When Control is Slipping Away ...

Have you ever passed out?  The feeling is ugly.  One minute everything is fine, then your blood sugar, or blood pressure, goes too low and you lose control of your mind and body.  The mind begins to go blank.  The body follows.  You will collapse to the ground if standing or sitting.  At the start of it, you realize something is wrong.  You are losing control of things you otherwise believed you would always be fully in control of.  But that illusion of control is slipping away and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  When you come to, when you are woken up, when your systems are restored, you begin to take account of where you are, and of what happened.  At that point you will need to rely upon the stories of others to know exactly what happened to you.  Your memories cease as the incident occurs, they do not follow you in to the unconscious state.  Your mind stops recording them, your normal brain activity does not work the same, your senses do not function the same.  Everything becomes weirded out.  It is not a good feeling.

Watch a politician some time who is beginning to lose his/her grip on power.  It is daunting how far they will go to keep hold of it.  What a person will say, regardless of the facts, let alone of the truth.  When a politician begins to become under siege, usually of incidents of their own making, they look to cast blame.  Cast blame anywhere but on themselves.  There can be no personal accountability, lest the people are unforgiving, and the problem is made worse.  Finding a scape-goat, a fall-guy, a patsy, is job one of the first order.  Give the constituents somebody else to focus on, let them vent their righteous indignation somewhere else, anywhere else, just not on them.  Lies are the neural network of a politician under siege.  Most campaigns are built on partial truth to begin with, so going full-on-liar is not a far reach.  It is the next logical step in the maintenance of power.  But if control slips away anyway, that is if the illusion of control is proven to be what it is, an illusion – anger, rage, denial, any step of the grief process ensues, sometimes all at once.  The only additional step might be shame, but that requires some level of self-awareness that behavior was less than ideal.  It is not a good feeling.

So what happens when morality, power, and the idea that God ordained the person (combined to form religion as we know it) – goes through the same risk of losing power over the people?  Matthew records such a case study in his gospel to the Hebrews.  Keep in mind Matthew was trying to reach his contemporaries and blend the Old Testament with the life of Christ, not to alienate them by what he wrote.  But because of his love for his audience, he could not shield them from the truth either.  The Jewish faith was changing.  It was meant to change.  It’s entire point was to await the Messiah, and to become enriched by the life of the Messiah.  To deny He had come, was to deny the central core tenant of their belief system.  It would be hard, for a typical Jewish believer, taught from childhood to honor the traditions and the priesthood, the leadership of the faith – to understand how far off track that same leadership had gone, when facing the idea that power was slipping away from it.  But then, how far would any modern Christian church leadership go, if placed under the same threat of loss?  To examine ourselves, we must examine our spiritual forefathers and realize we are very little different.

Matthew begins in chapter twenty-one of his gospel picking up in verse 23 saying … “And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”  This was a trick question based on a premise of certainty every modern Christian preacher shares.  Tradition gave the Pharisees their position.  They were anointed.  They were approved in a system, through a legacy.  None of them just declared themselves to be something the system had not given the voice of approval upon.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were certain of their authority.  To an extent, even the Roman empire had approved the governing religious body of the day in Israel.  But Jesus?  Who was He?  No one anointed Him (outside of the baptism of John).  No Roman gave Him papers for this.  No Priest would dare offer Him the stamp of the system’s approval.  Jesus was an upstart.  Jesus was a homeless, hippy, rebel, who seemed to claim only a one-on-one direct connection with God Himself.  And we all know how crazy people are who claim to hear God orally in their lives.  We throw those guys out as fast as we find out who they are.  It stands to reason the people might follow that course too, so if they could get Jesus to admit who gave Him His authority they could perhaps unseat Him in the minds and hearts of the people.

But here is the first place we go so horribly wrong.  While the priest was looking at power and authority, the formerly lame man was looking at a fully restored leg and hip.  Love did that, not power, love.  Love cared enough to stop, to single him/her out, to recreate that which had been deformed from birth – to restore it so perfectly none would ever believe him/her crippled again.  Even his/her parents would marvel at the perfectly recreated limbs from the hands of love Himself.  Jesus did not call down fire from heaven to do it.  Jesus did not lift Himself up, during the process.  A lot of times, He told the healed person to keep it quiet, refusing even the publicity that He knew would come and shorten His ministry.  While religious leaders look to power, the head of ALL religion was composed of love, and looked at us through that lens alone.  A passion for loving others, engenders reciprocal feelings and creates an environment of love that has the power to transform.  Not just the flesh and bones, but the hearts and minds.  It is transformative love that makes us new creatures from the inside out.  A focus on power, is an absolute divorce from that kind of thinking.

