SERMON: Strong & Loving God

Zeus, Father of the Greek Pantheon & the Controller of Storms

Zeus God of Thunder: Spheres of Influence- Storms

Out of all of the Olympians, Zeus was the most powerful. Zeus’ father, Cronus, was warned that one of his offspring would dethrone him. Wanting to remain the king, Cronus began eating all of his children as soon as they were born. Rhea, Zeus’ mother, saved Zeus by wrapping a blanket around a rock and presenting it to her husband, who quickly swallowed it. When Zeus grew up, he managed to make Cronus vomit out his swallowed children by poisoning his father’s drink. Poseidon then held Cronus at bay, while Zeus struck Cronus dead with a lightning bolt.

The death of Cronus angered the Titans, who attacked Zeus and his siblings. The gods were less powerful than the Titans, so Zeus freed the Hundred-handed Ones and the Cyclopes from Tartarus. With their help, the Olympians prevailed. Zeus and his two brothers Poseidon and Hades, drew straws to determine who would rule where. Zeus won the skies, Hades the Underworld, and Poseidon received the oceans.

As the king of the gods, Zeus’ rule was full of promiscuity and creative punishments for those who offended him.

Prometheus, the Titan who helped Zeus become king, was subjected to the cruelest of Zeus’ punishments. For giving Man fire, Prometheus was chained to a rock. Each day a eagle would tear out his liver. Unfortunately for Prometheus his liver would regenerate each day as well. Zeus made it clear that the only way Prometheus would attain his freedom again will be if two conditions occurred. First, an immortal must choose to die for him, and second a mortal must free him by breaking the chains and kill the eagle. Eventually Chiron the centaur volunteered to die for him, and Hercules snapped the chains and killed the bird. [http://www-adm.pdx.edu/user/sinq/greekciv2/religion/gods/zeus.htm & http://www-adm.pdx.edu/user/sinq/greekciv2/religion/gods/punishments.htm]

Zeus was the chief god of the Greeks. When Paul healed a cripple in Lystra, the people mistakenly thought Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Mercury, another of the gods. Is it any wonder they rushed to make sacrifices to them? (See Acts 14:8-18.) One of the most important things Paul said to them, as he contrasted our Father with “Father Zeus” was:

He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

What if Yahweh were like Zeus? Actually some people make Him like Zeus – but not the Psalmist. Here is a most perceptive comment about God.

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O LORD, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. – Psalm 62:11-12

Our God is both strong and loving. Like Zeus, He is strong. He rides on the clouds of the storms – and with a word, He commands the storm to cease. Our God, though, is more than Zeus – aside from being real, whereas Zeus was only myth! Our God is also loving.

Both His power and His love are seen in His Son, Jesus who is the Christ.

Jesus Demonstrates God’s Love

Consider, for example, Jesus and the unnamed leper in Mark 1:40-42.

A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Here was a man who did not question Jesus’ power. How he came to know of Jesus’ power, we do not know. There is, however, no doubt that somehow he knew of Jesus’ miracle working powers.

Yet, he did question the love of Jesus. After all, as a leper he was an untouchable. He actually stretched the bounds of acceptable behavior by coming up to Jesus and speaking with Him. He was supposed to stand afar off, cover his face, and cry out, “Unclean, Unclean!” This was to protect others from the possibility of contracting this dread disease.

Even in our modern age, we are still loath to come near a leper. I heard a mission report from a team of people from the Bay Area Church of Christ in Mango, FL. They told of spending time in a leper colony in India where they ministered to the lepers. One of the lepers was also a cripple. A woman in the mission team gave this crippled leper a warm bath – the first time she had ever had such treatment! She had never experienced such love and compassion.

This love, this compassion was similar to the love and compassion of Jesus. When the leper begged Him, He said, “I am willing” – and reached out and touched him. Jesus did not have to touch the leper to heal him, yet He touched him.

Why did He touch him?

God created us as gregarious beings. We crave a soft touch and embrace. We greet each other with a handshake, a hug, or even a kiss. The leper was cut off from human contact. How long had it been since anyone had shaken his hand, or hugged him, or kissed him? Yet Jesus did reach out and touch him.

I cannot imagine Jesus stretching out his arm as far as He could and touching the leper with the tip of one finger, hastily withdrawn. Can you imagine that? What was the touch of Jesus? I do not know. Was it an embrace? Was it a comradely arm around the shoulder, or a hand on the shoulder? I do not know. What I am certain of, though, is that the touch of Jesus welcomed the leper as a human brother instead of showing him that he was shuned.

To me, the touch is as significant as the healing. By this touch, Jesus treated the leper as a human being, not as a source of pestilence and disease.

This is also how He treats me, the sinner. In His love for the leper, I can see a type of His love for all sinners. He embraces us. He draws us to Himself, not to partake of our sin – but to heal and save us from it. While Pharisees scorned Him for associating with “tax-collectors and sinners,” Jesus showed the love of the Father in that association.

Jesus Demonstrates God’s Power

What if God were a God of love – but He had no power? Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote a popular book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In it, he concluded that there are some bad things that God is not able to help, that He is unable to do anything about some things that happen to good people. I find that thought depressing.

Jesus showed that nothing is beyond God’s power to help. When Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, He saw His disciples with a large crowd around them. The scribes were also there arguing with the disciples. Jesus asked, “What are you arguing with them about?”

A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seized him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

Jesus asked the man to bring the boy to Him. When he did, the spirit threw the boy into a convulsion. When Jesus asked how long the youth had been like this, the father answered that it was from childhood. Then he added:

It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. – Mark 9:14-27 for the full story.

Here was a man who brought his son to Jesus for healing, but Jesus was away. The disciples who were present could not help. Perhaps their failure made the man question Jesus’ power to help. When I think of this, I wonder – how many times has my failure caused someone to question the power of Jesus? Does my lack of compassion make them question the compassion of Jesus? Does my failure to show mercy or kindness make people doubt that even God could care for them or help them?

Jesus responded immediately: “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” The father replied, no doubt in tears, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Then Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the boy and not to return.

This is merely one illustration of the power of God we see in Jesus. The greatest demonstration of God’s power in Jesus was the resurrection. After Jesus died on the cross, He was buried. However, on the third day, God raised Him from the dead.

This resurrection power is also for us today.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called yhou, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. – Ephesians 1:18-20

God uses this power when he raises us with Christ to walk in newness of life. It is power God longs to use for us. This is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. This power makes it possible for us to overcome the power of sin, because He who is in you is mightier than the one who is in the world.

Do you know God’s love? Do you walk in His strength?

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O LORD, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. – Psalm 62:11-12