Gospel on the Beach

Today I got the pleasure of sitting on Waikiki beach to read my bible and pray to the God who redeemed me through the death of his son. Oh how great is our God. I am “learning to relax” as my beautiful girlfriend would put it. She spent the better parts of 20 minutes reminding me to rest in the fact that God is powerful and sufficient. That the Gospel is sufficient to save me. I was given enough grace to listen. So here I sit on the beach instead of trying to read three books at a time in a coffee shop pretending to be productive. As I look to my left I see the horseshoe shaped cove jutting out to the sea. It swoops from the east, dips in and begins its ascent back over to the other tip of the horse shoe where I am sitting. Jutting up behind the beach is Diamond head. The remnants of a massive volcanic explosion which left a crater. The zenith of which pokes out towards the water. I look up and I see massive expansive sky peppered with fluffy white clouds. As I allow my eyes to drift towards the east, out towards the ocean I detect a distinct shift in hue of the robin’s egg sky transitioning to the azure of the deep warm ocean. Slowly floating my gaze inward my eyes catch the rhythmic ebb and flow of the waves gently tumbling into the sand. To my left is my bible flapping its pages against the cell phone I am using to hold its place. To my right is my red REI backpack buttressed by my Crock sandals and the Arizona Ice Tea I had for breakfast.

Its beautiful here. But funnily I can not stop glancing at my far right as a dad plays with his small son. They first caught my eye as they both hand in hand leapt into the surf. The son beaming because of the fun the ocean gives and the dad beaming because of his son enjoyment. They must have rehearsed this procedure ten times in the past ten minutes. Running in then running out, away from the oncoming waves splashing and laughing as they go, the dad lifting up his sons arm as he fell. They both appeared as though mom had dressed them. You know what I mean, just a little too coordinated for their own good. The right blue matching the right grey. He was probably being a good husband and dad, giving her a break.

The reason I noticed them so readily was because of what I was reading. Over the past months I have been meandering my way through the book of Matthew in the Bible. It has been explosive to read these words.  Matthew, being an old school Jew saw certain things in Jesus that only a Jew would notice. He saw his Kingship. All throughout the Tanach, Jewish scriptures.  (essentially the old testament) you have a promised king being told about again and again to the Jews. He would culminate what the Jews were supposed to be about, revealing and displaying who God is to the world. The king would establish his kingdom on earth and usher in Gods glory for the rest of time. Many Jews thought this would be a military conquest. The king would gallop in with an army and dismantle the oppressors with a final battle solidifying Israel as the number one power on earth. That is why many during Jesus time thought that if the king was going to come then, he would most certainly take out the Romans, the ruling oppressors of their day. No one ever thought of a spiritual king. One who would come renewing hearts and establishing his kingdom through the promise of new life in him. That is why Jesus came, too make all things new. He came preaching that we were evil, alienated from the creator of all things. The creator was a loving, compassionate, just father, who sent his only Son (Jesus) to redeem and restore creation back to him. Jesus’ whole life was oriented around establishing that idea. He came talking about a new people who would believe this and have their lives changed by the father. These people would be created anew, to be returned to their father who loves them. These people would be governed in this radical new life by a different set of ideas. Ones that centered on who their savior was and what he did rather then arbitrary rules and obligations. This was Jesus’ kingdom. He is the king of it. And it withstands and is growing today.

That is why Matthew is filled with new paradigms and strange, countercultural ideas like “blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall comforted”. Jesus  wants to show what this kingdom looks like. Matthew is the declaration of independence for the Gospel. This is why these characteristics are all based on the gospel as the guiding core of all morality. A principled pragmatism as my Soma friends would say.

So as I was reading this morning on the beach I came upon another one of those instances in Matthew 18:1-4. Christ was yet again setting up his kingdom and what he wanted it to look like. And again in very “Jesus-y” fashion it was counter cultural. As his disciples were talking they came to him with a question, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. Jesus looks around, and calls a little kid to his over to sit on his lap. He looks at the kid and looks at them and says, “whoever humbles himself like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”.  I read this and thought what does that mean? That’s a huge category to try to find meaning in-kids? Then I was reminded of something, I cannot discern anything spiritual without the spirit of God. So asked for his aid. As I raised my head this son and dad caught my eye. I just sat there and watched for a minute. There they were, running in and out of the water together having a blast. The first thing I noticed was that the Dad was not there because he loved giggling and running in water. He was there because he loved his kid. But it wasn’t a  broad father-son love it was a very specific “I am completely enamored with the child”. He wasn’t there because he loved water, he was there because his son does. He was selfishly enjoying his sons enjoyment. As I looked on, they began to doodle in the sand. The kid didn’t really know how to write letters so his dad was trying to show him. His dad grabbed his index finger and impressed it gently into the sand and made the first letter of his sons name. He then moved the right of this symbol and drew it again this time on his own, showing his son. As he looked and nodded at his child he began to write the rest of his name. While he was looking at his handiwork he turned around to see his son smearing his palm all over the letters. He hadn’t been writing as his dad turned around he had been, well smearing. His dad laughed and they returned to jumping around in the ocean.

I looked back at the pages of my bible and then back to the pair. I realized that kids cant even help but being humble in a way. This is what I mean. There is an inherent lowly quality in kids. They are in almost every way, by nature of size, maturity, emotional and intellectual depth, found lacking compared  to adults (all through there are some adults to which this principle does not apply). The most agreeable and sensible children are those who listen. They realize that there lack of experience etc. is lacking and they need to come under your wisdom. The child in this instance is wonderful to be around because they are realistic. They do not think that they are more then they are. They are humble. This is what Christ is calling us to in him. This is what the gospel implores us to do. If we are in the gospel then how else can we be postured other then being committed to death in obedience to the loving savior that gave away everything to make me a child of the father, a brother of him. We have to be enamored with our father and not simply the ocean. Christ is saying that my kingdom must be filled with children looking towards there smiling father. He holds our hands as we frolic in the waves and he smiles as we smear our hands over the things he is showing us. Our father has returned us to him.

However, when we forget the gospel, when we seek after other things for significance and identity- in essence worship them, we become like the worst kind of child. The obstenent  kind.  Imagine a time at which you attempted to reason with a child, maybe this was a nephew, sibling, or son/daughter, perhaps even the object of your reasoning is for their safety. Then imagine that the child completely disagrees. In the face of what seems to you obvious and inevitable danger the child still wishes to do what it wants to do. How frustrated do you become? How silly are they? But is this not us in the face of our loving father?

This is why we cannot forget the gospel. It says that in our rebellion we, like the prodigal son have left our fathers love. We rebel and hate him with our sin, taking our inheritance and squandering it on evil. But in the midst of this, God pursues. He becomes us to save us. He takes on our form to be put in our place of very deserved punishment. He is tortured and killed for our sin where we were meant to be tortured and killed. He the rises and defeats the sin and death that was so justly ours. He then presents himself to us, perfect and in glory welcoming us back to him to be with the father who loves us. We take advantage of this through faith and through it we are given the Spirit of God to enable us to live in response to Christ telling the world about him. He frees us up to be children you see. With out Jesus we could never be children. He allows us to be so. Paul says it this way:

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of  adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba! (daddy) father! The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

We are his children. Let us trust him. Let us love him. Let him be our Joy and Salvation. He has proven it to us on the cross.

By the power of God given to me in Christ I want to be a child. Please give this to me King.

Amen