Approaching the Throne

Approaching the Throne

        -“Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among his great men.” Psalms 25:6

By the time this newsletter reaches you, Thanksgiving will be one day past. In fact, in spite of gorging around the table only hours prior, there’s a better than average chance your stomach will have already begun to growl with hunger again. So many of our celebrations are so fleeting and temporary. The time we spend preparing for them dwarfs the event itself, and soon enough we are already pushing on to the next mark on the calendar. For far too many the peacefulness and camaraderie of the Thanksgiving table is jettisoned quickly for the cut throat and blood thirsty competitiveness of Black Friday shopping. Trees go up, lights are strung, decorations are packed or unpacked. Our society is great at hustle and bustle, fantastic at looking ahead, unsurpassed at busying ourselves with the next activity on the horizon. What we need however, is a healthy lasting dose of gratitude. 

Gratitude cannot be done in a hurry, it cannot be squeezed into a schedule. It requires humility, time, the context only provided by history, and most of all, honesty. We saw a great example of this in our last episode of The Chosen in Nicodemus. When discussing the arrest of John the Baptist with his student Shmuel, Nicodemus was quick to point out how limited our understanding of God really is. We can know Scripture and we can draw inferences from God’s faithfulness, but at the end of the day, God does not conform to our view of Him. We are to conform ourselves to His plan for us, which is unknowable and impossible to predict. Nicodemus saw this as the exciting revelation that it is, and he was grateful to still be learning even in his advanced age. The gratitude of Nicodemus was driven by his honest humility and his time spent searching for God (a search, by the way, that is never in vain.) Most importantly however, this gratitude fostered in him a hopeful sense of wonder that allowed him to open himself to God’s guidance in a way that the cynical and narrow skepticism of Shmuel was blind to. 

But I get it. Looking around the world today and even within our own community there can be precious little to seem grateful for. The “if it bleeds it leads” mentality of much of our reporting only glorifies or at least accentuates violence, tragedy, and drama. We understand that good news is rarely if ever celebrated or elevated. But the truth is that, despite our perceptions, we have every reason for unending gratitude. As proof for this we can look to a question about taxes. (Bear with me.) “‘Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’” (Luke 20:22-25) Many of us will likely remember this exchange but I’d offer that it has something else perhaps we hadn’t considered. Yes, it’s a commentary on spending and authority. But it’s worth noting, the coin belonged to Caesar because his image was imprinted on it. Genesis records for us that we are made in God’s image. His image is imprinted on each and every one of us. If we are to “give to God what is God’s” then we should understand just how much that entails. Caesar’s face was imprinted on all the coinage in the realm because that was what he cared about. The citizenry should be kept safe and growing so that the tax money will flow unabated. Let Caesar (or Uncle Sam) concern themselves with the cash and coin, God is interested in your heart, your mind, your soul. He has undertaken to knit you together specifically, to breathe life into you specifically, to sacrifice His Son to atone for your sins specifically. This is neither accidental or incidental, which is a source of neverending gratitude.

How about an example. Again we return to the well of taxation. Zacchaeus may have been a ‘wee little man’ but he was also a tax collector from the Corleone school of business. A public official in name only, he was charged with the collection of Roman taxes but everything available that’s known about him suggests he was closer to gangster than your typical IRS agent. A reviled figure in his community for his cooperation with the Romans and his corruption toward his duties, Zaccheaus is as despicable a figure as one can imagine. He’s not one that would’ve been found welcome around too many Thanksgiving tables to say the least. But the message of Jesus and the power of God is glorified through this wee little criminal perhaps more efficiently than any other person in Scripture. In just ten short verses and one sentence spoken from Jesus we see a dramatic transformation. Zacchaeus was forced up into a tree as his small stature kept him from seeing Jesus as He traveled through Jericho. No one in the crowd was willing even to step aside for this social pariah, but his eagerness to see the Savior is proved by his climb up a tree. Upon seeing him Jesus stops and says merely the following, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:5b) Jesus showed favor on an inveterate sinner. It changed this man’s life. He gave half of what he had to the poor and pledged to repay anyone he had wronged four times over what they had taken from them. Jesus clarified the point for any who still didn’t see it, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) If that is true of someone as venal and corrupt as the crooked taxman from Jericho, then it is obviously true for you as well. And if the gratefulness that Zacchaeus experienced had the power to completely alter his life, then that gift is offered to you too.

We have a very limited understanding of the word gospel itself. Many believe it is merely a way to refer to the first four books of the New Testament. Some use it interchangeably with the Bible as a noun describing God’s Word. These are accurate uses enough but miss a critical part of the context. The Latin term is bona adnuntiatio, the Greek of which is evangelion, from whence we derive the word evangelism. What is important about the Latin term however is how it was utilized and understood. Such a ‘gospel’ or good news was not inherently religious in nature but martial. Roman generals would send out a “gospel message” to the peasantry to announce a military victory and the defeat of a deadly enemy. The people were then assured that they were saved. But understand, the message was only sent out after the victory had already been accomplished. This is how we must understand our Gospel message. The war is already over. The battle has already been won. Victory has already been achieved. The enemy already defeated, we are saved. If you cannot find reason enough to find gratitude in that, then you just aren’t trying. The same Heavenly Father who assured this victory is extending to you the fruits of such a success. Given freely as a gift. Gratitude, an overwhelming and life changing gratitude, is an entirely appropriate response. 

That’s the same God we pray to, for the record. The same one that desires to know us, and for us to know Him. There’s a great quote from the movie Shadowlands, attributed to C.S. Lewis in the movie about him. When asked about prayer he responds, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.” If you cannot find much in your life that would lend itself to gratitude, then be grateful for the ability to change! “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed within us.” (Romans 8:18) If a criminal, so set in his ways to rise to the level Zacchaeus was, can be changed by the gratitude of a conversation with God, then so can you. If a brilliant mind such as C.S. Lewis can be altered with communion with God, then so can you. If Nicodemus can still be grateful for the mysteries of God even after a lifetime of searching, then so can you. The victory achieved by Christ is yours. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” (Romans 8:17) Perhaps there were a few folks you wished hadn’t been around the Thanksgiving dinner table this year, perhaps the pain of those missing was more on your mind, perhaps you were the one without a place to go. The holidays can highlight so much to depress us, to despirit us, or discourage us. It is even more important that we keep God’s faithfulness at the forefront of our mind and etched at the core of our hearts. To engender within us an unyielding gratitude that would be alien to the rest of our human race. Because gratitude has a short half life, but on that token so does doubt. And since you’ll need to refresh your heart often at the well of either one of these I’d strongly encourage the former. “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:16-17) 

Jordan Williamson