.jpeg)
Pastor Tom Johnson, May 21, 2023
Did you know that throwing rotten tomatoes at performers began right here in New York? In 1883, John Ritchie was onstage trying to do somersaults. He may have been successful. But the impact of flying tomatoes threw him off balance. Ritchie then got on the trapeze and lay upon the bar facing the audience. Someone hurled a large tomato and hit him right between the eyes. He fell to the stage floor. Then two bad eggs dropped on his head. It makes New Yorkers sound pretty cruel. But hurling spoiled produce goes back at least 2000 years. Before Ritchie, Frederick Douglas was speaking against slavery when pro-slavery protesters threw rotten eggs at him. The earliest record was in A.D. 63 when, during a riot, the Roman emperor was pummeled with turnips. There may be times when we are not happy with how things are working out for us. We believe God is in control. So he must be responsible for the bad act our lives have become. And so we may want to throw rotten tomatoes at God.
In our Scripture, Peter says, Do it. Give it your best shot. “Cast all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.” Sometimes prayer is throwing our anxiety at God. This kind of prayer is like a traveler who heaves a heavy burden upon the back of a horse. The horse now carries the weight for you. The horse does not have a choice. It’s probably a little annoyed. But God invites us to throw whatever we have that is weighing us down—or too heavy for us to carry—he invites us to throw it all upon his strong shoulders in prayer. “Cast all your anxiety upon him.” Don’t hold back. Throw your worst. Whatever it is that makes us anxious. Do you think it is a trivial thing? Pile it on. Is too much for you or me to bear? Unload it upon Christ who alone can bear our burdens—all of our burdens. Be rid of it and throw it upon Christ’s broad shoulders.
It may seem counter-intuitive. But to be this bold we need to be that humble. Peter says, “humble yourselves…so that God will exalt you.” It’s a humbling thing to admit to God: We cannot carry our burdens. We can’t. Period. End of sentence. It’s a humbling thing to realize that the devil wants to have us for breakfast—that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness. God alone has the power to confront evil both within us and outside and around us. It’s a powerful moment when we prayerfully surrender to God. We realize we were never in control. It’s a humbling thing to come to terms with our limitations—our incapacity to fix what’s broken and to heal our own wounds. As hard as it this humility is, it opens us up to letting go of the anxiety and letting God take it away. God wants to take away all our mental garbage, all our emotional baggage, all our spiritual fatigue—whatever it is that is troubling us—even our irrational anxiety. Peter says cast all your anxiety—whatever it is that is stealing your joy.
It’s a humbling thing to admit to God we are so easily worried. We may think that God will be impatient and annoyed with us—that he doesn’t want us to trouble him with the small stuff. This would be making God into our own image. God wants to work in every area of our lives—even what we may think are the small things. Any doubt, any jitters, any nervousness, any worry, any panic attack—tell Jesus what’s really bothering you. You’re not wrong to feel anxiety. But it’s not your job to carry it. It’s God’s. Gods wants us to unload even the trivial things upon him in prayer. There is no worry too small. There is no burden too great. “Cast all your anxiety upon God because he cares for you.” This means he is concerned about our burdens. But it means much more than that. He cares for us. He protects, nurtures, and sustains us. This is the same word used for a shepherd who cares for his sheep or a nurse who cares for her patient. It begins with the humble realization that we don’t know everything, we can’t fix everything, and we can’t do it alone. This opens us up to surrendering everything to God. When we go through difficult and perplexing days, we have God’s promise that he will bear our burdens and even carry us safely through our dark valleys.
Last week I realized for the first time that Peter is quoting Psalm 55 verse 22: which says, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you.” Peter expands on it. He says, “The God of grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” Next time you want to throw rotten tomatoes at God in prayer, do it. But also take this, and other Scripture, and throw it in God’s face. Cast this promise that God will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish us right between God’s anthropomorphic eyes. God can handle it. Jesus can handle it. When we doubt it, remember that Jesus was despised and rejected. The world threw rotten tomatoes at him, their insults and their mockery. Scripture says he was not only bore this abuse but the sin of the whole world. The prophets said the government is upon his shoulders. But all we saw was the heavy Cross he bore. Jesus alone carries all our anxiety, our sin, evil, and even death itself. He takes all these rotten tomatoes to the grave and rises from the dead. By the power of the resurrection, he lifts us out of despair and death. He renews our joy and our strength. He holds us up. And he bears us up into the life of the world to come.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In his arms he’ll take and shield you;
You will find a solace there.
(“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” LBW 439, v. 3)
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
No comments:
Post a Comment