None the less Jesus responds in verse 24 saying … “And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. [verse 25] The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? … “  The religious leadership had challenged Christ with a question, now Jesus returns the challenge with what would appear to be a simple question.  Every member of the audience of Matthew’s gospel would understand this reference.  Many would be personally familiar with John the Baptist.  Many may even have had the privilege of being baptized by John personally before Herod abruptly ended his life at the insistence of a woman who refused to bend her pride and find forgiveness in a God who so longed to pour it out on her.  But what seems like an obvious question to Matthew’s readers, was a complex problem for the church leadership.  Picking back up in verse 25 it reads … “… And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? [verse 26] But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.”

We all go horribly wrong again.  We choose to overlook truth for the sake of power and the illusion of control.  Just as the reader of Matthew “knew” the answer to this question, so did the chief priests in the Temple.  John did what he did, because God through the Spirit drove Him to do it.  It was his life long mission to prepare the way of the Lord.  He was appointed to it, even as far back as in his mother’s womb, a miracle to begin his life even then.  But when John spoke truth to power, power rejected it.  The chief priests of his day, the church leadership of our own, and perhaps even we – were reluctant to think we “needed” the baptism of repentance in our lives.  Our modern-day tradition looks at baptism as a one- time event we do in our childhood, or when we come to know Jesus.  We do not consider doing it again unless we may have publicly backslidden in our faith.  But the audience who came to see John, and to hear his burning message, were just common ordinary believers.  They were not at the start or end of their faith.  They were in the middle of their lives.  Just like you and me.  And John discerned both then and now, that we “needed” repentance.  Are we willing to publicly display to others, that what John said all the way back then is still relevant?  And that we, the saints, STILL, need the baptism of repentance, even if it causes humility in us?  The priests of old, that is the religious leadership of old, did not.

So when you deny truth, and you still wish to cling to power, you must lie.  But if you lie to those who clearly know the truth, you may create for yourself an incident from which there is no escape.  Matthew continues in verse 27 saying … “And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”  The only out for the Pharisees is to refuse to say, to claim they are uncertain.  A full denial of truth, without being held to the denial by the people.  Jesus too refuses to fall into the trap that was set for Him at this time.  The power and authority behind Jesus would be self-evident to the people.  To anyone who would listen, Jesus always identified His Father as the source behind every miracle, behind every act of love, behind every action they pursued next.  Jesus was in constant submission of His own will to the will of His Father.  He had absolute trust in His Father.  Never questioning it, until the garden when even then He would continue to submit.

The mission of Jesus however, was motivated in love, not power.  So even though these wicked priests had tried to trap Him, Jesus was still bent on saving them, as He still looks to save the church leadership of our day.  Jesus decided to speak directly to the church leadership of old, and of now, through the telling of stories or parables.  There is truth in a parable, in its theme, in its illustration.  A parable is not a word for word exact revelation of truth.  Instead it is the equivalent of going to a play, or a movie, albeit with a much greater author, a much deeper meaning, and a motive of redemption few entertainment venues still care about.  This way of story telling could keep the direct rebukes to the church leadership under a slight mask.  It would allow Jesus to chastise us, without the direct horrific pronouncements we might use on each other, or like the one Jesus uses on the fig tree in our earlier study.  Instead the negative aspects of the stories would allow church leadership to see where they are, what their roles are, and how they could still find redemption if they turned away from self, and towards the only source of our salvation.

So story #1 begins, picking up in verse 28 it reads … “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.”  Here Jesus portrays Himself as a Father figure, who has two sons (presumably the whole world).  The world breaks down into two camps, those who are religious, or faithful, or see themselves as followers of Christ.  The other as those who see no value in the love of God, and reject the Christ choosing to do whatever they please, or whatever pleases them.  This is actually a pretty accurate description of how the world breaks down even today.  The command is given of our God to go into the vineyard and work.  This is also pretty close to a command given to go into all the world and spread the gospel of love, to work for the redemption of those who have not heard it, or who are in so desperate a need of it.  You would think since both are sons, both would listen and obey.  But then ask yourself, when was the last time Christians were known for their obedience?

