Bad Crap for Christians ...

Why do bad things happen to good people?  So that premise is off right from the start.  There are no “good” people, there are just people.  But surely there is a difference between an old fart who has lived a long life and done many misdeeds; and some innocent child who has yet to explore their potential for good or for evil.  Surely the innocent child deserves better outcomes, less pain, less trauma, less anxiety, and a lot less death.  None of us want the old guy to contract cancer, we sympathize with him.  But compare that feeling of empathy with a picture of a toddler in a pediatric oncology unit at a hospital and I dare you to hold back the tears.  Now compound the feeling by imagining that toddler to be your child.  That kind of pain is likely as bad as it gets.  As a parent you would do everything in your power to prevent that scenario from ever happening.  But how?  That disease does not know who you are.  It does not care who you are, or that it is your child who will contract it.  There is no taking their place, because the disease does not move from one victim to spare another.  It stays there, until it kills its host, and never so much as bats an eyelash.  A fully indiscriminate killer, on a murder/suicide mission, with no conscience, and no empathy with which you could plead your case.

Part of the pain you suffer as a parent is helplessness.  Your total inability to do anything to prevent it.  Your total inability to redirect the outcome.  You can participate in treatment.  You can do everything right, and still suffer that ultimate loss.  Where is God then?  Christians who do not understand the nature of God make a distinction between believers and non-believers in cases like this.  Yes, there are Christians who think the value of a believing child is worth more, or deserves more, than the child who does not believe yet.  The disobedient parents must somehow bare responsibility for the suffering of their child.  As if Christian parents make no mistakes, or worse, make the same mistakes as those who do not believe in Jesus, continually.  But this is all wrong.  Cancer does not care if you are a Christian or not.  It ignores belief systems, and lifestyles.  It may be brought on by certain behaviors.  But it is not prevented by any of them.

The vegetarian may avoid the cancers that lay in the meat the rest of us eat.  But the cancers that come from pollution in soil and water, get right into the same food supply we are all eat anyway.  Radiated stuff gets us all, and no government is truthful about where it is, or how well it is controlled.  Sure, smoking is a veritable death sentence from lung cancer, and nearly as lethal is second hand smoke.  But not all air you breathe is as clean as you would wish.  Healthy lifestyles bring a better life, but do nothing to prevent cancer or many other diseases of a lethal variety.  Genetics trumps nearly everything.  You would think Christians can beat most of this, by the power of prayer if nothing else.  And sometimes this is true.  But not ALL the times, so what then.

But if you think your powerlessness is bad, imagine having all the power in the universe, and then dealing with it.  Imagine being able to fix it, but knowing that fixing it now, breaks it later.  Case in point; Joseph the earthly father of Jesus must have been very loved by our Savior.  It is believed Joseph died at some point in the life of Jesus, before His ministry begins.  Jesus could raise the dead.  Why would He leave Joseph, His own earthly dad, to rot in the earth?  Mary would suffer because of this.  There would be less provisions for her because of this.  Do any of us seriously believe Jesus left Joseph in the ground, because of lack of love?  Why not just pull him out like Lazarus, and just keep on going.  Do it quietly, in secret.  Or at least heal Joseph from whatever disease he had before it got him.  But Jesus does not, despite how much He must have loved Joseph.  He left him in the dirt.  You can bet the heart of Mary broke when Joseph died.  You can bet she wept for the only man who ever believed her and “knew” her story was true.  It appears she never remarried, preferring to wait for reunification in heaven at the end of all things.

We should have thought about this case, and realized the outcomes we would want, are not always the outcomes we get.  What if Jesus raised Joseph, and late in life, Joseph abandons his faith?  You could argue that it is the free-will of Joseph to make that choice.  But the same free-will choice Joseph made at the time of his death, was also his choice, and perhaps then he chose to cling to his faith.  Perhaps if Joseph did not see a decade or two more of Roman horror he remains faithful.  But once raised from the grave the horror of life then changes the mind of Joseph over time.  When is it better for Joseph to die, sooner when he believes, or later when he does not?  Hezekiah begged for more time, and got it.  He did not lose that faith, but his heart was broken by what he saw in the lives of his sons, and his nation.  Was it better for Hezekiah to find a peaceful sleep in the Lord earlier, or cling to life and witness the horror of evil so close to home?

