Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Women, Pagans, and Pharisees

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

In the burial of Jesus, we see three classes of people who are brought together by the death of Jesus. There is the Roman centurion, who is a pagan. There are the women who stay with Jesus all through this time. And there’s Joseph of Arimathea, who is a member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee, a member of the ruling party. Women, pagans, Pharisees—three groups of people who don’t usually hang out together. Yet something has brought them together. These are three groups all making positive responses to the death of Jesus. What we learn here is 1) the world we all want, 2) the change we need, and 3) how we can get it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 1, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:39-47. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is exploring the life of Jesus as recorded by the Apostle Mark. It's a fascinating look into the life of Christ as both Savior and Teacher. After you listen, please consider taking time to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the Gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Tonight's scripture reading is Mark chapter 15 verses 39 through 47. And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, surely this man was the son of God.

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there. It was preparation day that is the day before the Sabbath. So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God,

went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he heard from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb, cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.

This is the word of the Lord. We're looking at the book of Mark, and we're near the end, and we've come to the burial of Jesus. Look at the three people, or maybe I should say the three classes of people, that the death of Jesus brings together. You've got the Roman centurion, he's a pagan.

You've got the women who stay with Jesus all through this time. Then you've got Joseph of Agamethia, and he's a member of the Sanhedrin. He's a member of the ruling party. He's a member of the Sanhedrin. He's a member of the ruling party. He's a Pharisee. Women pagan Pharisees. Three groups of people that just don't usually hang out together, you know, they don't hang out on the corner together. And yet something has brought them together.

What are we looking at? These are all three people making positive responses to the death of Jesus. What we learn here is, number one, the world we all want. Number two, the change, therefore we need. And number three, how we can get it. There's a world we all want, but therefore there's a change in us that has to happen and how we can get it. Okay, first, the world we all want.

Those women, first 40, we'll see a little bit more about this next week at Easter, but if you go to the end of all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when you get to the climactic events of Jesus' death, Barra and Resurrection. Let me just come out and say this. All the male disciples vanish. They're not around. They're scared, they're despondent, they're gone. And when it comes to the death, Barra and Resurrection of Jesus,

the only followers of Jesus who are with them through all three of those things are His female followers. Look at verse 40, it's women, only women that we can see were there when He died, verse 40. Women saw where He was buried, verse 47. And next week we'll see chapter 16, verse 1, women were the ones who actually saw Him first resurrected in the empty tomb. It's like the men disappear and the women dominate the final part of the narrative. Now, this is extremely interesting, and here's why, in both Jewish and Roman culture, in

both Jewish and Roman jurisprudence, women's testimony had no legal status. Their evidence could never be brought into court. Their testimony had no legal status. Why? Because there was a universal understanding across all the cultures of the ancient world, they all agreed about women's inferiority and unreliability.

And yet in spite of that, at the most crucial moment in the history of salvation, God trusts a group of women with the whole story. There almost a lifeline of the gospel. Nobody else knows what's going on. Only the women see, and only the women will know as we'll see next week, what God is up to. as we'll see next week. What God is up to? In fact, for decades, the only disciples who can actually say, I witness, I saw the death, I saw the burial, I saw the resurrection, we're women.

God makes women, His witnesses, at a time in history in which no other society would have trusted them with the same job. Nobody else would have. What's that mean? Is it just, oh, how nice. God was ahead of the times or something. No, no, no, no, no, no, a whole lot more than that. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called, I wrote an essay called The Inner Ring.

It was really an address. Very meaningful to me. And in that address, he says that one of the main desires, and deepest desires of the human heart, is to get inside. Is to get into the inner rings, find the inner rings, the little circles of power, and do whatever it takes to get in there. Go to the right schools, know the right people, get the right jobs, you know, do whatever you can to get inside those innerrings, inside those intercircles.

