He Gets Us Week Four: Struggle
Pastor Rick Henderson
May 6-7, 2023
How do these videos hit you? How does that video hit you? Did Jesus have financial struggles? I agree with this video. He did. But for some reason, saying it out loud messes with me. If you feel it messing with you, too, that’s OK. Sometimes it’s good to be messed with. Here is a question that I ask myself and, from time to time, I like to ask other people as well.
QUESTION: If you’re wrong, do you want to know?
If I say yes, the only thing I have to lose is my ego. And learning the truth means I gain a better relationship with reality. If I say no, the only thing I have to gain is my ego. And I lose my relationship with reality. None of us like being corrected. But none of us should despise being corrected so much that we ignore truth and break up with reality.
If you and I can look it at it that way, as crazy as it may sound, being corrected can be a joy. Every time we learn, every time we admit that we were wrong is a moment in which we upgrade our relationship with reality. That’s awesome! With that in mind, let’s take an eyes-wide-open look at Jesus.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT JESUS
- Born into a low-income family.
- His first nursery was where they fed animals.
- Low-income, blue-collar workers crowded the delivery room.
The very first people who came to celebrate, adore, and worship Jesus—were people who embodied a blue-collar, agricultural lifestyle. Those of you who grew up on farms get this the best. They were shepherds. They smelled like a hard day’s work. What exactly did that smell like? It was sweat and dirt and sheep. How many of you nurses are letting that crowd in the room with mom and the new baby?
- The primary income earner in his home died early.
The last time Joseph, Mary’s husband, was mentioned was when Jesus was 12. We don’t know if Joseph died during Jesus’ teen years or during his 20s. Whenever it was, the loss of his income put a financial strain on the family. There was no life insurance. There was no Aflac.
- Relied on crowdfunding to cover all the costs of his travel and work.
LUKE 8:3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Just like 100% of our church is funded by your financial giving, Jesus’ ministry was 100% crowdfunded. And it appears that the majority, if not all of the givers, were women.
- He wasn’t homeless, but he didn’t exactly have a home.
MATTHEW 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
When Jesus said this, it was in response to some guys who wanted to follow him and do ministry with him, but they weren’t willing to pay the cost that came with it. I think there is room to debate how literally Jesus intended these words to be taken. What is clear is that he was telling these dudes, if you follow me, you will have less stuff. If you follow me, you will have less financial security. And as long as your significance, comfort, and security are found in things—you will only have less if you follow me.
We’re probably at the point where we need to acknowledge a tension. Jesus was fully human and also fully God. All of our imaginations combined aren’t enough for us to understand how wealthy he is and how powerful he is. Yes, lowly shepherds were at his birth. But there was an army of angels too.
It would be wrong to think of Jesus as destitute. When he was crucified, Roman soldiers gambled over who got to keep his clothes. I’m sure it wasn’t Jewish Gucci, but his clothes were nice. He was humble and lived in humble circumstances. His entire human life, he navigated poverty, as did 99% of the human population at that time in history. I want us to consider this.
What made Jesus EXTRAORDINARY was that he was so ORDINARY.
He navigated real-life stuff. He had to struggle and work like us. He knew what it was to have less than what he needed. And yet, he never responded with fear, worry, jealousy, or sin of any kind.
HEBREWS 4:15-16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Why is it important to take the time to press into this? Before I answer that question, I need you to answer a question for me. How many of you know what it’s like to be reduced to one feature or fact about you, as though it defined you? It doesn’t really matter if that feature was the reason that people accepted you or rejected you.
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your academic performance or intelligence?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your net worth?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your skin color?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your body type or level of sexual attractiveness?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your age?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your gender?
- Who knows what it’s like to be reduced to your vote or to a viewpoint that you have?
- Does anybody know what it’s like to be reduced to a decision in your life that you’d give anything to go back and do over again?
Are you with me? I don’t know if you’ve met people, but this is how they operate. Have you met people? It’s common for all of us to have moments in which we’re reduced to one thing or a handful of things about us. It’s so frustrating when that is used as a license for rejection or mistreatment. But even when being reduced to one thing is the reason for us being accepted, that’s demeaning too. There is something in every human heart that desires to be truly seen, truly known, truly understood.
In fact, that’s what intimacy is. The height of intimacy is being fully known, fully understood, and fully accepted. Intimacy is a beautiful, powerful, awesome thing. But that also explains why it is so scary. What happens if someone else fully knows me, they fully understand me, and then they reject me? That’s a pain that I don’t know if any of us really know how to deal with. That’s why we all have moments where shrink back and hold back. If they don’t truly know me, they can’t truly reject me, right? Has anyone ever bought a ticket to ride that crazy train?