We hate the suffering.  So does God.  God sees how evil is responsible for all the suffering.  For everything from the greed that leads to pollution, to the weakness that embraces self-destructive behavior, to the virus’ and diseases that should have never existed.  God sees how hate leads the powerful to destroy the weak for no reason that could ever matter.  God sees the cycle of sin, that begins so small, and ends so horrifically.  And the mind of God must then be on how best to eradicate sin forever in the universe.  God does not just want to kill the patient, but to kill the sin within the patient, and keep the patient alive.  And God does not just measure life in this world, He measures it in the eternal world as that is the ONLY place that actually matters.  As hard as it is for us to taste death in this world, or see our family taste it, it is a far worse thing to see that become something eternal, instead of something so brief.

So Jesus cannot always do what He wants for us in the here and now.  But He ALWAYS does what we need in the eternal point of view, the one that matters.  And as hard as it is for us to endure the bad crap that comes our way, it is harder for Jesus to see us endure it, and let it happen, in order that it works together for our more important good.  Harder for Him, because He has the power to fix it now.  But must delay, in order to fix it forever, later.  Matthew tells the story of a loss like this.  And it is not just some random friend of Jesus, but His cousin.  This was the first Christian.  This was the first person to carry the gospel to the river Jordan, and cry out to the nation to repent, and make straight the way of the Lord.  John had fire.  John was a prophet.  John was the most effective preacher ever born.  He lived His message.  He was absolutely humble.  He recognized Jesus for who Jesus was.  John believed Mary.  John sent his own disciples to follow Jesus.  John nearly convinced Herod to do the right thing.  But for all his belief, John still died, beheaded as the first Christian martyr.  Sometimes bad crap comes right to your doorstep.

Matthew picks up in chapter fourteen of his gospel beginning in verse 01 saying … “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, [verse 2] And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.”  This begins as a ghost story.  Herod thinks Jesus is actually John the Baptist back from the dead, doing miracles only a supernatural being could ever perform.  And Herod is afraid, perhaps very afraid.  Miracles tend to unnerve the guilty who have no way to explain them, and every reason to fear them, particularly when they have yet to repent, and yet to change what they were doing wrong in the first place.  Who but a ghost could pull off the deeds of Jesus in the mind of Herod?  Herod missed redemption entirely, so fear alone gripped him for the guilty conscience he held to.

Matthew enumerates further in verse 3 saying … “For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. [verse 4] For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. [verse 5] And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.”  Herod did not enjoy being called out publicly as an adulterer.  At first he was mad and would have killed John to shut him up.  But having John in prison allowed Herod to come visit him, and the more Herod listened to John, the more he became convinced John was right, and he needed to do something to fix the situation.  While the crowds delayed the hand of Herod at first, a growing conscience within him delayed it later.  And that became a situation considered way too dangerous by the adulterous woman to be tolerated.  Herod may no longer have wanted to kill John, in fact he refused to.  But Herodias wanted him dead on a silver platter.

Matthew continues the story in verse 6 saying … “But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. [verse 7] Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. [verse 8] And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.”  Salome asks her mom what to ask for, likely interested in jewels or land.  But evil mom knows the truth, if John lives, and Herod repents, they will be sent back to Phillip with nothing, likely ostracized, perhaps stoned.  So if Salone wants to live to spend the wealth Herod may still bestow on her later, they need John dead now.  And a young girl asks for the most horrific thing sin always results in, death.

Matthew continues in verse 9 saying … “ And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. [verse 10] And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. [verse 11] And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.”  Herod was sorry.  The king was sorry.  This was not a gleeful Herod bathing himself in the blood of the man who called him out for his sin.  This was a king worried too much about going back on his word, to do what he knew was right.  So for sake of ego and reputation, Herod did the unthinkable to Herod.  And John was beheaded alone in prison.  Bad crap coming the way of John through no fault of his own.  Unless shutting up is considered the alternative by modern Christians.  Better to shut up than lose life, or jobs, or promotions, or friends, or position in society.  Better to keep your Christianity on the down low than lose what you have through the loss of favor with the world.  But when a Christian loves the non-believer, they are compelled to love them.  How can you keep your mouth shut then?

John had a higher mission of conversion and ironically he was right on the doorstep of success with Herod.  It was the wicked women who had no use for God that wanted him killed.  Imagine if this story went differently.  Imagine if Herod had the strength to throw those witches out on their butts, and truly repent of what he was doing.  Herod would have become the first Christian King.  And perhaps the sequence that ended the life of Jesus would have had to leave Herod out of the whole thing, lest Herod protect the Jesus, cousin of John, who John introduces Herod to.  Instead of being part of the bad crap that came to Christ, Herod might have had no part in it at all.  But Herod succumbs to his carnal urges, all too easily satisfied by women seeking to protect wealth and standing.  And John dies now, Jesus later.  And faith altogether is lost.

