The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. -Nahum 1:7
Last summer I chaperoned my son’s camp trip to Sesame Place. Because I’m lowkey a child, I was more excited to go on this trip than he was. Unfortunately, no sooner than 30 minutes after arriving at the park, I started to feel raindrops and we ran with some other families from his camp to find shelter under some huge cabanas. As the rain grew from a sprinkle to downpour, I noticed that some of the park goers weren’t pressed about finding shelter, but instead wandered around hoping that the rain would let up.
That day at Sesame Place taught me two things about finding refuge in a storm. One lesson was don’t waste time being in denial about the storm, seek refuge from the storm. As the Covid-19 pandemic wreaks havoc globally, “false prophets” inside and outside of the church are encouraging people to deny reality and go back to “business as usual” because reality is currently terrifying. And personally, there is a strong and relentless temptation to soothe my fears with denial about the gravity of this pandemic and how long it will last, instead of running to God and His sure promises for refuge. I’ve had to remind myself that using denial as a coping mechanism is not the same thing as placing my faith in the rock-solid promises of God. Nahum 1:7 reminds us we are deeply and perfectly known by the God in whom we take refuge in. The refuge that God offers in this surreal season will perfectly fit our particular experience of this storm because the Holy Spirit snitches to God the Father when we pray (Romans 8:26, John 10:27) so that God can speak the exact words that will bring peace even in this storm. When our hearts are overwhelmed with a mixture of fear, anxiety, sadness and helplessness (which leads to despair), I remind myself that God never promised his people that we wouldn’t suffer, but that God sees us, loves us will help us endure in the midst of suffering (Psalm 91:14-15). When my mother and father tested positive for Covid-19 last month and were hospitalized, I had to remind myself that God was with me even in the midst of my fear, anger and doubt, bidding me to come closer (John 20:27).
The second thing I learned was who you seek refuge with while you wait matters. We’ve all been there. You’re stuck on the subway, late for work, cursing under your breath, and then you see a friend standing right across from you. While yall are kiki-ing and catching up, you barely notice that the train is still delayed and tune out the conductor’s announcements. You actually get sad as your stop approaches. The presence and company of your friend puts the wait in perspective. And while we wait for our children to return to school, as we wait for a potential Covid-19 vaccine, and ultimately as we wait for a return to a very “different normal”, we are waiting with a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Jesus, our great high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, is currently waiting with us, listening intently as we pray (Psalm 116:1-2), ever ready to offer the grace and mercy that we so desperately need. Run to him.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:14)
While on his mission of redemption, Jesus promised his followers that the same Spirit that empowered him for ministry (Luke 4:14) would be given to them by the Father (Luke 24:48-49) to empower them to bear witness about His life and His kingdom (Acts 2:18).
United with Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the church is called to be a “holy priesthood”, set apart to mediate the blessings of the Lord in this world as we reflect God’s character of justice and righteousness in word and deed. This is not a new mission, because the church continues the mission of Jesus Christ, empowered by the same Spirit. The good works that the church should be zealous for are merely a continuation of the good works of Christ.
And like the founder and perfecter of our faith, the 21st century church isn’t on mission in a bubble, but in an incredibly broken world. So, how can the body of Christ be pure and reject the temptation to seek power like the world does, reject spiritual adultery (James 4:4) and reflect the glory of the counter cultural Kingdom of God?
Hope in God and reject idolatry (Ezekiel 36:25, Ezekiel 37:23).
The kryptonite to the holiness and purity of the church has always been idolatry (Ezekiel 22:1-4, 36:25, 37:23, 2 Cor 6:16-7:1). Idolatry looks like worshipping and putting our trust in things other than God to deliver us from that which we fear. It looks like trusting in political parties, the government and the military to provide the peace that God promises. It looks like believing a scarcity mindset that prevent us from loving and having compassion for our neighbor. Idolatry leads to hearts that are divided between trusting God and trusting whatever the idol du jour is for salvation.
Without holiness and purity, the church is merely a social service organization and not the salty community of the reconciled that seeks to reconcile the world to Christ. In his word, God reveals that his people are holy because of their relationship with the Holy God (Exodus 19:6, Lev 20:26). And because the church is holy unto God, the church is called to offer pure and undefiled worship (James 1:27, 4:4) in order to reflect God’s glory and to mediate His blessing to the nations (Deut 7:7, 1 Pet 2:2).
