Curse and Promise

So if you look at all of the cultures around the world, both past and present, and you

look at their mythologies and their fairy tales, the children's stories, you'll see

a number of things that are different, but you'll see a few things that most cultures

around the world have in common when it comes to these kinds of stories.

And one of those common aspects that you see in virtually every society is the concept

of a curse.

It seems that societies, both past and present, all around the world, all have some kind

of understanding of a curse.

If you look at the Greek and Roman cultures, curses are very prevalent.

If you anger the gods and goddesses, you're liable to wind up being cursed.

It's also very common in Celtic cultures.

It's also common in cultures that practice voodoo, the idea of a voodoo curse.

The Mediterranean people have the concept of the evil eye, and you have to protect yourself.

And many people will wear jewels, specific kinds of necklaces and jewelry that's meant

to ward off the evil eye.

If you look in German cultures, traditional German culture has the concept of the hex.

And even Indian culture has the concept of the shrop.

But whatever we call it, whatever name it goes by, most cultures have a concept of a curse

embedded in their fairy tales and in their mythology.

And if you look at these stories, they all kind of involve a similar thing.

You have somebody who was going along, living their life, then they crossed a line or transgressed

or did something wrong.

They broke the rules or angered somebody who was more powerful than they were.

And so they wound up being cursed.

So if you look, for instance, at the Greek myth of Sisyphus, this is fairly well known,

Sisyphus was cursed to spend all of eternity rolling a boulder up a mountain.

But every time he gets near the top, the boulder rolls back down to the bottom and he has to

start all over again.

Many of us know this story.

If you look at the old French fairy tale that we call Beauty and the Beast, what's that

about?

That's about a man who is cursed.

And because of the curse, he no longer looks like a man.

He looks like a terrifying animal, a beast, a monster.

And the only way that he can ever be free from this curse is if he gets true love's kiss.

Right?

There's another old French fairy tale that we call Sleeping Beauty about a woman who pricks

her finger on a poison spinning wheel and ends up falling into an enchanted slumber.

And she'll sleep for a hundred years unless someone with royal blood,

comes and wakes her up.

Has to be royal blood.

Right?

There's even in Hindu culture the story of Lord Vishnu.

Lord Vishnu is very powerful, but even Lord Vishnu falls under a curse.

Vishnu's curse is interesting.

His curse is to be forced to become incarnate in the world and to have to live as a human

being and experience all of the suffering that human beings experience in their lives here

on earth.

And so you have this concept of a curse that's very widespread.

So here's the question I want to ask.

Are these stories just for entertainment value or getting our kids to fall asleep at night?

Or are they reflecting something deeper about the human condition?

Are all of these stories human and cultural ways of trying to make sense of life and what

it means to live in this world as human beings?

I mean, how many people identify with Sisyphus?

Right?

You work and you strive and you do the best you can.

And no matter how hard you work, the work is never done.

There's always more to do.

And even the work that you do do, most of it never lasts.

Even the best buildings, the best construction fades over time.

Right?

Or you work really hard, but your boss doesn't even seem to notice.

Right?

Or you excel far beyond your peers and yet you never get promoted.

The sense of futility, I think, is present in most everybody's job.

Right?

Or if you look at Beauty and the Beast, are there people here who would identify with the

beast?

Right?

There's the person that I know I am, that I should be, that I want to be, the kind of

dad that I want to be.

You know, the kind of husband I want to be, the kind of Christian that I want to be, the

kind of pastor I want to be.

And all too often I feel like what actually comes out is not that person.

It's a beast.

It's a monster.

You know, words will leave your mouth and you'll think, how in the world did that come

out of me?

I'm not like that.

And yet all too often you feel that if somebody really saw the truth about you, they would

say, man, that's a monster.

They'd run away in fear.

Right?

Do some of us feel like Sleeping Beauty?

Feel like inside, spiritually, I'm numb.

I'm, I'm lifeless.

I'm dead.

Even the curse that befalls Lord Vishnu, there, you know, you look at the suffering in the

world today.