Matthew concludes in verse 12 saying … “And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”  And here begins the worst kick in the faith His disciples will ever suffer.  Dude!  Dude this is your cousin, the greatest preacher this nation has ever seen, until You that is.  Just go put his head back on his body, and breathe life back into him, and let’s get going again.  We know You can do it, we have seen You do it for other folks.  Over time the disciples will do it too.  So why not just resurrect John the Baptist and show the nation how great You truly are.  We know You care about him.  We know You love him.  He is Your cousin for goodness sake.  And while we are at it, let’s go raise up Joseph too, and make a real showing of how great Your power is.  How can You just sit there?  How can You do nothing for one of Your own?  How could You let this bad crap happen to John, and Joseph, and have the ability to fix it, but do nothing … at least now.

But this is where the lens of the vision of God is so much wider and farther than our own.  Jesus knows He will see Joseph again because He intends to raise him up Himself, in just a little while (from His perspective).  Jesus knows He will raise John again, because He intends to do it Himself, in just a little while.  Both of them raised to perfection to a home in heaven, that will forever allow them to be close to Himself.  He will shower them with love.  And no one will ever be able to stop that shower again.  No more bad crap ever.  Raising them up to a world steeped in Roman horror would not be a favor.  Having them face the decades that follow would not be a benefit to them, only a selfish act to Himself so that He could reduce the pain of their loss in the short term.  It was not best for John, or Joseph.  They would sleep and in the blink of an eye find the glory of His second appearing.  They had no concept of the passage of time.  It would be immediate for them, as it is for every believer who has ever died in the 6000 years of our history.  Dying sucks.  But being dead, is like having fallen asleep at night, in the blink of an eye the morning is here, and you wake up.

Cancer sucks.  The suffering it brings sucks.  Cancer was never supposed to exist, and it is decidedly not the will of God, but the invention of His enemy.  As is all disease and suffering and decay and death.  The pain sin has brought to this world, and to us, is the natural result of turning away from the perfect happiness of God to find “another way”.  Here is where “other” ways end up.  And while bad crap does happen to Christians.  There is something Christians have that is an advantage our non-believing friends so desperately need.  While we may sit in the same oncology units, and even mortuaries, we have a hope and a view of the final state of things not everyone else understands.  We know we are loved, even in our pain, by a God who feels every tear ten times more than we ever will.  Our true “Dad” longs to see our pain gone forever, and He is working to see that occur for us, and in us, and in the patient beside us who may have never heard that hope that way before.  Whether He heals us or them now, or drives all the pain away when we wake up in that resurrection morning, there will come a time of no more pain, no more death, and no more bad crap ever again for anyone.  Perhaps our hope is the testimony the patient beside us needs more than anything else in their world, and we have it to offer today.  Can we shut up, and still say we love them?

 

Ignoring Truth Because of its Package ...

What if Jesus was black.  Would you refuse to hear His words because His ethnicity was not what you expected; or perhaps pay new found attention to them because of this new discovery.  Whether we like to admit it or not, we do sometimes pay more attention to the package than the Truth of the message they are trying to convey.  So take race out of it for a minute.  What if Jesus was fat.  Not just pleasantly plump, or carrying a bit of a mid-section, but full on fluffy.  Do the words of a fat man carry less weight with you?  But likely that was not the case, more likely He looked like a Jewish concentration camp victim.  He spent 40 days after all in the wilderness without food or water.  His body would have emaciated from good health to the worst case of bulimia or anorexia you can possibly imagine, and this presentation of His, was after all a form of self-mutilation.  He chose not to eat or drink, nobody forced Him (other than obedience to the will of God).

Anyone who does that to Himself, can they possibly be trusted?  Do you trust people with a mustache, or without one?  Do you trust people with a beard, maybe even a long beard?  Jesus was a Nazarene and like His cousin John could have elected to take a Nazarite vow by lifestyle, so His hair would have been long, very long, perhaps mangy, with a long beard having never been touched by a razor.  30 years of uninterrupted hair growth, is not just missing the barber for too long, it is never having met a barber ever.  His hair would have made Him look more a like Sikh or militant Arab than a modern-day hippy.  Do you trust any of “those people” to relay truth, or just to continue an agenda they have, that ultimately impacts us the wrong way.  So if Jesus looked more like John is He more trustworthy or less?  And oh my goodness His clothes.  He only had one lousy garment, a homespun of cotton / wool combination.  Picture rough cotton (not the fine Egyptian stuff) that had simple hems, and wrapped around Him without buttons, zippers, or pockets.  And it would have been constantly dirty, at least, covered by the dirt of others He was constantly hugging and coming in close contact with.  His robe would have carried their germs, or how could it not, He was always so close to lepers and filthy people.  People bathed in the stench of their own poverty, deformity, and disease.

