John 21: Don't Waste Your Life

Don’t Waste Your Life

John 21:17-22

Introduction

When we visited the Sacramento Zoo last month, we were introduced to two interesting characters: Herkimer and Anasazi, father and son desert tortoises. Herkimer was actually born around 1927, although they’re not quite sure, and donated to the zoo when it first opened. Most of his time is spent in the giraffe pen. Anasazi turned 25 this year and regularly entertains guests by sprinting across the landscape, followed by his minder. What got me to thinking was: Herkimer was at least 64(!) when Anasazi was born. Maybe we wonder: What was he thinking? Or, with more respect: That’s a bold move for a senior citizen.

That got me to thinking: are there areas in my life that I have placed off limits to God because I’m too old? Like Sarah did when she heard God promise another chapter in her life and she laughed. But God did add another chapter and she gave birth to Isaac whose name means: “He laughs.” You might laugh at the thought that your most productive years in the kingdom lie ahead of you, but God laughs last.

We don’t think of it like that. We say things like:

• I’m too tired (or burnt out) to start at the beginning again.
• I’ve put in my time.
• I will, after I finish school, or once kids get into school, or once they graduate and out of the house, or one on a secure financial footing, or once…
• If I could just fit it in between my doctors’ appointments.
• I’m not really qualified, or I’ve done things by which I’ve disqualified myself.

Here’s my point: Don’t Waste the Rest of Your Life and Don’t Limit What God Can Use The Rest Of Your Life For.

Paul puts it this way:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. – Philippians 3:13-15a

This is not a young man’s goal. This is a mature man or woman’s goal.

We were always watching the U.S. Olympic trials as those athletes strained toward the goal. What interested me was the longer distance runners. They paced themselves for the first laps of the race, trying to stay with the pack, setting up for a winnng time. But during the last lap of the race something remarkable happens: as tired as they are, as many laps as they have run, they speed up! They push harder! They lean forward (like Lightning McQueen in Cars, with the tongue hanging out) to reach that finish line.

The rest of your life is the best of your life. The time to accelerate is when the finish line is getting closer.  When the applause of the great cloud of witnesses swells to fortississimo. Where the author and finisher of our faith waits to shout, “Well done.”

John Piper, in his insightful book Don’t Waste Your Life, finds tragedy in the story of a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.”  Is that what we want to end our life with? “Here, Lord, see my beautiful shell collection.”?[1]

These shells—they are life wasters.  Many good people miss God’s purpose and waste their life. One of the saddest verses in the Bible shows up in Luke:

“But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves…” – Luke 7:30a

Earnest, well-meaning, moral, well-educated, civic minded, Bible-based citizens not only missed God’s purpose for their lives, but rejected it. It wasn’t that they didn’t know, but that they didn’t want to know. We make conscious choices that waste our lives, or we slip into wastage. These life wasters are habits that convince us that God’s purpose is better left undiscovered and untraveled. The first life waster is regret.

Waste Life Regretting

If there was ever a man with regrets, it was Simon Peter. Runner up in the category for best traitor, just behind Judas Iscariot. Claimed he would die for Jesus, but sold him out for a bit of anonymity around a campfire. Called “Satan!” by Jesus. Found a sword, used it badly and then was reprimanded by Jesus. Watched Jesus die, but then, no, he doesn’t stay dead, he comes back and his life is a physical reminder of Peter’s every doubt and failure. Then he tells Peter to go back to the beginning, to Galilee. Back where he met Jesus as a fisherman. Back where Jesus first called him, “Peter” Back where Jesus challenged him, “Come, follow me.”

So John records how Peter and some of the other disciples hike back to Galilee and apparently Jesus is a bit late so Peter decides (John 21:3) he’s going fishing. The others join him. Then Jesus appears and calls to them, just like in the beginning. Then Peter leaves his nets to see Jesus, just like in the beginning. Then Jesus says, “Come, follow me.” Just like in the beginning.

You can never go back. You can’t make those decisions over again. You can’t retrace your steps and take the road less traveled or the word better not spoken or leave the invitation untaken. But no matter what, Jesus invitation still awaits, “Come and follow me.”

We may not want to invest a lot in God because, frankly, we’ve made quite a hash of being good already. Our bad choices have hurt us, they have damaged the ones we loved, they have disappointed God and permanently closed off paths and avenues that might have led to our happiness. Not through mistakes—no, nor stupidity, but through bald-faced selfishness and cowardice.  But somehow, the invitation of Jesus remains, even after that, knowing the truth about us, “Come, follow me.”

