Self-Service
0 Amens
Introduction
Turn to Judges 14:1-16:31. Last week we met Manoah and his wife. Manoah and his wife were Israelites who were suffering under the Philistines. At the time we met this couple the Israelites had been under the oppressive rule of the Philistines for 40 years. And they were oppressed because of their idolatry. Yahweh gave them over to the Philistines to discipline them and punish them for worshiping false gods in his place. Throughout the book of Judges Yahweh has powerfully and mercifully delivered Israel from her oppressors over and over again. But even after all of the times he has rescued them Israel has continued to turn away from him and turn toward the pagan gods of Canaan. They deserve to be punished. They deserve to be disciplined. They deserve to be judged. They deserve to be oppressed. Yahweh has every right and reason to leave them in their oppression and allow them to face the consequences of their rebellion. But Yahweh is merciful. Yahweh is compassionate. Yahweh is gracious. And even though the Israelites have done nothing to earn his favor, even though they have not repented of their idolatry, even though they still live for themselves and their false gods, Yahweh has mercifully chosen to deliver them yet again. So he pays a visit to Manoah and his wife. Manoah’s wife was barren, she could have no children. But the Angel of the Lord came to her and said, “You will have a son.” Yahweh promised her that he would give her a son and that this son would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Because of this, he would be set apart as a Nazirite. When an Israelite took the Nazirite vow they vowed to avoid corpses and graves, they vowed to avoid wine and any fruit of the vine, and they vowed not to cut their hair. Generally, though, this vow was entered into voluntarily and it was only temporary. It had a beginning and an end. It would be different for Manoah’s son. He would be set apart as a Nazirite before he was even born. And his vow would have no end. He would be a Nazirite from the moment of his conception to the moment of his death. The woman agreed to do just as the Lord told her. And just as Yahweh promised the barren woman gave birth to a son. She named him Samson. And the last verse of chapter 13 tells us that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
Samson & the Philistine Woman
But when we meet Samson in chapter 14 we don’t see him submitting to the Spirit of the Lord. We see him submitting to his own appetites and desires. Read 14:1-2, “Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, ‘I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.’” Yahweh specifically told the Israelites on multiple occasions: do not marry the Canaanites, do not marry those who worship other gods. But Samson doesn’t seem to care. He’s supposed to be set apart for the Lord. He is supposed to deliver his people. But that seems to be the last thing on his mind. The first thing on his mind is satisfying his own cravings. He has seen something he wants and he is going to get it. His parents try to talk him out of it. In verse 3 they reply, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson will not be talked out of it. He tells his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” Of course she’s not the right one for him. But he has seen something he wants and he is going to get it even if it means blatantly rebelling against God. But remember what we said a few weeks ago. We said that even in our rebellion we are serving God’s purposes. That’s precisely what we find in verse 4, “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines…” This doesn’t mean that Yahweh has caused Samson to sin. It means that even when we are serving ourselves Yahweh uses our evil and our rebellion to serve his own purposes.
So Samson did go down to Timnah to take the Philistine woman as his bride. But on his way there he encountered a lion. This lion came roaring toward him to devour him. For anyone else this would have meant certain death. But not for Samson. Look at verse 6, “The Spirit of the Lord came on him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.” Now on the surface this looks like an heroic act. But it’s not. That’s why he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. Because when he killed the lion Samson broke his Nazirite vow. As a Nazirite Samson had vowed not to come in contact with any corpse. But that’s just what he did. And clearly he felt no remorse in breaking his vow because later he returned to the very same corpse. This time the lion’s carcass was filled with bees and honey. Instead of walking away, Samson walked closer, reached into the corpse, scooped out the honey, and ate it as he walked. He even shared some with his parents. But, again, he didn’t tell them where it came from. So he was not only willing to defile himself he was also willing to defile his family without their knowledge. We’re only into the first few verses of Samson’s story and it’s already obvious that he is not the heroic deliverer we might have expected. Rather, he is a self-serving man who is only concerned about feeding his own appetites and desires, even when they are in direct conflict with the will of God and the good of other people.
And given that this is his track record it’s probably safe to assume that he also broke his Nazirite vow to avoid wine and all fruit of the vine. Verse 10 tells us that Samson held a wedding feast. These feasts were common in Samson’s time and place and it was customary that at these feasts wine would be provided in abundance. Since Samson hosted the event and since Samson has already shown he has no trouble breaking his Nazirite vow it is likely that Samson broke this portion of his vow as well. But even if he didn’t do that he did continue to display his self-centered and self-serving attitude and behavior. He decided to challenge his 30 new Philistine companions with a riddle. Let’s read his words in verses 12 and 13, “’Let me tell you a riddle,’ Samson said to them, ‘If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feat, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.’” He told them a riddle about the honey he found in the lion’s carcass: “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” For three days they could not answer. So on the fourth day the men went to Samson’s wife and threatened her. “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.” Look, I love riddles as much as the next guy but I clearly don’t love riddles as much as these guys. I ran into a riddle just the other day on my daughter’s Dora popsicle stick. The riddle was, What did the digital clock say to it’s mom. What do you think? I didn’t know the answer to the riddle. And I was okay with that. I didn’t threaten to burn Dora and Boots at the stake for it! But these guys had their national pride on the line. And they took it incredibly seriously. So they threatened to burn the woman and her father if she didn’t tell them the answer to the riddle. To protect herself and her pops the wife goes to Samson and she cries for the rest of the feast. She even uses the oldest line in the book on him. You don’t love me. She says. If you loved me you would tell me the answer to your riddle. Every girl in this room knows that that line is nonsense. But Samson fell for the okie-doke. He finally caved to her and to prove his love for her he told her the answer to the riddle. So the men came to Samson on the 7th day of the feast and gave him the answer to the riddle. Immediately Samson knew where they got the answer and he described it in very colorful language. “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” So he left in anger and went to a Philistine town called Ashkelon. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power and Samson struck down thirty Philistines, stripped them of everything they had, and gave their clothes to those who answered the riddle. This, of course, was not how the Philistines expected to be paid for their wager. But Samson was hot, because he had been humiliated, so he left the town, left his wife, and returned home.
