Becoming Someone Else ...

Who are you?  Past all the superficial answers to that question.  Past the façade we present to others.  Down deep in the recesses of our soul, where only God truly sees, and the devil is intent to influence – who are you?  Are you happy with the answer a little introspection might reveal.  I am not.  For years I wondered about the meaning of salvation.  I had it wrong.  I had been taught that salvation was about God taking me to heaven.  But I was wrong.  Salvation is not about where I am.  It is about “who” I am.  Salvation is not about changing my surroundings, or my physique, or the length of my life.  It is about changing how I love, and who I love.  That does not need to wait for a place called heaven.  That kind of change can begin in the here and now.  As it turns out, I do not need to be saved from Satan half so much as I need to be saved from me.  I sin, not because I am influenced, but because it is what I want to do.  And I am chained to those evil desires no less than the children of Israel were chained up by Pharaoh in Egypt all those years ago.  I must be made free by Jesus, no less than they were.  My chains must be broken by Jesus no less than they.  For without Jesus, I will never be saved from who I am.

Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven is a very real thing, a very real phenomenon.  And it too, is not reserved for us only after we die and are resurrected.  It is meant to be in the here and the now.  The effects then of the Kingdom of Heaven upon who you are, are substantial, and undeniable.  It is no small matter to change your heart.  It takes the power of Jesus to do it.  Only Jesus can.  And what happens to you as you are changed is life altering, not just for you, but like ripples in a quiet pond, it reverberates out until everyone is touched by the changes made in you by Jesus.  You will truly become someone else, someone the current you can hardly recognize of the you, you used to know.  Becoming someone else, is not so much running away, as it is running towards our God.  Yet in its process, the chains that once defined who you were, fall away like distant memories you can no longer understand, or desire again.  Because the changes in you are not made by you, they are wrought by the power of the Love of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.  And who you are, is no longer who you were.

Jesus had much to say about this.  He came to save us.  Not just in the afterlife to come, but in the current life in which we live, in the here, in the now.  And the effects of salvation, of the Kingdom of Heaven, cannot be denied.  Luke records the words of Jesus on the this topic picking back up in the 13^th chapter in verse 18 saying … “Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? [verse 19] It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.”  What begins in you is a change only the size of a grain of mustard, one of the smallest seeds you can see.  But the change begun in you does not remain that size.  It grows over time.  As you submit your will and desires to Jesus, they are re-created in you.  You are taught how to love, like God loves, and to focus that love on others.  That kind of change has a profound effect.  It becomes so large, that what was once only something the size of a grain of mustard, becomes a huge tree, that even the birds of the air can rest in.  That kind of profound love for others changes not only you, it changes your surroundings, your world.  And it is undeniable, by you, or by those who come in contact with you.

But Jesus wanted to try to get these ideas into our understanding so He continues searching for another way to explain it to us.  Luke continues in verse 20 saying … “And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? [verse 21] It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”  It does not take much leaven to make a loaf of bread.  But the difference in bread with leaven, and without is markable.  You do not mistake the one, for the other.  There is a hint of the mustard seed, in the mustard tree that it becomes.  As there is a hint of bread from before it was leavened to the bread it becomes after the leaven.  Yeast has a profound effect, it changes the nature of the bread.  There is a hint of who you were, in the person Jesus longs to re-create you into.  But only the reflection of Jesus remains there throughout.  Your fitness for the society of heaven, for a society in which evil does not exist, begins with small change that grows until it is overwhelming.  Note too, that change is not instantaneous, but happens over time, and its effects are undeniable.