Paul reflected on this to his friend Timothy when he said,

Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. – 1 Timothy 1:13-14

The question is not: What if I did things differently? The question is: What if I do things differently. So don’t waste the rest of your life on regret, spend it lavishly for God’s purposes.

Waste Life Avoiding or Tolerating People

The second life waster is avoiding and tolerating people. We shield ourselves from people. We don’t answer the phone from people, return e-mails from people, approach people, get involved with certain people. People who look like X, act like X, smell like X, say things like X, act like that, ask awkward questions like X. We avoid them or tolerate them. Some of those people are in our family. Or, in our church. Or in our neighborhood.

Jesus encountered uncomfortable people and his response was invariably to turn toward the mess. Not avoid. Not mitigate. Not tolerate. But love. Lepers. Untouchables. Demonized. Outcast. Cast out. Diseased. Unfriended. Awkward.

When Peter came off of the boat in John, chapter 21, there was Jesus, on the shore. Three times he asks Peter: Do you love me? Three times Peter responds: You know I do, Lord. Three times, Jesus replies: Feed my sheep. Mine. Not yours. I choose. You don’t choose—you care for them. You love them. But I choose them.

When you hear this, you think: “I’m not the pastor, not the leader, not the deacon.” But there’s nothing in “feeding the sheep” that isn’t found in the commands to love one another, carry one another’s burdens, etc. that are for all of us.

When you hear this, you’re probably like me, thinking: “I’m not Jesus. I can’t handle that.” That’s ok. You’re not Jesus. They can’t handle you either. But Jesus didn’t ask that. I’ve got some suggestions:

1. Do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. You can’t help everybody. We are not God. But we can start doing for one what we wish we could do for the many. Your job is not to fill their cup. Your job is to empty your cup. [2]
2. Stop expecting our friend flock should be full of county fair prize winners. Sheep are messy and lead messy lives. The cemetery is the only place full of no-fuss neighbors.
3. When our thoughts say “How could they…” or “If they only...” it is a signal we need to turn toward (not away from) the mess. Paul wrote to Titus: “slander no one, be peaceable and considerate, and always be gentle toward everyone [because] At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” (Titus 2:2-3) 

When we avoid or tolerate, we waste our lives because our purpose is to be life-giving outpost of the kingdom of God where he has placed us, with the people he has placed near us. If you love him, feed his sheep.

Waste Life Envying

The third way that we waste our lives is by envying.

There’s a sort of funny coda to the end of Peter’s story, where Jesus commands him: “Follow me.” Apparently Jesus actually started walking away and wanted Peter to follow. So Peter does and then he turns and looks over his shoulder and there is John. So he asks Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” (John 21:21)

That question--“What about him?”--really translates to “Am I getting the raw deal?” or “Could I be getting something better?” During this post-resurrection period, Peter and John and the other disciples haven’t understood how the whole kingdom of God thing is going to work. In fact, just before Jesus ascends back into heaven, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They are still working within the model that Jesus is going to usher in the next phase in God’s program (“the age to come”, true) and that everything is going to be set right.

It is within this context that Jesus says to Peter: there’s going to come a day where you are going to be weak, so weak you can’t dress yourself, and powerless, led to a place you don’t want to go, and die to glorify God. Peter says: wait, wait, I don’t understand. If the kingdom of God wins, and I get this role, was it because of something I said, or did. Wait, what about John, does he get a better deal because he didn’t do the whole give-up-on-Jesus-bit, because he was assigned to take care of Mary at the cross?

Jesus has strong words for Peter: “What is that to you? What happens if I give him the better deal of living until kingdom comes [and you don’t]? Follow me!” Your fate is good. You’re forgiven. You’re in. It’s all good. This is not a limited grace universe.

We can spend a lot of time comparing our lives to those of other people.  Jesus asks you: what is that to you? Come, follow me.

How come their families stayed together? How come they didn’t get sick? How come there were no shootings in their neighborhood?

Paul looks at it from a different angle

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us eternal glory that outweighs them all. – 2 Corinthians 4:7,8-12

Mount Testaccio, outside Rome, is an artificial hill 115 feet high and covering more than 5 acres, that is composed exclusively of the shards of an estimated 53 million amphora—Roman jars of clay. In Most jars were stamped with where they came from, the official opinion about their contents, how they measured up, but they all ended up on the junk heap. [3]

Why? Because the value is not in the pot! The value is in what the pot carries, in this case: olive oil from all over the Roman world.