And then, once you're in there, then other people have to come to you. Other people will have to center on you. Other people will have to dance around you, as it were. So, once you get on the inside, then other people have to orbit around you. And that is a terrific metaphor. The fact that we all want that. That's a great metaphor for what's wrong with the human, with the world and human history. I heard a preacher once said, think of it like this, a solar system is only a system because

all the planets as it were agree that there's only one center and all the rest of them orbit, all the rest of them center, on that center, all the rest of them move around. There's only one on the inside. And that's why it's a system. But imagine, I remember the preacher said, if every single planet said, no, I'm going to be the center of the universe. And if every single planet got stationary

and then used all of its gravitational pull to get everything else to revolve around them. So every planet says, no, I want to be the center and you all have to revolve around me. And if everybody is insisting that everyone else revolve around them, what have you got? You don't have a solar system anymore. You have a cataclysm. You have worlds colliding. You've got a cosmic version of those interstate car pile-ups.

You got a car wreck, a cosmic car wreck. And that, if you want to know, is human history. That's what individuals and nations and countries have been doing to each other. The lust for the inner ring. Now ironically, even though that's one of the great passions of the human heart, to be on the inside, to have everyone revolve and center on you, there's another passion of the human heart, and that's a passion for justice. So you go way back into, say, the book of Ecclesiastes, centuries ago, and you read this,

I looked and I saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed. Power was on the side of their oppressors and they had no comforter. That's a long time ago. Or more recently, Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit

down together at the table of brotherhood, that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Now that's a longing for justice. But you know what justice is? Justice is that the people on the inside, the people in the inner rings, would not make everyone else be on the periphery, but would share the power and privilege that they have. Well, welcome others in, would open up, and welcome them in.

The human heart wants to be on the inside. But there's also a longing for a world in which people don't do that. And people are willing to open up and share their power and privilege. Now, these two desires, the longing for justice and the lust for the inner ring, are at war with each other. And this is one of the reasons why the world isn't working the way it ought to work. But when God takes a group of women and trusts them with something that no other society would trust them with, when God shares the secret of what He's doing in the world, shares

the gospel with a group of women, brings them in. Doesn't keep them on the outside, but brings them in. We see what we have here. We have a God who says, I'm for justice. I want that same world that you want, who also hates the lust for the inner ring. Now, how are we going to get a world of justice? Now I was just saying, I don't believe that the only way to get the world of justice is simply to work on the individual human heart.

You also have to work directly on systems. I'm not the kind of person who says, well, if everybody's heart was changed, then the systems would be fine. It's not that simple. But you can't, as so many people do, ignore what's wrong with the human heart and expect somehow politics or government or economics to make things right.

There's some of you are too young to remember this, but when I was a young man, the head of the Soviet Union, the Communist Soviet Union was a man named Leonid Brezhnev. And he was in charge. He was the head of the Soviet Union. a man named Leonid Brezhnev, and he was in charge. He was the head of the Soviet Union. He died in 1982, so a lot of you wouldn't know him or remember him. However, there was near the end of the Communist regime,

and it was a regime, there was a joke that was so prevalent on the streets of Moscow. It was a very cynical joke. I'm so prevalent on the streets of Moscow. It was a very cynical joke. I'm so prevalent on the streets of Moscow, I was so prevalent that it actually, Americans actually heard it, we heard it here. And it went like this, that Brezhnev invited his mom to visit him, and when he got to,

his mother came and he says, hey, mom, I've made up pretty good. Look at the size of the home I live in. You see all those limousines that are in the garage downstairs, and there's my house on the Baltic, and there's this, and there's that. I've made pretty well, I have an Iagan mom, and his mother turns and says, yes, but Leonid, what happens if the Communist come into power?

No, wait a minute, the Communist is already in power. Redistribution of goods, you know? Wait a minute. That's not supposed to be. But I see it's not just the systems. There's something with the heart. And we're gonna have to do something about the heart. We're not gonna get the world we all want.

Point two. How does that happen? Point two. The change that we need is actually evidenced in a remarkable way in this man, Joseph of Eherimathia. We're totally in verse 42, Joseph of Eherimathia, a prominent member of the council, went boldly to pilot and asked for Jesus' body. Now here's what we learn about Joseph. First of all, Joseph was prominent, and that's the word that means power. That's the word that means power.

We also know from Matthew, the gospel, that he was rich, which is kind of implied here anyway. But what we learned from John's gospel is really special. John tells us that Joseph of Eurymethia was a friend with Nicodemus. And Nicodemus was also a member of the ruling council, was also wealthy, but was a Pharisee. Was a member of that party of religious leaders who was really Bible-believing and really doctrinally orthodox

and really incredibly fastidiously ethical. And Nicodemus and Joseph, who probably therefore was a Pharisee, together went and buried Jesus' body. That's what John tells us. But now here's what's interesting. Look at Joseph and Nicodemus. We'll talk about Nicodemus and Joseph together from now on.