So, let’s bring this all together. Jesus knows everything there is to know about you and your lived experience. Jesus understands everything there is to understand about you and your lived experience. He gets it. He gets you. There are no parts about you that he ignored. Good and bad, he knows it all and understands it all.
And to prove just how much he gets it and gets you. To prove how much he accepts you, I’m talking about limitless, go all the way, leave no doubt, the absolute, complete, full acceptance of you, he stepped into all of it with us.
If Jesus had a best friend, it was a guy named John. John was there for all of it. He saw it up close. He wrote a biography of Jesus’ life that included all the stuff that we need to know: what Jesus did, where he went, how he interacted with people, and all the important stuff that Jesus said.
Now, he didn’t write it all down. In fact, at the end of his biography of Jesus’ life he said that there aren’t enough books in the world to contain all that he learned and watched with Jesus. So, the stuff that he wrote is the most important stuff, the stuff we must get. Everything we read by John is what he considered important, tippy-top importance.
JOHN 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This literally means that he pitched a tent among us. Instead of thinking about camping, there’s actually a much more profound image we’re supposed to think about it. In the Old Testament times, after the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, but before they arrived at their own country, they wandered through the wilderness for a long time.
There was an elaborate tent that was made, called the Tabernacle. The Spirit of God literally descended on and stayed in that tent as a sign that God was fully with his people.
When a pillar of smoke came down on the tent, they knew that God was literally with them. Who used to use flannel graphs? I so which I had a flannel graph right now. When a pillar of smoke came down on the tent, they knew that God was literally with them. When John wrote that Jesus made his dwelling with us, it quite literally meant to tabernacle. John is saying to us that we have to understand that God was literally living with us, as we lived, as one of us. He gets us.
Jesus wasn’t a TOURIST in the human experience. He was a full-time RESIDENT.
He didn’t live above the fray. He stepped into our weaknesses and into our struggles. Gregory of Nyssa was a bishop and theologian in the fourth century. Speaking about this very topic, he said this.
God can enter into human weakness without ceasing to rule the world. –Gregory of Nyssa (335–395)
Does anybody find that encouraging? Isn’t that awesome? God is never too busy or preoccupied to give full attention to you and what you need. How many of you were here for any part of the 1 Peter series? In that series we learned that Peter was encouraging a set of churches to hold fast and stand firm in the true grace of God. Gregory of Nyssa came from one of those churches.
Right now, you are being encouraged by someone who was discipled in a church that took seriously the encouragement to hold fast and stand firm in the true grace of God. I don’t know what’s got you on the struggle bus today, but you have no clue—I’m telling you it’s impossible for you to predict how God is going to use your choice to hold fast and stand firm.
You have to hear this next part. No one is asking you to dig deep and white-knuckle your way through your struggles. No one is asking you to fake it till you make it. That’s an expression that no Jesus follower should ever use. Today, right now, you are being invited to trust Jesus and trust the way of Jesus. When the road is tough, are we willing to keep following or is that where we decide to exit? When we struggle financially, will we keep following him, walking the path he sets, or will we turn aside to something else?
So, what exactly does that mean? I want to give you a framework to think about it, that comes straight from the life of Jesus. But before I do, we need to talk about these three words.
Dependence | Independence | Interdependence
Which of these words should be used to describe the life a mature, devoted, follower of Jesus? Should any of these words not be used to describe the life a mature, devoted, follower of Jesus? What do you think? Which of these are you aiming at with your own life? If you are raising tiny humans, which of targets do you want them to hit?
When our kids were little, they weren’t big fans of sleeping in on Saturday mornings. Was that just my kids or were kids like that too? Man, did we celebrate the day that Caroline was old enough to pour her own cereal. We put little bowls and little boxes on the bottom shelf. We bought the smaller jug of milk to just to buy ourselves a few extra minutes. We celebrated independence.
We all start in life utterly dependent on someone else. The closing chapter of life may be that way as well. I don’t think any of us would say dependence is the goal. But that doesn’t mean that independence is what we should aim at either. Would you consider this with me?
Jesus modeled DEPENDENCE on the Father and INTERDEPENDENCE with others.
I want to challenge you to consider all the ways that Jesus fully depended on his Heavenly Father.
- He was devoted to prayer.
- He said that he only did what he saw his Father doing.
- After his 40-day fast and time of prayer in the wilderness, he was attended to by angels. Jesus was not a model of independent self-reliance.
- He quoted Scripture when he faced temptation.
- He submitted to the will of the Father when he prayed in the garden.
- At the end of the crucifixion, he entrusted his spirit to his Heavenly Father.
I also want to challenge you to consider all the ways Jesus embraced interdependence with others.
- He relied on others to fund his ministry.
- He relied on his disciples to solve problems and fulfill tasks.