You go online and look at all of the atrocious things that are happening around the world.

It's easy to begin to think that maybe life itself is a curse.

Right?

So today what we're going to do is we're going to look at the concept of the curse and we're

going to look at what Scripture has to say about it because this is a very prevalent

theme in the Bible.

And we're going to look at this wonderful passage, Galatians chapter 3, verses 6 to 14.

Galatians 3:6–14

And we're going to look at this story in three parts because all good stories, right, have

three parts, right?

Three acts.

First, we're going to look at the curse.

Then we're going to look at our redemption.

How does redemption come from the curse?

And then finally the blessing that follows that redemption.

So curse, redemption, blessing.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we just sang and then we prayed a moment ago about your Word.

We prayed that your Word, which is precious, that comes to us from your mouth, that's meant

for our good and your glory.

We prayed that that would be something that we are able to read, mark, learn, and inwardly

digest.

And so I pray that by the power of your Spirit you would enable us to do just that, Lord,

that you would do your work in us through your Word.

In your Son's name, amen.

So first we're going to look at the curse.

Let me give you a little context of what's going on here in Galatians.

There's a major controversy that Paul is addressing in Galatia, and we may word it like this.

Big disagreement.

Who is entitled to God's blessing and who is still under God's curse?

Who can expect blessing from God and who is still under the curse?

And there were a number of Jews in Galatia who had converted to Christianity, and yet

they believed that they were entitled to God's blessing not because of Jesus, but because

of their Jewish identity.

They had been born Jews.

They had been circumcised, if they were male, like any faithful Jew.

They had kept the ceremonial law to stay clean, and they had observed these things.

They had kept themselves separate from the Gentiles, and so they could reasonably assume, according

to Jewish teaching, that they were among the blessed, the chosen.

They were unlike the uncircumcised, those people who don't have the law, those people who are

unclean, the Gentile outsiders.

Those people are very obviously still under the curse.

So this is what was going on.

And Paul's very upset about this.

And you know, some of you have asked, why in this series on Galatians have we talked

so much about racism over the last several weeks?

And the reason is this.

What we see happening is a form of religiously justified racism.

Right?

Why should I care about people whom God has cursed?

Why should I spend five minutes thinking about such people?

If God's cursed them, they're not worth my time, nor should I even associate with them.

Certainly I shouldn't eat with them or invite them into my home.

I might become tainted.

I might become cursed yet again, that the curse may be contagious.

Therefore, stay away.

So Paul's very upset about this, and so he's confronting this entire way of thinking.

And here's what Paul says.

Listen to Paul's words.

He says this in verse 10.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

So what is he saying?

Not just those people who are unclean or uncircumcised, but he says,

all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written, and he quotes Deuteronomy,

cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

The implication is clear.

No one can keep everything that's written in the book of the law.

But there's something else that I want to clarify.

He uses a phrase, the works of the law.

And I just want to be clear.

This is a specific phrase with a specific connotation that Paul is fond of.

And it's almost always used in a negative sense.

So he's not talking about the law in general.

He's not saying the law is bad or evil or broken.

What he's saying is the works of the law.

And when he talks about that, he's talking about the idea that one can be saved by observing the law.

In other words, it's legalism.

So when Paul talks about the works of the law, that's a biblical phrase that means legalism.

And he says if you live that way, if that's the way you think you're going to get blessed,

if that's the way you think you're going to escape this curse that you're under,

you're deluding yourself.

Anyone who does that is still under the curse.

This would have been utterly shocking to Paul's Jewish hearers.

Because they assumed that if anybody would be blessed by God, it would be them.

Now let's talk a little bit about what the curse is.

You know, we talked about some fairy tales, but Scripture actually also uses this language of curse.

Scripture says, and if you look at the Bible, even though there's lots of different books

and lots of different genres, the Bible tells actually one great complete whole story.

And if you go back to the beginning of that story,

it tells us that God actually created the world as a good and beautiful and perfect place.

And yet it was incomplete.

It was a world that by design required human agency.