And look at the other people that are there. On the one hand, look at the pagan. That's the Roman centurion. He's a pagan. He's an idol worshiper. He's living life the way he wants, he's trampling on the moral law of God. So religiously and morally, he's an outsider in Joseph and Nicodemus are insider.

They're in the inner ring, you see, of religion and morality. And on the other hand, here's the women. And of course, in ancient society, they had no power. They were marginalized in so many ways. And here is Joseph and Nicodemus, and they are consummate insiders, they're men, they're aristocrats, they're wealthy, they're on the inner ring, they're in the ultimate inner ring of that society. And these other people are outsiders, and yet, they're in the same passage together.

They're responding to Jesus in faith together. And some changes happening to Joseph and Nicodemus that I want to show you. There's something going on. Here's what's happening in their hearts. First of all, you see that we're boldly, Joseph and Nicodemus are getting accurried that they didn't have before. It says that Joseph went to and boldly asked for the body of Jesus and it makes sense.

It took great courage to ask for it. Why? The Romans had just tried Jesus and found him guilty of high treason. And the Jewish Sanhedrin had found him guilty of blasphemy. And now Joseph and Nicodemus, for the first time, are willing to say out loud what they've been telling in secret. You know, John said that Joseph and Nicodemus were secret followers of Jesus.

They liked him, they followed him, they were believing in him, they didn't want anybody to know. But now when it's really dangerous, they are willing to risk everything to bury Him. To come out and show that they're sympathizers, to the Roman establishment, the Jewish establishment, horribly, horribly risky. And something has happened. Here's the first thing that's happened to them. Their attitude toward their own power and their own status has changed. Why?

Listen, power and money and status tends to become not just something you have, but something you are. That's how you feel good about yourself. That's how you know who you are. Because I can wear these things and I can go to these restaurants

and I can, and I know these people and I live in this place. That's who I am. That's what happens. And that's the reason why people who get power and money very often will say, well, I'm doing a lot of good with it, but there's a limit to how much good they'll do with it. They won't do good with it. If to do the right thing, jeopardizes the power and money itself. They won't do the right thing if it means the possibility of losing some or all of that

power, losing some or all of that money. They won't do that. That's exactly what Joseph and Nicodemus are doing. They're using their power as members of the Sanhedrin, they go in to get the body. So you're using their power to do the right thing, but they are jeopardizing their power. They're risking the loss of everything. And that means something's going on here. They don't have the same attitude toward their power they did before, before they were

afraid of anyone knowing that they were following Jesus. Why? Because they were afraid of the loss of status or money that they could, but now what's happened? Their attitude toward their power is changing. It's not as important to them. There's some kind of identity shift going on. Something is more important to them than their power so that they're willing to risk it.

They're more generous. They're more...that's not all. It's not just that Joseph and Nicodemus are getting more bold. They're also getting more humble. They're not only getting more strong, they're also getting more weak, huh? Look at verse 46. What is Joseph, too? Joseph bought some linen cloth,

and he took down the body, he wrapped it in the linen, he placed it at the tomb, cut out of the rock. Now, and we'll look at this a little bit more next week. In ancient times, in Palestine, when a person died and was being buried, what they did was they washed the body and they wrapped it in linen and they anointed it with spices and then perfumes now. Because the Sabbath, because the sun was going down on the Sabbath, you couldn't do anything

else like that, they didn't finish the job. And that's the reason why the women went back on Easter Sunday morning in order to finish the job and put on the women went back on Easter Sunday morning in order to finish the job and put on the spices and put on the perfume. Now, when the Jews did this, it wasn't the way the Egyptians did it. This is not embalming. Maybe you thought that's what it was.

It wasn't embalming. It was a simple act of love. It was a final act of devotion to a loved one. But it was dirty. Listen, to take down a dead body, a cadaver that had been beaten and it was, and it's, the guts were coming out of it. I mean, it was an incredibly stomach-turning, loathsome, dirty, awful job.

