Should have known better ...

When a two-year-old does nearly anything – it’s cute.  When a 35-year-old does the same things – not so much.  In fairness two-year-old’s start out cute, so that tends to help when you look at what they do.  They also tend to start out innocent.  So we do not always expect them to “know” what they are doing.  They make mistakes, because they are exploring life, and very often need a parent’s guiding hand to keep them from wandering into something that would have otherwise harmed them.  The 35-year-old on the other hand, is expected to “know better” for many of the things they seem to stumble into.  And the mistakes they make as a result are not so cute, many of them are just plain harmful.  So when people of a certain age make mistakes that any adult should have known better than to do, you often hear the phrase cited again and again – “should have known better”.  Perhaps otherwise known as “he’s your child ya know” or “I told you TV was dangerous” or something of the ilk.  We like throwing out the judgmental style phrases when we encounter mistakes.  It’s in our nature.  At least our carnal one that is.

And I suppose if this phenomenon only took place outside of church walls it might be better for us all, but alas, it is not so limited.  Unfortunately, our churches are riddled with mistakes.  You might expect that from the parishioners, after all each of us is still learning.  But when the preachers are the ones making the mistakes, the judgmental-trigger-finger begins to get a little itchy.  And worse, if the preachers are actually teaching the mistakes to others, those with better insight tend to lose their minds.  For this is the worst of all scenarios, a preacher avidly teaching his flock (or rather the flock of Jesus put in his care) to make mistakes as great as the great outdoors.  What hope has he?  What hope have any of them?  But then the answer for all of us is the same – that our salvation is grounded in Jesus, and if we submit to Him first, He will be faithful to save us, even if that means leading us to do something different than we have been taught by the pulpits in His very church, by His very pastor.  Seems counter-intuitive, but sometimes mistakes taught at the pulpit create just this very need.  This is not something new.  In fact, Luke writes about just such an incident in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

Luke picks up in chapter eleven of his gospel letter beginning in verse 37 saying … “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. [verse 38] And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.”  In today’s climate the viewpoint of this Pharisee seems much like a caring mom.  How often have our mother’s collectively reminded us to go wash our hands before dinner.  Perhaps our entire childhood.  Enough so that it still echoes in our ears.  Enough that it became so engrained in us, that we now teach our own children the very same thing.  So when Jesus gets an invite to dinner, by a Pharisee of all people, He accepts and goes right in to eat – no pre-washing involved.  But today is not the same as back then.  Today we are fighting a pandemic, so washing our hands is less ritual, and more a thing of survival.  We do it several times a day today in order to keep from getting violently ill.  Back then, the Pharisees did it several times a day, as a form of ritual, that is, ritual cleanness.  For the Pharisees, if you washed your hands, you washed away the sins they performed.  Now where would you get a crazy idea like that?  You had to have been taught it, by other, older, Pharisees.

The Pharisee however, does not think his idea is in any way crazy.  He thinks it is doctrine.  And Jesus, as a supposed Rabbi of the people, “should have known better” than to come in to eat with “dirty” hands.  If there is dirt on the hands, there will definitely wind up being dirt in the tummy, and that will be a much less pleasant experience.  Seems logical, but the idea of equating ritual washing, with getting rid of sin and maintaining a cleanness before God needed correcting – by God.  So Jesus responds picking up in verse 39 saying … “And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. [verse 40] Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? [verse 41] But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.”  Here is where everything seems to go completely sideways.

Jesus does not respond with any sort of need to wash your hands at all.  Every child perks up and starts applauding 😊.  Instead Jesus begins to discuss how washing the outside of a cup or platter is not the same thing as washing the inside of it.  And further the God who created the outside of things, also created the inside of things.  And from what we can tell of Jesus’ admonition, He seems relatively content with both outside and inside in whatever form He finds them in.  However, as it comes to wanting to be clean before God there is an actual answer – go give alms (that is money), such as you have, to those in need – and you will be clean before God.  Well that answer has nothing to do with literal washing at all.  In fact quite the opposite.  Money tends to be dirty, because it is handled by many people over time.  Jesus is saying go grab some of that, and give it away to those in need, and the insides of you will become clean in the process.  Why?  Because showing love by meeting need, is the recipe for a clean heart.  Washing hands, no matter how often, or how hard, or how ritualistic it may seem, does nothing for the soul, or the heart.  Pharisees should have known better.  Jesus did.  And thus we have an admonition about being clean before eating, almost none of us, are going to want to follow.  But maybe that is changing.

If it were only this one doctrine they had wrong perhaps the admonitions could have stopped here, but unfortunately church leadership had gone astray on a great many things.  So Jesus continues His instruction picking back up in verse 42 saying … “But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”  Yikes.  Imagine the context of this.  Jesus is just sitting down to dinner in the very home of a Pharisee (the guy who got the hand washing thing wrong).  And now, instead of polite dinner conversation, Jesus issues a very stark warning.  A pronouncement of Woe in fact.  Woe, meaning a warning where pain and suffering are bound to be a result.  Something to be avoided at ALL costs if it can be.  Jesus has just got done asking the Pharisee to part with alms for the poor.  He continues by saying the Pharisee is very detailed in how he gives tithe back to the church, tithing even 10% or more of his herbs in his pantry.  Keep in mind that the tithes and offerings of the nation went right back in the Pharisees pockets, so this was more or less, an offering of show.  But none-the-less it was a good example of what the nation should also be doing where it comes to tithing.