After some time had passed and Samson had cooled off he decided to return to his wife with a goat. This might sound a little odd but bringing a goat to his wife was the ancient equivalent of bringing your lady flowers and a box of chocolates. So for you men who want to prove to your girl that you’re an old-fashioned romantic show up at her door tonight with a goat. Every woman loves a romantic. I assure you she’ll be very impressed. At least that’s what Samson was thinking. But Samson never had the chance to present the goat to his wife. As he approached the room her father stopped him and wouldn’t let him enter. “‘I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.’” Samson lost out. When he fled the city in anger his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man. Now, if Samson was mad over a silly little riddle you can imagine he’s extremely heated over losing his wife to his best man. Look at 15:3, “Samson said to them, ‘This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.’” And that’s exactly what he did. He caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs, and fastened a torch to each one of them. He lit the torches and let the foxes loose on the Philistine’s crops and they burned everything – the standing grain, the vineyards, the olive groves – he destroyed their money and their livelihood.
The Philistines were livid. When they found out what Samson did they burned his wife and her father to death. When Samson heard the news he proclaimed, “I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” And he began by attacking them viciously and slaughtering many of them. Afterward he pulled a Bin-Laden and went to hide in a cave in Judah. The Philistines came to Judah looking for him and convinced the people of Judah to turn him over to them in order to save their own lives. Samson, though, was one of their own. So when he asked them to do just one thing for them they obliged. He told them, go ahead and tie me up, just don’t kill me. They agreed and they took him, bound by two new ropes, and presented him to the Philistines. The Philistines must have snickered with satisfaction as they prepared to take him into custody. But little did they know, Samson was precisely where he wanted to be. Let’s read what happened in verse 14, “As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.” Now free from the ropes Samson grabbed a fresh jawbone of a donkey that was lying nearby and with it he struck down 1,000 Philistines. In verse 16 he summarizes his victory, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them.” You know what that means, right? He’s saying he made a donkey out of them but in reality he’s once again made a donkey out of himself. Because he used the jawbone of a donkey to beat them. He used part of a donkey’s corpse to beat them. As a lifelong Nazirite he vowed to Yahweh that he would not come in contact with a corpse. But he seems to have little regard for his vow. Because this is the third time we’ve seen him touch a corpse without any remorse at all.
Samson and Delilah
The pattern that is coming through very clear in Samson’s story is that Samson is on a mission to serve himself. Now so far we have seen Samson kill quite a few Philistines. He has killed quite a few of Israel’s oppressors. But not once has he done this for the sake of Yahweh or Yahweh’s people. In every instance he has done this to serve himself. First, he killed thirty Philistines in anger because the Philistines figured out his riddle. Second, he slaughtered a number of Philistines to get revenge for his wife’s death. Third, he killed 1,000 Philistines when they tried to take him captive. And after that victory his self-serving attitude continued to come through clearly. The first thing he did was complain to Yahweh that he needed water. And Yahweh graciously gave it to him. Then, later, he went to Gaza where he saw a prostitute and he spent the night with her. It goes without saying that this was yet another violation of his vow to serve Yahweh. But Samson saw something he wanted and he went for it just as he did with the Philistine girl he married. Not long after that he did it again. This time he fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah - another choice to serve himself over Yahweh.
Many of you are probably familiar with where the story goes from here. The rulers of Philistines were frustrated by Samson and the damage he had done so they approached Delilah and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Read 16:5, “The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, ‘See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” Delilah could choose between Samson or the equivalent of 15 million dollars. She chose the 15 million dollars. And I’m not mad at her. I’d be mad at my wife if she didn’t take the 15 million dollars. So Delilah began to go to work on Samson. “Tell me the secret of your strength,” she said, “and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Now, Samson’s a moron. But he’s not that big of a moron. He knows what’s going on. He knows that the Philistines are trying to find out his weakness so they can defeat him. So he lies to Delilah. He says that if he’s tied with seven fresh thongs he will be unable to break loose. While Samson was asleep she tied him with seven fresh thongs and shouted, “The Philistines are upon you.” But Samson easily broke free and resisted the attack. Now poor Delilah’s feelings are hurt. Look at what she says in verse 10, ““You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.” Awwww. Poor girl. Samson lies to her again. He tells her that if anyone ties him with new ropes he will be just as weak as any other man. So while he sleeps she ties him in the new rope and once again shouts, “The Philistines are upon you.” But once again, Samson broke free and resisted the attack. Then Delilah complained again that he had made her look like a fool. So she asked a third time for the secret to his strength. Again he lied to her, again the Philistines attacked, and again he resisted the attack. But Delilah will not give up. She wants that 15 million dollars. And the Philistines will not give up. They want to know the secret to his strength so they can defeat him.
It’s important to mention something here. Most of the pictures you see of Samson in Sunday School lessons and on TV picture Samson as a muscle-bound superhero. They lead us to believe that Samson was a super-human, super-muscular freak like this or like this. But he couldn’t have been. If he looked like this then the source of his strength would not have been a secret. It would have been obvious. But it was secret. The Philistines could not figure it out. They assumed it had to be something magical that made him this way. Which means that Samson must have been an average looking guy. He may have looked like this guy or even something like this guy. There was nothing about Samson himself that was impressive or intimidating. His strength was not his own. His strength came from Yahweh, the Lord. And after being pressed by Delilah to the point of exhaustion he finally admitted as much in verse 17, “So he told her everything. ‘No razor has ever been used on my head,’ he said, ‘because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.’” Delilah could since the truth in this. So she called for the Philistines to shave his head and attack him. But what Samson said was only half true. And he knew it. He knew that his strength was not in his hair. His strength was in the fact he had been set apart by Yahweh. So he assumed that even with his hair shaved Yahweh would once again empower him to fight off the Philistines. After all, he had already broken his Nazirite vow on several other occasions and his strength remained. Samson was confident that Yahweh would continue to give him strength even after breaking his Nazirite vow yet again. But he was wrong. Read the second part of verse 20 with me, “He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him.” That verse is devastating, isn’t it? What a tragedy. Samson had spent his whole life living for himself, serving himself, and feeding his own appetite. Because Yahweh had been gracious to him before he assumed that Yahweh’s grace would always remain. He must have been horrified to discover that because of his sin he was now powerless and alone.