And that's why, who wasn't that always did that? In that society, who are the ones who always, always did, it was women's work. Men didn't do it, women did it, or slaves, but certainly not prominent men, but here is Joseph, and as we know, Nicodemus taking Jesus' bodies down and obviously washing it and wrapping it. And there's women there. Look, verse 46, there's Joseph doing it, and there's women watching. Now something's happened. Why hasn't Joseph say, see if Joseph was the way he'd always been, if Joseph was like

any other man actually in Judea at the time, here's what Joseph, he'd always been, if Joseph was like any other man, actually, in Judea at the time, he was, but Joseph would have looked and seen those women over there and saying, hey you, women, come and do this, this is my job, you there, you there, women, come and do this, I'm an important person. It doesn't do that. He is doing something incredibly culturally inappropriate. He's not standing on his dignity. His dignity is not so important to him. He is...his status isn't so important to him.

His power isn't so important to him. He's becoming the kind of person the world needs to be an agent of justice. He's losing his lust for the inner ring. Isn't that something? Why? Well, here's my best shot. You have to guess. But it's not too hard to guess.

If you go to the book of John, you know that Nicodemus, and therefore probably Joseph had heard this story, Nicodemus had gone to Jesus secretly at night because he didn't want people to know. See his power was too important to him, his power was his identity, wasn't just what he had, but who he was, and his money, and his status, and he went to Jesus and he said, oh, I like to talk to you, and Jesus said, what?

You must be born again, to even enter my kingdom. Well, that's radical. Here he's talking to a Pharisee, a religious man, a Bible teacher. And he said, if you really want to get into my kingdom, you must be born again. What is that saying? That's saying, you've got to start at zero. Nothing you've done is of any benefit, if anything, nothing you've done achieves anything for getting into my kingdom.

That's weird. Now, because actually, I'm sure, Nicodemus and Joseph would have said, well, okay, maybe prostitutes have to be born again. You know, they have to start from ground zero, but for us, we've done a little bit. I mean, what do you mean born again? Could we start as toddlers or something?

Or as adolescents? See, Jesus is saying, no. Prostitute, born again. Couldn't we start as toddlers or something? Or as adolescents? See, Jesus is saying no. Prostitute, Bible teacher. Pagan Pharisee. You need to be saved radically by grace. You're all on the same footing. You're all in the same place. You can only be saved by radical grace.

Why? Why would that be? I'm sure Nicodemus didn't understand. I'm sure Joseph didn't understand. But you see, here's what Jesus is saying. And here's what we've been trying to say when we've gone through the book of Mark. There are two ways to be your own Savior and your own Lord. They're right here in the text. They're right in front of you.

There's two different ways to be your own Savior and Lord. There's two different ways to be the center and make everything else revolve around you. There's two ways to be your own Savior and Lord. There's two ways to express the evil self-centeredness of the human heart and make a mess of the world. As a pagan and as a Pharisee. Hi, I'm Tim Keller. You know, there is no greater joy in hope possible than that which comes from the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4, Although Christ was crucified in weakness, he now lives by the power of God. If you grasp this life altering fact of history, then even if you find things going dark in your life, this hope becomes a light for you when all other lights go out. With Easter approaching, I want you to know the hope that stays with you no matter the circumstance,

the hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled, hope and times of fear, the resurrection and the meaning of Easter, you'll find why the true meaning of Easter is transformative and how it gives us unclenchable hope and joy even when we face the trials and difficulties of this life which can be considerable. Hope in times of fear is our thank you for your gift this month to help gospel in life

reach more people with the hope and joy of Christ's love. You can request your copy today by going to gospelandlife.com slash give. That is gospelandlife.com slash give. Thank you so much for your generosity and as we prepare to reflect on the amazing love of Christ, demonstrated when he went to the cross to save us, I pray you will find renewed hope and comfort in the historical fact of his resurrection. There's the Roman centurion, the pagan.

How does a pagan be his own Savior and Lord? By breaking all the moral rules, doing whatever he wants, right? Sex, drugs, violence. How does a Pharisee be his own Savior and Lord? By keeping all the rules and being so good that he says to God, God, you've got to bless me and take me to heaven and everyone else has to bow before me because I am so good. And both of those are very different, but they are both radical self centered lives.