Can you trust a dirty person, or person dirty in appearance?  What if Jesus was a heavy sweat-er, or had heavy perspiration.  He lived in the desert areas, the ultra-dry areas.  Apart from baptizing in the Jordan and walking near the Sea of Galilee it’s not like they had Jacuzzi’s just sitting around waiting for them.  They were generally walking is dry dusty air with little water to ever cool them.  They probably smelled.  There was a reason why folks needed to wash their feet before they ate a good meal.  They did not want the foot odor smell to overpower the smell of fresh bread or oil.  But the remainder of them were likely unbathed.  Could you trust a Jesus who smelled like the homeless people that occasionally wander into the back of your churches?  If Jesus did not smell pretty, would you throw Him out?

This sack of meat we inhabit is prone to all kinds of issues that detract from the pretty we might otherwise be.  But then there is the acid test of acceptance.  Familiarity.  Knowing the messenger, perhaps for some great length of time.  The closer you are to them, perhaps the harder it is to accept what truth they might have to offer.  They carry the baggage of their families.  One brother of theirs does some goofy thing, and anyone from that family is tagged with the stain of it on their reputation.  Even if not directly, it does influence the thinking.  Jesus had a ton of baggage where it came to family.  His mother Mary, claimed virginity at His birth, but let’s be real, who was buying that story?  Every girl ever caught getting pregnant ahead of marriage has some cock-and-bull story about how that accidentally occurred.  No one is too keen about owning up to responsibility.  Perhaps Mary just had a wild imagination about her situation.  At least you give her credit for sticking to a crazy excuse like that one.  But who would believe it?

While Jesus may have been perfect from birth, His earthly parents were not.  They were human.  They worked, played, loved, and made mistakes.  Jesus had brothers and sisters, who too were less than stellar.  Perhaps making mistakes, finding themselves in situations they would have otherwise wanted to avoid.  And the towns people knew it.  They were not ignorant of every mistake or sin, in the house of the carpenter Joseph, his crazy bride Mary, and their expanding family of sons and daughters who followed Jesus.  So then, could you believe your own brother, sister, mother, father, or son or daughter, if they brought you the word of the Lord?  Or, would you judge them based on all the mistakes you know they have been a part of, and write them off as goodie-two-shoes.  Could you accept a person from your own family with a message from God, or is it easier to accept the same message from a pastor you hardly know?  It makes you think.  The words are no different.

But Jesus did not only come to bring His ministry to people who did not know Him.  He came to bring it to those who knew Him best.  You would think that would be a cake-walk.  It wasn’t.  You would think His friends and family would specifically remember what Jesus was like for all of His life.  Always kind.  Always loving.  Always helping out without being asked.  Always patient.  And never seeming to get caught doing anything naughty, because He had no time for naughty things, only for things that showed love to others.  That was Him.  That was His whole life.  Anyone who spent any time with Him should have quickly remembered these facts.  They were facts about Him, that never varied.  But my how memory fades when the words asking for Love appear from the pulpit.

Matthew continues his chronical to the Hebrews of the life of Jesus in chapter thirteen of his gospel picking up in verse 53 following the parables with a story of going home saying … “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. [verse 54] And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? [verse 55] Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? [verse 56] And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?”  Jesus had brothers.  Jesus had sisters.  Jesus had that mother Mary with that crazy story she still maintained and nobody else believed.  Jesus’ earthly dad was a carpenter, not a rabbi, or a member of the Sanhedrin.

So how on earth does Jesus begin teaching Truth from the pulpit of the Temples and Synagogues with such authority and power.  He does not teach Love in the third person, He teaches it as if He were there.  Because He was.  It blew the audience’s minds.  The Son of God in their synagogues?  But they knew this Guy.  This was the carpenter’s Son, nothing more, how on earth could He have had the training needed to be a Rabbi and preach the way He was.  This was the moment.  For them, for us.  This was the moment when Truth knocked on the doors of their hearts.  They had only to listen, and accept.  So do you.  You know the truth of Matthews Gospel and you know the Truth who it talks about.  Don’t cast it aside because the text is old, in an old book, written by old men.  Don’t cast it aside because the author is fat like me, old like me, with bad vision like me, who does not smell very good like me.  Matthew was not perfect, but he did follow Jesus.  It does not matter what me or Matthew look like, we are only window dressing.  The Jesus we point too is the real deal.  This is the moment for you to decide.  Will you seek Jesus, or turn away?