He could do nothing as the Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, bound him in shackles, and forced him – the proud man -to do the work of women and slaves. They even forced him to entertain them as they shouted praises to their god, Dagon, and offered sacrifices to him in his temple. “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands,” they shouted. Thousands of Philistines were there to worship Dagon and celebrate the victory he had won for them. Every ruler of the Philistines was there and the temple was so crowded that 3,000 people had to watch from the roof. It appeared to all that Dagon, their god, had won. But he had not. Because Yahweh, the True God, was still in control. Yahweh was still going to use Samson to begin to deliver Israel from their oppression. As the people worshiped Dagon and waited to see Samson perform some more Samson held himself up between two pillars. He prayed to Yahweh for one last burst of strength. He waited a moment and then he shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Yahweh had answered his prayer because at that instant he pushed with all of his might and the entire temple crashed to the ground killing Samson and thousands of Philistines with him.
Samson and You
The way the story ends we might be tempted to think of Samson as a hero. We might be tempted to think of him as a great deliverer who willingly died so that he could take Israel’s oppressors with him. But Samson was no hero. Because even in the moment of his death he was more concerned about himself than he was about Yahweh or Yahweh’s people. He did not pray, Lord, give me strength so I can destroy your enemies and their god. He did not pray, Lord, give me strength so I can begin to deliver your people. No, in verse 28 he prayed, “’O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.’” Samson was where he was because of his selfishness. Samson was where he was because he pursued his own mission instead of Yahweh’s mission. Samson was where he was because he served his own appetites instead of serving Yahweh. And even after all of that he does not repent. Instead, he chooses to go on one more mission for himself. He chooses to pray one last selfish prayer. Please strength me…so that I can get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes. From the very beginning of Samson’s story to the very end of Samson’s story Samson is living for Samson. Samson has served himself instead of Yahweh, himself instead of God’s people. First, he saw the Philistine woman and married her in spite of Yahweh’s commands. He wanted what he wanted. Second, he broke his Nazirite vow and touched the corpse of a lion. Third, he returned to that same corpse and scooped honey out of it. He wanted what he wanted. Fourth, he murdered thirty Philistines out of anger because he was humiliated when they answered his riddle. He wanted what he wanted. Fifth, he burned the crops of the Philistines because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man. Sixth, he slaughtered a number of Philistines to get revenge when they burned his wife and her father. Seventh, he broke his Nazirite vow again when he used the jaw of a donkey to save himself from the Philistines. Eighth, he saw a prostitute in Gaza and laid with her. He wanted what he wanted. Ninth, he fell in love with another Philistine woman and gave himself to Delilah. He wanted what he wanted. And then, lastly, he asked God for the strength to take revenge on the Philistines for what they had done to his eyes. He wanted what he wanted.
It’s quite clear that Samson is no hero. And neither are we. Because just like Samson we have strong tendencies to live for ourselves instead of Jesus. We have a strong tendency to do what we want instead of what Jesus wants. We have a strong tendency to serve our own appetites instead of Jesus. We have a strong tendency to abandon Jesus’ mission and pursue our own mission. And this shows itself in a number of ways.
This shows itself in our personal relationships. How many of us do a cost-benefit analyses of our relationships? We try to determine what it will cost us to be in relationship with this person and how we will benefit from being in relationship with this person. And then we make our relational decisions accordingly. I’ll make sacrifices for this person because they’ll give me something in return: I enjoy being around them, or they make me feel good, or they do other things for me. But I won’t make sacrifices for this person because they don’t give me much in return. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor but we prefer to love ourselves. Because sometimes even when we appear to be loving our neighbor we are really loving them because of what we can get out of it.
This is true in romantic relationships, too. Sometimes we enter into romantic relationships with people that we shouldn’t, just like Samson did. We know that this person is not right for us or that this relationship is not appropriate but we pursue it anyway because we like what we get out of it. We like how it makes us feel. We like the things that this relationship provides for us. We have an appetite for comfort, and approval, and companionship, and romance, and sex. And instead of learning to feed these appetites in a healthy way we choose to feed these appetites the easy way. We choose to serve our own appetite instead of serving Jesus.
In addition to being an act of rebellion against the God who loves us this is also a recipe for disaster. As long as we are entering into the relationships that most benefit us or most meet our own needs, desires, or appetites we are setting a trap for ourselves and the people we are in relationship with. Because eventually, someone else will come along who meets more of our needs, or more of our desires, or more of our appetites. Or someone will come along who meets these needs at less of a cost to ourselves. And when that happens we are likely to abandon one relationship in favor of the other. This is terribly painful for everyone involved. But it’s the logical choice if we are in relationship for ourselves instead of in relationship for Jesus. This is one of the reasons why so many marriages end in adultery or divorce or both. Sometimes our motivations for marriage are selfish. We marry because we want to be loved and accepted, we want to have lasting companionship and good sex, we want excitement and a happy family. These desires are good desires. But they become dangerous desires when we rely on a human being to meet them. They become dangerous desires when we choose to commit to another person because we think they can meet them. Because the truth is, undoubtedly, they will fail. No partner will ever perfectly fulfill your appetite for love, acceptance, companionship, sex, excitement or a happy family. And if you’re expecting them to meet these needs for you then when they fail to meet your expectations you will look elsewhere. Inevitably, someone else will come along that appears to be more loving and more accepting, who gives you better sex and more excitement. And if you married to have those needs met you will leave your marriage when you believe someone else can meet those needs better. We do this, because like Samson, we are on a mission to get what we want, to please ourselves, to be happy. Jesus has created marriage for his glory but we so easily and so often use marriage as a means to our own glory.
This is so sad. And the truth is we carry this same self-serving attitude into our churches. The church gathers on Sundays to corporately worship Jesus for who he is and what he has done. But I fear that this is not the only reason some of us gather together. Some of us gather together on Sundays, not just to worship Jesus, but to serve ourselves. Some of us come to church because it makes us feel like good Christians or good people. Some of us come to church because it makes us feel like righteous and obedient people. Some of us come to church to deal with our own guilt. Some of us come to church looking for an emotional experience. Some of us come to church looking for something to get us through our week. Some of us come to church looking for a husband or a wife. Some of us come to church looking to be accepted by a community of people. Some of us come to church because we love to hear good preaching. Some of us come to church because we love to sing the songs. Some of us come to church because we like to feel wanted and needed. I’m not saying that all of these things are bad things – some of them are very good things. But they are all a bad motivation. Because if these things are what motivates us to come to church then are not coming to church to worship Jesus we are coming to serve ourselves. And if another church appears that offers better preaching, or better music, or nicer people, or a more exciting experience we will abandon our current community and become a part of the community that most benefits us. This does damage to ourselves, this does damage to the people we are in community with, it does damage to the new community we join, and it does damage to the mission of Jesus. But, like Samson, we do these things because we live for ourselves instead of Jesus.
