LENT • 4

Can you see the Loving Mercy God and Christ His King who Rules from his Cross?

This week’s passage invites us to contemplate how God in His mercy delivers those who turn to God.

reading for: 10 March

John 3:14-21

Christ on the Cross  – God’s Banner of Love and Mercy Over All

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In our Gospel reading this week, Nicodemus visits Jesus at night and the conversation centers around seeing & entering the Kingdom of God (v3). Being born again is to possess and be guided by the Holy Spirit and to see and understand things of the Spirit (v9 – 13). In particular, it is to be able to see Jesus’ life, ministry & actions as a manifestation of God’s love, his being “lifted up” on the cross as the Way of life and the significance and consequence of what God is doing here for all mankind. 

In verse 14, Jesus connects his looming crucifixion with Moses lifting up a bronze serpent with a pole in Numbers 21:4-9 (tomorrow’s reading). Just as those who looked at the lifted-up serpent were purged of the deadly venom in their bodies, those who look to Jesus, lifted-up on the cross, would be purged of the poison of Sin that would bring them ultimate death. 

In verse 16, one of the most well-known verses in the bible, we hear it so often that we don’t really hear it at all. First of all, it is a statement about God’s actions. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” simply means, “The sacrificial giving of God’s Son, is how, God loves the world.” This means that if we want to see the fullness of God’s love, it is first and foremost most evidently demonstrated by the Father’s willingly surrenders his Son and the Son’s willingly submission to the Father’s Will, both for our sake. Only quite secondarily is it a statement about the consequences of those actions for human beings.

Verses 17–21 elaborate on the claim that God has sent His Son, as the Light, to save this unrepentant and hostile world and that those who would look to this Light, believe this claim -choosing to ‘come to the light’, meaning that we live circumspectly, with great reverence, fear and obedience to God. 

  • REFLECT

    Are you ‘born again’? Can you see and understand the things of the Spirit? Are you drawing closer to Christ our ‘Light’ than ever before or do you feel your love for Christ growing cold? Persevere and don’t give up. Keep drawing closer to him, keep walking in the Light! “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8. Take time out this Lent season to fast and pray.

reading for: 11 March

Numbers 21:4-9

The Serpent on a Pole – God’s Loving Mercy Towards His People

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    In today’s passage, Israel is out wandering in the wilderness. They have left Egypt not too long ago but they have totally forgotten the burden of bondage and abuse by their old task-masters. Instead, in verse 5, they remember the “good-ol’ days” of constant food supply back in Egypt, compared with their current sparse supplies, dangers and having to depend entirely on God’s providence and mercy out in the desert.  So they quarrel with Moses, accuse God of unfaithfulness, and accused Moses of poor, failed leadership.

    In verse 6, God, in harsh, disciplinary action, gives no good gifts in response to their needs and complaints, but instead delivers a devastating punishment for the complainers. Poisonous snakes are now dispatched by God in a ruthless, lethal response to their arrogant complaints and hardened hearts.  

    In verse 7, when their hearts are humble and open again, the story does a complete turnaround. Now the people who complained are submissive and repentant. In response, the God who dispatched death now turns and provides a way of health. Whereas verses 4–6 portray failed, abrasive circumstances, vs. 7–9 in contrast offer a picture of submission and corresponding generosity on God’s part. Here by the show of God’s devastating power, those who were “impatient” have realised they must come to terms with God’s sovereign rule and that protest against that rule is not only futile, but self-destructive. Israel submits, even though the terrible, life-threatening circumstances of the wilderness persist unchanged.

    Moses, who in v. 5 had been a target of their accusation, now exercises his priestly and intercessory role on behalf of the people. And, as is characteristic with Mosaic prayer addressed to God, the intercession is effective.

    God’s response to the petition of Moses is, as in v. 6, exactly proportionate with the people’s initiative. When they accuse, God responds negatively. When they submit, God responds positively.

    Both transactions are evidences of God’s uncompromising, unaccommodating majesty, which can be either to give life or to cause death (see Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7). Now God, with enormous inventiveness, provides a bronze replica of the destructive serpent of Num. 21:6. In this gracious action, God takes the “serpent” of v. 6, a real live creature of the wilderness, and transforms it into a stable, enduring, and salvific image. The “serpent” is now a statue set up to be visible to Israel as an antidote to poisonous serpents. Because Israel was rebellious, God sent real, destructive snakes. When Israel was repentant, God sent a “saving snake”. Not only is this image a symbol of God’s generous, faithful capacity to save and to let Israel live, but the it is understood in the narrative to have real, effective, salvific power. That is, Israel could “look … and live” (v. 9).

  • REFLECT

    Having been baptised, do you crucify your old self daily? Or do you allow old habits, patterns and desires imprison you? The Lord ‘disciplines the one he loves’ (Heb 12:6) How do you respond to God when he disciplines you? What are some things you need to take your eyes off in order to keep your gaze fixed on Christ?

reading for: 12 March

Ephesians 2:1-10

Gratitude and Good Works – Our response to God’s gift of Love & Mercy

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    This passage is a classic text about God’s saving activity in Christ with language and images that overflow with rich connotations. Words and phrases are piled on top of one another; expressions are repeated. The passage neatly divides into three parts.