Jesus says you should keep that up.  HOWEVER, in the process of giving, you have lost ALL sight of the love of God, in your judgment of the nation.  When a case comes before leadership for decision, leadership looks to see how they might profit from it.  Widows lose homes, because no one is willing to support them.  The poor are made more poor, by what the Pharisees demand of them.  The pain of the nation is increased, debts are not forgiven, only the demand of eye-for-eye remains.  Justice without mercy is not of God, as Jesus reminds those in whose very home He has been invited to eat.  Can you imagine how shocked the church leaders were at this?  They were not used to anyone criticizing anything they did.  They all assumed their evil deeds were secret.  They assumed no one would know.  But here was Jesus not only criticizing them of something, but of something each heart knew it was guilty of doing.  Jesus was speaking truth to “power”.  You can imagine how discomforting this would have been.  But then, Why?  And worse, are we guilty of the same response when called out by Jesus to do better than we do?  Are our hearts as hardened to counsel as the Pharisees were?

Luke continues in verse 43 saying … “Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. [verse 44] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.”  More Woe!  This will be worse for the Pharisees than the coming cleansing of the Temple.  Here is Jesus offering such a level of warning about what they do, right there in a home at dinner.  It was not public at the time.  But inspiration of gospel writers will come to make it public.  That is for us.  Because we too, have become Pharisees with our own versions of hardened hearts in the modern Christian church.  The Woe should speak right to us.  How many of us, wish to seek prominent positions in the church, not in order to serve, but in order to gain respect, or be looked up to by our fellow believers.  We wish to be “great” preachers, or singers, or teachers, in order to be known of our fellow believers.  We seek the great seats meaning, the positions of prominence, like so many peacocks in the yard.  But this Woe is unto us. 

And as for hypocrisy, how many of us are like graves that are trodden upon with no knowledge we are there.  Meaning how many of us are Christians in name only, not in love, or in service.  We lack love or service so much, that people encounter us and never know we are anything associated with Christian.  It is as if we are dead already and do not recognize it, not just dead in faith, but dead in life.  Our talk makes us hypocrites, because our lives look nothing like the love Jesus had for others.  We barely muster the love our families deserve.  But for our poor, we look on them with judgment.  And our enemies never enter our prayer lists, let alone our hearts in a desire to find ways to do good to them.  Instead we pray that our enemies suffer and find downfall because of the sins they commit against us.  Too many of us cite David and his prayers over his enemies, for their downfall, as our excuse.  But David was attacked by men seeking his life, and his prayers were for his protection, and prayed by a man used to killing.  We are none of those things.  Our enemies are none of those things.  We ascribe “enemy” to anyone who harms us through their own sinful actions.  Instead of forgiving them, and trying to love them, we want revenge as much as any non-Christian would want, sometimes more.  And our proverbial graves disappear into the sands of time, unnoticed by those who now walk over them with no idea they ever existed.

The Sanhedrin however, was made up of more than just Pharisees.  That was only one sect of it.  Prominent lawyers were also part of it, and present at this gathering.  Luke continues in verse 45 saying … “Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. [verse 46] And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”  The lawyers heard the words and warning of Jesus, and immediately knew His words were not just for Pharisees.  His words were for them as well, and for us, even if we fail to see it.  So the lawyers complained about the reproach.  Jesus responds to them as well reminding all in church leadership who teach great burdens to the people, burdens they would never dare to try to carry, that this practice is wrong for everyone.  All of this woe was not meant to forever condemn the guilty.  It was meant to open their eyes to see it, and like John the Baptist, call them to repentance, to walk a different road, and be saved.

But the lesson was not over yet as Luke continues in verse 47 saying … “Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. [verse 48] Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. [verse 49] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: [verse 50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; [verse 51] From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.”  When we reject the counsel of God, we kill His prophets, and we come to even kill His Son.  When we put aside the words of God, in favor of our own wisdom, we walk the same road as our lawyer forefathers, and their forefathers, who would rather kill the messenger, than hear the message.  Today when we hear truth we do not like, we simply pick apart the person saying it.  We focus on their sins, and their shortcomings, making their less-than-perfect lives, our excuse for not hearing, and not doing.  In so doing, we become equally guilty of killing the prophets, and even His Son.  And the pronouncement of Woe becomes one directed at us.  In the building of monuments to ourselves, and to those who did evil before us, we seal our agreement with the wrongs we should be trying to undo.

Luke continues in verse 52 saying … “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. [verse 53] And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: [verse 54] Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.”  And there it is.  We, those who dare to call ourselves leaders of any kind in the faith, should have known better.  But we choose not to know.  The teachings of leadership must now need to be undone, because hearts were not submitted to Jesus, and therefore spoke from human wisdom, and human motives.  Teaching for doctrine, what was never doctrine.  And how did the leadership respond to this last Woe?  They got pissed off.  So much so, they tried immediately to get Jesus to stumble in His teachings or words, so that they could accuse Him and put Him to death for some disobedience to the Laws of God.  They found none.  Nor would we.

