Christ: ‘Heavenly Father, I abandon all my useless efforts to be righteous. Please forgive me for all my failures. I come to you now with my hands open to receive You and all you want to give me from this point on. Amen.