In his book, Community of the King, Howard Snyder says that as Jesus disciples, the Church must commit to a pattern of corporate life and a way of relating to one another which is a rejection of, and therefore a challenge to, the social and political structures of the world. In this way, the Church’s very existence becomes both prophetic and evangelistic.
As such, the church shouldn’t regard politics, cultural norms, or speaking truth to power according to the flesh because the purified church is the holy church that is set apart for service to the King of the Kingdom of God, not to political parties or cultural norms. This is isn’t easy in light of the temptation to seek power and influence in the world by aligning ourselves to powerful people, political parties and ideologies in the name of being pragmatic (1 Peter 2:11). I John 3:3 says that everyone who hopes in God purifies himself as God is pure. During this season of fasting, may God’s church reject idolatry and be purified by placing our present hope in the power and presence of God and our future hope in the promise of our coming King.
Lord, please purify your church by your refining, convicting life-giving Spirit so that we can continue your mission of proclaiming and being a living demonstration of the good news of the Kingdom of God.
“…Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also, the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”
– Matthew 27:38-50
The word advent is adopted from the Latin word adventus which means “coming or arrival” and advent season is one of expectant waiting that looks beyond human history and awaits Jesus Christ’s second coming. I grew up Baptist, and so I just recently starting observing advent season and for me, advent is about pushing back against the pervasive “capitalism superbowl” that runs between black Friday and Christmas Eve and leaning into the holy darkness of the “not yet” that I live in as a Christian trying to walk by faith in the midst of an incredibly broken world. As I meditate on waiting for the return of Christ during advent season, Matthew 27 gives some insight into how Jesus endured temptation while He waited to die.
For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. –Romans 13:11-12
If I’m honest, sometimes it doesn’t seem like the light of the triumphant return of Christ is right around the corner. When I check twitter and read the news, it seems like the darkness is getting darker. But even as I type, I’m reminded that to God, “the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with (God)” (Psalm 139).
As Jesus dies on the cross and asks his Father why He has forsaken him, Jesus is reciting Psalm 22. As He suffers, Jesus is also identifying with every person who has ever suffered and wondered where God was. Waiting is not fun and I imagine that waiting to die is a special kind of terrible. While Jesus waits, he’s subjected to cruel and demonic mocking that is eerily similar to the demonic temptation that Jesus endured when he fasted for 40 days before the start of his earthly ministry. Both times, Satan tempted Jesus to doubt His identity.
“And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” –Matthew 4:5-6
Jesus save yourself! You’re hungry right? If you are who you say you are, finesse the situation in order to temporarily deal with your hunger.
“If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” -Matthew 27:40
Jesus save yourself! If you are who you say you are, show and prove that God really loves you! Finesse the situation to temporarily deal with our unbelief.
At the cross, Satan used the mockers to tempt Jesus to be prideful and flex and prove his deity knowing that if He did, that he’d forfeit his destiny as Savior of the world. They also tempt Jesus to use his power in order to change their minds. And finally, they relentlessly tempt Jesus to doubt the Father’s love for him (v.43).
As we live between the already of what Jesus has accomplished in His first coming and the not yet of God’s future glory and go through trials, Satan also whispers to us just like he did to Jesus, “Save yourself. Depend on everything and anything but God.” In the waiting seasons of life, the greatest temptation is to rush everything in order to escape the uncomfortable tension that waiting produces. It’s easy to believe that God isn’t present in our suffering because I know what the song says, but sometimes, we wake up weeping and joy didn’t come in the morning (Psalm 42:10). During those times, we can succumb to the lie that God just doesn’t care (Psalm 43:2).
In the presence of unimaginable insolence, I can’t imagine what kept Jesus from coming down off the cross and revealing who He was to the mockers at Calvary. The crazy thing is that by enduring the shame of the cross, Jesus revealed the character of God by laying down His life to bring about reconciliation between a Holy God and sinful humanity.
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44
Until I see Jesus face to face, I’ll never know for sure, but today I think that Luke’s words help us to see that Jesus’ faith in the word of God is what fueled his ability to withstand the lies of Satan and the horror of the cross. While dying on the cross, Jesus fought the lies of the enemy with the truth that His identity, value and worth wasn’t wrapped up in the perception of the mockers but in the will of God the Father.