It was a world that was designed to need us,

to care for it, to cultivate it, to bring it to its fullest potential.

And then he created human beings to do that kind of work.

But then the Bible says that human beings rejected that vocation.

We rejected our place in God's creation.

We said we would rather be God than serve God.

And because of that act of rebellion, that act of sin, we fell.

And at that point, the world came under a curse.

That's when the curse set in.

So all of the world is under that curse.

So what does it mean to live under the curse?

What's life like?

How do you know you're cursed?

Well, think about the fairy tales that we talked about a moment ago.

Right?

Living under the curse means we face futility in our work.

Genesis 3 talks about the thorns and the thistles.

Think about your job.

Think about all of the times you feel like you're slamming up against a brick wall,

either with something that you're trying to get done

or with people that you're trying to deal with,

with a deal that you're trying to broker.

You feel like again and again and again, you're slamming up against a brick wall.

That's life under the curse.

Right?

Life under the curse means that there is always a disconnect

between the person that we wish we could be

and the beast that we often become under the right circumstances,

or shall I say the wrong circumstances.

You know, the nicest person,

the most agreeable person under the right circumstances can become a monster.

There's a disconnect.

Right?

Especially if you're, you know, I've talked about this already,

but if you haven't felt it before,

when you become a parent,

you really feel it.

You really, you have all these ideals of the kind of mom or dad you want to be.

And almost every day,

you're painfully aware of how short you fall of those standards.

Right?

Living under the curse means being sleeping beauty.

It means being spiritually asleep.

And actually, the Bible says we're spiritually dead.

We're cold and we're frozen inside.

We need to be thawed out.

Life under the curse means that much of life is suffering.

The unbearable burden of being in this world is overwhelming sometimes.

Right?

Life under the curse means there are wildfires tearing California apart,

destroying homes, killing people.

You know, life under the curse means that Jewish worshippers

sitting in their own synagogue get shot.

Right?

Life under the curse means again and again and again,

we pick up the paper and we read about,

we don't really pick up the paper anymore,

but we read about atrocious things happening around the world.

We read about a study that tells us our environment

is on the brink of irreversible collapse

because of human exploitation and inaction.

This is life under the curse.

But the worst thing about the curse,

the worst ramification of this state

is the fact that the word curse in the Bible

is ultimately a covenant word.

And it's used to describe what happens to people

who don't keep the covenant that God makes with humanity.

And ultimately,

what God says to people who want to have nothing to do with Him,

people who go their own way,

who reject God,

who say,

I don't even believe in you.

I don't want anybody telling me how to live my life.

God ultimately says,

what?

Have it your way.

Spend eternity

completely and utterly cut off from me.

The Bible uses the phrase,

the outer darkness.

That's the end of the curse.

That's the ultimate destiny

for those who are under the curse.

And it's a horrible fate.

So some people, like the Jews,

believe this great and pernicious lie

that says,

even though I'm cursed,

I can reverse the curse myself.

Right?

I can escape this curse.

I can gain blessing

by keeping the ceremonial law,

by making sure I'm circumcised,

by making sure I'm clean.

Right?

But even the most irreligious person,

and, you know,

I think D.C.

is the kind of city

that attracts people like this,

like moths to a flame.

Even the most irreligious people out there,

when we look at all that's wrong with the world,

all the injustice,

all the racism,

all the poverty,

the economic inequalities,

all of these things,

there are many, many, many people in this city

who believe that with enough willpower,

with enough ingenuity,

with enough education and awareness,

with enough legislation,

and the right people in power,

we can fix this world once and for all.

Many people are driven by this utopian dream

of what could be,

if only.

And the harsh reality that we have to accept is,

that utopian dream is never going to be realized.

It's never going to come.

Thousands and thousands of years,

and we love to talk about all the progress that we've made,

but all of the core issues in the world are still there.

They're still there.

You know,

I was blessed to be,

earlier this week,

able to be,

Dan and Kevin and I,

went to listen to a series of lectures

given over a couple of days by N.T. Wright,

who's a, you know,

great Bible scholar,

scholar of history,

and somebody that,

that I've read a lot of.