Matthew continues the chronicle of their response in verse 57 saying … “And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. [verse 58] And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”  Aaarrgh!!  They were offended in him.  They disregarded their memories, clinged to the packaging, focused on the faults of His family, and closed their ears to the Truth.  And only very little miracles followed their unbelief.  How will it be for you?  Will you listen to your friends, or fellow students, or teachers, or parents; none of whom have ever really come to know Jesus for themselves, siding with them for peer pressure not to believe?  Will you embrace the mantra of the world to please self and deny the Jesus who loves you and bids you to learn to love others?  Jesus is real.  He has always been real.  He is more real than I am.  He is far more important than I will ever be.  Throw me away completely, but cling to Jesus and I will rejoice in it.

The Truth has always been real.  Sometimes He speaks through the cutest 2-year-old toddler you can imagine saying the most profound thing that will ever be uttered – I love you.  Sometimes you catch a glimmer of Him as an outstretched hand offers the homeless from their means they can scarcely afford to give, but give anyway, and do it in secret where nobody else knows.  Sometimes you cannot explain how He did for you what He did for you – perhaps granting you miraculous escapes from car collisions that totaled your car, or confounding doctors with test results that should have showed disease and now do not.  Or perhaps it is far more personal for you.  Perhaps you have allowed Jesus to take some sin from you, that you have struggled with your entire life.  And you cannot explain how He did it, but you no longer crave that thing that was sure to destroy you.  Now you abhor it.  Jesus is real.  Forget all the packaging.  Ignore the genre of music, find the Truth in the lyrics, or not at all.  Ignore the physical appearance of the pastor; but listen closely to his words.  Don’t let the pretty impress you, or the ugly detract from His Truth.

Open your mind during your TV shows, or listen more closely in the movies you watch, and see a need for Jesus you might have otherwise missed.  The packaging is irrelevant, but the Truth behind it, means everything and is everything.  God uses broken tools.  He does not wait for perfect ones.  But He still offers us a glimpse of His love, even in the state we find ourselves in.  Even when we smell.  Even when we are bathed in the stench of defeat.  He is still there.  He is still looking to heal us, and remove from us that which would destroy us.  Let us never take offense in that, or in Jesus.  Let us find our worth in Jesus, our price in Jesus.  Let us invite Jesus in, and give Him all of who we are, even the smelly parts, or the ugly parts, or the unpleasant parts.  This is that moment, for you.  Don’t let it slip away, done ever let it slip away.

 

Treasure Hunter ...

Every so often a story will come out in the news about a Treasure Hunter who has made some marvelous discovery.  Most of it is cleaning up after pirates, or chasing down some nefarious Hitler lead.  But in the end the idea of finding some long-lost treasure has an appeal to most all of us.  Kids get inspired and begin to dig holes in the backyard, hoping to hit oil like the Clampets (of Beverly Hills), or find pirate booty.  Going to the beach, we see the periodic eternal optimists holding one of those metal detection devices, scanning the sands looking for some hunk of gold that washed up since the day before, but is now buried just a few inches down, right there for the taking.  Free stuff sounds good.  Valuable free stuff sounds better.  Something for nothing even better than that.  But for every kid with an intense imagination, there is a zoning law that would prevent them from drilling oil wells in the backyard.  For every treasure hunter there are international laws that attempt to return lost or stolen items to their historical owner (or historical governments failing that).  Actually finding treasure, and keeping it, is perhaps the rarest of all stories.

So why did Jesus say it is something we could all be?  Oh Jesus had a different name for it, but the meaning was clear as crystal in comparing it to treasure hunting in our day.  Perhaps a little back story is warranted.  Jesus has been telling parables (stories) about the nature of growth in spiritual things.  His allegories are about a Farmer planting seeds, and what happens in that process all around.  But now Jesus begins to shift gears.  He begins to start telling more parables, but this time focused more from the perspective of the seed, that is us, instead from the process overall.  The first one emerges in the gospel of Matthew picking up in verse 44 saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”  Treasure hunter.

In this case, there is some form of ancient pirate booty (had to have been Assyrian, Philistine, Babylonian, or Egyptian pirates to have historical accuracy in those days), that is buried in some random piece of land.  Our hero had to have been searching for something, or perhaps he was just one of the luckiest guys around, and has stumbled upon the buried treasure.  But instead of just taking it with him, perhaps it was more than he thought he would be able to carry, or perhaps he wanted clear title of ownership to the treasure – he goes and sells everything else he owns, to buy the field where this thing is, and have ownership of the treasure he has discovered.  Voila!  He is now the best treasure hunter of ancient days.  But what is the point of this spiritually?  Now comes the real treasure hunting, for us.