The story continues picking back up in verse 29 saying … “He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.”  The first son just completely refuses to do what is asked.  How typical of those who do not believe.  They reject being “told” what to do.  But the pain of living without Jesus as the center of our lives is significant.  The things we do outside of the will of God, bring us pain, they hurt those we say we love.  Over time that pain becomes excruciating, all of it, of our own making.  When finally presented with the love of Christ, we are broken, and only then see, that His way, was the better way all along.  We are transformed by His love.  And at once, we develop a desire to join in the work of redemption of others.  This is the process Jesus describes as “repented” followed by the obedience we once refused to offer.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.”  Yikes.  This is the answer offered by the church.  This is the answer you claim, I claim, and in His day, what the chief priests were publicly saying.  All the supposed followers of Jesus, that is of the faith He authored, were claiming to obey and do whatever God asked.  But our God asked us to love.  Our God asked us to care about the salvation of others, not just to passively say we care.  The work of redemption is NOT reserved for ministers, it never has been.  It is supposed to be the work of believers, that is, anyone who claims to believe in Jesus.  Keep in mind, the verbal response is respectful, but the action of the feet and hands is non-existent.  They, or we, do no real work.  We simply never go.  We talk a good game, and do nothing.  We wait for others to go.  We wait to encourage missionaries, never to become one, even in the fields that surround our home or office.  We rationalize that this is not our “gift” of the Spirit, while never considering it is our “testimony” and our “witness” that is lacking because we have never really experienced the salvation the first crowd has.  And no action is taken.

Jesus then asks the cutting questions in verse 31 saying … “Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.”  The priests examine the situation, and can easily say it is the first crowd who actually “did” the work of the Father.  Both groups are no less considered sons.  This is not a story about a son and a slave or a servant.  God loves us all.  But how we respond to Him reflects whether we have found true salvation from ourselves, or whether we believe that “we” are pretty good people, you know, saints, or something like that.  People who find true forgiveness, find also true transformation, and a different purpose for their lives than the purpose “they” thought they would have.  They give up “their own” will in favor of following the will of the Father.  People who find only forgiveness and are content to stop there, and never experience what it is like to truly obey, because they refuse to truly submit their own will to anything.  They worship their own will, even in matters of religion, and therefore do “nothing” while claiming to fully do everything.

So Jesus offers a stinging rebuke to us.  If we were to modernize His language into something modern Christians would understand better.  Jesus says “the hookers, the abortionists, the pornographers, the homosexuals, and the pedophiles – will find the kingdom of heaven and go in – before you or I do”.  It is not that any of those sins are welcome in perfection.  But it is that any of those sinners can find true reformation because they are willing to repent, and want a change, and see the value of His transformative love, prizing it higher than anything their pathetic lives can offer.  Whereas you and I, like the Pharisees of old, believe we already “know” God, and are already “good” people, already claiming His forgiveness for the relatively small sins we commit – while not truly embracing transformation, or seeing the need of it.  So like the Pharisees of old, we repent so late in our experience, we lose so much we might have otherwise had.  We love sinners so late in the process, we are hardly the effective vineyard workers.  Instead we sit around the vineyard and judge which grapes we think are worthy, and which ones we should not even bother ourselves with.

Jesus concludes the first story saying in verse 32 … “For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”  These church leaders refused to admit the truth of who John was, and of the need of true repentance.  So do we.  But those in pain heard John, saw the love of God in his message, and repented of “who” they were.  It was not just of what they had done, but of who they had become.  This is the level of true repentance that brings about seeing the need of transformation.  Church leaders refused to do so; both then, and now, and in the mirror.  We refuse to see our pain, instead calling it pleasure.  We indulge in the momentary-feel-good and ignore the lifetime of regret and pain we cause to ourselves, to any who love us, and to our God most of all.  We think these acts of sin are isolated incidents, not a representation of “who” we really are.   And we deceive ourselves, clinging to pride, and refusing to submit.  And so the sinners we judge, become the ones who truly work in the vineyard of redemption, because they come to know what it means to love like God loves.  While we, clinging to pride, learn to love only ourselves, and claim forgiveness makes it all OK.  The repentant seek no control.  While the saints believe they must hold all of it, or risk the church heading over into the ditch.  But true control belongs only in the hands of our Savior, it is nothing more than illusion in our own.

Yet the story of Jesus was not meant to end in condemnation.  It was meant to end in enlightenment.  There is still time, for us to let go of our pride, abase ourselves before our God.  We can still submit our lives, and truly give them over to Jesus, so He can rewrite them however He sees fit.  If we allow this, our testimony will become real, our witness unmistakable, and our care for the vineyard nearly immediate.  The work of redemption is not complete, and there will never be enough workers in it, until all are a part of it.  Let us learn to be the sons, He calls us still.  Let us go and do, because it burns within us.  Because He puts a heart of flesh within us, ripping out our heart of stone.  In this we will never be happier.  In the absolute lack of control, we will find our bliss, trusting in Him to handle all things.  And in this we will find a kingdom of heaven, in the here and now.

