God's Thunderous Love

Luke 9 “⁵¹ As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent messengers on ahead of him. Along the way, they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, ⁵³ but the Samaritan villagers refused to welcome him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?” ⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and spoke sternly to them, ⁵⁶ and they went on to another village.”

Last night I woke up to the sound of the wind.  It came up so suddenly that it was surprising. I listened for a while and it didn’t seem to subside.  In fact I fell back asleep before it did.  I woke this morning to find a warning of severe weather for our area on my phone for our area.  I watched he radar and yep, about 2:30 last night a storm rolled through.

I find the weather interesting in that though there are things we can do to prepare for what is coming there is nothing we can do to change what is coming.

It is a force that is greater than our ability to affect it. 

God’s love is like that.

God loves you and there isn’t a thing you can do about it.

My nephew was in Michigan over the course of this past week. He lives in San Diego. He’s 28 years old and I just met him for the first time. He’s 28 and he saw his grandma, my mother-in-law for the first time. He is her first grandchild. She has loved him since the day he was born but was never able to be face to face with him until this week. It was a tearful first meeting and a tearful goodbye when they left. She loves him and there’s not a thing that he can do about it.

They spent the last two days here in Ludington with us. We took them out to the break water to see the lighthouse.  The waves were high enough that there were several places where we were getting wet from the spray when they crashed into the wall. I was a little on guard because Eli was having way too much fun running around while all I was seeing was the dangerous churning cold Lake Michigan water.  My experience tells me that there are forces of nature that can easily be too much for us to handle.

When I think of God and what God does I start with psalm 23 “he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” Those times when my spirit is at peace I am indeed thankful. When I walk through the valleys of life the promise of God is that he will be with us. For that I am thankful.

God gives us what we need to get through this life. But God has more for us than just getting through doesn’t he?

God has a thunderous love that cannot be stopped.  We cannot convince God to stop loving us. We cannot stop the wind or the thunder or the waves but God so loved the world that he gave his only son who could. 

Jesus can calm the storms of life. When Jesus came and taught his disciples what it means to follow him did he let them stay where the waters were calm? Did he make life easy for them? Or did he challenge them to grow; to go and do. When the people needed food Jesus told the disciples to feed them.

When Peter wanted to do the impossible Jesus invited him to step out of the boat. When Jesus was leaving the work of the Kingdom to his disciples he did say go and rest in the pasture he said go and make disciples. Why?  Because he loves us with an unstoppable love. 

I don’t think Jesus was interested in starting and growing a new religion. Jesus was interested in going to great lengths to demonstrate God’s unstoppable love.

When Jesus said that he would have to suffer. Peter protested.

To this Jesus said “Get behind me Satan.” Because Peter lost sight, or didn’t understand the lengths Jesus was willing to go to demonstrate the unstoppable love of God.

Jesus mission was unstoppable.  He came because God loved the world and wanted to save it. To be a part of that mission is a powerful thing. It feels good and right even though it may not be easy or comfortable at times.

In the scripture lesson today James and John whom Jesus nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” in a different portion of scripture were with Jesus as he was headed to Jerusalem to face great suffering. They were going through Samaria, a land that was a rival to the Jews of that day. They did not support or appreciate religious pilgrims traveling through their land on their way to Jerusalem. So when James and John went to make preparations for Jesus in a Samaritan village it was not surprising that they were not met with warm hospitality.

James and John were the sons of thunder for a reason. It probably wasn’t because they were timid. They were likely very confident fellows to begin with then add on the fact that they are now following a very powerful and convincing man who happens to be the son of god.  

These sons of thunder with all their confidence were rejected by people in the Samaritan village. How dare they?

“Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?”

They misunderstood, or perhaps they forgot that God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

When we isolate ourselves, we miss out on the cross check of ideas that prevents extreme and unhealthy thinking.

James and John were probably by nature bold and aggressive guys. It was a sort of natural reaction for them to say what they said. But it took the intentional teaching and mentoring by Jesus to bring them into an appropriate understanding of God’s will.

We don’t know if they came to that understanding at that moment or they just learned that they ought not to say things like that in front of Jesus. Either way it was learning and a growth moment for the brothers called “sons of Thunder.” These sons of thunder, Jesus called to be his disciples.  He knew their temperaments. He knew their personalities. He knew their weaknesses but he knew that he could use them and he can use anyone because he can and does love anyone and everyone.

Last week we talked about recognizing that the same spirit is in you is also in me when we are in the family of God through Jesus Christ. And with all of our earthly wisdom and the wisdom God has granted us individually, it still is only a fraction of the wisdom that God grants when we are gathered together sharing our spiritual gifts.  

When we place our trust in Jesus and believe that he is the son of God. God doesn't love us anymore because he already loved us enough to die for us.  But when we do believe and trust we start to remove the barriers that are in our lives that prevent us from fully experiencing God’s love. That process of removing barriers will inevitably make us more and more Christ-like in our nature.

I knew my nephews great grandmother.  She died in 1999. She is an example for me of how much Christ can shape a life. She demonstrated the fruit of the sprit not though effort but by being transformed by Christ’s presence her whole life. It is unfortunate that my nephew was never able to meet her. Her direct influence will never be felt.  But there are others that will love him and there are many that he can share that love with. This is the mission of Jesus, to share the love of God as far and as wide as possible.

Letting God’s thunderous love in to transform you is your path of discipleship.

So how is it with you today? Will you seek out and allow the transformation into Christ-likeness into your life.