But the scarier question is how will we respond?  Does it make you angry to think that you might be teaching for truth, what is not truth at all?  Does it shake you up?  It should.  It is meant to remind you, that whatever you believe, you should submit yourself to Jesus before you ever open your mouth.  You should follow His lead, rather than attempt to lead others.  Speaking what we “know” to be true, if not first submitted to Jesus, is sounding horns and clanking symbols.  It is noise without meaning.  Truth can only be found in Jesus Christ, and can only come through us, when we are fully submitted to His Truth, passing it along, not inventing it ourselves, or simply repeating the traditions we have been taught.  We should know this.  We should know better.  We have the entirety of the Bible to teach us this very thing.  To believe that our personal denomination, and our personal understanding, is the sole source of all truth, is only arrogance on our part, not truth at all.  The mistakes in our own lives should teach us that.  I hope we see the words of Woe, as lampposts to guide our feet so that we stumble less in the dark, finding our way to His heart, that He might teach us how to love better, and live better, and make this world better than we ever imagined it could be.  Let us too give of ourselves, such as we have, to the poor and those in need, and find ourselves made clean by His grace in the process.

 

Sign Seekers ...

In good times, anyone might feel free to follow a hunch.  But in today’s climate, our media would exalt science past any gut feeling, or hunch.  Rather, we prefer numbers that feed models, in order to form predictive analysis about what we believe is coming next, and how we might influence it.  A hunch is no longer the least bit valid.  Science is king now.  Perhaps science is now god itself.  But the evil secret about modeling is that assumptions govern outcomes.  So the entire field of predictive analytics is essentially hunches supported by data, and presented with only partial surety.  In reality, what is going to happen, does happen.  It is not to say that we cannot influence outcomes, it is only to say we cannot ever control them.  Science should ever be our tool, but to exalt it to our god, is to make fools of us all.  And realistically, where it comes to how we have or should have responded to covid-19, we did not need science or modeling half so much as we have needed simple logic.

Consider for a moment the simple logic of how we might have responded to this pandemic.  First, is to recognize its inevitability in our world.  This is not the first pandemic, it is one in a series of them.  To fight it, you will need significant investment in research, medical stockpiles, trained staff, capacity, etc..  To prepare we might have made simple investment in those things, a priority in how we spend governmental resources – but we did not.  Instead we overlooked them, or cut funding entirely.  When a new pandemic emerges, you might have sent specially qualified, well equipped teams, to ground zero to gather information about what has happened.  We did not.  If you are going to close borders to slow the spread, you should close all borders, to all other countries, not just one or two, allowing the virus to enter from others who remain open to travel to/from infected areas.  When it is clear that cruise ships have a horrible history of becoming petri dishes to other contagions in the past, you might have considered closing that entire industry down for the duration worldwide.  Airline travel not far behind that.  By the time mitigation is needed, you might have approached it in a phased way – i.e. national orders for those who “could” work at home to begin working at home.  Then national orders to limit public gatherings.  Finally national orders to stay at home, and an immediate implementation of the defensive procurement act etc.

Those are all just a logical view of any pandemic.  But we have not responded logically, or even scientifically, we have responded with a mix of fear, greed, survival mode, and feelings of invulnerability in the youth.  Essentially most people acting on hunches given how they feel, instead of logic, or science, or even faith.  The Bible you see, never predicts a worldwide covid-19 plague.  So people of faith, have a hard time knowing what to do.  We are commanded by Jesus to spread the gospel, and not forsake the gathering of ourselves together.  Do we put those ideas aside during a pandemic, or simply put them on hold, or find another way to accomplish them in a non-traditional manner?  There are those among us who assert that our God is bigger than any virus.  They are right.  But to tempt God by placing themselves into harm’s way with no regard for wisdom, as Satan asked Jesus to do by throwing himself off a high place, and letting God keep Him from dying, is not the right approach either.  Our love for others and keeping them safe should supersede our desire to show off God to the world by tempting Him to save us, when we have jumped off the proverbial cliff.

Those Christians who believe Jesus is coming again soon, immediately begin to look at covid-19 and see if it can be applied to scriptural prophecies about the time of the end.  They want it to be a sign of the end.  A sign of His coming and soon return.  But it isn’t.  It is simply a pandemic, like the ones we faced before, possibly worse, possibly better.  There does not need to be a spiritual sign of covid-19 that validates your faith.  Neither should it put a dent in your faith.  In fact, your faith should enable you to face it, with one distinct advantage.  Your faith should tell you, Jesus can and will protect you from it, as He sees fit.  And should the worst happen, your next life is secure in Jesus.  So you can live … without fear.  You do not need this to be a sign.  Nor should you need any sign.  Faith on the other hand, is something you need as much as oxygen.