We do it in other ways, too. God has given us gifts and talents for the purpose of serving him and serving others but we use our gifts and talents to serve ourselves. Samson was incredibly gifted but he used that gift to serve his own passions. We do the same. We use them to earn the praise of other people. We use them to win the approval of society. We use them so that we can prosper and we can succeed. We use them to get the things we want and do the things we want. Religions and irreligious, Christian and non-Christian, we all do this. We do evil things to serve ourselves. We do good things to serve ourselves. We’ll do anything to serve ourselves. Because so much of the time we are on our own mission. We want to be happy, we want to feel good, we want what we want. And we have made it our life’s mission to get these things.
And in this we end up just like Samson. By living for his own mission and his own pleasure Samson did much harm to others. His parent’s experienced grief, his wife and father-in-law were murdered, Delilah was bribed, and the Israelites remained oppressed. We have seen, likewise, that for every moment that we live for our own mission and our own pleasure we, too, do terrible harm to others. We deny them true love, we deny them true commitment, we deny them our gifts and our talents, we deny them our humble service, we deny them true community, we deny them ourselves, and we deny them the gospel of Jesus Christ and all that it accomplishes. Living for our own mission and our own pleasure does immeasurable damage to other people. It is horrible. But there’s more. It doesn’t stop there. The ironic thing is that when we are living for ourselves we are actually destroying ourselves. That is also what happened to Samson. Pursuing his own mission brought him blindness and death. In the same way, by pursuing our own mission and our own pleasure we are actually pursuing our own destruction. Because we are pursuing meaning where it cannot be found. We are pursuing salvation where it cannot be found. We are pursuing fulfillment where it cannot be found. The only place these things can be found is in Jesus. Only Jesus and his mission can provide us with real meaning, and real power. Only Jesus and his mission can secure us and fulfill us and save us from the things that destroy us. By chasing our own mission and our own pleasure we are actually denying ourselves the very things we want. We are looking to false gods to provide us with things they cannot provide us with. Oh, they may satisfy us for a moment. But that’s what makes them even more destructive. Because when they stop providing for you what you want them to provide you will be more devastated than if they never provided it to begin with. By pursuing your own mission and your own purpose you are destroying others and you are destroying yourself. You think you’re chasing what you want but you’re actually denying yourself the things you want because you’re chasing them in the wrong places.
Jesus and You
I thought about this a lot this week, especially as I watched a movie called Open Hearts. Open Hearts tells the story of two couples: one married and one engaged. Through an unfortunate accident the lives of these two couples become intertwined and, in the process, the married husband falls for the engaged woman. It begins with harmless conversation and mutual concern. Then it grows to romantic interest and an emotional affair. Eventually, the emotional affair becomes a physical one. In the pursuit of their own pleasure the man and woman leave behind a number of casualties. The engaged woman leaves her fiancée heartbroken and helpless. The married man leaves his wife and his three children humiliated and stricken with grief. By the end of the film even their relationship with each other is uncertain because of the tremendous pain they have caused and experienced as they chased their own mission and their own pleasure. And then, in the final scene, the married man looks at the engaged woman. Even with all the pain they’ve caused their loved one’s and their own future together uncertain the married man says, “Even if I knew beforehand all of the things that would go wrong I would still do it all over again.”
It’s my sincere prayer that you will not respond in the same way. You know that pursuing your own mission and your own pleasure will destroy others and you know that it will ultimately destroy you. I hope that you do not choose to continue to pursue it anyway. I love you guys and I want you to be happy, I want you to be fulfilled, I want your life to have meaning. And it’s because of that that I beg you to resist the urge to pursue your own mission and your own pleasure. I urge you, instead, to pursue Jesus and his mission. Because Jesus is the Ultimate Good. And only Jesus can deliver the happiness, the fulfillment, the meaning, the community, the hope, the security, the salvation that you long for. He alone is able to give you this because he alone has chosen to live for you instead of for himself.
Jesus, the Eternal God, willingly laid aside his own self-glory so that you could be brought to glory. Jesus willingly abandoned the fulfillment of his own self-interest so that you could be perfectly fulfilled in him. In the wilderness, Jesus resisted the Devil’s temptation to serve himself so that he could faithfully serve you. On the cross, Jesus, the Righteous Judge, laid aside the judgment you deserve and allowed himself to be judged in your place. On the cross, Jesus, the Lord of Life, became a victim of death so that the very people who killed him could finally and truly live. Jesus, the God who created you, willingly endured your rejection so that you could eternally endure his love. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead defeating sin and death and its hold over us. Then he ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his people, giving them to power to pursue him and his mission.
I hope you can see that this is a person worth living for. This is a mission worth giving yourself to. And you can do that. You have the power to do that. You no longer have to live for yourself because Jesus has lived for you. You no longer have to spend your energy pursuing the things you desire because Jesus has already acquired them for you. You are now free to live for Jesus and his mission and through living for Jesus you are free to give yourself to other people instead of looking to other people to give you what only Jesus can give you. So how will you respond to that? Will you look at the beauty, and glory, and wisdom, and goodness, and power of Jesus and give yourself to him and his mission? Or will you pursue your own mission and your own pleasure? That is not a decision you make once in your life. This is a decision you and I must make every moment of every day. I pray that when you are tempted to chase happiness, and fulfillment, and meaning, and security, and hope you will not pursue them on your own. Because if you do, you will lose the very things you’re chasing and you will destroy yourself and others in the process. I pray, instead, that you will look to Jesus and see that everything you need for happiness, and fulfillment, and meaning, and security, and hope, and life is found in him and him alone. And I pray that you will be so taken by his beauty that you will pursue his mission with joy, declaring and demonstrating his gospel to everyone in every way. And I pray that you won’t just do that because that’s what’s best for you. I pray you will do that because you truly love Jesus and you can’t help worship him for who he is and what he’s done.
