The news media is relentless in telling us that these times are unprecedented. They remind us that the world as we know it is very different than ever before. Most people had never heard of the virus named corona, even though it has been a known category of disease for decades. I have to admit that sometimes it’s all so overwhelming, all the information, all the numbers of cases and deaths. There are those who remind us that the greater disease, the harsher virus, is the fear of the pandemic. They say these are unpredictable times, and even precarious. This all adds up to uncertainty. How should we respond?
Many of us are locked down in our homes or apartments. Some countries worldwide are already loosening their restrictions and mitigation activity. Some students are going back to school while others of us are teaching children at home or watching them on their computer screens with their classmates. They still have to wash their hands and stay a bit separated.
For others, entertainment is taking centre stage. There are those who respond with choirs on their computers singing together using Zoom. I personally liked Andrea Bocelli singing Amazing Grace in Italy all alone. Music can certainly lift my soul and maybe it has the same effect on you. Having just gone through the celebrations of Passover and Easter, with the reminders of history reflected in song and prayers, these celebrations linked the music with the real story, and I like that. But in the midst of this, we feel uncertain.
Uncertainty: what is it?
In legal terms contracts with ambiguity are more easily dismissed and nullified than those with clarity and certainty. In fact, as humans, we long for certainty and for the stability that brings us. Even the most adventurous, who don’t mind the uncertainty of walking tightropes in the circus feel the rush of landing on solid ground at the end of their walk. A symphony longs to be finished, with the uncertainty of 7th chords yielding gladly to landing back at the tonic. I believe that certainty gives calm or as the legal dictionary records, “certainty is the mother of repose.”
With all the lockdown upon us, and our palms barely drying out from previous handwashing, we still have a desire for certainty. This is a confidence and a conviction. We want the repose of certainty, but this is not afforded us just now. We are in restlessness. We are in distress. We are unsure of the road ahead, or who will even be on the road with us.
The certainty of uncertainty
To be fair, we have always been in uncertain times. What we are experiencing with the daily news barrage is the reality that death is upon us. We may not know who started this. We may not know who should have done what by when. We don’t know if there will be toilet paper on the shelves at the store; we don’t even know if that store will be open when next we want to shop. Millions of jobs are lost; economies are shaken. Ends are easier to see than reboots. Lengthening lines at government unemployment offices tell us that the situation is dire and worsening. Even when the curves are flattening, we are not sure how quickly things will reopen. We don’t really trust the ‘happy days are coming’ forecasters.
Whether health is missing, or wealth is gone, and the certainty of a steady stream of income is demolished, one thing is clear. We are in uncertain times. But then, honestly, we have always been in uncertain times.
Think back to this time last year.
No one knew last year if they had the next day. Or 2020.
41 people died in the US last year in tornadoes.
No one was really sure that their health would last. Unusual influenzas and traffic accidents cause loss-of-life in a cosmic moment.
Here in Australia, we saw millions of hectares of bushland destroyed in fires that lasted for months in 2019. 34 people died. Over 400 million animals died in those fires. Where was certainty then?
Over half a million cattle died in floods last year in Australia, in one state alone! Imagine being a rancher or a farmer in the bush. What did you count on to get you through financially? Imagine counting on your own survival.
In the USA in 2019, Payless Shoe store closed as did Dress Barn and Shopco. Diesel and Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy. Sears shut in 2018. Nothing is certain!
People who live in parts of the Middle East who practice Christianity have often described their lot in life as one of suspicion and danger. According to Open Doors organization, over 4,000 Christians were killed for their (wrong) faith in 2018. They also report over 200 million Christians experienced persecution for their faith in the same period. (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/christian-persecution-by-the-numbers)
This doesn’t surprise me, but it deeply saddens me.
Why doesn’t it surprise me? The Bible makes it clear that our lives are a vapor and that no one of us is promised tomorrow. Listen to these two texts. First from King Solomon in the Proverbs:
“Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (27.1) and then from James, the brother of Yeshua,
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” (4.13-14)
in spite of it all: Gaining certainty
In the midst of our uncertainty, however, God wants to assure us. He wants to comfort us. The human tragedy is ever before us, so wishful thinking or any simpleton’s cheers are not the answer for us in these troubled times. Where is certainty if not in our wealth or our health?
In certain churches there is time in the adult service for a ‘children’s talk.’ The youth pastor will call the children to come forward and he or she will sit down, the children will sit around in semicircles and await the weekly ‘word.’ Because it’s church, and because these are young children, the questions will often be targeted to help the young ones to learn about God and Jesus and the Bible. Usually these are simple questions.