They both are ways of being on the center and making everything else center around you, in orbit around you. They're both different ways, they're different ways of making the world a miserable place to live in. And they're both ways of saying, one guy is saying, I don't want anything to do with God.

That's the pagan way. You got a person saying, oh, I believe in God. I obey God. And yet maybe, in spite of the fact he's obeying God, the Pharisee is making himself his own savior because he's saying, if I live a good enough life, God has to save me. And that's the reason why Jesus is saying,

prostitute, Bible teacher, pagan Pharisee. You must be born again. you must see, you need radical grace, and that must be what had begun in Joseph and Nicodemus' life. How do we know? Well, here's the only thing I second show you. Verse 45, when he learned from the centurion that it was so, Pilate gave Jesus' body to Joseph. There's a commentary on the book of Mark by James Edwards.

It's a very good commentary. And in it, when he guessed it verse 45, he points out something interesting. In chapter 14, Jesus had said to his disciples, take, eat. This is my body. Take my body. And Edward says, Joseph Erythea is the first person to actually do what Jesus asked everyone else to do. Well, what do we mean when we say take? Because you're going to do this in a second, you know?

Take Jesus' body. What does that mean? It doesn't just mean believe that Jesus died for you. That's very important, of course. That's a prerequisite. But to say, take His body means grasp His death. Think about it. Understand it.

Go deep into the meaning of it. And then take it in. Digest it like bread, make it part of you, and that is definitely what has been happening to Joseph and to Nicodemus. Because the death of Jesus Christ on the cross had begun to change them. It had begun to shift their identity. Something was more important to them than their power, something was more important to them than their status, so they more important to them than their status.

So they could reach out to people of other races and classes, and they could do stuff that was inappropriate for them, so they could risk their power, so they were becoming the agents of justice because they were becoming recipients of grace. Well, what do we mean, take the body? What does it mean to grasp the death? Well, we don't know. Last week, we took a look at how the death of Jesus transformed a pagan, the Centurion.

This week, we're really flying a little more blind as to how the death of Christ transformed a Pharisee. But you know, we're all pagans or we're Pharisees. Some of us have been both. You know, some of us are really versatile. And we've been both pagans for parts of our lives and Pharisees, part of all that. But here's what I think these Pharisees saw.

Jesus was in the ultimate inner ring, you know. It's called the Trinity. That's about the ultimate inner ring, don't you think? From all eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been honoring each other, glorifying each other. See, Jesus says in John 17, everyone in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, glorifying each other. See, Jesus says in John 17, everyone in the Trinity, fathers, son, and Holy Spirit, glorify each other.

What does it mean to glorify each other? It means instead of saying, you center on me, that's not how it's a glorify means I center on you. I revolve around you, I defer to you, I harbor you at the center of my being. I love you. I give myself around you, I defer to you, I harbor you at the center of my being. I love you. I give myself to you.

The Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, have been doing that for all eternity. And guess what? No wonder they, the Father, and the Son of the Holy Spirit, no wonder God Almighty hates the way things are going in America, in America too, in the whole world. Because down here, we are going in America, in America too, in the whole world. Because down here, we are committed to saying, everyone has to revolve around me. My needs first, me, me, me. What about me?

What about my needs? But at the very heart of reality, at the very heart of who the God is, God in His very essence is other-oriented. See, the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit are not saying, see, the father's not saying, how can the son and the Holy Spirit revolve around me? But the father's in the Holy Spirit, each person is seeking to revolve around the other two.

And when you have three persons, each of which is trying to dance around the other two, you've got a beautiful dance. Now we talked about this, the second sermon on Mark, and now it's the second last sermon on Mark, so it's appropriate. CSL is puts it like this. He says, in Christianity, God is not an impersonal thing or a static thing, not even one person, but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost if you will not think

me irreverent, a kind of drama, almost if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person of the Trinity encircles the others. And that's the reason why Jesus Christ left the inner ring to come here. But when He went to the cross, He was centering on us. Yes, you say, well, I always was to serve Jesus. Yes, but He Himself said it. In Mark 10, verse 45, I came not to be served, but to serve, and to give my life. I came not to be served, but to serve. What He means is the primary thing He came to do is not to be circled, but to circle,