But the lessons for church leadership, both then and now, were not over yet …

 

Barometers of Faith ...

How great is your imagination?  What kind of pressure does reality put on it?  The two-year-old set is unburdened with the day-to-day pressures of survival / life / death; social loneliness; concerns about their health; and for most, whether they are loved.  They simply do not live under that kind of stress or strain.  Most are able to completely trust that whatever issues may exist out there in the world, mom and dad will handle them.  Thus the toddler is fully capable of enjoying life, all the while, just knowing mom and dad have a handle on the rest of it.  This is so true, that toddlers do not even “think” this way.  They just live in it.  It takes the perspective of an adult, to understand what “reality” is like in the world that surrounds your given toddler child.  It is only the adult that has the wisdom and perspective to really understand what is going on, and what “could” happen.  Most of the admonitions we hand out then to our children are designed to be preventative, to keep the bad stuff from entering their reality.  When the accidents do occur, we are there to demonstrate a love to them, that will comfort in spite of the boo boo that life has somehow introduced.  A model of family, a picture we should be extending in our thoughts and faith towards our God.

But what is the net effect of nearly zero stress, and absolute trust; a mind free to imagine nearly anything.  Toddlers will gladly draw you a picture of nearly anything that enters their own thoughts or ideas.  Objects in the pictures very rarely resemble what they “are” – instead they represent how a child sees that object – and accounts for the lack of Michelangelo prodigies.  They are proud to have their “work of art” displayed on the refrigerator with magnets sold for this purpose.  They take joy in having mom and dad make a great deal production when the art is submitted for its gallery spot on the fridge.  They also take note when mom and dad share the work with grandparents, and highly tolerant friends, who seem to be in on the idea of making a big production of how great it is when the artist is nearby.  While Picasso might be hard pressed to identify any of the objects in the art-work, in the mind of the child, they are as clear as day.  Imagination, can nearly completely take over the point of view of the artist, allowing them to see renaissance paintings, where others only see crayons on construction paper.  It is only age, and the stress it brings, that can cause the artist to lose the memory, of what he/she was trying to convey.  While still young, and unencumbered, the masterpiece is easy to decipher.

Imagination is not just limited to expression, it is boundless in ideas.  Children “invent” new animals, generally by combining characteristics they enjoy from the ones they are familiar with, and coming up with something entirely new.  Who says you cannot put wings on a frog?  Or give him a nice long furry tail.  I don’t hear the frog complaining.  And if you listened closer you might hear the frog tell you what to do next.  The kids hear it.  They hear stuffed animals talk as plain as mom and dad.  They assign life like characteristics to many an inanimate object, and then expect you to join in on the journey of imagination.  When adults refuse, play comes to an abrupt halt.  A piece of plastic molded into the shape of a doll is a lifeless rock, without any imagination to bring it to life.  A $20 waste of money, if you cannot play with your child, in the way your child wants to play.  The fact that the box it came in, cannot be thrown away, as it is serving as a doll castle, is yet another testament to the idea that children can play with trash as quick as they can play with treasure, and find them both equally appealing under the same imagination.

So we understand our kids can make stuff up, and believe it is real.  It is a function of their age, but deeper than that, it is a function of a mind free from the burdens of reality.  Now lets talk about you and I.  Is it possible for you to ditch that adult perspective for a moment, and embrace the boundless creativity of the mind of a child – then take it a step further.  Let your adult mind, truly believe it is possible to make it real.  This is a trick nearly no adult has mastered.  We just do not believe it is possible.  Reality and history argue with that idea quite successfully.  But they are wrong.  Case in point; Matthew recalls in his gospel picking up in chapter 21, an unusual story of things that just do not happen “normally”, but “did” anyway.  This story is not just your typical Jesus miracle.  It begins with a hungry man, or more accurately with Jesus being hungry.

Picking up in verse 18 the story begins by saying … “Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.”  To set the context, this verse refers to Jesus, who is returning to Jerusalem near the time of His pending betrayal, and right after His triumphant ride into the city.  It is the next day.  Jesus has spent the night, likely at the home of Lazarus in Bethany.  Why Mary and Martha did not prepare Him a breakfast banquet we don’t know – maybe they did.  But nonetheless, Jesus got hungry again.  Now keeping in mind, that Jesus did a 40 day fast in the wilderness to start His ministry, the idea that He got that hungry after breakfast, or since dinner the night before seems hardly noticeable.  More likely, Jesus told the disciples about His hunger, because He had a lesson to teach them, and us.