And anyway,

his talks are always very eloquent,

very inspiring.

But one of the talks in particular,

I thought was very relevant to,

to the things I've been thinking about,

because he said,

that in many cultures and societies around the world,

we all share these common ideals.

Things like justice,

truth,

beauty,

the priority of relationships,

even spirituality.

These are things that you find,

in virtually every culture and society,

some concept of these things.

And yet he said,

in every case,

you're looking at a paradox.

Because in every case,

you have something like justice,

that we value.

Virtually every society says,

we have to have justice.

And yet here's the paradox,

we value it,

and yet no matter how hard we try,

and how long we try,

we can never fully attain it.

Right?

Why would we value something,

that we can't attain?

You know,

you look at something like justice,

and you say,

well,

you know,

we've done a lot in the realm of justice,

and maybe we have.

See,

everybody says,

you know,

yes,

that person needs to be brought to justice.

That wrong needs to be punished.

That inequality needs to be rectified.

Anybody in this room would say that.

But how quickly,

how quickly will we shrug off justice,

if it's going to be applied to us?

You know,

what's the first thing you do when you're in trouble?

You go hire a lawyer.

And all of a sudden,

it's not about justice anymore,

it's about how good your lawyer is at getting you off.

Right?

And you look at our criminal justice system.

I think lots of people on both sides of the political aisle,

would agree that our criminal justice system,

is more often than not,

criminally unjust.

Right?

How many people are just wasting away in prison

because of harsh minimum sentencing laws,

and some minor infraction has them spending years of their life?

Right?

These are things that many people agree,

this is not justice.

While people with much greater crimes go free,

this is not justice.

Right?

It's a broken system.

It's a proximate form of justice at best,

but this is the paradox again and again.

Now,

why would we value something like justice or power or truth

and yet never be able to attain it?

That's life under the curse.

That's the stone being pushed up the mountain

that again and again and again rolls down to the bottom.

Right?

So this is life under the curse,

and we cannot save ourselves.

So where does redemption come from?

Where does hope come from?

You may be familiar,

I think most of you are,

with C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia,

and one of the books is the book called

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

And in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,

like any children's fairy tale,

any good fairy tale,

there is a curse.

In fact, the entire land of Narnia is under a curse.

And because of that curse,

everything is cold,

everything is dark,

everything is frozen.

It's always winter,

but it's never Christmas.

Christmas never comes.

And it's under a curse,

and it's held in bondage

to the villain

who's the evil white witch.

And she has set herself up

as the pretender to the throne,

the false ruler of Narnia.

And so one of the characters, Edmund,

falls under the spell of the white witch.

You know, he gives in to his pride

and his self-pity

and his grandiosity.

And as a result,

he betrays his brother and sisters.

And because of this act of betrayal,

the white witch says,

there is a deep magic in Narnia,

a deep law that has been written

into the stones themselves.

And this deep magic says

that anyone who commits

such an act of treachery

belongs to me.

I get their blood.

He's forfeited his life.

She has a hold on him.

And there's seemingly no way out.

And then Aslan, the lion,

the god figure in this story,

the true ruler of Narnia,

he comes,

and he alone knows

that below and behind

the deep magic

is a deeper magic.

And he says,

the witch can only see back

to the beginning of time,

but if she were able to see

before time,

before creation,

she would know

that before the foundations

of the earth were laid,

there was a deeper magic

written into the fabric

of reality itself.

And this deeper magic

says this.

The deeper magic says

that when a willing victim

who has committed no treachery

is killed in the traitor's stead,

the curse will be broken.

And even death itself

will start to work backwards.

And so, as many of you know,

Aslan sacrifices himself

on the stone table.

And he breaks the curse.

And he rescues Edmund.

And death begins to work backward

and he comes back to life.

And then he is able

to liberate Narnia

from the curse

that has held it enslaved

for so long.

It's a great story.

And what I want you to understand,

the reason I'm telling you this story

is because Paul is saying

something very similar here

to the Jews.

