Josh Benner

Category: Commentary

  • The lost art of lament

    Lament is a topic that is often overlooked in American churches (especially in predominately caucasian churches). 

    LAMENT IN THE BIBLE 

    Lament is very common in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. We see it as a theme throughout the prophetic books, and the Bible has more books on prophecy than in any other genre. We see it in places like Job, Ruth, and Ecclesiasties. 

    LAMENT IS NOT WHINING

    It’s not complaining. It’s not grumbling. Lament is an expression of grief and sorrow. Lament is based in the reality of who God is. Lament is based in a high view of the goodness of God in a fallen world. 

    LAMENT VS GRUMBLING 

    Grumbling is not based in reality and doubts the goodness of God. In the Psalms, lament is the theme of more Psalms than any other subject. And that is the hymnal of the Old Testament!

    We also see lament in…Lamentations. A book literally named after lament. We see elements of lament in the New Testament as well. For example, Matthew 5:4 says “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” And the mourning that Jesus talks about is mourning sin, grieving the sin that is in the world. Jesus lamented in the garden, when he asked God “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

    LAMENT IS HONEST 

    With the times where people lament in the Bible, God never rebukes them for lamenting.vThe heart that cries out “how long O Lord” isn’t criticized for asking.vIn the dialogue of our hearts with God, we must always be honest with how we feel. 

    Lament applies to struggles we face, times where we feel lonely or betrayed. Times where we have poor health. We can lament other hardships that we face. We can lament our own sins. God knows your thoughts and your heart. We need to be honest with God. We need to be honest about the hurt that we feel. About the distressing nature of sin.We need to be honest with God about the struggles we’re experiencing. We need to be honest about the harshness we see in the world around us.

    The temptation can be to keep a stiff upper lip, to remain stoic. To give the outward appearance that we’re fine. And I think that we can be tempted to want to appear strong. But the problem with that is it doesn’t make you weak to hurt. It makes you human. Lament is an important aspect of the Christian experience in a fallen world. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

    Originally published May 10, 2018 

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  • Marriage as a picture of the gospel

    Marriage as a picture of the gospel

    In the Bible, so much of the marriage language about weddings, brides, and grooms is discussing the relationship between God and his people. In the Bible, in spite of humanity’s sin, turning away from God, the Lord is depicted as a faithful groom.

    In the New Testament, the church is depicted as the bride and Christ is the groom. That’s part of the reason why our passage said “husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

    Jesus has a sacrificial love for the church. In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul says:  “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32).”

    What Paul is saying is that marriage itself is a picture of the love that Jesus has for his church. The gospel gives a picture of what marriage is supposed to be.

    Marriage is about faithfulness. God is faithful to his people. He is faithful to his promises.

    Marriage is about forgiving. Because we sin. And the closer a person is to us, the deeper the wounds we can afflict. And nowhere is that truer than in marriage.

    Marriage is about grace. You are to love your spouse unconditionally. They don’t earn your love or approval. We can’t earn God’s love. God freely offers the love that we could never earn.

    Marriage is about love. Because “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

    4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
    -1 Corinthians 13:4-7

    The gospel gives marriage its greater meaning. Jesus is the groom who sacrificed everything for his bride.

    Despite all of our imperfections, our mistakes, our times of selfishness, the worst things we’ve ever done, in spite of that, God offers to love freely and unconditionally. God loves us at our worst. God does not love us because of what we have done, or how we make him feel. He loves us because he loves us. And all we have to do to receive that love is to accept it. To know there is grace.

    When marriage is done right, there aren’t many things better than that in the whole world. Two people who love each other who have fun with each other, who bring out the best in each other.

    Originally published January 4, 2019.

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  • Sermon: Two Worlds – John 17:6-19

    Sermon: Two Worlds – John 17:6-19

    Just before his arrest, Jesus offers a prayer to God. In this section, Jesus will pray for the disciples and for their consecration. Jesus will also talk about the fulfillment of his ministry as he sends out his disciples to continue that work after he is no longer physically present in the world.

    Sermon transcript

  • Jesus: Cross examined

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    We see symbols everyday. Symbols of peace, strength, royalty, and victory.

    Within Christianity, there is no greater symbol than the cross, something so obvious that we take it for granted. Something so pervasive, so associated with Christianity that we might not even question it.

    But why is the cross the symbol?

    Doubtless there could have been other symbols used.

    Jesus was born in a manger, miraculously. We call him the good shepherd. He’s called the lamb of God. He said that he was the door, whoever entered through him would be saved. Jesus talks of being the bread of life.

    As John Stott summarizes in his book the Cross of Christ, the early Christians “wished to commemorate as central to their understanding of Jesus neither his birth nor his youth, neither his teaching nor his service, neither his resurrection nor his reign, nor his gift of the Spirit, but his death and crucifixion.”

    And ultimately the cross became the symbol. I’ve heard people dismiss the idea of the cross as a symbol. It’s where Jesus died. That would be like wearing an electric chair around your neck.

    But really, I believe that the cross is even more radical. In the Roman world, crucifixion wasn’t even legal for Roman citizens. It was meant for non-citizens and slaves. Those looked down upon by society. Those who had committed murder and led rebellion. It was a means of execution specifically designed to maximize the torture and agony. A person being crucified could take days to die.

    Obviously the cross doesn’t save us. It’s what Jesus did on the cross that matters. It’s what Jesus accomplished at the cross that matters.

    It’s interesting that Jesus predicts his death.

    In Jesus’ day, many people expected the messiah to be a great military or political leader. And what do great military and political leaders do? They win! They conquer. They take territory. They overthrow governments. They win!