Turn to Judges 14:1-16:31. Last week we met Manoah and his wife. Manoah and his wife were Israelites who were suffering under the Philistines. At the time we met this couple the Israelites had been under the oppressive rule of the Philistines for 40 years. And they were oppressed because of their idolatry. Yahweh gave them over to the Philistines to discipline them and punish them for worshiping false gods in his place. Throughout the book of Judges Yahweh has powerfully and mercifully delivered Israel from her oppressors over and over again. But even after all of the times he has rescued them Israel has continued to turn away from him and turn toward the pagan gods of Canaan. They deserve to be punished. They deserve to be disciplined. They deserve to be judged. They deserve to be oppressed. Yahweh has every right and reason to leave them in their oppression and allow them to face the consequences of their rebellion. But Yahweh is merciful. Yahweh is compassionate. Yahweh is gracious. And even though the Israelites have done nothing to earn his favor, even though they have not repented of their idolatry, even though they still live for themselves and their false gods, Yahweh has mercifully chosen to deliver them yet again. So he pays a visit to Manoah and his wife. Manoah’s wife was barren, she could have no children. But the Angel of the Lord came to her and said, “You will have a son.” Yahweh promised her that he would give her a son and that this son would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Because of this, he would be set apart as a Nazirite. When an Israelite took the Nazirite vow they vowed to avoid corpses and graves, they vowed to avoid wine and any fruit of the vine, and they vowed not to cut their hair. Generally, though, this vow was entered into voluntarily and it was only temporary. It had a beginning and an end. It would be different for Manoah’s son. He would be set apart as a Nazirite before he was even born. And his vow would have no end. He would be a Nazirite from the moment of his conception to the moment of his death. The woman agreed to do just as the Lord told her. And just as Yahweh promised the barren woman gave birth to a son. She named him Samson. And the last verse of chapter 13 tells us that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
Samson & the Philistine Woman
But when we meet Samson in chapter 14 we don’t see him submitting to the Spirit of the Lord. We see him submitting to his own appetites and desires. Read 14:1-2, “Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, ‘I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.’” Yahweh specifically told the Israelites on multiple occasions: do not marry the Canaanites, do not marry those who worship other gods. But Samson doesn’t seem to care. He’s supposed to be set apart for the Lord. He is supposed to deliver his people. But that seems to be the last thing on his mind. The first thing on his mind is satisfying his own cravings. He has seen something he wants and he is going to get it. His parents try to talk him out of it. In verse 3 they reply, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson will not be talked out of it. He tells his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” Of course she’s not the right one for him. But he has seen something he wants and he is going to get it even if it means blatantly rebelling against God. But remember what we said a few weeks ago. We said that even in our rebellion we are serving God’s purposes. That’s precisely what we find in verse 4, “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines…” This doesn’t mean that Yahweh has caused Samson to sin. It means that even when we are serving ourselves Yahweh uses our evil and our rebellion to serve his own purposes.
So Samson did go down to Timnah to take the Philistine woman as his bride. But on his way there he encountered a lion. This lion came roaring toward him to devour him. For anyone else this would have meant certain death. But not for Samson. Look at verse 6, “The Spirit of the Lord came on him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.” Now on the surface this looks like an heroic act. But it’s not. That’s why he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. Because when he killed the lion Samson broke his Nazirite vow. As a Nazirite Samson had vowed not to come in contact with any corpse. But that’s just what he did. And clearly he felt no remorse in breaking his vow because later he returned to the very same corpse. This time the lion’s carcass was filled with bees and honey. Instead of walking away, Samson walked closer, reached into the corpse, scooped out the honey, and ate it as he walked. He even shared some with his parents. But, again, he didn’t tell them where it came from. So he was not only willing to defile himself he was also willing to defile his family without their knowledge. We’re only into the first few verses of Samson’s story and it’s already obvious that he is not the heroic deliverer we might have expected. Rather, he is a self-serving man who is only concerned about feeding his own appetites and desires, even when they are in direct conflict with the will of God and the good of other people.
And given that this is his track record it’s probably safe to assume that he also broke his Nazirite vow to avoid wine and all fruit of the vine. Verse 10 tells us that Samson held a wedding feast. These feasts were common in Samson’s time and place and it was customary that at these feasts wine would be provided in abundance. Since Samson hosted the event and since Samson has already shown he has no trouble breaking his Nazirite vow it is likely that Samson broke this portion of his vow as well. But even if he didn’t do that he did continue to display his self-centered and self-serving attitude and behavior. He decided to challenge his 30 new Philistine companions with a riddle. Let’s read his words in verses 12 and 13, “’Let me tell you a riddle,’ Samson said to them, ‘If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feat, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.’” He told them a riddle about the honey he found in the lion’s carcass: “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” For three days they could not answer. So on the fourth day the men went to Samson’s wife and threatened her. “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.” Look, I love riddles as much as the next guy but I clearly don’t love riddles as much as these guys. I ran into a riddle just the other day on my daughter’s Dora popsicle stick. The riddle was, What did the digital clock say to it’s mom. What do you think? I didn’t know the answer to the riddle. And I was okay with that. I didn’t threaten to burn Dora and Boots at the stake for it! But these guys had their national pride on the line. And they took it incredibly seriously. So they threatened to burn the woman and her father if she didn’t tell them the answer to the riddle. To protect herself and her pops the wife goes to Samson and she cries for the rest of the feast. She even uses the oldest line in the book on him. You don’t love me. She says. If you loved me you would tell me the answer to your riddle. Every girl in this room knows that that line is nonsense. But Samson fell for the okie-doke. He finally caved to her and to prove his love for her he told her the answer to the riddle. So the men came to Samson on the 7th day of the feast and gave him the answer to the riddle. Immediately Samson knew where they got the answer and he described it in very colorful language. “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” So he left in anger and went to a Philistine town called Ashkelon. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power and Samson struck down thirty Philistines, stripped them of everything they had, and gave their clothes to those who answered the riddle. This, of course, was not how the Philistines expected to be paid for their wager. But Samson was hot, because he had been humiliated, so he left the town, left his wife, and returned home.