Luke talked about some of these topics, back in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  He picks up in the 11^th chapter in verse 27 saying … “And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. [verse 28] But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”  A little context, Jesus has just performed an exorcism, where He cast out a demon keeping a victim from speaking.  The former victim is now able to speak, and the crowd is quite amazed.  Then this woman lifts her voice for the crowd to hear, and offers a pronouncement of blessing upon the mother of Jesus, for having been able to be His mother.  Catholics all applaud 😊.  The woman in this crowd is not wrong.  She is right.  It was a high honor to be chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus.  And Mary did an awesome job, as God predicted and knew that she would.  But her beauty in being the mother of Jesus was grounded in one thing – she did all that the Lord commanded her to do.  She not only read scriptures, or attended church, she walked out and did what she had heard.  THAT is what had made her blessed, more than being the chosen so long ago.  It was her willingness to obey that enabled God to pick her in the first place.  It was her willingness to endure when no one else would ever believe she was not the whore, instead of the virgin, where it came to His conception.  But Jesus had other siblings and Mary was mom to more than just the Messiah.  She was a woman, a wife, and a mother, like most all the other women of her day.  In addition, she was disciple as well.

Jesus counters this blessing with one of His own.  To hear the word of God is the first step, but to do it, to keep it. is the most important part.  We should not need signs to verify that last part.  We should not need to associate every disaster in the news today, with some Biblical prophecy, only to scare ourselves into to doing, what we should have been doing all along.  Fear should never be our motivation.  Love should.  I should love you enough to care for you, without a sign in the heavens to tell me that.  My heart should break at the sight of your need, instead of count you as a mere number, a mere statistic in the growing case count, or body count of the virus that plagues us today.  Andrew Cuomo said it right “one, is too many”.  The loss of one should send me to my knees, to wonder if I did enough, to wonder if there is anything more I could still do, to wonder how to reach out and comfort those who have felt this loss.

To love others, is to do the Word of God.  But do I love?  Or do I just talk about love?  Or has fear so crippled my heart, I love only those who live under my roof and my family who I have always learned to love?  That audience is a start, but it is not enough.  The command to love others did not start and end with my family.  Or my friends, or my work associates, or my church, or my community.  I am supposed to love the people of the entire world.  Everyone.  Just as Jesus loves everyone.  Those in jail, those who hate me, those who believe differently than I do, even those who want to kill me.  That is the word of God in summation.  So where is my heart next to that command?  And why would a sign, make me start loving, or make me love more.  A sign does none of that.  It rather reveals an emptiness in my faith, a faith that would dare to need signs, something faith should have even little time to contemplate, being too busy, doing the word of God.

Luke continues in verse 29 saying … “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. [verse 30] For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”  This is our sign of signs, that Jesus came to speak to us, to reach us, to offer us the true gift of redemption, and reformation.  What more sign would ever be needed.  It is the same message Jonah took to Nineveh once his delay with the whale was over with.  He called upon them to repent and turn to God to be spared, and they did.  Jesus calls upon us to do the same.  Not only to hear the word of God, but to do it, and find ourselves blessed in the doing.  The people of Nineveh saw no sign, nor did they ask for one.  They simply did as Jonah preached for them to do.  Shall we be that enlightened as to simply do what Jesus has asked of us to do?  Or will we, like the generation that preceded us look for signs in every world event, delaying our obedience until we reason the perfect sign has come along?  That is not the definition of obedience.  That is not submission to God, and allowing God to have sway in our hearts, teaching us how to love.  That is delay.  Delay to Jesus until “the time is right”.  That instead is the embrace of fear at the cost of inner peace and surety in Jesus.

Luke continues in verse 31 saying … “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. [verse 32] The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”  Jesus calls us out.  Like those sign seekers of old, Jesus reminds them and us, that others went to the ends of the world to find the same God, who is right here in front of our faces.  The queen of the south, sought out Solomon, to find out who the God of Solomon was.  The men of Nineveh abandoned their sins for a time, because a mere prophet told them they needed to.  And we have greater than Solomon to instruct us, we have greater than a prophet like Jonah to warn us.  We have Jesus offering us so much more.  And still our wicked hearts demand proof, in the form of signs, we would never accept as enough in any case.  Fear wears off.  Covid-19 might drive a few hearts to seek Jesus, but one day Covid-19 will be a thing of the past.  What then?  Will the survivors lose their fear, of what science (inspired by God) will finally kill and cure?  And will the loss of that fear, and the return to routine, allow those who had fear-inspired faith, to then lose that faith for lack of exercise.  If fear brings you in, fine.  But let love keep you here.  Do not just hear the word of God; be blessed in the doing of the word of God.  Or find yourself judged by those who had far less, and did far more.

Luke concludes this segment starting in verse 33 saying … “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. [verse 34] The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. [verse 35] Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. [verse 36] If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”  What do you choose to see?  How do you choose to react?  Do you seek signs ever mired in fear without them, or fear because of them.  Or as world events occur, do you choose to focus on those who need your love, and choose to react by thinking of every way you might shower them with the love you alone might be able to provide. 