God’s word is like a roadmap that reorients the gaze of our heart and mind when we’re lost in the throes of temptation and it’s wild to me that while Jesus waited to die, He used his last breaths to fight temptation by reciting a psalm that spoke to his current situation.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? -Psalm 22:1
Psalm 22 alternates between cries for help and expressions of trust in God’s ability to deliver because it illustrates the contradiction that can tear your soul apart when our living hope and lived experience don’t match up. While Jesus waited to die on the cross, he knew something that no one else quite did. He knew where He came from, He knew where he was going and He knew that His life and death would not be in vain and that is how He endured the cross…for the joy set before Him. This advent season may we follow in the footsteps of our Savior, empowered by His Spirit, and allow the word of God to help us trust while we wait.
What is solitary confinement?
On any given day, people are confined in cells slightly larger than an elevator for at least 22-23 hours a day with no human contact. In New York State alone, there are at least 2,400 people currently locked down in Special Housing Units (SHU), better known as solitary confinement.[1] Prison officials endorse this practice as an effective way of stopping violence in prison and point to it as a corrective measure for problematic inmates. [2] However, numerous studies show that prolonged solitary confinement causes severe psychiatric harm and severe exacerbation of preexisting mental illness. Effects of solitary confinement include the inability to tolerate ordinary stimuli, hallucinations, panic attacks, difficulty thinking, the emergence of revenge/torture fantasies, overt paranoia, and loss of impulse control.[3] A 2014 study of New York City jails found that while only about 7 percent of prisoners spent time in solitary confinement, those people accounted for nearly half of all acts of suicides in prison.[4]
Does solitary confinement reflect biblical justice?
In modern culture, we primarily define justice in a punitive sense as judgment. Bad people commit crimes, and when they are judged and incarcerated for those crimes, we call that justice. But biblically, justice in relationship isn’t the end, it’s a means to an end. In the scriptures, justice…focuses on the action that needs to be taken in order to restore a situation to its intended righteousness.” [5] In fact, the most common word-pair used in scripture to convey our understanding of justice in relationship is “justice and righteousness” (Psalm 89:154, 103:6, 94:15, 33:5).[6] In the bible…when injustice of any kind is present, judicial intervention may be needed to help make things right. In this way the Hebrew word translated justice (mishpat) also has legal connotations and is sometimes translated “judgment”. [7]
In other words, biblically God’s judgment is always redemptive. The biblical goal of justice is restoration of the broken relationships between humanity and God, within humanity itself and between humanity and the rest of creation. We see this clearly in the bible, when God reveals his righteousness through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom 1:16-17) so that the broken relationship between humanity and God can be restored and so that humanity would be set free to live faithfully in our relationships with God and each other. And so, this begs the question, what does it mean for Christians in 2019 to know the steadfast love, righteousness and justice of God (Jeremiah 9:24) and to heed the call of the Lord to “do justice” (Micah 6:8)?
It looks like exposing solitary confinement as inhumane and fighting for a criminal justice system that is restorative, fair and oriented towards the common good, including the good of the currently and formerly incarcerated.[8] People end up in jail because of the brokenness in our relationship within ourselves and with others and because of broken institutions. Solitary confinement serves absolutely no restorative purpose and according to the United Nations, it is psychological torture.[9] Incarcerating broken people, torturing them, and causing and exacerbating mental trauma is the opposite of biblical justice. In light of the fact that 95% of prisoners will be released at some point (80% to parole supervision),[10] the use of solitary confinement ensures that people released from prison will be released in worse condition than when they entered.
How can you pursue justice for prisoners facing solitary confinement?
Click on the link below to read about and to voice your support for the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act S1623/A2500 (currently in the NY State Legislature) here:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/S1623
This bill will restrict solitary confinement, which currently confines people for 23 hours each day, to 15 consecutive days. The bill would also ban the practice for those younger than 21 years old and older than 55, pregnant women, and people with physical and mental disabilities.
[1] http://www.doccs.ny.gov/FactSheets/PDF/currentfactsheet.pdf
[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/solitary-confinement-helps-control-prison-gangs-11552344856
[3] https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1362&context=law_journal_law_policy
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3953781/
[5] Bethany Hoang and Kristen Johnson, The Justice Calling: Where Passion meets Perseverance” (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2016), 20-21.
[6] Moshe Weinfeld, “Justice and Righteousness”-The Expression and Its Meaning”, in Justice and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence, ed Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffman (Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1992), 137, 228.
[7] Christopher J.H. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2004), 257.
[8]https://andcampaign.org/where-we-stand “The Criminal Justice System”
[9]https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/10/392012-solitary-confinement-should-be-banned-most-cases-un-expert-says
[10]https://www.bjs.gov/content/reentry/reentry.cfm