After some time had passed and Samson had cooled off he decided to return to his wife with a goat. This might sound a little odd but bringing a goat to his wife was the ancient equivalent of bringing your lady flowers and a box of chocolates. So for you men who want to prove to your girl that you’re an old-fashioned romantic show up at her door tonight with a goat. Every woman loves a romantic. I assure you she’ll be very impressed. At least that’s what Samson was thinking. But Samson never had the chance to present the goat to his wife. As he approached the room her father stopped him and wouldn’t let him enter. “‘I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.’” Samson lost out. When he fled the city in anger his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man. Now, if Samson was mad over a silly little riddle you can imagine he’s extremely heated over losing his wife to his best man. Look at 15:3, “Samson said to them, ‘This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.’” And that’s exactly what he did. He caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs, and fastened a torch to each one of them. He lit the torches and let the foxes loose on the Philistine’s crops and they burned everything – the standing grain, the vineyards, the olive groves – he destroyed their money and their livelihood.
The Philistines were livid. When they found out what Samson did they burned his wife and her father to death. When Samson heard the news he proclaimed, “I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” And he began by attacking them viciously and slaughtering many of them. Afterward he pulled a Bin-Laden and went to hide in a cave in Judah. The Philistines came to Judah looking for him and convinced the people of Judah to turn him over to them in order to save their own lives. Samson, though, was one of their own. So when he asked them to do just one thing for them they obliged. He told them, go ahead and tie me up, just don’t kill me. They agreed and they took him, bound by two new ropes, and presented him to the Philistines. The Philistines must have snickered with satisfaction as they prepared to take him into custody. But little did they know, Samson was precisely where he wanted to be. Let’s read what happened in verse 14, “As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.” Now free from the ropes Samson grabbed a fresh jawbone of a donkey that was lying nearby and with it he struck down 1,000 Philistines. In verse 16 he summarizes his victory, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them.” You know what that means, right? He’s saying he made a donkey out of them but in reality he’s once again made a donkey out of himself. Because he used the jawbone of a donkey to beat them. He used part of a donkey’s corpse to beat them. As a lifelong Nazirite he vowed to Yahweh that he would not come in contact with a corpse. But he seems to have little regard for his vow. Because this is the third time we’ve seen him touch a corpse without any remorse at all.
Samson and Delilah
The pattern that is coming through very clear in Samson’s story is that Samson is on a mission to serve himself. Now so far we have seen Samson kill quite a few Philistines. He has killed quite a few of Israel’s oppressors. But not once has he done this for the sake of Yahweh or Yahweh’s people. In every instance he has done this to serve himself. First, he killed thirty Philistines in anger because the Philistines figured out his riddle. Second, he slaughtered a number of Philistines to get revenge for his wife’s death. Third, he killed 1,000 Philistines when they tried to take him captive. And after that victory his self-serving attitude continued to come through clearly. The first thing he did was complain to Yahweh that he needed water. And Yahweh graciously gave it to him. Then, later, he went to Gaza where he saw a prostitute and he spent the night with her. It goes without saying that this was yet another violation of his vow to serve Yahweh. But Samson saw something he wanted and he went for it just as he did with the Philistine girl he married. Not long after that he did it again. This time he fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah - another choice to serve himself over Yahweh.
Many of you are probably familiar with where the story goes from here. The rulers of Philistines were frustrated by Samson and the damage he had done so they approached Delilah and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Read 16:5, “The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, ‘See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” Delilah could choose between Samson or the equivalent of 15 million dollars. She chose the 15 million dollars. And I’m not mad at her. I’d be mad at my wife if she didn’t take the 15 million dollars. So Delilah began to go to work on Samson. “Tell me the secret of your strength,” she said, “and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Now, Samson’s a moron. But he’s not that big of a moron. He knows what’s going on. He knows that the Philistines are trying to find out his weakness so they can defeat him. So he lies to Delilah. He says that if he’s tied with seven fresh thongs he will be unable to break loose. While Samson was asleep she tied him with seven fresh thongs and shouted, “The Philistines are upon you.” But Samson easily broke free and resisted the attack. Now poor Delilah’s feelings are hurt. Look at what she says in verse 10, ““You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.” Awwww. Poor girl. Samson lies to her again. He tells her that if anyone ties him with new ropes he will be just as weak as any other man. So while he sleeps she ties him in the new rope and once again shouts, “The Philistines are upon you.” But once again, Samson broke free and resisted the attack. Then Delilah complained again that he had made her look like a fool. So she asked a third time for the secret to his strength. Again he lied to her, again the Philistines attacked, and again he resisted the attack. But Delilah will not give up. She wants that 15 million dollars. And the Philistines will not give up. They want to know the secret to his strength so they can defeat him.
It’s important to mention something here. Most of the pictures you see of Samson in Sunday School lessons and on TV picture Samson as a muscle-bound superhero. They lead us to believe that Samson was a super-human, super-muscular freak like this or like this. But he couldn’t have been. If he looked like this then the source of his strength would not have been a secret. It would have been obvious. But it was secret. The Philistines could not figure it out. They assumed it had to be something magical that made him this way. Which means that Samson must have been an average looking guy. He may have looked like this guy or even something like this guy. There was nothing about Samson himself that was impressive or intimidating. His strength was not his own. His strength came from Yahweh, the Lord. And after being pressed by Delilah to the point of exhaustion he finally admitted as much in verse 17, “So he told her everything. ‘No razor has ever been used on my head,’ he said, ‘because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.’” Delilah could since the truth in this. So she called for the Philistines to shave his head and attack him. But what Samson said was only half true. And he knew it. He knew that his strength was not in his hair. His strength was in the fact he had been set apart by Yahweh. So he assumed that even with his hair shaved Yahweh would once again empower him to fight off the Philistines. After all, he had already broken his Nazirite vow on several other occasions and his strength remained. Samson was confident that Yahweh would continue to give him strength even after breaking his Nazirite vow yet again. But he was wrong. Read the second part of verse 20 with me, “He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him.” That verse is devastating, isn’t it? What a tragedy. Samson had spent his whole life living for himself, serving himself, and feeding his own appetite. Because Yahweh had been gracious to him before he assumed that Yahweh’s grace would always remain. He must have been horrified to discover that because of his sin he was now powerless and alone.
