Sand Spur Sunday School

A childhood memory written By Dr. Johnny Pope:

When I was ten and David was twelve, our father was taking us down to our swimming hole at Lake Hollingsworth. We had just crested the hill and we could see the lake. Dad would not let us get in the water unless he could see us. We implored, “Daddy, may we run for the water?” He said, “Go ahead boys!” We ran lickety-split for our delightsome destination. 

While racing barefoot though the grass, we encountered sand spurs! As soon as one foot was filled, we put the other foot down to pull them out, then the second foot was filled, so we had to sit down to attend to both feet and now we felt pain in places we would rather not mention. 

Soon Dad sauntered up to us, dressed in his normal preacher clothes, dress shoes, shirt and tie (he went casual that day; he left his coat at home). Evermore the teacher, he said, “Boys you are going to have to learn to walk circumspectly.” He then commenced taking off his shoes, then his socks. Those white feet had probably not seen the light of day for thirty years (...How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel!...Rom. 10:15). Then as nimble as a seasoned stag, Dad began to negotiate the sand spur infested field. He said, “Here’s how you do it, you slow down, don’t run. You must look very carefully. Ah! there’s a clump of spurs, I’ll just step around them. And there’s some more; I’ll now step over them. Well, my, my there’s another batch, I’ll back up and go this way.” The old master didn’t get one spur, not one!

Then he said, “Get those spurs out boys and follow me!” As we walked together, he said, “Watch me boys!” Pretending the clump of spurs were dangers in life we were to avoid, he continued as we walked down to the lake, “Uh-oh, there’s a juke-joint (city-dwellers call them night clubs); step around that place boys, don’t ever go there! Look out, look out, there’s some beer, step right around that poison! Don’t touch that, not a drop! And my, my there’s a temptation for tobacco, jut step right over that one, leave that nasty stuff alone. Look out sons! There's a pretty gal, but oh she’s loose; she’s wicked, don’t get near her, just back up go another way!” Then before we got into the water Daddy quoted, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15). David and I learned what it meant that day to walk circumspectly. We never forgot.

Dad did a great job at fulfilling Deuteronomy 6:6,7, which says, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Lazarus Come Forth

In John chapter eleven we have a series of divine paradoxes that our mortal, earth bound, finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend without the insight into the heart of God that the scriptures provide. Often we wrongly think of God as coldly pragmatic, and mechanical. But we think this way mostly because this is frequently the way many of us are in how we respond to the pain of others.

Friend this is just not the picture God has given of Himself. Although we were first created in God’s image, we are now a fallen, selfish, tarnished race, a million miles and more away from the altruism of our benevolent Creator.  We cannot think of God as one as we are; we mustn’t.

God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts, and Gods ways are not as our ways. He has a much bigger plan in mind that endeavors to save as many as ‘whosoever will’ from eternal separation from Him. He is not willing that any perish and will employ any just means necessary to prevent that from happening. However, even though this is true does not suggest that He doesn’t have a heart, rather it establishes how big and how great His love toward us is.

So what of these divine paradoxes? Well in this eleventh chapter of John I see several, but in this post I will, for the sake of time, only mention three.

As I read John 11:3-6

I find the first divine paradox (again perhaps there are more but this is what I see). Jesus had just received word that Lazarus was sick.  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Jesus who knew what was about to transpire, that Lazarus was about to breath his final breath (as we see things), that the hearts of His friends would be grief stricken, stayed put and wasn’t moved.

No one ever loved the way that Jesus loves! No one!

And yet “he abode two days still in the same place where he was.” Does not your heart hear the confusion in Martha’s voice,… “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

And again the anguish in Mary’s voice as she falls at Jesus’ feet weeping, saying the same thing between heavy sobs,… “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

No one ever loved the way that Jesus loves! No one, and yet He stayed put and wasn’t moved. Friend, Gods ways are not our ways.

As I read on and through John 11:11-15

I see yet another puzzling paradox in the words of Jesus. He said, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad… that I was not there,”

WHAT?! INCREDIBLE! He is dead and I am glad.

Our minds, while understanding the compassionate heart of Jesus, have a hard time conceiving of these words coming from His mouth. But of course this is not all He said. And lest I be accused of reading out of context, let’s look more clearly at what was going on.

The death of a saint is precious indeed to God (Psalm 116:15), so much so that when Stephen was stoned Jesus stood at the portal of heaven to greet him, but that is another story altogether.

What of Jesus’ words? Do they not seem cold? Do they not seem all too very pragmatic? Forgive the suggestion, but at first glance that was what ran through my limited mass of gray matter.

No. Not true. Jesus said, “And I am glad for your sakes

that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe;”

He has eternity, and the hearts of men,

And His great eternal love for them in mind.

We mustn’t think of Him as such as one of us.

God is not cold and pragmatic; it’s just that His thoughts are not as our thoughts. He had said before, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” And to Jesus that was fairly straightforward.

Always remember, Jesus always has eternity and the hearts of men,

And His great eternal love for souls in mind.

I see other things that are different then perhaps the way we would do things, or even different then the way we would possibly expect God to do things, but for the sake of your time I will not mention them here now, except the final and greatest paradox that give us a beautiful glimpse into the heart of God, the heart of God the Son.

Now John 11:33-35 presents this greatest of all paradoxes.

(We get a kick out of kids when they, while quoting verses, will often with a sheepish childish grin quote this of the smallest yet most profound verses in all of the bible.) John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”

I once thought that He wept because of Mary’s trouble believing, but again no, Jesus does not weep for Himself. Indeed this may be why He groaned within Himself in the Spirit. The Spirit is certainly grieved with unbelief.  I believe that before He even prayed the Spirit groaned in prayer for them all. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:27)

Jesus knew He would soon raise Lazurus, remember He had said before, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” And He knew that that would fill their hearts with joy, would fill them with faith in Him, and would fuel and empower the unbelievers to begin the carry out the awful foreordained counsel of God in the providing salvation to the world. Yet with all this knowledge, in a kind of paradoxical fashion, “Jesus wept.”

No doubt as He watched Mary and Martha weep He felt their pain.

He empathized with them.

Perhaps He thought of his mothers suffering when Joseph died and it was not God’s will for Him to intervene.

Perhaps He thought of their feeling of being forsaken and knew He would soon cry out also “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Perhaps He looked again to the pain His friends and His mother would feel when they watched Him be beaten and crucified.

Whatever Jesus was thinking, He empathized with them. His tears were not tears of frustration. They were not tears of grief for the unbelief being displayed. No. Jesus felt their hurt, He was touched with their feelings of helplessness and He wept.

Do you think the scriptures says in vain “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8)

No God is not at all coldly pragmatic. Jesus has a heart.

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

You can trust the heart of God with your pain. With your doubt. With your struggle. With your heart. You can trust Jesus who sits to make intercession for us and on our behalf.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”

We need to give up our pragmatism 
and awake to compassion!
We need to truly weep
with those that weep.
Like Jesus did!

“Lazarus, come forth.”