Continuing in verse 19 it says … “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.”  OK that qualifies as the weirdest scripture in the book in my opinion.  First of all, Jesus is the creator of ALL life.  If He found a barren tree, He could have just as easily made it fruitful.  That is kind of His thing.  He takes our barrenness and makes us produce worthy fruit as we submit ourselves to Him.  But that is not what happened.  Instead He sees a tree in the distance that looks like it should have lots of good fruit, likely hidden in the bountiful leaves.  But when He gets there, it has only leaves.  A whole lot of camouflage, nothing good to eat.  So instead of a lesson in self-sacrifice, Jesus curses this tree and says in effect, you are not going to fool anyone else, from now on and forever more going forward, no fruit will ever grow on you.  The net effect to the tree, is that is withers up and dies right in front of all the disciples, like if you have a time-lapsed view of a plant dying.  But instead of days or weeks, this entire tree dries up to nothing and falls away within minutes of what He says.

The disciples are freaked out.  Matthew writes in verse 20 saying … “And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!”  Nobody had ever seen a tree wither up and die in minutes instead of months.  No famine.  No chainsaw.  Just one negative pronouncement from the Creator and this tree is history.  Object lesson #1 – you don’t ever want to find yourself on the wrong side of a negative pronouncement of Christ.  Like say … when you have forgotten to visit those who are sick, or in prison.  Or perhaps when you were too worried about safety or inconvenience to invite home a person with no place to live or stay.  Or perhaps when you thought donations could substitute for actually loving someone else.  That kind of thing.  Also coming a time when the pronouncement let he who is unholy be unholy still – that one is particularly ugly.  Makes you think for a minute huh?

Object lesson #2 – destruction is as real as salvation, and as permanent.  Jesus speaks this way to a tree, not a human, because for us there is still hope while we draw breath.  There is a chance we may still submit ourselves to Jesus and find that He recreates who we are from the inside out.  If Jesus had done this to a human, even say Judas, the same level of destruction would have ensued.  The person would likely have died.  So instead, Jesus speaks this way to a tree, to an object of life without a soul.  But the demonstration is breath taking.  And it can illustrate the permanence of destruction, as easily as His miracles of restoration to us, illustrate the permanence of salvation.  It is we alone who can tear ourselves away from the love of Christ, by our choice to do so, and our ultimate rejection of Him.  But even though we may choose to focus on these kinds of object lessons from what took place, they were still not the point Jesus was trying to make.

Fear, was not the object lesson Jesus had in mind.  The story continues in verse 21 saying … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. [verse 22] And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”  Ahh, here is what Jesus was trying to convey.  The impossible is “not” really impossible.  So I ask again, how great is your imagination, how much pressure has reality inflicted upon it?  Trees do not just wither up and die in an instant.  But on the scale of things, that is pretty small next to the idea of speaking to a mountain and telling it, you have a better location for it, out in the sea somewhere.  In our age we would have to enormously careful with that one, as nearly the whole planet has people on it given the explosion of our population across the earth.  But that is not the point.  Reality is not the point.  Faith that truly believes IS the point.  Toddlers have it right.  We are the ones all messed up in our thinking.

We speak to God like we are trying to make Him aware of our problems, you know, just in case He might, maybe, want to do something about them.  We are ALL sure He “can” do something about them.  We are completely UNSURE if He “will” do something about them.  That is not faith that truly believes, that is barely faith at all.  I see a whole lot of leaves, and very little fruit.  No limits; was the message of Jesus.  Do not pray with the idea that there is a limit to how big a thing you can ask, how impossible it looks to you, how ridiculous it sounds to everyone else – be a toddler – show that crappy picture to Jesus anyway cause only He understands the weird shapes and crayons of your life to begin with.  He will take your ridiculous prayer picture and hang it on His refrigerator and hold a parade in heaven so everyone else can come see it.  He longs for us to trust Him just that much.  To be able to bring Him anything, and like a toddler does with earthly mom and dad, just to KNOW, that whatever it is, our heavenly Father has it handled for us.  We need do nothing.  We need not worry about anything.  He has it.  Only He really understands it, we just do not have the perspective.  We are toddlers, He is the only adult in the room.

So what can you imagine?  And before you start thinking like an adult with an imagination – gee, could I be rich, and perfectly healthy, and in need of “nothing”.  Scratch that and think like a toddler who does not worry about those things – now exercise your imagination – and what do you come up with.  Giving a frog wings, and a long furry tail, does not seem like something to waste our prayer energy on.  But if we actually believed He would do it – there would be a new species of frog discovered this afternoon that would baffle scientists for years to come.  (though they may believe “they” discovered a missing link in their silly theories of evolution, so perhaps that is a bad example).  The point is not to focus on the limitations, but to live and pray as if there are none.  Because there are none.  Becoming like a little child so you can enter the kingdom of heaven, looks a lot like this. 