Never before have we thought so highly of the heroes who keep on working in grocery stores filling shelves with the food we all knew we needed.  Their jobs are no longer just jobs.  They are now acts of love in a climate of risk and loss.  They do for others in action.  Never before have we thought of truck drivers as the heroes they have always been.  They transport the food, medicine, and supplies we all know we needed.  They do it in a climate of risk and loss.  They have families too.  They put their loved ones at risk for you, and for me. Ordinary jobs are no longer just ordinary.  Ordinary services are no longer just ordinary.  Service in this climate, is service steeped in love for others – love that would risk their lives and the lives of their families in order to serve.  There are no greater heroes than that.  Front line medical staff now serve with greater stress, greater exhaustion, and ill equipped facilities.  Front line medical staff and first responders are dying too, their families are suffering too. 

The entire world cries out, in fear, and in pain.  And many of the folks we least consider, are still serving us, throughout the fear, and throughout the loss.  They are our heroes today.  They deserve more than just our temporary gratitude and appreciation, they deserve our continued appreciation LONG after this crises has ended.  Perhaps finally we can begin to treat the janitors, the trashmen, the workers at utility companies, the workers at prisons, from the least among us to the greatest with more respect, more love, and more admiration.  THAT would be to do the word of God.  And the whole world would be blessed as a result.  These servants battle fear and loss to serve you and I, they serve us through the loss.  Can we do any less for them and still call ourselves Christian?  To love them, would be the greatest sign of Christ, this world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest sign of His soon return, the world has ever encountered.  We need nothing more than that.

 

Bunny Killer ...

It always makes me wonder, why bizarre traditions are able to last so long.  Sometimes for decades, sometimes for centuries.  Take the idea of the Easter Bunny.  It survives even today, though it dates considerably far back into the age of paganism, when fertility rights were considered quite important.  The mere symbolism of bunnies and eggs do a pretty good job representing fertility, albeit a poor one in establishing who is responsible for that fertility.  I blame power outages, stay at home orders, and/or Marvin Gate music myself 😊.  But this year, we may have finally encountered a terror so great, it could kill the bunny entirely – enter corona virus covid-19.  The news is full of it, rightly so.  And while the power remains on, and stay at home orders are still in effect, (somewhere I begin to hear Marvin Gaye’s “let’s get it on” in my head) – physical distancing may finally put the damper on traditional Easter bunny celebrations, for that matter on fertility in general if this holds out.  It occurs to me then, while the pundits argue about whether churches should meet together on Easter Sunday or not – no one seems concerned at all about the post-church Bunny/Egg celebrations at all.  Could that mean Covid-19 finally killed the bunny?  Or will Hallmark Cards and the myriad of Chocolate companies simply bide their time, and resurrect the nonsensical tradition next Easter when ideally things will be back to normal.  My vote; I’m with the dog on this one, let’s kill this bunny once and for all.  I would love to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus just once without Marvin Gaye rattling around in my head at all.

Of course, humor aside, paganism is actually not something to be trifled with.  Today in our modern world we equate old religions of pagan likeness as mere superstitions.  We enlightened beings have come to know a more real God in the form of Jesus Christ (much to His credit).  But superstition is not quite the right word to associate with pagan religions.  If you examine any one of them closely you will find common themes.  They begin with sex.  Pick any pagan religion you like, and somewhere in it, one of its major tenets will be sex, usually wild free sex, where monogamy is considered obsolete.  Violence too is never too far away.  War, or killing, or sacrifice, are usually found somewhere in the pagan vernacular.  The pagan stories will often mimic the Bible in terms of origin (virgin births, triads of power, and obedience as the method of gaining favor of the respective deities).  The lure may be the sex, but the eventual obedience to the rules is considered an absolute – when you disobey, you get punished.  Casual Christians look at this kind of thing and begin to see many parallels to Biblical themes, if not stories found in the Old Testament.  But our God is the only God who has volunteered to take on our punishment for disobedience, to forgive us before we ask, and to re-create us back into His image, if we but let Him do so.  There is a huge difference to the Christian who actually knows Jesus.

And when you think about paganism, and its lure of free sex (what do you think the bunnies and eggs are supposed to trigger in your imagination anyway), you begin to see the power that lies behind those ancient religions that had nothing to do with our Bible.  The entity all too happy to see humanity degenerate into a lust for power, control, and gratification is none other than Satan himself.  He has an entire demon army (former angels who fell when they chose his side over God’s) – who are ready to display superhuman power to us mortals if they can trick us into believing “they” are god and our real God is not important at all.  This is where the word superstition tends to fall apart.  Unfortunately for us all, demons are real, as real as you are.  So when a superior being interacts with you, it is not just a belief grounded in tradition that never bears fruit; it is a real world interaction with a world beyond your sight – and bent on your destruction.  Since the demons, and Satan, share common purpose, it is not too hard to imagine them as being part of a kingdom as well.  A totally evil kingdom, that is perhaps exactly the opposite of Jesus.  In fact the kingdom of evil that would not only kill you just to hurt God, they would kill Jesus hoping to break the heart of God.  And so they did.  And you thought covid-19 was something to worry about.  If Satan could, he would manufacture one of those corona virus’ every day, until all of humanity was wiped out.  It is only the restraining hand of our God that keeps us alive even one more breath longer.  We have real enemies.  Bigger than the virus we cannot see.  Equally invisible, and decidedly more dangerous.  And they share common purpose.  That is, to hurt God, by hurting you.