While you consider what the meaning of that parable might be in terms of salvation (keep in mind this is Jesus telling them).  Lets take a look at a second story similar in nature that follows it in verse 45 where Jesus continues saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: [verse 46] Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”  Business Treasure Hunter.  This guy is a merchant by trade, a jeweler to be specific, a specialist in pearls to be more specific than that.  This guy is far from just some hapless schmoe who stumbles across buried treasure in a random field.  This second hero is a merchant looking for something very specific, and he finds it.  After much searching, perhaps searching for his entire life to that point, he comes across a single pearl that he believes is worth more than every other pearl on planet earth.  The current owner must be aware of its value to at least some extent, because while it is for sale, it is also a something that costs “a great price”.

But the merchant is undeterred by the high asking price.  He goes and sells everything else he has to buy this single pearl.  In this sense he is exactly like the hero from the first story, they both are gladly willing to sell everything else they have to get the treasure they have discovered.  They both hold nothing back.  Neither of them seem to haggle over price, they both think they are getting the far better end of their respective deals.  So I ask again, what is the importance of these stories where it comes to our spiritual understanding.  First, good thing these are parables.  We all know the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be bought by our wealth.  But we also know the model for the early Christian church was for a new member to go and sell everything they had, bringing the wealth of the sales back to the church and giving it everything they owned.  Then the church took care of their needs as they arose.  Continued labors were also deposited into church coffers (not just 10 percent tithe), but 100% of whatever was earned.

But I do not think these stories were told, just to get Christians to begin thinking differently about how to operate Jesus’ church once He left planet earth.  Something deeper was meant for us.  Perhaps that something was in how “we” would feel about the discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven.  That discovery happens here and now, not just after death.  The benefits we derive happen here and now, just as soon as we obtain the treasure of great price – not just later in our estate handed down to our children.  There is an immediacy to the benefit of our transformation.  Living without the pain sin causes, is living in a much better way.  Comparatively, this is living with buried treasure, or perfected treasure, like none other the world has to offer.  This is not about living a dull, boring, downtrodden life – where everything fun has been taken away.  This is about living a vibrant life.  This is about having a treasure you can find now, that is truly a treasure, something worth more than anything else – and YOU are the one who feels that way.

But not every great feeling, comes from a great place.  While these stories reveal how wonderful we feel about the discovery of the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven – those feelings of transformation away from sin are in fact the treasure.  The short term high of engaging in sin is by far not the same thing.  But some folks ignore the pain of sin, and just keep engaging in it more, hoping things will get better.  They don’t.  Jesus addressed this kind of discernment about the good from the bad picking up in verse 47 with another parable saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: [verse 48] Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”  Forgiveness is not a license to sin.  Forgiveness is meant to heal, not to continue the disease, even unto death.  Instead of treating forgiveness like a baseline to restore us back to God, some of us treat it like a get-out-of-jail-free card that will allow us to sin without worrying about ever paying the cost of our sins.  In so doing we mask the pain of sin, instead of uncovering it.  We ignore what sin does to others, keeping ourselves blind to the pain of others, in order to try to keep ourselves happy.

This kind of attempt to feel good about the Kingdom of Heaven, to use forgiveness as a weapon to do bad, winds up leaving us un-transformed, and not in harmony with the Law or will of God.  And if this condition is not changed, it will put us on the bad side of the evaluation at the end of all things. As Jesus continues picking up in verse 49 saying … “So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, [verse 50] And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”  The wicked, believe themselves to be within the Kingdom of Heaven, after all they were scooped up in the net just like the righteous were.  The difference between the two, is that the righteous do not want to “do” good, they want to “be” good.”  The wicked want to do only that which makes them happy.  When the wicked do good, it is for points, for credit, for appreciation.  The wicked do good, in order to satisfy the list Jesus created – visit the poor, sick, imprisoned.  Once the wicked check these things off their list, they go back to the lives they want to live.

It is the heart of the righteous that breaks when they suffer with the poor, relate to those imprisoned, feel the tragedy of the sick in our world.  The righteous shed tears they cannot control, because they know whatever they have done to alleviate suffering is so little compared to the need.  The righteous ache to see those in need, have their needs met, on whatever level it is.  They love like the heart of Christ loves.  It is not fake.  It is genuine, because the transformation of their lives is genuine.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth is done by the righteous in this world because of the heartbreak that sin causes.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth is done by the wicked at the end of this world, because they have finally gotten caught, and can see their time to please self is at an end.