We should not just pray for something, cause maybe, if the winds are right, and if we have done enough to “deserve” the answer we want, we may get it.  We should pray for what we truly need, knowing He answers our prayers every time, even when they sound crazy.  We should perhaps start praying in earnest not for what we need, but for what others need.  Remember toddlers already KNOW their parents will meet whatever needs they have.  This would free up Jesus to pour out His love on others, even when they refuse to ask for it themselves, or even recognize He is our God, the only God.  People who do not know Jesus this way are unlikely to ever pray to Him for what they need.  Why not do it ourselves on their behalf.  We may pray someone else to salvation doing this and never even know it.  When Satan yells at Jesus for trying to influence the life of someone who is not asking for it, Jesus can respond that He is simply answering the prayers of someone else who asked Him for that very interference in the life of someone who needs Him.  This kind of prayer frees up and unleashes the power of our God.

If you are too timid to start moving mountains around.  If you are too scared to ask for the cure to cancer.  Then start small, ask for the salvation of Jesus in your own life, and in the life of someone who you know needs Him.  Then sit back and watch what happens.  If you need to pray again because you are not sure if it worked, pray again.  Do what it takes to build trust in your prayers and certainty in the God who really is your Dad.  Before you know it, you will start making crazy prayer paintings that only those in heaven can understand.  You will come to KNOW you are heard.  YOU are HEARD.  And Jesus moves mountains for you anytime you need it.  That is the thought that should scare you.  Unleashing the power of your God should make you a little nervous.  Because His power is truly unlimited.  Not the idea that His power is never poured out on your behalf.  That is a lie Satan tells.  And you need to ditch it, in favor of understanding how powerful your Dad is, what He is longing to do for you.  Know it.  Don’t just have faith, Know it.  And the word impossible will lose all meaning to you.  And winged tailed frogs will appear on mountains on their way to the sea, or perhaps something more meaningful in the topic of salvation, will become evident between you and God.

 

Crisis of Conscience ...

Have you ever been guilty of something, and just knew you had done it?  I have two cats and two dogs.  When I walk in the room and find something out of place (cat/dog mischief on display), if I change my tone, and ask “who did this?” – the guilty animal goes running.  The innocent cat or cats hardly take notice of me at all.  The innocent dog or dogs bring me treats (their idea of toys) to see if it will make me happier.  But I can always tell the guilty critter based on how they react, they tend to run, and of course the guilty culprit changes with nearly every incident.  So how about you; no excuses, no blaming others, or circumstances, heredity, or environment – no, what happens when the blame centers squarely on you and you alone. 

In those situations what happens next may say more about you, than what led you to them.  People tend to react in one of two ways, they seek to make it right, or they seek to cover it up.  The story Matthew penned so long ago is not for those who seek to make it right.  Most of us try this in one form or another, sometimes taking great pains to avoid admitting we were wrong, while trying to fix a seriously impaired conscience.  For the rest of us, who look first to see if anyone was watching, and how credible they might be, before even considering whether to make it right.  This story was meant for us.  And like many things that fall into this category, “time”, can begin to alter your perception even about what is right and wrong.  Things done in repetition for example (no matter whether they were questionable at the start or not), over time become “normal”.  Once they are normal to you, the idea that they might also still be “wrong” becomes less and less a consideration.  And before you know it, repeated behavior, that is normal, cannot be wrong … by definition … whether it was or not. 

There is also the influence of others.  When you do something wrong alone, or by yourself, you may be more aware of it.  But if you are in a group at the time, and literally everybody else with you is also doing it, and from your perception, everyone, everywhere is doing it.  Then perhaps that behavior is also not wrong, it is just normal, whether originally thought wrong or not.  Finally, there is the influence of leadership on the topic.  When leaders you trust, or admire, weigh in their opinions on what is right or wrong (particularly in the grey areas), those opinions carry weight into the decision making process you hold.  If it is church leadership; you know, the folks who are “supposed” to be getting the right/wrong thing correctly all the time, it may carry even more weight in what you decide.  Put all these influences together, and you get a perfect storm, not to cause a crisis of conscience, but to eliminate conscience altogether.  Enter Matthew and divinely inspired recollections.