Whereas the bunny I dislike in the Easter context, is nothing more than masked symbolism.  The demons that stalk you and I are unseen, but are not content to be stagnant in some corner to just watch the seconds pass by.  They are ever around us, looking to throw temptation our way.  And more often than not, watching us succumb to temptation so often, we don’t even need the external prompts anymore.  Our slavery to sin, is real slavery.  It is why we need for the God of Israel to break our chains, set us free, and lead us away from this world of sin, into the Paradise He is making for us.  Even if we try to delay that final destination to have the time to bring others with us along the way.  Today the news reminds us we battle the virus.  But this week and its holidays should also remind us we battle unseen forces bent on our ill.  Yet another reason why our resurrected Savior is so needed in our lives.  To live in this world, and disregard Jesus, is to open pandora’s box into the evil that wants in your life.  Perhaps as much as to want to possess you entirely.  That phenomenon is not new, nor has it ever gone away.  Luke reminds us of all this in his gospel letter to his friend, regarding what we believe and why.

He picks up the story of an encounter with evil in the 11^th chapter, picking up in verse 14 saying … “And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. [verse 15] But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. [verse 16] And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.”  The state of this poor victim of demonic possession was dire.  He was unable to speak.  He was unable to cry out, or praise, or just converse.  Not because he could not, or was physically unable, or not smart enough.  He was all of those things.  But he was unable to overpower the demonic force that lived literally within him, crowding his mind, and keeping still his tongue.  This was a man or woman in great need.  Have you ever asked yourself why he was in that need?  What led that victim to become that victim?  The Bible does not give us the history, only the final state this victim was in.  But is it possible, it began with a flirtation with some form of paganism?  Perhaps it began with that lure of wild, free, sex.  And engagement became habit, and habit became addiction, and addiction was willing to do “anything” to get its fix.  All of this can happen quietly, with very few people knowing, perhaps even caring.  But the damage is real.  And the damage is not designed to happen only once, it is meant to become a vehicle of your total destruction.  He needed Jesus.  To save him from this fate, but also to protect him from its recurrence.  Is it any different with us?  Do we leave ourselves open to the same close encounters with forces unseen because our engagements become habits, that turn into addictions before we even know it.  Can we possibly look at this victim, and instead of seeing others, perhaps see ourselves (if not for grace).

Have you ever asked yourself – who is Beelzebub?  That is quite a name.  It does not sound like “the devil” or “Satan” at all.  In fact, the implication is that the demon Beelzebub is a general in the army of Satan who has the power to command all the other demons where it comes to possession or not.  How did those people in the days of Jesus know any of that?  This demon and his name only appears in the Bible in the context of this story.  It’s not like the Bible takes the time to lay out the kingdom of Satan, particularly by name, and explain who has the power to do what.  No road map like that exists – at least none in the Word of God we refer to as the Bible.  So how did all those believing Jews know any of it?  Is it possible that previous demon possession had led them to this information, as they encountered the world of demons way more often than we do.  Keep in mind paganism was not a declining religion in the days of Jesus, it was rather the MUCH bigger religion of those days.  Judaism was WAY smaller, and Christianity WAY smaller than that.  Paganism was the zenith of religions.  From the Egyptian variety, to the Assyrian, to the Bablyonian, to the Persian, to the Greek, and now to the Roman versions.  Each with common themes, each with common lures, each with the same power behind them.  The entire world of those days was not lost in mere superstitions, they were engaged more closely with Satan than perhaps any of them knew.  Are we any different?

Luke continues in verse 17 saying … “But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. [verse 18] If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. [verse 19] And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.”  Jesus clearly points out that Satan’s kingdom is united in common purpose, therefore, not at war with itself.  Satan had ZERO interest in seeing this victim freed from his prison.  Just like Pharaoh had zero interest in setting the captive nation free.  It took Jesus to set Israel free, just like it takes Jesus to free this poor victim, just like it takes Jesus to free you from your sins, let alone from the demons that surround you daily.  It is not just a virus we cannot see that we are at war with.  There are forces much darker than that, and it is Jesus alone that can keep us safe from any of them.

But in our day, we casually embrace things like tarot cards, palm readings, Ouija boards, etc.  Tools that lie close to a kingdom we should want nothing to do with.  We act like Saul seeking the lost, when we embrace the ideas of a séance – but what we conjure is no different that what Saul got – a demon masquerading as the loved one, but having only destruction in mind for the seeker.  What we consume through our eyes and our entertainment can be just as destructive.  Whether gore in horror films that exalt the power of darkness; or unabashed pornography we think no one knows we watch – there is always someone watching.  No, not Jesus, He watches us in pain, longing to take these painful things out of our lives, so we could really live.  No, I mean the dark forces that surround us, also take note of we crowd into our minds, looking to desensitize us in order to feed us more and more and more.  What passes for a horror movie just 2 decades ago is always tame by today’s standards.  Pornography continues to degenerate into fetish’s where violence, rape, and incest become central themes.  Ever ask yourself why?  Because the kingdom of Satan is never content to sit still and watch the seconds tick by.  They are engaged each second in trying to enter any door you leave open to them.  Just like that victim of old, we need Jesus.  The bunny we can live without.

