Grace Party: Escape to Reality Greatest Hits, Volume 3 (8 page)

An earthquake of magnitude 6.3
struck my hometown at 12:51pm this afternoon. I don’t live in Christchurch
anymore, but I heard about it straight away, while driving to the airport. Christchurch
had a major quake last September and about a thousand aftershocks since then,
so I didn’t realize today’s one was a serious disaster until I saw a photo on
an internet terminal at the airport. It was a picture of the Christchurch
Cathedral in ruins. This is the city’s most famous landmark and it had survived
last year’s bigger quake. Now it looks like a bomb hit it.

At the
airport we heard the announcement that all flights to Christchurch had been
cancelled. On our way home we heard that there were likely to be many
fatalities and injuries. We prayed for God’s peace to be on the city and for
wisdom for the search and rescue teams. Already there have been a few stories
of miraculous escapes and rescues. But as I write this, some six hours later,
the number of dead is 65 and climbing.

(Postscript:
The final fatality count was 185 and there were about 2000 injuries. New
Zealand is a small country so everybody was affected in one way or another. I
knew a man who was killed in the quake.)

This
Sunday New Zealanders will go to church looking for answers. The pressure on
pastors to deliver a message of hope in the face of disaster will be enormous.
For some questions there will be no answers this side of eternity. We serve a
God of mystery and we live in a time of uncertainty. But here are four
questions that every Christian should be able to answer:

1.  Is God judging
Christchurch?

No, no, and a thousand times no!
After last year’s earthquake (the first one) several people told me that God
was judging Christchurch for its sins. Their argument ran like this: There was
a move of God in Christchurch in the late 1960s and 1970s that led to much
fruit (including me!). But since then the church has withered and darkness has
flourished. Connect the dots and it’s easy to see that God has had enough, and
that these earthquakes are his judgments for the sins of the city and the
apathy of the church.

Only
they’re not. How do I know? How can I be so sure of God’s purposes for
Christchurch? Because I’ve seen Jesus! And because Isaiah 54:9 tells us that
God is
not
angry with Christchurch or any other city.

The
three chapters of Isaiah 53–55 are a prophetic picture of the new covenant
forged in the blood of Christ. At the heart of that new covenant is an oath
made by God himself, a promise never again to be angry with us. If there’s one
thing we can stand on in this brittle world, it is the steadfast assurances of
our Father.

“Though
the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you
will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has
compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)

Look at the language God is using
here. It’s as if he was anticipating that in times of shaking we would
naturally think he had abandoned us. But he has not!

It’s
true, Christchurch did have a sin problem. But God dealt with it 2000 years ago
at the cross. The cross, not earthquakes, is his remedy for sin. The sins of
Christchurch were forgiven and done away with long before the first settlers
walked the Bridle Path over the foothills. If God were judging Christchurch for
its sins, then heaven help us, for it means the cross was not the one-time
solution that the Bible says it was (Hebrews 10:12).

2.  Is this earthquake an “act
of God”?

You might think so if you work for
the Earthquake Commission. In the insurance industry, the phrase “act of God”
is used in a legal sense to describe events that are outside of human control.
In other words, you can’t sue anyone for an earthquake. But despite the phrase,
it doesn’t follow that you can sue God. He’s no more responsible than you or I.
If you were to take him to court claiming that he was at fault, your case would
be thrown out for lack of evidence.

You
might say, “But God made the planet and the tectonic plates. Surely he is the
first cause of all things and therefore ultimately responsible for the death
and destruction in Christchurch?” I disagree. God is on the throne and nothing
will ever change that. But he is not in control of everything that happens here
on Planet Earth.

Think
about it. God is not willing that any should perish, yet people perish. The
fact that Jesus raised people from the dead tells us that some people die
prematurely. In the Old Testament when bad things happened, people like Job blamed
God as a matter of course. But this was not the message Jesus preached (see
John 10:10). Sickness is not from God. Death and destruction are not from God.
We live in a world where the Son of God occasionally has to rebuke storms (Luke
8:24).

We live
after the cross, so we have no excuse for being confused about these things.
God is good and everything he does is good. He never gives us bad gifts and he
is not the author of evil (Deuteronomy 32:4). If this earthquake was an act of
God, then you’d be sinning by helping the hurting and the homeless. But it
wasn’t and you’re not.

Does God
use earthquakes? You bet. He used an earthquake to free Paul and Silas from
prison (Acts 16:26). But don’t confuse
bad stuff that happens
with
redemptive
outcomes that God orchestrates
.