    They don’t die.

    When Jesus makes his first prediction of his death, Peter actually rebukes Jesus. He criticizes the Lord who died for our sins for saying he was going to die for our sins! When he predicted his death, some might not have even believed him or thought he was exaggerating.

    But he wasn’t. Everything in the gospels points to his death. Jesus is constantly making reference to his death throughout his life.

    Aside from the multiple explicit references from Jesus about his death and resurrection, it’s constantly alluded to in the gospels. His entire life was in the shadow of the cross.

    In Luke 2, as a baby, his parents take him to the temple for a dedication ceremony. A man named Simeon  who’s a prophet who’s been waiting for the Messiah beholds the baby Jesus, and says: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).

    He tells Mary “a sword will pierce through your own soul.”

    He’s referring to what Mary will experience when she stands at the foot of that cross, and watches her son die.

    Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus talks about his “hour,” referring to the time of his death.

    In the gospels, about 40 percent of the books are dedicated to the final week of the life of Christ.

    John Hay and John Nicolay wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln that is over 5,000 pages in length. In those 5,000 pages, the assassination of our 16th president is talked about in just 20 pages.

    Why is it that 40 percent of the gospels revolves around his final week, his death, and his resurrection?

    Because it is the only way to God!

    The great leaders of other faiths: Gautama Budha, Muhammad, they died. And are still dead today.

    It is on the cross that Jesus bears the sins of humanity. It is on the cross that Jesus endures the wrath of God for sin. It is on the cross where we see him supremely betrayed and forsaken. It is on the cross where we see our sins nailed down, and where we see the magnitude of our sins, the weight of our sins, holding God to the cross. He shows the love he has on the cross. He shows the justice of God on the cross.

    Because Jesus died and rose again, there is hope. This life is not all that there is.

    That the hope of eternity with Jesus is not some pie in the sky hope, it’s not some fairytale, or some bedtime story that we tell to children.

    Jesus rose from the dead and that means everything. There is no stronger validator to who Jesus is.

    It means that there is life after death, which is our hope. It validates who Jesus said he was, which is our God and savior. It proves what should be most precious to us, which is the love of God. It shows us where we came from, the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It affirms that Christ’s teachings had authority. It shows that the life and ministry of Jesus are infinitely important.

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    Originally published September 21, 2016

  • NYT suggests evangelicalism needs to be more liberal to save itself

    NYT suggests evangelicalism needs to be more liberal to save itself

    David Brooks had a piece in the New York Times under the headline: “The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism From Itself.”

    Brooks talks of the divide within evangelicalism. Early in the article, Brooks suggests: “There have been three big issues that have profoundly divided them: the white evangelical embrace of Donald Trump, sex abuse scandals in evangelical churches and parachurch organizations, and attitudes about race relations, especially after the killing of George Floyd.”

    I’ve read this same basic piece several times in the last couple years in trying to diagnose the problems with evangelicalism in America. 

    Brooks interviews a familiar cast of characters. Russell Moore and Beth Moore (no relation to each other) who were recently popular figures in evangelical circles but have become critics of the movement. He interviews Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the author of “Jesus and John Wayne,” which is a one-sided rant against evangelicalism which only looks at the bad and overlooks any redeeming qualities in the movement. He mentions Tim Dalrymple, the president of Christianity Today who said Trump should have been removed from office.

    There’s a lot fo discourse on the problems of evangelicalism but I feel like I never see similar critiques of liberal and progressive Christianity. These articles get preoccupied with evangelical support of Trump, and that always gets framed as if it’s some obvious scourge on the gospel. 

    My question is: what in the world is so good about liberalism? What are they doing right now to benefit our country? These articles want to criticize churches for being too conservative. As if there are not thousands of churches in America that are liberal, that support values that are not Biblical values such as the LGBT movement and abortion. Liberal churches who undermine the Bible. Those churches get a pass. 

    It’s the churches who support Trump and who are not woke social justice warriors who are the problem. Basically the problem with evangelicals is that they’re not liberals. And if they embrace liberal ideologies, then they’ll be doing the Lord’s work.

    Conservative evangelicalism is an easy target because our culture institutions are increasingly liberal. The mainstream media, Hollywood, big business, big tech, pro sports, the federal government, higher education, public education, healthcare, and on and on. It’s ok to be liberal. It’s not ok to be conservative. 

    And the focus needs to be that evangelicals don’t have a big enough tent. Brooks has the audacity to frame it as if evangelicals are not welcoming enough to other points of view. Is a conservative welcome in a progressive church? Is a belief in traditional marriage, traditional gender roles, the inherency of the Bible welcome in a progressive church? 

    There are problems with evangelicalism. There are far too many powerful people in influential ministries who are corrupt and who have no accountability. That’s an issue. Brooks mentions the scandal involving Ravi Zacharias and a scandal involving Willow Creek Church. I’ve written about both. They were terrible. I’ve written about Jerry Falwell, Jr, and James MacDonald, and the Southern Baptist Convention sexual assualt scandal.

    I think too many evangelical churches have done a poor job about teaching the Bible and focus on easy to listen to messages and appealing to cultural trends and having watered down youth ministries that are not teaching kids the Bible. Again, there are problems in evangelicalism.

    There are churches and pastors who might call themselves “evangelical” with whom I would greatly disagree. But evangelicalism is a broad movement. I think we should call out people when they’re in the wrong. But I don’t think that American evangelicalism has the inherent problems that progressivism poses to the church. Progressive churches fall right in line with that ideology. I see that as the bigger threat on our culture and on the gospel.

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