Priorities

It can be interesting to find out a person’s priorities, what makes the individual the person he or she is. I would like us to consider the priorities of three people mentioned in the Bible. Each of the priorities were connected to getting to know God or to know Jesus. We may wonder whether this has anything to do with Easter Sunday, but we shall see.

David

The first person we can think about is David who describes his priority in Psalm 27:4: ‘One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.’ In his words, we can see the dedication he possesses, the location he has in mind, and the desire of his heart.

His dedication is seen both in his prayer and in his practice. He asked the Lord for a blessing and then he pursued it, seeking after it. Nothing was going to stop him from experiencing what he wanted from the Lord. We can see from his method that he did not merely ask and then wait to see if God would grant it. Since he knew that the request was correct, he resolved to do whatever it took to attain it.

His dedication would involve every day of his life, if possible. He would go to the tabernacle every day, to spend time there. The tabernacle was the place of worship, so David’s dedication had to do with worshipping God. We should not be too surprised at this frequency. After all, David would not have possessed much of the Word of God, so it would be easier for him to have a devotional life where most things about God could be seen, and the place where he could do that was the tabernacle. The Psalmist resolved to use what he had been given by God to help him in his spiritual life.

What did he want to see when he went to the tabernacle? He wanted to see the beauty of the Lord. Did he mean that he wanted to see everything about God or something of God? There is something unusual about his desire and that is that he could not see God himself because he is invisible. No-one in the tabernacle had a literal sight of the Lord at any time, unless through a vision or similar.

Yet there was something else happening there which enabled David to get sight of the Lord’s beauty, although we might not think that was the case at first glance. What happened at the tabernacle? Sacrifices, hundreds of them, perhaps thousands of them, all offered by sinners looking for forgiveness from the Lord. The beautiful sight that David could not get enough of was the mercy of God shown to sinners. Indeed he himself could participate in experiencing this aspect of the beauty of God.

David’s repeated dedication raises an interesting question which is, What do we think is the most beautiful truth about the Lord? Perhaps we might say that his ability to answer prayer is very attractive. Yet he only answers our prayers because he is merciful. Or we might say that his holiness is very attractive, and there is no doubt that his elevation, his perfection, his uniqueness is admirable, deserving of our worship. But how can we see his holiness without his mercy? Isaiah realised his need of mercy when he saw the holiness of God through the well-known vision recorded in Isaiah 6, and symbolically it was conveyed to him by a coal of fire taken to him by one of the seraphs.

We have been given more insight into God than David had because we have met Jesus Christ. But what do we need when we meet with Jesus? We need mercy, even if we are Christians. It is interesting that Paul wanted Timothy to know the mercy received through Jesus as we can see from his greetings in the letters that he wrote (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2). John (2 John 3) and Jude say the same in a short letter. When Paul thought of faithful Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of Paul’s chain but sought him out diligently, he thought of the mercy of Jesus, both now and in the future (2 Tim. 1:16-18). The beauty of the Lord for sinners is his mercy. As David wrote in Psalm 103: ‘The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.’

Mary

On one occasion, Jesus was in the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany. Martha got a bit agitated at Mary’s behaviour – she was sitting at the feet of Jesus – and complained to Jesus about it. Perhaps she was surprised by his answer because he defended Mary and said of her to Martha: ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:41-42).

Martha was very busy with her priority which she imagined was more important than Mary’s idling around, as her sister saw things. Better to be active, she thought. She also assumed that Jesus would agree with her assessment, and having made that assumption, she complained to him. What a surprise she would have felt when she heard the response of Jesus approving of what Mary was doing!

We should note what Jesus did not say. He did not say, ‘Martha, I see that you are an active person, and that Mary is a passive person. In reality, what you are doing is just as valid as what she is doing. Both of you are using your strong points, and that’s fine.’ Instead, he said that what Mary was doing in sitting at his feet and listening to him was much more important than what was going on in the kitchen under Martha’s busy eye.

Of course, if an ordinary person had said that about a follower, it would have been a hurtful thing to say to one who was doing a lot for him. But Jesus was not an ordinary person. In addition to being a teacher, he was the promised Messiah. And in addition to being the Messiah, he was the Son of God. As far as he was concerned, it was more important to spend time with him than to do things for him.

What did Mary possess? We could summarise her response as dedication, delight and desire. How do we know she was dedicated? By her posture. It is not easy to sit at somebody’s feet for a long time. She might become uncomfortable, perhaps cramp might set in. Whether it did or not, she sat there, and continued to sit there. Her sister took it upon herself to command Jesus to do something, but Mary had no wish to speak in such a manner to the Lord. She drank in what Jesus had to say because his words satisfied her soul and created a longing to know more of Jesus.

It is a challenging question to ask, ‘How long did we sit at the feet of Jesus today?’ Maybe that is not the right question. The right question might be, ‘How eagerly did we sit at the feet of Jesus today?’ We should observe that Jesus said that such contact is essential and the effect of it will continue because nothing can take it away.

In the Bible, there are many places to sit at the feet of Jesus. We can sit at his feet as we read about the eternal counsels, we can sit at his feet as we read about his birth, his life, and his death on the cross. And we can sit at his feet as he explains his resurrection to us, and why it was followed by his ascension.

Paul

It is well-known that the apostle was a very disciplined man. But it is not so well-known in what ways he was disciplined. In Philippians 3:13-14, he gives an insight into this aspect of his character when he writes, ‘But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ A question to ask here is, ‘How many directions can we go or look along at the same time?’ Paul had to make a choice regarding which direction he wanted to face during the years he had left on the earth. He could look back and focus on what had happened (and a lot had happened in his life of service that involved many wonderful things done through him by Jesus from heaven), or he could look ahead and anticipate what Jesus would bring about in and through him.

Paul here uses the illustration of an athlete running a race, perhaps an ancient form of a steeplechase. The athlete has run a long way, and perhaps is tempted to look back and see how far he has come rather than looking ahead to the finishing line. What would happen to an athlete who ran a race looking backwards? He would fall over an obstacle and not finish the race.

There is a danger in looking back to spiritual highpoints all the time. It is important to remind ourselves that there are great experiences ahead if we aim for them. How was Paul going to experience such? He tells us how when he says that it was his aim to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. Everything else was a non-starter for him. He had learned that for him as a Christian there were great things ahead even in this life because of the blessings that Jesus could give to him.

Paul knew that he had not yet reached the goal for which Jesus had saved him. He uses the illustration of a victorious athlete ascending to a platform where he would receive his reward. Paul wanted to hear a commendation from the risen Christ.

The power of his resurrection

Today is Easter Sunday, the day that reminds us that Jesus rose from the dead. While recognising this day is helpful in some ways, we should remember that the Lord has already told us to remember the resurrection every Lord’s Day. Paul expected to know the power of the resurrection of Jesus in his life. As Spurgeon observed, what he means is not ‘so much of the power displayed in the resurrection as of the power which comes out of it’. 

What are the features of power that come to us from it? One is a sense of certainty that God has opened up the road of mercy for sinners like David. A second is the strength of consecration that can be developed in a life of someone like Mary, a quiet woman from Bethany. A third is the steadfast continuation along the road to heavenly glory. These, and many other reasons, depend on the reality that Jesus is alive from the dead, he is the conqueror of death, he controls the future, he is concerned about his people, he shepherds them through life, and waits to welcome them into glory. 

Paul wanted others to experience it, as revealed in his prayer for the Ephesians: ‘I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead…’ (Eph. 1:16-20). I think he would want everyone who reads that chapter to pray that prayer continually.