Jesus continues in verse 51 saying … “Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.”  Jesus asks the disciples do you understand, as He asks that question to us today.  The disciples answered yes.  I am not as confident.  While taking a second look at these simple parables might reveal a point from a different perspective, that is hardly the end of truth, or the complete picture of it.  It is the luckiest hapless hero on earth scenario, stumbling across the treasure of so great a value and a price.  It will cost all of me, that is, the entirety of who I am.  I will be someone different when my transformation is done at the hand of my Creator, in the here and now, and after death if I taste it.  But the value of my transformation will be worth more than any pearl, or any pirate booty.  This is the Truth of what Jesus Christ offers.  But then Jesus makes a promise that gives me hope.

Jesus continues in verse 52 saying … “Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”  Treasure Hunter.  You and I, the modern scribes who are instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven are householders (i.e. Treasure Hunters).  We bring forth treasure, things old and new, from our search of the scriptures and the Word and will of God.  Different perspectives bring forth additional context, additional insights, additional understanding.  No one of us has it all.  Each of us has something to add.  Treasure Hunters.  As we all submit to Jesus before asking to be led in His words, we find more to know, more to share, and insight from each other as we get insight directly from Him.  In this, if it costs us all, it is worth it.  In this, if it totally changes who we are, and how we love, it is worth it.  Anything Jesus offers us is worth it.  Nothing else, is worth holding on to.  Sin is the disease we so long to see cured, in the world, and in our own hearts.  We are getting the better end of this arrangement by far, it is worth more than anything else we will ever own or aspire to own.  This is treasure we get to keep, and transformation that turns us into treasure for others.

 

Fields of Perfection [part four] ...

Some journey’s have unintended consequences, and some unexpected benefits.  Imagine yourself planning a first-time trip to London England for your family.  None of you have ever traveled oversees, but you go about all the normal things we would expect to do.  We arrange a passport for everyone.  We make airline reservations, and hotel accommodations.  We arrange for local transport, though expect to take taxi’s and the tube for the most part.  These are the things we expect to have to do, in order to take a journey to London.  But then something unexpected happens, an Ambassador from France arrives at your doorstep the eve before your trip.  They knock on your door and tell you that historians in France have been working on tracing the ancestors of King Louis and believe you may be the last living direct descendant.  They want you to come to France (courtesy of the French government), for an all-expenses-paid first-class trip to explore your heritage.

Surprised would hardly be the word for it.  You agree to go.  You are taken on a supersonic plane that arrives in 2 hours, much less than you expected, and you ride first-class all the way.  You are taken to the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris where Louis spent much of his life.  But not to tour it.  To stay in it.  You are to sleep in a bed made of down feathers that measures about 15 feet across.  Every room in this huge castle now belongs to you.  Beyond this, the Hope Diamond which once belonged to your ancestor is now laid out upon your neck.  The historical wealth of France is transferred to you.  This does not happen because you planned for it.  It did not happen because you deserved it.  It happens because of something outside of your control entirely, it happens because of your ancestry, and happens because of something inside of you that you were entirely unaware might be there.   You did not know you were an heir to a throne, but you come to discover it by the hard work of somebody else.

Most of us do not dream of becoming an heir to a long expired French throne.  It did not work out that well for King Louis after all.  The unexpected consequence of power is not something uplifting to human nature, it is something that tends to tear what is important in us down.  But it turns out, you, and each member of your family, are in fact heirs to a different throne, and direct descendants of the King who still sits on it.  And the journey of discovery, or reconciliation with that throne, is what that ambassador knocking at your door, wants you to begin.  This journey, like the imaginary one we described above, will happen not because you plan for it.  There is nothing you can do to get ready for it.  You are only asked if you will go, or not.  What happens then is in the hands of the King who desperately wishes to meet you in person; and show you what He has in store for you.  He wants so much to put a crown upon your head.  Not one made of silly hope diamonds that twinkle only when light hits it, but one made of stars which themselves shine brighter than our sun from within. 