It picks up in chapter twenty-one of his gospel in verse 12 saying … “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”  And right off the bat, we get it wrong.  Artists and the church, for many years paint this scenario with the idea that Jesus was furious, entering that Temple with fire in his eyes, a fierce tone of voice, a whip in one hand, and a carpenter’s fist in the other.  The terror of Him moving through the scene, and the anger He brings with Him, causing the exodus of the merchants who had taken up residence in the Temple.  But this is not how it works.  Frankly, it is not ever how it works.  It does not have to.  Let’s re-examine with a second look, and factor in human nature into the equation.

When mom catches you doing something wrong, it is hard to argue with her, while being caught red-handed.  Now instead of mom, imagine a face-to-face with God, while He catches you doing something wrong.  Forget that the Temple leadership approved of these practices (and the fact, they got a kick back on the horrible profits generated there).  Forget the fact that it was not one merchant, but many engaged in this.  Forget the fact that they had been doing it for years, literally for years.  The practice itself was wrong.  They were taking advantage of penitent people who came to the Temple to sacrifice for their sins.  Honest worshippers were subjected to unscrupulous business men, bent on making a profit off of them, in what should have been a ceremony dedicated to God throughout.  And the church was in on it.  And the people who were doing it, even if they had forgotten it was wrong, were now being reminded.  Not by anger, but by the piercing eyes of Jesus, that seemed to reach right down into the core of who they had become, and shake them from the inside out, acting and speaking about stopping this practice.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Several things to note here, the first is that the main purpose of the Temple, was really “not” for sacrifice.  Jesus says it is for “prayer”.  But instead of reaching out to God, they, like we, go to church for a quicker solution – one that is not so personal.  The worshippers go looking to perform a ritual that will make them right in the eyes of God.  Both then and now.  Instead of just talking with the God of love they purport to serve.  We miss the purpose of the house.  A building setup to avoid the other distractions of the world, in order to focus our minds for prayer.  In our age, we drag in every other worldly element of production value, and produce a show, where prayer is led by someone else (usually making it, its own mini-sermon), and singing and preaching the main ingredients of the show.  Back then, it was a ritual of blood, from which the merchants and church looked to profit immensely, and prayer itself – well there was little time for that between the sales back then or the well-produced show today.

And as to making the house of God a den of thieves.  Think that practice went away with those merchants?  Today, we give our tithes and offerings, and where do they go?  That is to say, how much of them come back to us in the form of services we benefit from, and how much of them actually make use in reaching the un-reached?  Easy way to measure it; how many baptisms did your church do this month, or last?  Not transfers from other churches mind you, but baptisms of new converts.  Not the kids of existing members (though all are important), I am talking about how we use our funds to actually spread the gospel to those who have not heard it, or think God is too angry to ever accept them.  Did it take that level of giving to affect that reach?  Conversely, how much of our money was spent on making the building better, maintaining it, supplying it, keeping the air on, the leaders paid, etc.  And in many denominations, all that is in excess of the need is given to the pastor, until pastors themselves are very rich men.  While churches grow, they tend to do so based on a popularity contest among their peers.  We reach each other.  And our co-workers, and the poor, and those we are reluctant to include, remain outside of our doors, where we prefer them.  And who is robbed in all of this?

And if Jesus looked you square in the eyes, could you tell Him, this is OK, because everyone else is in on it.  Or the church leadership sanctioned it.  Or you have been doing it so long, you forgot it was not OK.  I dare say if perfect love looked you square in the face, you would know - what you do that is anything less than ideal, is wrong.  And your first instinct would be to turn away from that blinding love and flee from it.  These men did just that.  They were not ready or inclined to hear The Truth.  They preferred the greed they indulged, and the easiest thing to do was to run.  Don’t resist, just run.  They did not even attempt to take the money off the floor.  They left it.  Now imagine what a crisis of conscience must have been introduced to these men, that they discarded everything to get away from it.  Merchants whose sole purpose at this venue was to make money, left the money, the animals, everything, and just ran.  There was no whip needed for them.  Perhaps Jesus used the sound of the whip to insure the animals moved along as well.  But His eyes would have been enough.  There was no anger needed.  All there was, was a mirror of perfect love, revealing to them, how far they had fallen from it.  That mirror was terrifying to them, as it might also be to us, those that like to call ourselves “saints”.

And this is how we know, that anger was the farthest thing from the mind, hands, and tone of Jesus.  Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Those in need, did not flee, they pressed closer.  Those in need found the grace of God, not from an angry use of a whip, but the tender touching of the hands of Jesus in the parts of them that lived in pain.  And that touch healed them, it did not add further bruising.  But even further proof lies in the nest text as Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,”  Not just those in need stayed in the temple, but so did the children.