He could do nothing as the Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, bound him in shackles, and forced him – the proud man -to do the work of women and slaves. They even forced him to entertain them as they shouted praises to their god, Dagon, and offered sacrifices to him in his temple. “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands,” they shouted. Thousands of Philistines were there to worship Dagon and celebrate the victory he had won for them. Every ruler of the Philistines was there and the temple was so crowded that 3,000 people had to watch from the roof. It appeared to all that Dagon, their god, had won. But he had not. Because Yahweh, the True God, was still in control. Yahweh was still going to use Samson to begin to deliver Israel from their oppression. As the people worshiped Dagon and waited to see Samson perform some more Samson held himself up between two pillars. He prayed to Yahweh for one last burst of strength. He waited a moment and then he shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Yahweh had answered his prayer because at that instant he pushed with all of his might and the entire temple crashed to the ground killing Samson and thousands of Philistines with him.
Samson and You
The way the story ends we might be tempted to think of Samson as a hero. We might be tempted to think of him as a great deliverer who willingly died so that he could take Israel’s oppressors with him. But Samson was no hero. Because even in the moment of his death he was more concerned about himself than he was about Yahweh or Yahweh’s people. He did not pray, Lord, give me strength so I can destroy your enemies and their god. He did not pray, Lord, give me strength so I can begin to deliver your people. No, in verse 28 he prayed, “’O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.’” Samson was where he was because of his selfishness. Samson was where he was because he pursued his own mission instead of Yahweh’s mission. Samson was where he was because he served his own appetites instead of serving Yahweh. And even after all of that he does not repent. Instead, he chooses to go on one more mission for himself. He chooses to pray one last selfish prayer. Please strength me…so that I can get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes. From the very beginning of Samson’s story to the very end of Samson’s story Samson is living for Samson. Samson has served himself instead of Yahweh, himself instead of God’s people. First, he saw the Philistine woman and married her in spite of Yahweh’s commands. He wanted what he wanted. Second, he broke his Nazirite vow and touched the corpse of a lion. Third, he returned to that same corpse and scooped honey out of it. He wanted what he wanted. Fourth, he murdered thirty Philistines out of anger because he was humiliated when they answered his riddle. He wanted what he wanted. Fifth, he burned the crops of the Philistines because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man. Sixth, he slaughtered a number of Philistines to get revenge when they burned his wife and her father. Seventh, he broke his Nazirite vow again when he used the jaw of a donkey to save himself from the Philistines. Eighth, he saw a prostitute in Gaza and laid with her. He wanted what he wanted. Ninth, he fell in love with another Philistine woman and gave himself to Delilah. He wanted what he wanted. And then, lastly, he asked God for the strength to take revenge on the Philistines for what they had done to his eyes. He wanted what he wanted.
It’s quite clear that Samson is no hero. And neither are we. Because just like Samson we have strong tendencies to live for ourselves instead of Jesus. We have a strong tendency to do what we want instead of what Jesus wants. We have a strong tendency to serve our own appetites instead of Jesus. We have a strong tendency to abandon Jesus’ mission and pursue our own mission. And this shows itself in a number of ways.
This shows itself in our personal relationships. How many of us do a cost-benefit analyses of our relationships? We try to determine what it will cost us to be in relationship with this person and how we will benefit from being in relationship with this person. And then we make our relational decisions accordingly. I’ll make sacrifices for this person because they’ll give me something in return: I enjoy being around them, or they make me feel good, or they do other things for me. But I won’t make sacrifices for this person because they don’t give me much in return. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor but we prefer to love ourselves. Because sometimes even when we appear to be loving our neighbor we are really loving them because of what we can get out of it.
This is true in romantic relationships, too. Sometimes we enter into romantic relationships with people that we shouldn’t, just like Samson did. We know that this person is not right for us or that this relationship is not appropriate but we pursue it anyway because we like what we get out of it. We like how it makes us feel. We like the things that this relationship provides for us. We have an appetite for comfort, and approval, and companionship, and romance, and sex. And instead of learning to feed these appetites in a healthy way we choose to feed these appetites the easy way. We choose to serve our own appetite instead of serving Jesus.
In addition to being an act of rebellion against the God who loves us this is also a recipe for disaster. As long as we are entering into the relationships that most benefit us or most meet our own needs, desires, or appetites we are setting a trap for ourselves and the people we are in relationship with. Because eventually, someone else will come along who meets more of our needs, or more of our desires, or more of our appetites. Or someone will come along who meets these needs at less of a cost to ourselves. And when that happens we are likely to abandon one relationship in favor of the other. This is terribly painful for everyone involved. But it’s the logical choice if we are in relationship for ourselves instead of in relationship for Jesus. This is one of the reasons why so many marriages end in adultery or divorce or both. Sometimes our motivations for marriage are selfish. We marry because we want to be loved and accepted, we want to have lasting companionship and good sex, we want excitement and a happy family. These desires are good desires. But they become dangerous desires when we rely on a human being to meet them. They become dangerous desires when we choose to commit to another person because we think they can meet them. Because the truth is, undoubtedly, they will fail. No partner will ever perfectly fulfill your appetite for love, acceptance, companionship, sex, excitement or a happy family. And if you’re expecting them to meet these needs for you then when they fail to meet your expectations you will look elsewhere. Inevitably, someone else will come along that appears to be more loving and more accepting, who gives you better sex and more excitement. And if you married to have those needs met you will leave your marriage when you believe someone else can meet those needs better. We do this, because like Samson, we are on a mission to get what we want, to please ourselves, to be happy. Jesus has created marriage for his glory but we so easily and so often use marriage as a means to our own glory.
This is so sad. And the truth is we carry this same self-serving attitude into our churches. The church gathers on Sundays to corporately worship Jesus for who he is and what he has done. But I fear that this is not the only reason some of us gather together. Some of us gather together on Sundays, not just to worship Jesus, but to serve ourselves. Some of us come to church because it makes us feel like good Christians or good people. Some of us come to church because it makes us feel like righteous and obedient people. Some of us come to church to deal with our own guilt. Some of us come to church looking for an emotional experience. Some of us come to church looking for something to get us through our week. Some of us come to church looking for a husband or a wife. Some of us come to church looking to be accepted by a community of people. Some of us come to church because we love to hear good preaching. Some of us come to church because we love to sing the songs. Some of us come to church because we like to feel wanted and needed. I’m not saying that all of these things are bad things – some of them are very good things. But they are all a bad motivation. Because if these things are what motivates us to come to church then are not coming to church to worship Jesus we are coming to serve ourselves. And if another church appears that offers better preaching, or better music, or nicer people, or a more exciting experience we will abandon our current community and become a part of the community that most benefits us. This does damage to ourselves, this does damage to the people we are in community with, it does damage to the new community we join, and it does damage to the mission of Jesus. But, like Samson, we do these things because we live for ourselves instead of Jesus.