Luke continues in verse 20 saying … “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. [verse 21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: [verse 22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. [verse 23] He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.”  It is not the power of Satan that is interested in freeing us from any pain we bring upon ourselves.  That power is interested only in making us even more miserable than we are today.  Leading us along a path that ends in death and plenty of misery before it.  It is rather the power of God, and His Kingdom, that is ever bent on seeing us truly live, and live forever, without the dangers of our unseen world, and without the pain we cause ourselves and those we love.  You will note Jesus specifically makes the analogy that we should not trust to our own strength, or for that matter to our own weapons as well.  It is only the power of God that can free us and keep us protected.

But there is a sad epilogue to our condition.  Luke concludes this segment picking back up in verse 24 saying … “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. [verse 25] And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. [verse 26] Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”  This is sometimes the fate we too embrace.  We turn to Jesus and are made free.  But over time, we begin to look backwards like Lot’s wife, seeking what we once knew before our freedom.  At first it is casual, innocent, nothing dangerous.  Like say an Easter bunny and some chocolate eggs.  But over time the fertility symbols we begin to seek out look more like playboy bunnies than the furry one at Easter.  No matter how innocent it seems to start, the path of evil always leads in only one direction; downwards.  It may seem slight at first.  But the incline drops off like a cliff once the bait you like has been hooked.  It may not present like sex, but it will present like something from the realms of paganism.  Perhaps it is wealth you seek, or power, or control.  Package any of it up, you still find pagan roots, and the same entity behind all of it.

I say we kill the traditional bunny; and keep our minds and hearts on Jesus and Jesus alone.  Let everything else take care of itself.  I want no part in the dark kingdom, even if only on the edges of it.

 

Good Things ...

How far would you go for a friend?  Would you help them move?  I dare say moving is one the most unpleasant tasks we collectively face.  It’s not that the destination is so horrible (though sometimes this is true), it is that the process of moving takes so much out of us.  Even if you were moving from a hovel to a mansion, I would bet you would identify all the sentimental things, and just get rid of the other stuff rather than have to move it.  So when you ask a friend for help to move, you begin to quickly know who is a fair-weather-friend, and who will be there for you in the clinches.  But in helping a friend move, you don’t really lose anything but time, and you gain sore muscles if you can count that.  What about donating a kidney for a friend?  That is a lot more personal, and you will definitely lose something.  It’s not free either and you will be a lot more sore.  Would you go so far as to test a match to see if it is even possible?  Or would you go even farther and volunteer to participate in a multiple-patient kidney donation loop, so some stranger gets your kidney, while your friend gets one from someone else they do not even know?  Those things happen.  But they happen from the most generous of souls.  And they often are driven by love of a family member.  Love of a friend … perhaps not as often.

So compared to helping someone move, or donating a kidney, giving up a few loaves of bread sounds pretty tame.  Maybe in today’s language the nearest equivalent would be giving up a few packages of toilet paper (but I digress).  Luke tells us about how Jesus describes friends and giving and parents and good things.  Luke tells us what it means in human terms we should understand.  But then he takes it further, so we can begin to contemplate what it means to get “good things” from a Father God who loves us more than life itself, even the life of His only Son.  It begins in the eleventh chapter picking up in verse 5 saying … “And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; [verse 6] For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?”  The back story here is a simple one.  Two friends live in the same town or village.  They know each other.  They have history.  But at midnight (a universal term back then for after everyone normally goes to bed, when it is dark out, and “good” folk should be sleeping) one friend receives yet another friend who has been travelling a great distance to reach him.  Most of us would likely crank out the spare sheets, point the guy at the refrigerator if he needs to snack, and send him to bed.  We could deal with his potential hunger at breakfast the next day.

But then, we forget that folks back then did not arrive by plane, and then Uber, to our door.  They arrived by foot (or maybe camel if they had money).  And the journey would have been a physical one, full of the dangers of traveling in low light, with nocturnal predators in the animal kingdom, and even worse ones of the human variety.  You garden variety criminal needs to take whatever you have, and then most want to get away with no further incident.  But your crooked Roman soldier had the power to not only take what you had with you, but imprison, or even enslave you, at the end of your encounter.  So needless to say it would have been quite a bit more stressful for the night going friend than it is for one in our day.  But praise be to God our friend has arrived safely and is quite a bit hungry.  So hungry he would like 3 full loaves of bread just to put a dent in it.  But the receiving fellow has no bread at all.  He may only bake what he needs each day, so by day’s end there is none left.  Thus the dilemma.  And why the one friend goes to his other friend in the village even though it is late at night and asks for him to “lend” him (implying this loan will be repaid so no one at his house will go hungry) the 3 loaves of bread.

Luke continues in verse 7 as Jesus keeps relaying the story saying … “And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. [verse 8] I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”  Here Jesus says under normal circumstances we don’t answer the door at midnight with someone outside asking for bread.  The kids are asleep and we don’t want to wake them (try that with cranky toddler and see what you get).  And most things could wait until the morning.  But in this case, because of the situation, the friend will get out of his bed, and give the asking fellow whatever he needs for his long distance traveler despite it being in the middle of the night.  That is friendship.  Taking a risk for a friend.  Parting with food you intended for your own kids to a friend just because he asks, even though it is to feed someone else you may not even know.  That is friendship, and trust that it might be repaid.  But even if it is not repaid, my friend has need, I have the ability to meet that need.  So I will meet it.  I wonder, is that how you and I might act in the same situation?  Or were we so comfortable with the concept of “social distancing” well before covid-19, that neither of us would ask the other for anything, especially late at night.  Instead our friendship consists only of “likes” and occasional comments of posts the other makes.