Now imagine for a minute, that an angry man with a whip in hand, comes running into your sanctuary one day during services and begins flipping over tables, cracking the whip, screaming at the merchants/leaders, and has the fire of God in His eyes.  Your kids would be the first ones out the windows and doors.  They would be three blocks away before they had the good sense to look for mom and dad.  Mom would likely be right on their heels.  Dad might stay to fight, or he might be running right along with his family to keep them all safe in that city.  But kids, do NOT sit and stay, in scenarios of extreme anger.  However kids DO stay when they see a loving God looking right at them, bidding them come, and be blessed.  Those kids were likely fully unaware of the rest of it.  Tables being turned over so they could be removed only makes more room for them.  Animals being set free is AWESOME, so they will not need to be slain for the removal of sin, they are free to run and be free.  Bad men leaving, good men staying – that is a recipe kids can get behind.  And how do the kids respond?  They begin singing the same songs that were sung to Jesus on His triumphal return to Jerusalem in the first place.  They liked these songs.  They remembered the lyrics and the tune.  And the kids began singing at the top of their lungs.  This was time for praise service, a praise service LED by the kids, orchestrated by the kids, and performed by the kids.  They had the Temple nearly entirely to themselves, WITHOUT fear.

So of course church leadership hated it.  Rug rats do not get to run the show.  And they were singing that kingship song to and about Jesus once again.  The Pharisees could not get it out of their mind, like a tune that just plays in your head over and over and over again, until it is near to making you insane.  They were sore displeased.  They had lost their kickback scheme, and now were forced to see those impaired, restored to fullness, in the miracle that is Jesus Christ.  And to top it all off, the kids were singing so loudly it was echoing down the Jerusalem streets for how happy they were.  Totally without fear, of Jesus, or of them.  They tried to put a stop to it, but Jesus was not having that.  Jesus loves the worship of little children, as He wants so badly for you and I, to become those little toddlers and in so doing, become His church finally and after all.  Jesus responds to the sore displeasure saying in verse 16 … “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” 

Get that people.  It is not your well-orchestrated, well-produced, worship productions that Jesus enjoys.  It is the entirely random, entirely disjointed, entirely awesome praise that comes out of the mouth of “babes” and “sucklings”.  Those are young kids folks, those are too young to be teenagers, even too young to be first graders.  These are the toddler crowd.  These are the diaper preachers.  This is what “perfected” praise looks like, it looks like TOTAL trust in Abba Father, in Daddy, in Jesus.  They sang until their little lungs wore out.  They cuddled with Jesus, hugging Him, sitting on His lap, or holding His hands, or arms, listening to His every word, curling up under His seat to fall asleep while He spoke to the “adults”.  When they were ready to go home again, Jesus took His cue to leave.  Church was over, because the two-year-olds said it was over, not before, and not while “they” still wanted to be close to Him. 

That is how church works, or how real church works.  Money was never even an issue.  Kids did not think about it, neither did Jesus.  Proximity to God is what church is all about.  Those little ones got it up close and personal.  We get it through prayer.  Neither of us were/are perfect.  Perfection is something that can only come through trust in submission to Jesus, it is something He does for us, sometimes in spite of us, as we connect to Him and allow Him to do this work in us.  Children know who is in charge.  They also know they may be less than perfect, but they are drawn to His love, more than they fear their own imperfections or past behavior.  Children let go much faster, trust much quicker, and find themselves loving, nearly all the time.  It can be that way for us.  Jesus came to save.  To save you and I.  Can we not just let Him do it, in us, for us, forever?  To be in a child-like state of trust, free to love others, brings a level of contentment that this world has no alternative for.

Matthew concludes in verse 17 saying … “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”  Jesus went out, likely to spend some more time with Lazarus and his sisters.  But not before the kids had their fill of Him.  And how He SO longs to meet your needs the same way.  That is what reconciliation is all about.  It is bringing you close to Him again.  It is having you able to cuddle with Him again, hold His hand, or touch His arm.  There is no fear in that.  Neither is their guilt.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the love He holds for you, so that both fear, and guilt can be pushed away.  And re-creation is what He has in mind for you, in order to change how you think, and love, to bring you into the toddler set once again.  To bring you into total trust in Him, for everything you need, including your salvation, and your ability to be in harmony with the law.  You cannot do that for yourself.  That takes Dad to do.  You gotta let Him, or you will not see it done.  There is no anger from Jesus for you, or a whip in His hand for you.  There is the love of a Father in His eyes for you.  Come and get it.  Come get all you want.  And Church won’t be over, until you say it is over.