You know, the law

is like the deep magic.

And the Jews point back

to Moses and they say,

God gave Moses the law

and we live under the law.

That's how to be blessed.

That's how to save ourselves

and escape the curse.

And Paul says,

no, no, no, no.

There's a deeper magic.

Don't you see?

And he points them

all the way back to Abraham.

And I think further still,

all the way back to before

the heavens and the earth

were even created.

And he says,

there's a deeper magic.

It's the gospel.

It's the gospel of grace.

And he says,

how do you think

that your forefather,

Abraham,

how do you think

that he gained

the blessing of God?

Was it through the law?

No, the law had not

even been given.

Then what happened?

Abraham believed God

and it was credited to him

as righteousness.

It was an act of faith.

Paul says,

this is the deepest magic of all.

It's the gospel.

It's the gospel of grace

that comes through faith.

And here's the gospel.

Verse 13,

Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law

by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written,

curse it is everyone

who is hanged on a tree.

Paul says,

don't you get it?

You're dealing with the God

whose eternal nature

is to have mercy.

His plan all along

was to send his son

to become a curse.

Now notice what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say that Jesus

paid the penalty for our sin.

It doesn't say that he

paid what was due.

He paid the debt.

It doesn't say that he

experienced part of the curse,

the part that he would have experienced

if he were one of us.

It says he became the curse.

Now honestly,

most commentators

don't really get into

what that means

because it's

very strong language.

He didn't just pay the penalty

for the curse.

He became the curse.

Now what does that mean?

He says something

similarly mysterious

in 2 Corinthians 5.21.

God made the one

who did not know sin

to be sin for us.

Here's the best I can do

to help you understand

what this means.

Every single thing

that we have ever done

against God,

every time we've yelled

at our kids,

every time we've wished

somebody was dead,

every time we fantasize

about committing adultery

with somebody,

every time we've done

anything like that,

every time every evil

was ever committed,

every time a gun

was ever fired

that ended a life,

every time a crime

was ever committed

or an act of racism

or injustice

was perpetrated

on another human being,

every time any sin

was ever committed,

God treated Jesus

as though he were

personally responsible

for each and every act

of sin

that has ever been committed.

The full weight,

the full crushing weight

of that curse,

that global curse,

slammed down on Jesus

on the cross.

And remember what we said

a little while ago

about the ultimate end

of those who are cursed.

You know,

when does Jesus cry out?

He doesn't cry out

when the nails go

into his hands.

Jesus cries out

when in his heart

he feels that break

for the first time

and he realizes

that he's been cut off.

He's been alienated.

And he experiences

the full pain

of eternal alienation.

Jesus is cast

into the outer darkness

and he cries out

in pain and agony

and fear and dread.

But then as Jesus died

and then as death

began to work backwards

and then as Jesus

rose from death

we see the same thing

that the curse

was broken,

the curse was lifted

and those who had no hope

began to gain hope.

Right?

What happens in all

of the great myths

and fairy tales?

People can't save themselves.

They need something

or someone

of immense power

to save them

from the curse.

And so they need

either an act

of divine intervention

or they need

true love's kiss

or they need somebody

of royal blood.

And don't you see?

Right?

None of these stories

are true in themselves

but they all point

to the one great story,

the deeper story

that is true.

Right?

Jesus is God

intervening

in history.

Jesus is true love's kiss.

Jesus is one

with royal blood

but not just the prince.

He's the king.

Right?

And unlike Vishnu

who is cursed

to become a human being,

Jesus joyfully

took on human flesh.

Not because he was cursed

but in order

to end the curse.

This is the story

under all of the stories.

The one true story

from which all

of the great stories

around the world

derive themselves.

So those who put

their faith

in Jesus Christ

rather than their own

self-salvation projects

are set free

from the curse

and this is Paul's

great point.

But then Paul goes on

and says something

even more amazing.

It doesn't just

stop there.

Such people aren't

just set free

to go on their merry way.

They're set free

and then they are blessed.

Because remember

what we said

at the very beginning.