to show you how it's done, to so radically empty himself, of all of his interests and all of his needs, to serve us. We would see that and realize you're paying the penalty for my sin, deity, serving humanity, you circling around me and that changes everything. That's what began to happen to these Pharisees. And that's the reason why, see I still just put it like this, self-giving. When we touch self-giving, we touch the heart of all reality. When Jesus Christ was crucified, listen carefully,

when Jesus Christ was crucified, he did hear in the wild weather of his outlying provinces that which he had done at home in glory and gladness. He did hear in the wild weather of his outlying provinces that which he had done at home in glory and gladness. Because from the foundation of the world, the sun had been glorifying the Father and the Father and the Son. Therefore, when he showed up here and He gave His life to pay the penalty for our sins.

And Joseph and Nicodemus saw what He was doing. All their life they had lusted after the inner ring. All their life they had said, everybody circle around me, they change. It changed them and it will change you too, because Lewis goes on and says, from the highest to the lowest self, therefore, exists to be abdicated, to get out of the center. And by that abdication, it becomes more truly itself. To be there upon yet, the more abdicated and so on forever. This is not a principle that we can escape.

The only thing outside the system of self-giving is hell. Hell with all its fearsome prism and self-absorption, self-giving is absolute reality. Now let me close with this story, very interesting. Well, three applications. Number one, do you see why the gospel doesn't just make you happy and take you to heaven, but makes you an agent for justice in the world. It makes you a person who shares the power and privilege you've got, who reaches out to people of other races and classes who otherwise you wouldn't.

You see? Because the gospel says, you're so bad, Jesus had a die for you, that humbles you out of your pride. And He also says, He loved you so much, he was glad to die for you, and that affirms you up to the place where power just becomes power, and money just becomes money, not your identity anymore, and you can use it. Do you see, first of all, how the gospel changes people into agents of justice in the world? Number one, number two.

Do you see how, oh my goodness, the Christian church is filled with people who otherwise, apart from the gospel, would never give each other the time of day. And the more you understand the gospel, the more we appropriately understand the gospel, the more we're gonna be bringing people together here, otherwise we just never, we wouldn't like each other,

we wouldn't have anything to do with each other. And it's still tough. Because even though you're Christian, it makes you more like people of other races and other classes and other politics and other vocations, it's hard. And yet, as one commentator put it in a very, very classic quote,

he said, what binds Christians together is not our common education or common race or common income or common, our common nationality, our common accents, our common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together not because they form a natural collection, but because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ. We are a band of natural enemies, turned into friends who love one another for Jesus' sake. We are a band of natural enemies turned into friends who love one another for Jesus' sake.

Christian love is mutual love among social incompatibles. And one last thing. So the gospel turned you in an agent of justice, number one, number two, the gospel will create the most agent of justice, number one, number two, the gospel will create the most unique human community in the world. It will bring together people who otherwise would never give each other the time of day. Women, pagans, Pharisees, that's everybody, you know that. Thirdly, however, most of us move along in life kind of thinking I need to be a good person in some

general sort of way. Many of us even go into church. When do you really change? When does your identity change? When is the boldness and the humility coming from the gospel hits you the way it hits Joseph? I don't believe it happens sort of naturally. It usually happens through trauma.

God's grace, your need for grace, the beauty and radical nature of God's grace almost always happens through trauma. Why did Joseph, who had always been scared that anybody would know he was disciple, come out when it was even more dangerous? I believe it was the trauma of seeing the Sanhedrin, the ruling council, that he was a member of putting Jesus to death, basically. How did that happen with Joseph there? I'll betcha he'd check it out.