This journey does not happen because you deserve it.  You cannot earn it.  It is the gift of the King, to you, His long-lost child.  And your prince-ship (or princess) was something buried in you, that your mortal mind can scarcely imagine, let alone comprehend.  How do I know?  Because the perspective of the farmer is always greater than the perspective of the seed.  Jesus Himself reminded us of this.  Matthew continues a series of journey-related parables told by Christ in chapter 13 of his gospel.  As discussed so far these journeys are not quick, or instant.  They are told in the growth process of a Farmer and His seeds.  But progression, or rather transformation, is what occurs in each of them.  This one picks up in verse 31 with Jesus saying … “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: [verse 32] Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

A short story as stories go.  But the point is revealing.  The farmer once again is Jesus Christ, as it has been in all the parables that precede it.  The field is the world.  The seed is us, that is, anyone who would choose to accept being the seed of the Farmer.  The farmer does the planting, and in this case, the seed hardly recognizes what it will become.  From the perspective of the seed, they are the tiniest of all their peers, the least of seeds in fact.  This seed looks at other seeds to determine its own value, but has no idea what it would become.  You can imagine other herb seeds laughing at the tiny little grain of mustard seed; other seeds imagine themselves bigger because they begin the journey bigger already.  They think themselves ahead on this journey because of how big they are today.  But not so.  Seeds are ALL tiny, especially in the hand of the farmer.  But after the transformation, the tiny grain of mustard seed becomes a great tree.  It gets so large other species like birds, can actually make a home in its branches.  Hard to do that in a basil herb, or perhaps oregano, or garlic.

The point of this parable is that the seed does not really know who it is.  The seed has no idea what it is intended to become.  Only the farmer knows that.  And ONLY the farmer can see to it, that destination is what occurs, guiding the transformation from seed to tree – faithfully watering, fertilizing, providing sunlight, etc..  Our farmer does the work.  The journey is not ours because we deserve it.  And as these parables reveal, not even because we can imagine it.  Our imagination is stunted by our past, and the diversion of our focus away from our farmer.  We start looking at who we are today, and see only the least of all seeds (in or out of the church).  Looking at self does not make the journey happen.  Looking to the light of the farmer does.  But the great news is that, it does not matter if you can grasp who you really are.  It does not change a thing.  You are heir to a throne whether you believe it or not.  The journey will reveal it.  All you need do is begin.

Jesus decides to make another analogy to bring home the point in a way perhaps his female audience will also understand better.  He continues in verse 33 saying … “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”  The dough has no idea what leaven will do to it.  The dough had no plans to go anywhere or be anything greater than it already was.  But introduce the transformative power of the Kingdom of Heaven into the dough, and rise it will do.  The dough will never understand that process, neither will we.  It was not the work of the dough to make itself rise, it was the introduction of the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven that made that happen.  Only Jesus understands the work He is doing, and what results it will have.  We do not.  But the rising is guaranteed. 

Transformative love, that is love, not content to leave us in our sin, with our pain, and the death we embrace because of it.  That love of God, instead removes our pain, our sin, and even our death.  It grants life eternal.  Not just eternal “existence”, but eternal “life”.  Real life.  And it begins the moment it is introduced.  The end of the journey does not arrive in an instant, but the benefits of the journey begin to be seen immediately and throughout, ever growing towards the fields of perfection He has in mind.  Perfection is not just intended for one or two, it will in fact be seen throughout all of heaven, in each and every one of us, its residents.  So if all will see it.  Then all need not wait to see it develop within them in the here-and-now.  It can begin today.  These stories were designed to illustrate these things to us.  But have they?

Matthew makes a commentary on these parables of Jesus, now four of them on the same theme, as he states in verse 34 saying … “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: [verse 35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”  The Truth is here revealed.  The beauty of the gospel, kept secret from the foundation of the world is here revealed.  This is the battle plan Jesus had when Satan will still Lucifer.  These are the plans Jesus had to keep hidden from Lucifer, asking Lucifer to trust Him rather than grow envy and break trust, resulting the in invention of sin and evil and death and war.

That our Savior and Lord would provide a way of our escape from the addiction of sin, was the plans for our transformation, created before we were.  Man was created in spite of knowing what Love would cost.  Man was created with free will, our God desperately hoping we would not break trust with Him, as Lucifer had done – even though we chose it as well.  But with our fall, was already created a way for us to reconcile, and learn to trust in our God once again.  To re-establish trust on our part in our God to truly save us – to do what He has promised to do.  Each of us face the same challenge and tests Lucifer did, and Adam did, and Jesus did.  We are all asked whether we will trust God, in spite of what we think or feel or believe.  As we learn to have that kind of trust, we learn to make a life where sin will never enter in to it again, not in the eons of time we will face in eternal life.  Our trust in God will be so great, sin will have no vehicle for entry ever again.

These were the secrets revealed to us in a series of parables.  And Satan must have wept at the beauty of how great the love of God is, for us, and once for himself before he abandoned it completely.  The seed does not have to understand everything, not even who it is.  The seed has only to look to the farmer, and watch what the farmer has in store for it, letting the transformation truly begin.