At some point, when the fish has died, if you are part of
it, you begin to look around and realize the fish is rotting and so are
you. When our leaders fail us, but we
seem to be walking in lock step with them, that leaves us failing as well. It is not a great prospect, and not something
we ever really want to think about. Most
of us fancy ourselves as independents, you know Mavericks, like John McCain
used to say. We believe that no matter
what our leaders are up to, that does not mean we are doing the same things
too. And in specific examples we would
be right. But in trends, I am afraid the
picture is more grim. Take Donald Trump
as an example. There have been more
accusations about our President telling us lies than any other President in
history. And with respect to Donald,
most of us believe we don’t emulate that behavior. But we do tolerate it. Because Donald did not invent the “art of the
lie”. His predecessor was no less
guilty. As was his predecessor, and so
on, and so on. And we the public, have
learned to simply tolerate lying. When
“our guy” does it, we rationalize it.
When “that guy” does it, we throw stones. But through all the passage of time, we
become more and more desensitized to it, until saying that a politician “tells
lies” becomes a truism in our society that we the voters have learned to ignore
while we vote for them again and again.
The fish keeps rotting, and it turns out I am the rotting tail
in this catastrophe. But lying seems
harmless and “everyone” does it, so is it possible to get all worked up about
lying? Most of us do not intend to stop
the practice when asked. Just imagine
those two famous questions… does this dress make me look fat? Or, am I the best lover you ever had? Wrong answers to either of those get you
stoned much faster than telling the person what they want to hear does. We call those “white lies” as if rendering
them “white” makes them “OK” because society says so, and again “everyone” does
it. The fish of our nation just
continues to rot, though all of us claim we are not on par with Donald Trump in
this regard. Perhaps we are not on par
with him where it comes to lying, but we are still in the same game, just with
a lower score. And you would hope it
would be different in the church right?
Our pastors know the rules. They
know the Bible. Or at least we hope they
do. So they know that lying is a big
no-no. But do you think they answer that
dress makes me look fat question with the truth (no it is not the dress, it is
the daily trips to the donut counter that make you look fat dear) or with a
carefully crafted answer that achieves the same effect as a lie. For example, (no dear, I know many women that
will never look as good as you do) – dodges the answer, so no lie, but leaves
truth off the table as well, at least the truth she was asking about. And in case you are wondering what I would
say – honey we have different definitions about “fat” just look at me, I am not
qualified to answer that question dear.
So if our pastors are not immune to this disease of the
lie. Is there any hope left? Imagine how the children of Israel felt in
the days of John the Baptist as he calls their entire church leadership a
generation of vipers. Now these are the
guys, the leaders, all of Israel are supposed to look up to. They are supposed to be the standard of
righteousness to which to aspire being yourself. And here is where we both share getting it
wrong. No human will ever be that
standard. For every human fails (see
lying as an example). If all you aim to
do is be as righteous as your pastor, your bar is WAY too low. He may be a great guy, but he is no
Jesus. And Jesus alone is the standard
to which we are supposed to aspire.
Israel was taught to look at the Sanhedrin as the holy men of God. We are taught to look at pope’s and guru’s
and evangelists, and moms, or grandpa’s.
The net effect: We are taught to look too low, for our standards, at
targets sure to fail us. Israel, and us,
needed to look up to God alone for their standard and ours. And spoiler alert, God never fails us either,
and is the only One capable of fixing our lying problem, as well as every other
sin problem, we still contend with.
In his gospel letter, Luke continues telling the story of
the world’s greatest evangelist. And he provides
an answer to the aching question the people asked when the leaders went away in
shame. What should we do? Those people were looking for a simple
definition of what right-doing looks like.
John was ready with an answer. He
provides it picking up in chapter three in verse 11 saying … “He answereth and
saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none;
and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.”
John’s answer cuts right to the heart of the matter. Do you trust in God to provide you with what
you need? If that answer is yes, then
parting with what you have now, is really no big deal. It was God that gave it to you in the first
place. When you have need, God will send
it to you again. “Knowing” your needs
are already taken care of gives you the freedom to give.