One Sunday the youth pastor called the children forward and after they sat down, he asked, “OK, kids, what is grey, has a bushy tail, and gathers nuts in the autumn (US: use ‘fall’)? Surprisingly none of the children even raised their hands. No one answered him. He asked again. Again no answer. Finally, the pastor’s own daughter sheepishly raised her hand and said, “I know the answer is ‘Jesus’, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me.”
Here I am, ready to tell you about certainty, and because this is a sermon, and we are in a setting where the predictable answer is ‘Jesus’ you might miss this part. Please don’t.
I believe the answers are found in the Scriptures. Please turn there with me for the answers.
In Luke chapter 1, we read Luke’s explanation of what he is writing. He says that he has investigated and come away with certain information. He now wants to pass on that information, in verse 4 he says, “so that you may be certain about the things you have been taught.” The Greek word here for certain is epiginosko. It is used elsewhere in the Newer Testament of recognition of what a person really is. It is found in other Gospels like Matthew (14.35) who records that people from the entire Galilee region came to see and experience the healing touch of Jesus because some men ‘recognized’ him. In Luke’s account of Resurrection Sunday, Yeshua walks alongside two people, Cleopas and maybe Mrs Cleopas, but their eyes are prevented from ‘recognizing’ him (24.16), until after he begins a meal with these two, then their eyes are opened and they ‘recognize’ him (.31).
Think of an out-of-focus lens then finally taking shape and we shout, “I can see!” Those old Polaroid images that began as fuzz and then became a photo while we watched it unfold. All the while we could see, but we couldn’t make certain what we were seeing. That’s the meaning of epiginosko. Things which are uncertain or cloudy are now taking form and becoming certain to us.
The certainty we have is in the recognizing of the Messiah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Yes, Messiah suffered and died. Yes, he took upon himself the sins of all humanity. He suffered and bled, spilling his lifeblood on the earth. (Isa. 63.6) And my certainty is that all he did, in his teaching, in his healings, in his manifestations of glory while he walked on the earth, all of that, it’s all evidence of what is to come. The Spirit was given on Pentecost as a down payment for us of all that God is going to do in glory. My hope is not a new house in the suburbs. My hope is not the end of coronavirus. My hope is not wealth and health. My hope is the soon return of Jesus, our Messiah and King. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Yes, he came as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He is coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
THAT, dear friends, is certain. And when we see him, we shall be like him. (1 John 3.2)
The return of Jesus, not as a sufferer again, not as a humble take-it-on-the-chin wounded warrior, but as the Conquering King of Glory… that is my hope! And that is my certainty.
This in no way diminishes the victory of the cross. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb 9.22, Lev. 17.11) What it highlights is that the one who died and rose, ascended and IS SEATED at the right hand of the Father. He has finished the work. The victory is ours because it is HIS. Every other priest had to stand and serve in the Temple. Yeshua, the Great High Priest in the order of the greater one, Melchizedek, is no longer standing. He’s no longer trying to accomplish something. He did it all. He paid it all. He sealed my pardon on Calvary’s tree. Hallelujah—what a Saviour!
In the meantime: Certainty in our actions
Knowing that Yeshua is returning as Victor-King, we have a job. Actually many jobs to perform. We serve others; we care for our families; we reach out to the lost and the needy. Because of the certainty of the Risen One, we work among the many who don’t yet know him. And the suffering we experience is not even worthy of comparison with the glory which we anticipate.
Paul wrote the Corinthians, “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4.17-18) Our hope is eternal; it’s the anchor of our souls. (Heb 6.19) If we want that hope to work, if we want our anxieties and uncertainties to diminish, we have to look at the Eternal, at what is going to outlive coronavirus and whatever bushfire or flood or tornado is mal-affecting us at this moment. If we only look at the natural, temporal things, we will be hopeless and live in uncertainty. Paul says that if you want to live above that, you have to look to the one who is above it all. Yeshua.
Back in the 1960s, the Young Rascals sang “How can I be sure?” Their concern was about a relationship with a young woman and their uncertainty gave them confusion. Dear friends, today I want you to know that Yeshua is Lord of all, that his love is greater than all the confusion of the media’s broadcasts, that his grace extends to those in Wuhan (China) and Wyoming (USA) and Wagga Wagga (Australia). There is no place over which he will not rule as King Messiah. May it be that this certainty will give you repose. Hallelujah- what a Saviour!
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