3.  Doesn’t the Bible say there
would be more earthquakes in the last days?

In Matthew 24 Jesus prophesied
that earthquakes in various places would be associated with “the beginning of
birth pains.” Earthquakes often followed major events in the Bible. When Jesus
died there was an earthquake (Matthew 27:54) and when he rose there was another
one (Matthew 28:2). About half a dozen earthquakes feature in the book of
Revelation. You don’t have to be a theologian to see a connection between significant
spiritual events and natural phenomena. But whatever your particular brand of
eschatology, these scriptures should not be used, as they often are, to scare
people into making decisions for Christ. Fear is a poor basis for any
relationship.

God is
reaching out to Christchurch and every other city with love. If we use fear to
motivate people to turn to God, we are misrepresenting his true nature.

There
may be a temptation to manipulate hurting people into making an emotion-charged
decision for Christ. Don’t do it. Romans 2:4 tells us that the most effective
means for leading people to repentance is a revelation of God’s goodness. How
do we reveal that? By preaching the good news, healing the sick and comforting
the broken-hearted. Dark times provide us with an opportunity for letting
Christ shine through us.

4.  What message does God have
for Christchurch at this time?

There’s nothing like an earthquake
to get people’s attention, but do we have something to say? Yes, for God has
entrusted us with a special message for the people of Christchurch. It’s called
his message of reconciliation. At a time like this that message might sound
something like this:

Christchurch,
I love you, I love you, I love you! I love you so much that I sent my Son to
die on the cross to do away with sin. Because of him I am no longer counting
your sins against you. I am not judging you. You are weary but I am your Rest,
your Rock, your Fortress and Deliverer. I am your eternally secure Stronghold.
Find comfort in my love for you.

Cities
will come and go, but my love for you is everlasting. The mountains and the
hills will be shaken and removed, but my unfailing love for you will never be
shaken. Be comforted and rejoice! The covenant of my peace that I have made
with my Son on your behalf will never be removed.

Redeem the time. If you meet
someone from Christchurch, don’t condemn them with a false gospel of judgment.
Love on them. Reveal the Father to them. Cantabrians have had five straight
months of bad news. They need to hear some good news and you have some. Tell
them about God’s unshakable covenant of peace. Let them know that some of their
questions have wonderful answers.

A word after

As I mentioned, we heard about the
earthquake on our way to the airport. We literally heard about it as it
happened. We were listening to a radio reporter who was visiting a Christchurch
School. “Here comes an aftershock,” she said. “Oh, that’s a big one.” It certainly
was.

After
seeing the pictures at the airport and learning that all flights into the city
had been cancelled, we drove home in shock. “That could’ve been us,” we
realized. (At one time we had considered moving to Christchurch.) “Imagine
going through that with small children.” Our hearts went out to all the
families who’d been through the quake.

Back
home I filled the paddling pool with water. It was a hot day and the kids
wanted to have a splash. I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was too hot
to work and my mind was 700 miles away.

Something
was stirring within me so I sat down to write. I became oblivious to the passing
of time. I missed dinner and then I missed putting the kids to bed. Before I
knew it the day had gone, but I was done. Whatever was in me and needed to be
expressed had been written down and posted on the blog. I felt better.

What had
stirred me?
I guess I was motivated by the prospect of fearmongers
seeking to profit from Christchurch’s suffering. I’d seen it happen before. Perhaps
you have too. A natural disaster occurs or someone goes nuts with a gun, and
the old covenant prophets come out of retirement. “This is God’s judgment for
your sin,” they say. “Rend your garments and repent!”

That sort
of carry on never bothered me before Christchurch. But the thought that it
could happen to
my
city in her hour of pain was too much to bear. I had
to say something.

Besides,
I felt totally useless living in the safety of far-away Auckland. Writing what
I hoped would be words of comfort seemed like a small way to help out. As I later
explained to a friend, “I may not be in a position to move rubble, but
hopefully I can stop people throwing stones.”

Another Superman movie has just
opened. I’ll probably go see it. I like Superman. What’s not to like? He’s a
cool guy.

But what
puzzles me is how some churches are using Superman to promote Jesus. I kid you
not.

I read
in the paper this morning that the new
Man of Steel
movie sold a
gazillion tickets on opening weekend partly because US mega-churches
“encouraged congregations to see the film by likening the superhero to Jesus.”

Now I
love dissecting movies to see how they convey timeless messages of love,
redemption, and grace. It’s one of my favorite past-times. But I don’t know
that I would tell my kids to go to a Superman movie to learn about Jesus.