Then it is a matter of “seeing” the needs all around
you. But again, back to cutting right to
the heart of the matter. Seeing need
requires you to be looking for it. When
all you see, or rather all you focus on, is the guy in the mirror, you are
completely oblivious to the folks all around you. Perhaps including your wife who may need a
little attention from you to chase away fears and insecurities about her
self-perceptions of being overweight. Or
perhaps your husband who lives in fear that he is not adequate to meet your
intimate needs and perhaps you yearn for fulfillment somewhere else. But those are the easy ones. Family is close to you. There with you all the time. Easier to see when something is wrong, or
perhaps when something could be made better by you with a little more love
their way. Looking for need outside your
door means taking an interest in perhaps co-workers, or members of your church
who sit right down the row from you. People
have needs all over the place. It’s not
that hard to find the need if you look, but it may be more “costly” to you to
try to meet it than you predetermined you planned to spend.
For example, parting with half your food supply (i.e. the
man that has meat shares it with someone who does not) seems a little intense
for those of us who prefer to give “something” but not necessarily “everything”
someone else needs. It gets back to both
beliefs. Will God take care of you no
matter what you give? And do you care
enough about someone else to part with your “stuff” in the first place? If you lack love and trust – you tend to
offer prayers and “good thoughts” instead of the tangible. Because John did not ask you to give what you
did not have at all, he only asked you to give of your extra. And for some of us, we fear giving our extra,
because we may never get it back again.
Our income changes, our location changes, the sales in the store are no
more – we can think of a hundred reasons to hold on to our stuff – only one to
part with it – because we see a need we can no longer ignore. Because we care too much to ignore it any
longer. The heart of the matter. The love that stops the rot.
Luke continues in verse 12 saying … “Then came also
publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? [verse 13]
And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.” The next folks asking for the baptism of
remission are tax collectors, and while they are hated, they are usually not
too poor. It would have been easy for
them to part with an extra coat, or an extra steak. They could simply ask for it back the next
day from the taxpayers. So John asks them
to act rightly in their work, to effectively be honest, and take no extra tax
ever again. These tax collectors will be
paid by Rome or one of the Herod’s, but that salary is nothing next to what
they are used to making. John is asking
them to be honest, even if that honest, makes them poor. John is asking them not to lie anymore, not
to cheat anymore. John is asking them to
repent of what they have done, and learn to be someone else now. If you were asked not to lie anymore, could
you even try it?
Luke continues in verse 14 saying … “And the soldiers
likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them,
Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your
wages.” Again John asks the military men
not to lie either. He asks them not to
accuse falsely, to be content with their wages and cheat no more, or lie no
more. These were hardened men of Roman
descent, as well as temple guards, and Herod’s men.
They were hired to kill or enforce the law. Yet John tells them to do no more violence in
their work. They could be firm, and
exert force, but turn from killing as the first response, or maiming as the
second. John is telling them to think
differently. John is telling them and us
to divorce ourselves from the fish that rots from the head and leads the rest
of it with it. No matter what our
circumstances are, we are not bound by circumstance. No matter what our genetics are, we are not
bound by genetic predisposition. We are
free to surrender to Jesus, and find a real change in the heart of who we are. In truth, the entire fish rots, and Jesus is
the only way out.
The people continued the mistake of looking down. They misinterpreted the Holy Spirit’s power
with the words of John, as perhaps being the sign of the Messiah. John wanted no credit. John knew his role. And John turned their eyes to the coming
Messiah, to Jesus his cousin, who would be the One. Though they had not met yet in person, John
knew He was coming. Luke continues in
verse 15 saying … “And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in
their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; [verse 16] John
answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one
mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose:
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: [verse 17] Whose fan is
in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat
into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” Jesus was so much higher than John, and John
knew it. John baptized with water, Jesus
would baptize with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
The followers of Jesus would be His wheat, His church. Those who refused to accept the love of Jesus
would find themselves rotting, the chaff, the fuel for a final fire that will
one day expunge evil from existence.
Without the salvation of Jesus, our decay, our rot, consumes us, long
before the fires will. It is Jesus we
must seek to change this natural condition.
Luke foretells the end of John’s story concluding this
snippet in verse 18 saying … “And many other things in his exhortation preached
he unto the people. [verse 19] But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him
for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had
done, [verse 20] Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.” The deeds of evil Herod Antipas were many,
but none so bad as his treatment of John.
Though it was through this harsh treatment that God reached out to Herod
to change his heart. And while it seemed
to work, it was far less successful in reaching the women who surrounded Herod
and manipulated him into even greater sin.
The fish rots from the head. But
that need not be our fate. Through
Jesus, perhaps what “everyone” does can become a thing of the past for us. Where hearts are melted and changed and
focused on others, there is room for the truth, and lies would only corrupt the
love that is needed. Living love is so
much better than rotting self-obsession.
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