“You Won’t Believe This …”

The prophet’s vision of our Lord in Isaiah 53 is intriguing. It was so revolutionary that the Prophet asked: “will anyone believe this?” I re-echo the prophet’s question today and ask: “can we live our lives as if these words of the Prophet are also true concerning the life and ministry of our Lord. Consider the words:

“That He was a Tender Plant….” Jesus was (and still is…!) amazingly easy to hurt, easy to bend his words and easy to break his plan; our Lord was surrounded by evident human weaknesses. His history, his exposures, his manner of life and his commitment to the people made it easy to wound Him. Consider this, anyone could have raised foolish questions about his birth (was it really an Angel or a Roman Soldier? “Mary, Be Real!”), Anyone could have questioned his pedigree as a prophet (since when did Nazareth produced a sage not to talk of a prophet?), anyone could have questioned his authenticity (He was not linked with the Jerusalem machine, He carried no letter of recommendation from any denomination; even the 1^st Synagogue of Nazareth disowned him… yet he is our Lord!) Today, I see a hardness of structure of the Church which is not right, I see a hardening of the boundaries of our love, our Laws are rigid, our wise positions are immovable; our traditions does not change – for any reason. WE ARE NOT TENDER. We need to remember “He grew up before him as a tender plant…”

He Grew Up as a Root Out of Dry Ground: It is amazing how Christian ministry has been reinterpreted in our days. Ministry has been elevated from being a simple service offered with grace, to a money guzzling machine that must be serviced. This machine model has made it so difficult for some of us to focus on Christ who is calling us to serve. We need to remind ourselves therefore that Christ “came forth out of dry ground” We need to convince ourselves that we can serve God’s people simply, like the root; with no pretensions. As a Pastor, I share in the struggles of my brothers and sisters in ministry, I see good people, great servants who allow themselves to be neutralized and hounded out of ministry because of limitation of resources. May I say that the dry ground is a gift, The Dry Ground Model is a valid model; it is a representation of our Lord who was such a root.

A Man acquainted with Grief: Ours is a generation in pursuit of happiness. We run so hard in this pursuit of happiness that we lose JOY. It is the blessedness of our calling that we have the privilege of developing a conscious friendship with grief. Friendship with grief includes a humility that says I do not have the answer! I am content to wait and to trust in the Lord. We must be strong enough not to try to give an answer to questions that cannot be answered. I ask you my friends to let us together Embrace His Call to Tenderness, Receive His Gift of Dryness, and Allow His Visit with Grief. Remember, the prophet said “he was as a root out of dry ground…”

Originally written February 24th 2008 for Victory Court RCCG