That’s
like listening to elevator music to learn about Mozart.

Jesus is
infinitely bigger, better, and greater than Superman and every other super-man
or god we create out of our imagination. Indeed, this is what makes Jesus so
cool. He’s more magnificent than we can comprehend. He’s awesome beyond words.

So
rather than using a
lesser
to describe a
greater
, it might be
more fun to consider some of the ways the greater is superior to the lesser. So
here are twelve ways Jesus is better than Superman:

1.   Jesus is human. He’s one of us. He
gets
us. He
became one of us so that we might be as he is (1 John 4:17). As an ancient
theologian once said, the Son of God became the son of man so the sons of men
might become the sons of God. There will only ever be one Superman, but Jesus
makes everyone awesome.

2.   Jesus is
God with us
(Matthew 1:23). He’s not
remote and unapproachable and he doesn’t live at the North Pole. He resides in
the House of Grace, not the Fortress of Solitude, and his home is open to all.

3.   Jesus has a better Dad. God vs Jor-El is no contest.
Jor-El couldn’t save his own small family, but God saves billions.

4.   Jesus is fun. He has friends of all stripes. He’s not
aloof and unrelatable. He doesn’t fly in and fly out; he abides, he sticks
around (John 14:23). He’s the life of your party.

5.   Jesus isn’t a glorified boy scout. He’s got better things
to do than play policeman. Instead he gives strength to the weary and heals the
sick and delivers the oppressed.

6.   Jesus can raise the dead without flying loops around
the world and messing up time for everybody.

7.   Jesus isn’t conflicted. He doesn’t sweat the whole
“how can I save everybody when there’s only one of me?” dilemma. Jesus can save
everyone.

8.   Jesus is himself all the time. He doesn’t hide behind
a weeny alter ego. He’s Jesus 24/7. When you need him, you can find him —
anywhere, anytime.

9.   Jesus doesn’t treat wrongdoers as their sins deserve
(Psalm 103:10). He doesn’t combat sin with violence but grace. He turns enemies
into friends, haters into lovers, critics into converts. He doesn’t fill
prisons, he
empties
them.

10. Jesus couldn’t care two-hoots about defending the
American dream. He has a better dream, a kingdom-sized dream, and everyone gets
to participate in it (Revelation 5:9).

11. Jesus can never be defeated. Not ever. He’s not
vulnerable to green rocks or rogue scientists or Kryptonian generals. Not even
death can touch him.

12. Jesus is better than anything we could’ve come up with.
His love is immeasurable and his grace is abundant (Ephesians 2:7, 3:18). He’s
already done so much that if they told his story in comic books, you could
never collect the whole set (John 21:25).

And finally, a bonus point…

13. Jesus is real. His story can intersect your story, and
when that happens you’ll see that it’s no contest. Jesus is the best!

A word after

Google Superman and Jesus and you
will find many websites devoted to showing the similarities between the two,
but as far as I know my article above is the only one that swings the other
way. And I swing waaaaay the other way. Maybe I’m not as big a fan of Superman
as I used to be. It’s all the internal conflict he has to deal with. And the
pretending. I just don’t get it. That seems way too stressful to me.

If I was
Superman there’s no way I’d hide in a newspaper office. I’d be wearing my cape and
flying around all the time.

Here’s a
serious question. If you could invite either Jesus or Superman to your party,
who would you invite? For me that’s an easy question. Superman would be dull
company; Jesus would be the life of the party.

Can you
imagine Superman attending the wedding at Cana? First off, I don’t think Superman
would attend a wedding. Or if he did he wouldn’t stay long. He’s always got
places to go and more important things to do.

Then
there’s the we-ran-out-of-wine problem. How would Superman fix that? I suppose
he could fly to the bottle shop, but does he even have money? How would he pay
for it? How would he carry six stone jars?

The
Bible says Jesus “manifested his glory” at that wedding. That means he did his
first miracle there, turning water into wine. Superman wouldn’t give you a
miracle. He’d give you a lecture on moderation.

“You
guys ran out of wine? You’ve probably had enough to drink then.”

Thanks,
Supes, you killed the party. Everyone just went home.

One of
the things I love about Jesus is that he is not a moralizer nor a Bible-basher.
Jesus is fun.

That
couple in Cana who got married hit a home run when they added Jesus to their
guest list. I’m glad they did for they show us that life with Jesus is meant to
be joyful. Those who receive him are abundantly blessed!

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