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Home » Categories » Society » Religion and Spirituality » Never Ashamed of Jesus » Printer Friendly

Don Pieper (40)

Never Ashamed of Jesus

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Submitted Thursday, September 13, 2007
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Ah, reputation! What a fragile thing it is. It weighs nothing, yet tons of news print are spent on tearing it down or building it up. It costs nothing, yet people are willing to give away millions to buy a good one.

Reputation is the hardened drinker, now diabetic, who has schemed with the barkeep to only serve him glasses of water, on the rocks, with two olives in it, just so the bar birds don’t think he’s gone soft. Reputation is the teenager not wanting to be seen with his mother buying underwear in the mall.

Reputation. What’s yours? Or does it even bother you any more? I don’t worry much about mine--too much scar tissue on my back. Too little life left to spend it fretting over reputation. Anyway, I know what my God feels about me and what he feels about you. That’s the only one we should be worried about having a reputation with. In fact, our text for today suggests it’s what we think about Jesus that really matters. What is his reputation among us?

Never Ashamed of Jesus

  1. Ashamed enough to leave my sins behind me (1-11)

  2. Proud enough to keep my Savior’s words in front of me (12-20).

“At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, and Jeroboam said to his wife, ‘Go, disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.’ Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. But the Lord had told Ahijah, ‘Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill. When she arrives she will pretend to be someone else.’ So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? (1-6).’”

Why this pretense? Because Jeroboam was afraid if news got out that he had gone to a prophet in the south, a true prophet of the Lord God, everybody up north would think that maybe Jeroboam had been misleading them in the worship of their calf gods. Maybe a few wags would be making late night jokes on TV about god to go or heaven on the hoof! Rather than admit he was wrong, even when the very life of his son was at stake, Jeroboam was going to stubbornly, willfully, deliberately, continue with his sin of foisting a false god upon his people. Yet he knew only Ahijah could reveal the future to him by the power of the one, true God, the Lord God. So he sends his wife in disguise, so nobody will recognize her and realize what a fraud he was, because he was not about to change his ways.

Ashamed to be seen with God! That’s what it boiled down to. Ashamed to be seen with God, because he was not going to leave his sins behind him.

Are we that way? Yes, sometimes. We pretend we don’t know who Jesus is when the conversation around the water cooler turns to abortion rights or homosexuality. We pretend we never heard the parable about the Good Samaritan when we see an aged neighbor awkwardly stooping to pick up the trash the garbage collectors scattered behind them—honestly, you just know they’ve come because there’s litter in the streets—but you hustle into the garage and slam the door, in a hurry to catch the newest re-run of Friends before you call out for pizza. We pretend we don’t know Jesus when we confess our sins in church with the firm intention of not changing one single thing in our lives or our behavior tomorrow.

If that is our attitude, then listen to the consequences. I’ll give you just the bullet points, the power point summation, because we’re busy people.

  1. Every male descendant of Jeroboam will meet a violent death

  2. The corpses of every male descendant of Jeroboam will not be given a decent burial.

  3. Israel will be destroyed as a nation.

  4. God will forsake the people of Israel because they have forsaken him.

That’s pretty much it. Oh, and as soon as Mrs. Jeroboam steps foot in the royal palace, Aibjah will die.

Makes us think those golden calves wouldn’t look so great to worship, would they? But does it make us think those arguments we’re having, those family grudges we’re nursing, the activities we are engaging in that we would be ashamed to engage in with honest company, does it make us think those things don’t look so hot, when we compare them to heaven swapped for hell’s eternal torments?

Those who are never ashamed of Jesus do feel shame. They feel shame over their sins. They feel such shame over their sins that they want to leave those sins far behind them. Drink not another drop. Waste not another day in vicious quarreling. Never give the impression that we are non-Christians.

That’s what we mean by repentance. I ask the shut-ins, every time I visit them, “Do you heartily repent of the sins you have committed in desire, thought word and deed, believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and sincerely intend, with the help of God the Holy Spirit, to amend your sinful life?” Those who are never ashamed of Jesus answer “Yes, yes I said, yes.”

Never ashamed of Jesus. Proud enough to keep my Savior’s words in front of me.

Here’s the thing that I just don’t get about this text. The aged prophet Ahijah tells Jeroboam’s wife, “When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good (12-13).” And then, after Ahijah has prophesied doom (temporal and eternal) for the unbelievers of the Northern Kingdom, “Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died (17).”