God created the world

to need human vocation,

to need human beings

to work and to serve

in the world, right?

And so the entire purpose

of salvation

is to restore to us

that vocation.

And so then God

has to bless us

and empower us

to take up that mantle again.

And so what does he do?

He sends the Holy Spirit.

God's blessing, right?

Verse 14.

So that in Christ Jesus

the blessing of Abraham

might come to the Gentiles

so that we might receive

the promised spirit

through faith.

Thousands of years earlier

God had come to Abram

and said I'm going to build

of you a great nation

and from your offspring,

through your offspring

I will bless all of the nations.

We've seen that blessing

come to pass

through Jesus

and the pouring out

of God's spirit

on his people.

And the Bible says

that the resurrection

of Jesus

and the pouring out

of the Holy Spirit

are the first signs

we have

that the curse

has lost its power

and that it's fading.

that one day night

is going to give way

to dawn.

One day winter

will give way

to spring.

In Narnia

once Aslan comes

everything begins

to change.

And my favorite scene

in the book

is this point

where the White Witch

and her dwarven thrall

and Edmund

who's still

by her side

and utterly hopeless

by this point

they're racing

in the sled

that she travels in

because it's been

snow and ice

for as long

as anyone can remember.

So they're racing

along the sled

and all of a sudden

the sled begins

to slow down

because it's getting slushy.

And here's what it says.

Every moment

the patches of green

grew bigger

and the patches of snow

grew smaller.

Every moment

more and more

of the trees

shook off their robes

of snow.

Soon wherever you looked

instead of white shapes

you saw the dark green

of firs

or the black prickly branches

of bare oaks

and beaches

and elms.

Then the mist

turned from white

to gold

and presently cleared

away altogether.

Shafts of delicious sunlight

struck down

on the forest floor

and overhead

you could see a blue sky

between the treetops.

Faster, faster

said the witch.

There was no trace

of fog now.

The sky became

bluer and bluer

and now there were

white clouds

hurrying across it

from time to time.

In the wide glades

there were primroses.

A light breeze

sprang up

which scattered

drops of moisture

from the swaying branches

and carried cool

delicious scents

against the faces

of the travelers.

The trees began

to come fully alive.

The larches

and birches

were covered with green.

The laburnums

with gold.

Soon the beech trees

had put forth

their delicate

transparent leaves.

As the travelers

walked under them

the light

also became green.

A bee buzzed

as it crossed

their path.

This is no thaw

said the dwarf

suddenly stopping.

This is spring.

What are we to do?

Your winter

has been destroyed

I tell you.

This is Aslan's doing.

When God's people

in faith

and the power

of the Holy Spirit

act in God's name

and do the good work

of justice

and mercy

in this world

these are signs

that the winter

has ended

that the curse

has been lifted

and that spring

is on its way.

when we take

in foster children

through DC 127

who need homes

that's when you see

the ice beginning

to break apart.

You know

when we humble

ourselves

and ask forgiveness

when we do

the hard work

of trying to understand

and even love

our enemies

when we

are willing

to forgive

seemingly unforgivable

hurt and pain

the sun

is starting

to shine

through the trees

when we invite

strangers

into our home

so that they

might become

friends

and even

family

the grass

is beginning

to push up

through the permafrost

when we do

the hard work

of racial

reconciliation

humbling

ourselves

listening

repenting

the flowers

are beginning

to bloom

when we care

for immigrants

or refugees

or young children

who need mentors

when we as the church

do all of these things

be very clear

on this point

when we do

all of these things

we're not trying

to end the curse

we are declaring

that the curse

has been ended

right

we live in a world

that feels dark

and it feels cold

and it feels frozen

most of the time

but though the world

still feels dark

and cold

it is only a matter

of time

the night will give way

to the dawn

the winter will give way

to spring

and so our job

as the church

our calling

our holy purpose

is to stand

in the darkness

and to point

to the western horizon

let's pray

the king

to the south

and the forth

where the làm

will give way

and automotive

is to перв

to the earth

and to other

beings

and one

to the earth