    Ephesians 2:1–3 tells what the readers are saved from. Three images vividly depict humanity’s hopeless state: the corpse (“dead through the trespasses and sins,” v. 1); the slave (“following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,” v.2); and the condemned prisoner (“children of wrath,” v. 3). Each in its own way portrays a devastating predicament, which “we” are powerless to change. We feel a sense of helplessness vs. 1–3.  However, the point of vs. 1–3 is not to arouse guilt, but to remind us of the past from which we have come in order that we appreciate our inclusion in God’s marvellous salvation project & story.

    The next section (vs. 4–7) announces God’s initiative in remedying the human situation, in giving life to lifeless bodies and in elevating them to a place of security (“in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”) beyond the reach of Satan’s still-powerful activity. The enthusiastic language to describe God in v. 4 (“rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us”) and in v. 7 (“the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness”) highlights the joyous mood of praise that echoes through the passage. God is described as the One who initiates and completes the rescue of His entrapped people. 

    Of course the key word for salvation here is “life” - a vitality, vibrancy, and vulnerability essential to the doing of the “good works.” It is not just a good idea or a feeling or just an activity. It is the mystery of Christ and our Christian existence, which is as big as sharing in “the life of God” (4:18). 

    The third and perhaps most familiar section of the passage (2:8–10) turns the spotlight on the self-awareness and activity of those who are saved. They are marked by two distinctive features: a sense of grace and a doing of good works. On the one hand, they know that “life” is a gift of God, the result of divine and not human activity. The repeated use of “save” in v. 5 and v. 8 (coupled in both cases with the phrase “by grace”) indicates that gratitude is the appropriate human response, not merely for the beginning of one’s experience of salvation, but for all one’s days (“by grace you were and are being saved”). With the strong focus on grace in this text, we can conclude that the way of forfeiting salvation is ingratitude, a self-confidence that presumes that one’s accomplishments, whether material or spiritual, are one’s own—what the text means by “boasting.”

    On the other hand, salvation also means doing what we were created to do—“good works.” This is  to be our way of life (“that we should walk in them”) (v. 10). Gratitude is not passive but is in fact characterised by activity. But how are the “good works” of v. 10 different from the “works” of v. 9? They may look alike; that is, they may be the same in form and substance—speaking the truth with neighbours (4:25), working so as to have something to share with the needy (4:28), acting with kindness and forgiveness (4:32). What differentiates them is their grounds: gratitude, or anticipated reward. We are not working to attain salvation (it is God’s gift to us). We are working out of the gratitude of our hearts (for His gift of salvation). 

  • REFLECT

    Do you wake up strong with gratitude to God daily for His blessings and your salvation? In what ways could you help LG members make gratitude a way of life and culture in your Life Group? How might your salvation be ‘active’ and be reflected at home, work and play? Discuss with your cell members.  

reading for: 13 March

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 

Suffering & Pain – the Place where God Meets and Redeems Us

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    Among other things, Lent is the season in which the church comes to terms with suffering, especially that suffering which is the result of human sin. It is in the context of their suffering that women and men often encounter most seriously their need for God. And it is in a narrative of great suffering, that of Christ’s passion, that God’s response to human need becomes clear. Yet the matter of suffering is never, within the Lenten perspective, an issue for its own sake.

    Suffering—both Christ’s and ours—is always recognised as an occasion for God’s mercy. The Friday before Easter is always Good. The appeal to our own suffering is always so that we may seek God’s redemption or give thanks for redemption already experienced.

    Psalm 107 surfaces and portray human distress painfully and transparently. Yet the beginning and ending are rooted in praise. We can read Ps. 107 as the song of pilgrims who, journey through great and dangerous struggles in order to reach the Holy City. But typical of many psalms, the poem far transcends its original life setting and speaks to a wide variety of human conditions. The pilgrim is everyman/everywoman, and our destination is towards total communion with God. 

    The lines that introduce the entirety of Ps. 107 (vs. 1–3) reminds us that as part of God’s family, we have only one truly persistent reason to give thanks - God’s “steadfast love endures forever.” His love is present in good times and in bad, present when we deserve it and when we do not.

    Psalm 107:17–20 traces a dramatic cycle familiar to the faith-community. Men and women sin and inevitably experience the consequences of their sin: great suffering (vs. 17–18). Out of their misery and desperation they cry to God for deliverance (v. 19a). And as a result of their petition, God responds in mercy by intervening, so that the cycle of sin and judgment is broken (vs. 19b-

    20): “he saved them from their distress.”

    Because the worshiping congregation is in the presence of such an enduring narrative of salvation by the hands of such an enduring and loving Redeemer—we are summoned to give thanks (vs. 21–22).

  • REFLECT

    In this Psalm, the story of human suffering is placed within a redemptive perspective. Sometimes we suffer because of factors completely beyond our control. But often we suffer because of our pride and sin. The final word, however, is not our suffering, but God’s mercy. This critical reality is that to which the Lenten season points. It is, indeed, the very truth of Calvary and Easter. We would destroy ourselves, but the God of mercy steps forward to prevent that. And so we, the “redeemed of the LORD” testify that “he is good.”

    In your moments or seasons of suffering, are you able to sense the love of God reaching out to you? If yes, give thanks and testify of His goodness to LG members, colleagues and friends so they too may be encouraged. If not, take time to fast and pray this Lenten season and seek to know His merciful and generous heart towards you and those around you.  

Season of LentCNL