And as he watched Jesus Christ die, he realized, I need grace. It's always traumatic. My favorite example of this is from the the short story Revelation by Flannery O'Connor. Flannery O'Connor has this great story about a Mrs. Turpin. She is the best Pharisee ever depicted from what I can tell in at least American literature. She is a woman from the South in 1930s in 1940s and she's sitting in a doctor's office, the first half of the short story. She's sitting in a doctor's office waiting room and all around her are people of different races and

different temperaments and different body types and different parts of town and she's talking to another woman that she's met there and all she's doing is clucking her tongue about how that type of person, you know how they are, you know how they are, you know how those people are, and she is so self-righteous. And listen, you gotta read that, gotta read it, because it goes right through you. Instead of saying, oh my gosh, this horrible person,

the way she talks about people is the way you and I talk about people, it's the way men talk about women, women talk about men, Democrats talk about Republicans, Republicans talk about Democrats, blacks, whites, artists, business people, and so on. There's a self-righteousness that comes through. It's so well crafted, that it really convicts you. But as she's blathering on being so self-righteous and so fair, say, go, there's a young woman, a young girl, next to her, reading a book. And she's not saying anything, she's listening, and she's getting mad, and she's getting madder

and madder the more Mrs. Turpin goes on blathering about how she's good and everybody else is wrong and all that sort of thing. Now, this young woman is named Mary Grace. And finally, Mrs. Turpin gets to a place where she says this. She says, when I think who I could have been besides myself, I just feel like shouting, thank you, Jesus, for making me who I am. Thank you, oh, thank you, Jesus.

And at that point, Mary Grace explodes. First, she takes her book which is actually named Human Development and she throws it at Mrs. Turpin and hits her in the eye, you know, cuts her in the eye. Then she leaps across the coffee table, puts her hands around Mrs. Turpin's throat and starts to choke her. Then she has an epileptic fit, why she's there. And as the people restrain her and put her onto the ground, Mrs. Turpin gets up all days and practically choked, and she looks down at Mary Grace and she says, what have you got to say to me, young lady?

Mary Grace looks up and says, go back to hell where you came from, you old ward hog. And Mrs. Turpin realizes that she's gotten a revelation. And she starts to see herself. And later that day she goes back into her yard and she starts to have a dialogue with God and she's really mad. She's really mad. And she starts to talk to God. And she says, what, she says, what do you send a message like that for? She's not all that God. How am I a hog and me both? How could I be saved and from hell too? Now of course, as she understood, the gospel,

the gospel is you're saved by grace, not by works, which means that when you receive Jesus Christ, you are accepted and yet still sinful. You're saved and you're a warthog from hell. As Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, the original Martin Luther said in his Latin, he says, and you're a warthog from hell. As Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, Martin Luther, the original Martin Luther said in his Latin, he says, when you're Christian, you're a similar justice at peccator, you're simultaneously accepted, but sinful. Or you could have said, similar justice at warthogus. You're simultaneously just accepted, loved,

and a warthog from hell. Pharisees don't believe that, and she's struggling, and finally she says, why me, she rumbled, it's no trash round here, black or white that I haven't given to, and break my back to the bone every day working, and do for the church, if you like trash better, go get yourself some trash then. Exactly how am I like them? I could quit working and take it easy

and be filthy, she growled, lounge about the sidewalks all day drinking root beer, dips enough and spit in every puddle and have it easy and be filthy, she growled, lounge about the sidewalks all day drinking root beer, dips enough and spit in every puddle and have it all over my face. I could be nasty." A final search of fury shook her and she cried out to God, who do you think you are? And at that moment, the sun sets and she sees a purple streak in the sky, a visionary light settled in her eyes, and she saw a vast swinging bridge

extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. A planet was as vast horde of souls marching toward heaven. There were whole companies of people she thought of as trash, battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. Then she saw, to her surprise, coming at the end of the parade, a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who like herself, had always had a little bit of everything and the God given with to use it right. But they were marching behind the others. With great dignity, accountable as they always had been for good order and common sense

and respectful behavior, and they alone were singing on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. And in a moment, the vision faded, and the woods around her, the invisible cricket choruses had struck up, but what she heard were the voices of the souls climbing upwards into the starry field and shouting, Hallelujah. Grace will always be traumatic. It will hit you in the face.

It'll make you snarl. It'll show you who you are. It always happens traumaticly, but it's worth it. Let's pray. Our Father, we want to take the body. We want to take Jesus. We want to understand His body. We want to take Jesus. We want to understand His death. We want to take it into ourselves so it changes us.

The way it began to change Joseph and Nicodemus and the Centurion. We pray, Father, that you would make us agents of justice because we're recipients of grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching on the life of Christ, and we hope you'll continue to join us throughout this month

as we look at the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2006 and 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.