Jesus continues the theme in verse 9 saying … “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. [verse 10] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”  First let’s identify the players in this scenario.  Who do you think is the one doing the asking?  That is supposed to be you or I, right?  Then who are we asking something from?  That is supposed to be Jesus, right?  The analogy then holds true for the next set of actions.  When we seek for something we will find it.  That might turn out to be good or very bad.  Try looking to break the rules and you will usually find a way.  Try looking for drugs, and you will usually find them.  Going back to the previous friend example.  Try knocking on God’s door at midnight and what do you think is supposed to happen.  Jesus just told you.  God will swing that door wide open and meet whatever need you have in the best way our God knows how.  So when we ask, we are going to get an answer.  Could be yes, could be no, could be to wait a while, but an answer is forthcoming.  When we look for something, we are going to find it.  Better to look for good things then, because looking for bad turns this promise into a cautionary tale.  And when we find ourselves desperately in need of the Bread of Life, we can still bang on God’s door even at midnight, and expect our fix is coming.

If you read these verses and instantly start planning what you are going to do with your pending lotto winnings, you may have attributed great wealth with “good things”.  Are you so sure that is a fair equivolence?  Perhaps for you, getting great wealth would be like tying an anchor around your neck in the great wide ocean, causing you to swim frantically trying to stay afloat, all the while coming to the realization its going to take you down into the abyss.  Or if you read these same verses and instantly start thinking you have discovered the cure for every disease and can forestall death indefinitely, perhaps you come to equate life in this world as equal to “good things”.  Are you so sure it is?  We are all dying.  It is just a matter of timing, and perhaps of method.  Immortality is not something we are ready for yet.  Perhaps it is better to learn to live in each moment we have to its fullest, than to fret about how many more moments we have left in this world of pain and death.  The world we have hope in is the world we will wake up to.  That one would be worth living forever in.  And it is what God has planned for each of us.

Jesus continues His theme picking back up in verse 11 saying … “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? [verse 12] Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? [verse 13] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”  And there it is.  The fine print of this entire section on asking and receiving.  This was not intended to be an open ended gimme session from Santa Clause god (instead of Jesus).  It had a singular deliverable that is better than anything else we could ever get.  The Holy Spirit is the gift here.  The Father will give us the Holy Spirit if we but ask Him to.  If we seek the Holy Spirit we will find Him.  If we knock on the doors of heaven itself, those doors will be thrown open and the Holy Spirit will be sent to us, to meet our real needs.  Not the needs we imagine we have, but the real needs our God already knows we have need of.

If you are hungry, you may believe you have “need” of food.  But the gift of the Holy Spirit may radically alter even that perception.  How do you think Jesus survived in this world with so little food, or sleep?  Through the power of the Holy Spirit meeting bodily needs while He was looking for God and the will of God in doing what is next.  It turns out, the Holy Spirit can beat hunger, while maintaining the human body.  If you are sick, the Holy Spirit can cure you, of whatever is wrong.  But the Holy Spirit can do so much more for you than just bring an end to an illness.  He can teach you what it really means to live.  What it really means to love.  How to think differently.  How to love differently.  With a passion you have never even imagined.  Two minutes of that life, is worth ten years of this one.  If you are poor, you are doubly blessed.  Not only will your needs be met by the Holy Spirit (blessing number one), but your trust in God to ONLY provide what you need today will also grow (blessing number two).  You will learn to quit fretting about tomorrow.  Tomorrow has enough problems to worry about then.  Today is what you have.  Today is enough.

Jesus tells us if we think as parents we know how to meet the needs of our children, and we think as parents we “love” our kids – then why would we assume a God of perfect love knows less how to do it than we do?  As it turns out “good things” don’t come to those who wait – they come to those who ask Jesus for them.  And the definition of “good things” could be summed up in the gift of the Holy Spirit to us, that the Father God virtually guarantees us.  If we are to have money, let it come because the Spirit wishes us to have it – or not at all.  Whatever the will of God is, let that be what happens in our lives.  And let the Spirit be with us every single minute as it does.  I sometimes think I am not strong enough to do some particular thing.  But then my mind takes a step back and asks, whose strength am I relying on to do it?  If I am relying on my own strength to get it done, I may well be right.  But if I can learn to rely upon the strength of the Holy Spirit to do the very same thing, I may find myself pleasantly surprised.  We were never meant to conduct the war.  We were meant to fall in line behind our God and let Him bring us the victories we benefit from.  We might have once thought those victories were the “good things”.  But what we will come to know, is that it was the companionship of the Holy Spirit that was even greater than the victories themselves, that was the truly “good thing” we were ever given.  And it is there just for the asking, or the seeking, or the knocking.