- He sent teams out to prepare towns and villages prior to his arrival.
- He entrusted the mission of the gospel to you and me.
This is a picture of Jesus’ life at all times, especially in times of struggle.
Whenever you are reading the gospels, I want to challenge you to look for this. Real quick, I want to look at one line from a sample prayer that Jesus used to teach his followers to pray.
MATTHEW 6:11-12 Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
The one line can be summarized as fully dependent on God and interdependent with others. Jesus was probably referencing how God provided manna during the Exodus. That’s a discussion for another time. The point is to rely on God. But we also have to forgive and look over offenses by each other, in part, because we are designed for messy community with each other. There are many reasons we struggle to live this out. One of the reasons is our economic success.
Affluence DECEIVES us into aiming for INDEPENDENCE.
About 15 years ago, I read about a study into the behavior of drivers and pedestrians in a city. One of the things that the researchers discovered was that the more expensive the car was, the less likely it was that the driver would be courteous to a pedestrian. Conversely, the cheaper the car was, the more likely it was that the driver would be courteous to a pedestrian.
I don’t think that takeaway is that poor people or morally superior to rich people. I think the takeaway is that the poorer you are, the more you have to rely on others and the requires empathy. The wealthier you are the less you have to rely on others. That allows for the atrophy of empathy. Somehow along the way, we actually started to make independence the bullseye.
This is something that was making the rounds on Twitter this week.
(from Twitter) The quickest path to becoming a high-value man:
1. Do not get married
2. Avoid family creation
3. Vasectomy in your 20s
4. Lift consistently
5. Eliminate all sedations
6. Learn Game & Networking
7. Play to your strengths, build wealth
8. Resist easing up on your focus
That is an example of codifying independence, making the mark of a successful life. If we are tempted to think that it’s a fringe example, would you consider this. Derek Thompson is a writer for the Atlantic. Just this week he reported this.
New report from US Surgeon General: The US is in a profound loneliness crisis. Every measure of population-wide friendship, companionship, and social fitness is is worse than it was 20 years ago. –Derek Thompson
One day, one of the disciples was having a little tantrum. He complained to Jesus about what he and others lost because they chose to follow Jesus. This was part of Jesus’ response.
MATTHEW 19:29-30 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Sometimes we approach Jesus with a real need and a real set of hurts and we are hoping that he responds with stuff and money and things. What if Jesus’ response isn’t to resolve our financial struggles but to give us a new community, a new family to be with in the midst of our struggles?
Greg Coles is the Senior Research Fellow a gospel-centered think tank called, The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender. I got to hear him speak this week and this is one of the things he said.
We are ourselves most embodying the image of God when embed ourselves in community. –Greg Coles
What does this mean?
- We open up our homes to each other.
- We open up our spare bedrooms to each other.
- We open up our dinner tables to each other.
- We open up our wallets to each other.
What I’m describing is not a “in case of emergency break glass” application of the gospel. What we’re talking about is the normal, day-in and day-out, ordinary life in the gospel.
Jesus did not give us a way to END our struggles. He gave us a way to be WITH him and each other IN our struggles.
I could tell you stories of financial struggles in my own life. I remember my parents stressing out over me using two paper towel sheets instead of one. There were seasons when we didn’t have paper towel money in my house. I could tell you about an incredibly difficult season of financial struggle ten years ago.
Heather and I owned a home in California but had an opportunity to move to Utah for ministry. Because of the ongoing effects of the 2008 housing crash, we couldn’t sell. So, we rented out our home. We ended up being taken advantage of. I’ll spare you the details, but there were moments that I just knew we’d end up bankrupt. Because of the intentional and calculated strategy of our renter, we lost all of our savings and all my retirement. How did we make it through? It was this.
We learned what it was to depend on God. Have you ever woken up from a dead sleep, realizing that you were praying over financial stress? I have. I don’t if that makes me more or less faithful. But I know what that’s like. And I know that there was no way that Heather and would have made it through without our family and the family of believers stepping into the mess with us. And that’s the way it is supposed to be.
As we wrap up, I need to talk to you from my heart and from the disposition of pastor. A pastor is shepherd and sometimes that means defending against threats. There is this idea out there that if you somehow click into the right combination of faith and obedience, all of your struggles go away. That is not the message of the gospel. The advantages that we have in this country make this easiest and best country in the world start all over again financially. Let’s don’t confuse the American economic successes with the stuff of the gospel.
This is where we should fix our minds.
Jesus did not give us a way to END our struggles. He gave us a way to be WITH him and each other IN our struggles.
The way that he was with us, is the way we get to be with each other. The way that he served us, is the way we get to serve each other. The way that he loved us is the way we get to love each other. This is a time for us to remember and fixate on how Jesus was with us, served us, and loved us.