We do it in other ways, too. God has given us gifts and talents for the purpose of serving him and serving others but we use our gifts and talents to serve ourselves. Samson was incredibly gifted but he used that gift to serve his own passions. We do the same. We use them to earn the praise of other people. We use them to win the approval of society. We use them so that we can prosper and we can succeed. We use them to get the things we want and do the things we want. Religions and irreligious, Christian and non-Christian, we all do this. We do evil things to serve ourselves. We do good things to serve ourselves. We’ll do anything to serve ourselves. Because so much of the time we are on our own mission. We want to be happy, we want to feel good, we want what we want. And we have made it our life’s mission to get these things.
And in this we end up just like Samson. By living for his own mission and his own pleasure Samson did much harm to others. His parent’s experienced grief, his wife and father-in-law were murdered, Delilah was bribed, and the Israelites remained oppressed. We have seen, likewise, that for every moment that we live for our own mission and our own pleasure we, too, do terrible harm to others. We deny them true love, we deny them true commitment, we deny them our gifts and our talents, we deny them our humble service, we deny them true community, we deny them ourselves, and we deny them the gospel of Jesus Christ and all that it accomplishes. Living for our own mission and our own pleasure does immeasurable damage to other people. It is horrible. But there’s more. It doesn’t stop there. The ironic thing is that when we are living for ourselves we are actually destroying ourselves. That is also what happened to Samson. Pursuing his own mission brought him blindness and death. In the same way, by pursuing our own mission and our own pleasure we are actually pursuing our own destruction. Because we are pursuing meaning where it cannot be found. We are pursuing salvation where it cannot be found. We are pursuing fulfillment where it cannot be found. The only place these things can be found is in Jesus. Only Jesus and his mission can provide us with real meaning, and real power. Only Jesus and his mission can secure us and fulfill us and save us from the things that destroy us. By chasing our own mission and our own pleasure we are actually denying ourselves the very things we want. We are looking to false gods to provide us with things they cannot provide us with. Oh, they may satisfy us for a moment. But that’s what makes them even more destructive. Because when they stop providing for you what you want them to provide you will be more devastated than if they never provided it to begin with. By pursuing your own mission and your own purpose you are destroying others and you are destroying yourself. You think you’re chasing what you want but you’re actually denying yourself the things you want because you’re chasing them in the wrong places.
Jesus and You
I thought about this a lot this week, especially as I watched a movie called Open Hearts. Open Hearts tells the story of two couples: one married and one engaged. Through an unfortunate accident the lives of these two couples become intertwined and, in the process, the married husband falls for the engaged woman. It begins with harmless conversation and mutual concern. Then it grows to romantic interest and an emotional affair. Eventually, the emotional affair becomes a physical one. In the pursuit of their own pleasure the man and woman leave behind a number of casualties. The engaged woman leaves her fiancée heartbroken and helpless. The married man leaves his wife and his three children humiliated and stricken with grief. By the end of the film even their relationship with each other is uncertain because of the tremendous pain they have caused and experienced as they chased their own mission and their own pleasure. And then, in the final scene, the married man looks at the engaged woman. Even with all the pain they’ve caused their loved one’s and their own future together uncertain the married man says, “Even if I knew beforehand all of the things that would go wrong I would still do it all over again.”
It’s my sincere prayer that you will not respond in the same way. You know that pursuing your own mission and your own pleasure will destroy others and you know that it will ultimately destroy you. I hope that you do not choose to continue to pursue it anyway. I love you guys and I want you to be happy, I want you to be fulfilled, I want your life to have meaning. And it’s because of that that I beg you to resist the urge to pursue your own mission and your own pleasure. I urge you, instead, to pursue Jesus and his mission. Because Jesus is the Ultimate Good. And only Jesus can deliver the happiness, the fulfillment, the meaning, the community, the hope, the security, the salvation that you long for. He alone is able to give you this because he alone has chosen to live for you instead of for himself.
Jesus, the Eternal God, willingly laid aside his own self-glory so that you could be brought to glory. Jesus willingly abandoned the fulfillment of his own self-interest so that you could be perfectly fulfilled in him. In the wilderness, Jesus resisted the Devil’s temptation to serve himself so that he could faithfully serve you. On the cross, Jesus, the Righteous Judge, laid aside the judgment you deserve and allowed himself to be judged in your place. On the cross, Jesus, the Lord of Life, became a victim of death so that the very people who killed him could finally and truly live. Jesus, the God who created you, willingly endured your rejection so that you could eternally endure his love. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead defeating sin and death and its hold over us. Then he ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his people, giving them to power to pursue him and his mission.
I hope you can see that this is a person worth living for. This is a mission worth giving yourself to. And you can do that. You have the power to do that. You no longer have to live for yourself because Jesus has lived for you. You no longer have to spend your energy pursuing the things you desire because Jesus has already acquired them for you. You are now free to live for Jesus and his mission and through living for Jesus you are free to give yourself to other people instead of looking to other people to give you what only Jesus can give you. So how will you respond to that? Will you look at the beauty, and glory, and wisdom, and goodness, and power of Jesus and give yourself to him and his mission? Or will you pursue your own mission and your own pleasure? That is not a decision you make once in your life. This is a decision you and I must make every moment of every day. I pray that when you are tempted to chase happiness, and fulfillment, and meaning, and security, and hope you will not pursue them on your own. Because if you do, you will lose the very things you’re chasing and you will destroy yourself and others in the process. I pray, instead, that you will look to Jesus and see that everything you need for happiness, and fulfillment, and meaning, and security, and hope, and life is found in him and him alone. And I pray that you will be so taken by his beauty that you will pursue his mission with joy, declaring and demonstrating his gospel to everyone in every way. And I pray that you won’t just do that because that’s what’s best for you. I pray you will do that because you truly love Jesus and you can’t help worship him for who he is and what he’s done.
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