That’s what Paul says: our lives are like pots—jars of clay--something which is used for a purpose. We were called, fashioned, created to carry the very Spirit of the living God. We can go around comparing pot design, pot capacity, pot point-of-origin, pot inspector approval stickers, who bought the pots—all perfectly good archaeological questions and the focus of billions of dollars of annual pot cosmetic sales—but it misses the point: the value of the pot is the value of what it carries. And if there are a few nicks and cracks here and there, that’s just the place where the Spirit of God can leak out or shine through.

Perhaps the jar is tossed away, but it can be reformed. Do you know the primary use of amphorae? They were ground down into powder to be used in one of the greatest Roman inventions: concrete. Even as we are wasting away, God is reforming us, fashioning us into the very blocks of his temple, building upon (as Paul says) the foundation of apostles and prophets upon the chief cornerstone, Jesus.

There is a story that says: you are wasting away. That this is a young man or woman's world. That past 20 your body starts to go downhill, at 25 your brain starts to lose more neurons than it gains. But that isn’t the complete story: because simultaneously, and often in parallel with wasting away, we are renewed.

Conclusion

There is a real danger, the further we get along in life, to assume that the best years are behind us. Illness and pain and missed opportunities dominate our thinking. Our culture reinforces this with the deification of youth, our infatuation with prodigies.

Here are ten ways you are getting better at doing what God has called you to do:

1. There are spiritual insights that you have now that you didn’t have when you were younger.
2. There are paths you took when you were younger that you wouldn’t want anyone to take after you.
3. There are accumulated resources (time, treasure, talents) that you can share with someone else.
4. There is influence that God has given you that you can use on someone else’s behalf, among friends, institutions, agencies and, through prayer, with God.
5. There are delays and roadblocks you have waited out that taught you pace and patience in God’s time.
6. There are reservoirs of love, kindness and generosity that others have poured into you so you can embrace hard-to-love people.
7. There are accumulated reserves of joy that let you donate some to those around you who are down. 
8. There are experiences, painful, deep and profound, that you carry with you that allow to come alongside those who struggle with sympathy and without judgement.
9. There are more stories, funny and sad, that make you the fascinating individual you are today, not a generic infant.
10. There are more friends and family. As I thought about this, it became clear how blessed we are to stand on the foundation provided by the faithfulness and consistency of generations gone before. 

But these will never do you any good, unless you take Paul’s advice.


When I had a spare weekend in Taiwan a few years ago, I wandered up to the northwest corner of Taipei County to Tamsui. As I wandered along the river, I noticed a life-sized, polished brass statue on the river pier of a man kneeling in prayer next to a boat in which lay an open Bible. That man was George Leslie Mackay. In 1872, George Mackay was the first foreign missionary commissioned by the Canadian Presbyterian Church. Starting as an itinerant dentist, he went on to plant churches, start what is today the Mackay Memorial Hospital and the first institutions for higher learning: Aleuthia University.  He was tireless, fluent, endlessly fascinated by local culture while at the same time drying his clothes at night with the bonfire of idolatrous paper offerings gathered from his evangelistic efforts. At the time of his death, there were 2,400 baptized communicants and over 60 local churches led by local preachers. [4]

His influence is so profoundly felt in Taiwan that in 2008 the Taiwanese government commissioned an opera based on his life, titled Mackay: The Black Bearded Bible Man.

In the museum tracing his life, I read these words of his, “It is better to burn up than rust out.”

Paul comments to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:6ff) that he is being poured out like a drink offering, he has fought the good fight and run the good race. You might think he’s all done, ready to wait patiently for the end. But in the following verses, he goes on to tell Timothy (effectively): “bring my cloak, I’m cold.” And “don’t forget my Bible scrolls, I need to read up.” And “Oh, get Mark and bring him along, he’s useful for the ministry.” He wanted his life to be used up to the very end.

The Bible says: “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,” (Acts 13:36, NRSV)
That’s what I want for my life. That’s what I want for yours. Not wasting our life in regret, in avoiding people, in envying someone else’s job. But delighting in God’s unique purpose for our lives.

Let us pray.

[1] Reader’s Digest, cited in John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, Crossway, copyright © 2003 Desiring God Foundation, p. 46

[2] Commonly heard from Andy Stanley, cf: Deep and Wide, Andy Stanley, Zondervan, 2012
[2] Trash Talk, Archaeology Magazine, Volume 62, Number 2 (March/April 2009). Available now from http://archive.archaeology.org/0903/abstracts/monte_testaccio.html and Mount Testaccio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Testaccio, retrieved July 25, 2016
[3] Taken from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 34, No. 4 (October 2010), pp. 221-228 as reproduced on http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/2010-04/2010-04-221-rohrer.html, retrieved on July 9, 2016