DEFIANCE!
Some events are simply events that only make sense within the completed picture of human life and other events are meant to be more than that. They’re meant to make a statement that embodies the heart of the completed picture.
God promised Abraham many things and one of them was that he would inherit Canaan. Years went by, many years went by, and still he had nothing. He could have gone back home if he had wanted to (Hebrews 11:9, 13-15) and he might have complained that God hadn’t lived up to his promises but that isn’t what he did. He bought a burial plot from Ephron for Sarah and himself because he believed that God was faithful and that one day he’d inherit the land of promise. Just imagine when the Israelites crossed over the and took the land—just imagine Abraham coming up out of that cave and saying, “I always knew you’d be here.”
Buying the grave was a purposed act of faith-filled defiance.
Joseph turned down a burial in where he would surely have got a pyramid built to him. Instead he had his bones wrapped up and carried to Canaan because with Abraham he believed that God would be faithful to his promises!
More faith-filled defiance.
God calls Israel out of Egypt—Egypt, where they worked seven-day weeks generation after generation. Then God gave the Sabbath command to Israel, the new nation. Every Sabbath Israel downed tools, rejoiced, ate, sang God's praise and read and celebrated the God who delivered them from slavery! [Deuteronomy 5:15] Every happy Sabbath was a nation's "day of defiance" against oppression and slavery as anti-God.
Passionate and assured Defiance!
But in addition to that, Israel as a nation rehearsed the Creation week in which God worked six days and having supplied all that humanity required he "downed tools" and rested. Israel expressed its own faith in God as creator but before all the nations it also bore witness to God as generous Creator and Provider. Note the "for" in Exodus 20:8-11; 20:11.
Every Sabbath day Israel confessed their utter dependece on God and denied any sinful tendency in them to claim that they provided for themselves and denied all claim that any other god provided for them. See Deuteronomy 6:10-12 and Hosea 2:5-13.
Defiance of the sin within them!
Many years later when total national exile was on them God tells Jeremiah to buy a piece of ground. Jeremiah is perplexed and gives God a lecture about how bad things were and what was about to happen so what point was there in buying the land. God assures him that he would bring the people back into the land and Jeremiah does exactly what is asked of him. The entire section [Jeremiah 32:6-44] needs to be read. This young man was a realist and he sees the awful state of the nation's situation but his realism is trumped by his trust in God.
That's defiance in the face of the harsh realities of life!
[God’s promises as rehearsed for us in scripture are like Russian dolls; a promise within a promise within a promise. Abraham’s “children” become more than just Jews and the land of Canaan becomes the world in and through Jesus (see Romans 4:11-13 and its setting).]
And when the NT People of God gather together each Lord’s Day the meal they share in unity that proclaims the fact and the meaning of the death of Jesus it is an act of faith-filled defiance.
The voice of the centuries sneers at the promise of his return—“If he’s coming, what’s keeping him?” There’s something persuasive in that sneer but still they eat the Supper in faith proclaiming his coming. Defiance!
The voice of human experience and the presence of the graveyards in every village and metropolis insist: “Dead people don’t live again.” There’s something tempting in that too but still with faith unwavering they eat the Supper on The Lord’s Day, the day of resurrection saying, “He’s alive and he’s coming back!” Defiance!
The sight of crooks and swindlers, traffickers in people, drug-barons and booze industries, corrupt judges, police, statesmen and predators of all kinds almost persuade us, at times, to despair of the triumph of righteousness. Still, from here there and everywhere they make their way to places of worship, in their tens and in their thousands and eat the bread and drink the wine on The Lord’s Day proclaiming that he is coming back and will right all wrongs!
Defiance!
The experience of disease, old age and feebleness sends a message that all can hear but even the aged and fragile come with faith-filled hearts and at the Supper of the Lord they feed on the living Christ who indwells his Church by and as his Holy Spirit.
Faith-filled, hope-proclaiming defiance is at the heart of the Supper!
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