Here’s what some people don’t get—God takes the helpless baby prince, Abijah’s life. If we look at the text closely, we’ll see exactly why the baby had to die. The Lord didn’t want the kid to grow up in such a cruddy, unbelieving home. The Lord wanted this little tyke in heaven and, no, heaven couldn’t wait. Ahijah says the Lord has found something good in him, and the only thing that the Lord would find good in sinful human beings is faith. Somehow, the Holy Spirit had worked faith in this child and God was unwilling that this child’s faith be abused, tortured and beaten down all the days of his life, so he took him to heaven.

This is the only happy ending of the story. I get that.

Here’s what I don’t get. The mother knows her son will die when she enters the city. That’s what Ahijah the prophet has told her. If your child were gravely ill and a prophet of God, and mind you, she knows this is a prophet of God, for her husband has great faith in this man as a person, her husband owes his privileged position as king to this man, if a prophet of God told you your son would die when you crossed the city limits of hometown Henderson, Nevada, wouldn’t you decide to take a vacation in Ely? Or book a room in North Las Vegas and send word to your husband that he’ll have to visit you—you won’t ever be coming home?

But what does this woman do? She enters Tirzah, the new capital of the Northern Kingdom. She walks, I mean this isn’t a trip that you can make half-asleep behind the wheel of your car, listening to Nelville Carville or Salamander Gingrich wile the hours away with idle propaganda on talk radio, she had to deliberately, consciously walk, shortening the life of her son with every step she took. Look at the Lord’s goodness. The boy does not die when she enters the city gates. How far did she walk—half a mile, 1000 paces? She catches sight of the palace. Weren’t the words of the prophet ringing in her ears? The Lord holds his hand back from the boy. She is in front of the door. Turn back, turn back, there may yet be hope and forgiveness with the Lord! She opens the door, doesn’t the smell of home tug at your mother’s heart? Must that fresh baked bread smell soon mingle with funeral floral arrangements? Will you deliberately take your son’s life? She steps over the threshold. The boy dies.

How could she? It only makes sense if she doesn’t believe in the Lord. That religious mumbo-jumbo. My husband, my wife, she puts stock in it, God knows why, and I go along with them just for appearance’s sake, to keep her off my back. It’s good for the kids, but I’m a little old for all that. She didn’t believe the prophet’s words, so they didn’t stop her. It was one of those things. We’ve got other children.

What a number. A perfect match for her husband. Like a roulette table, you know, with the zero, double zero on it?

We forgiven sinners, ashamed of what we’ve done, yes, ashamed enough to never do that again, we are so proud of our Jesus, so proud of his strong love and forgiveness for us that we are proud enough to keep his words ahead of us. Aus dem Augen, aus dem Sinn, the Germans say. Out of sight, out of mind. So keep those precious words of God in sight. That’s what God begged his people to do. “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6.6-9).” Pay attention to my Word. Remember my Word. Think about it. When you face situations in life, OK, if you have to rely on something as lame as “What Would Jesus Do?” I’ll settle for that, but it is a whole lot better when you remember a Bible story where either Jesus or one of my believers faced a similar situation. You tell your boyfriend pushing for favors, “How could I do this great wickedness and sin against my God?” You remind yourself of Judas helping himself to the disciples’ money bag when you are tempted to cook the books to cover the “loans” you could extend yourself from the company’s funds. You think of how Jesus looked when Peter cursed and swore to prove he didn’t know Jesus the next time you are tempted to be an undercover Christian.

And we do, so often. That’s why we come to church. Not because we’ve never heard it, because I tell you, if I am preaching some new teaching you have never heard, one of us is in a lot of trouble! We come to church to remind ourselves of the saving truths of our God. We come to church to rearm, resupply, and refresh our faith so we can take our stand against everything the Devil is going to throw at us this week—and it may well be the clogged kitchen sink!

That’s how we can step across the threshold of our homes expecting to help our children with their homework before our day’s work as parents is done. That’s how we can step across the threshold into our kitchens willing to stick to the same diabetic diet the doctor put our spouse on. That’s how we step even across the threshold into that ICU room, to share one last prayer, hold mother’s hand one last time before Jesus lovingly grasps that hand in a heavenly welcome.

Never Ashamed of Jesus

  1. Ashamed enough to leave my sins behind me (1-11)

  2. Proud enough to keep my Savior’s words in front of me (12-20).

That’s why my reputation, oh, it’s important. Important enough for God to protect my and your reputation with the “Don’t lie or gossip about your neighbor” commandment. But I never want anyone to be ashamed of Jesus.


Rev. Don Pieper is a minister in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has devoted his life to sharing the Gospel of Christ to all of Gods people. For more information about the Green Valley Evangelical Lutheran Church visit us at www.gvelc.com or call 702-454-8979 .

Ask for Pastor Don or Pastor Matt.






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