The question then is how does this change occur?  And can we know that the change is actually happening, or that we are only fooling ourselves into thinking it is?  The answer is Jesus.  We do not change ourselves, only Jesus can do that.  And only as we submit ourselves to Him.  That is, to give to Him, our will, our desires, even our thinking.  We trust in Jesus to do as He has promised with us.  And He does.  100% of the time.  Jesus is always faithful.  The problem with our salvation has ever been us.  My problem has ever been me.  As I think I can do this myself, I get in God’s way, wrest control of my fate from His hands, and then fail miserably.  My partnership with God, is my recipe for failure.  God does not need my help.  He needs my trust.  He needs me to sit back, hand Him control, and allow Him to do with me as He sees fit.  In His time, in His way.  I am the beneficiary of my salvation, not the active participant.  It is His gift to me, not something I must earn.  Something I simply take.  But giving God control, is much harder than it sounds.  Even for those who had Jesus in front of them, right there in person.

Luke continues picking back up in verse 22 saying … “And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. [verse 23] Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, [verse 24] Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”  And there it is, the recipe for failure.  Examine closely the words of Jesus on this topic.  There will be “many” who will seek to enter in, and will not be able.  So what is the difference between success and failure?  I answer, who is driving the car.  When I begin to think His victories in my life are actually my own victories.  When I start to think all the good in me, is a result of all my good works, deeds, and will.  I take my eyes off of Jesus.  I trust Him less, and me more.  And my failure is a certainty.  If I am to enter that strait gate, it will be because I am carried through it by Jesus Christ Himself.  I will be only the suppliant sheep, and He my great Shepherd carrying me in His arms, back into the folds of His grace.  This is the difference between success and failure, and unfortunately many of us, do not see it, nor want our salvation this way.  We want to do it ourselves, be in control, and masters of our own destiny.  And so we are, but masters of our own failure.

Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: [verse 26] Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. [verse 27] But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”  Pride begets our downfall.  The Israelites had a strong sense of pride in the ancestry of being of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  We modern Christians have a strong sense of pride, in following the teachings our various churches, all founded by men and women of great faith, put into action.  But our heritage is NOT our destiny.  When we take our eyes off of Jesus we lose.  When we put faith in our traditions, and our teachings, and even the Word of God, but absent Jesus, we lose.  It is not our past that guarantees our future.  It is not the strength of our deeds, or our self-proclaimed obedience to the Word, that can insure our salvation.  For there is no obedience in deed, that does not first begin in motive, in thinking, and in a foundation of loving others as God loves others.  Even dining with Jesus Himself, and hearing His words and sermons, is not the same as trusting Him to save you, or giving yourself completely to Him.  Association is not enough to save you.  Submission to Jesus is, and trust He alone will do, what He has promised.  The ancient Israelite and modern Christian, put too much stock in where they come from, and who they think they have made themselves already.  Jesus says, I know not whence you are, or where you come from.  But it is not of Me, as the sin in your life, remains a testimony to.

He continues in verse 28 saying … “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. [verse 29] And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. [verse 30] And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.”  The ones of us who believe we “should” be there, by right, or by deed, or by our self-sacrifice – are likely to be found cast out.  Abraham, and the prophets, knew their place in the salvation of their own souls.  They came to trust God to make them, into who they were supposed to be.  And Jesus did make them, and remake them.  It is trust in Jesus that is the key to our salvation.  Trust in His salvation, of re-creating who we are to who He wishes us to become.  Too many ancient Israelites, and modern Christians do not hold to this view.  And so are doomed to find themselves cast out with gnashing of teeth and great sorrow as only then they will realize it is too late.

And instead of Israelites who believed bloodline would save them, will enter into the Kingdom of God, races of Gentiles from all four corners of the globe, who have come to see Jesus as their only means of escape from who they have become.  And modern Christians will be dismayed to see prostitutes, and abortionists, drug addicts, and homosexuals, all find solace in the Jesus who forgives and remakes and recreates them into a perfection that cannot be matched.  While Christians who believe they have “lesser” sins find out that any sin, is too great to find admittance into heaven, for love of self is at the root of every sin.  It was love of self, that turned Lucifer into Satan, and that same evolution would have the same result for any being who embraces the love of self at the great dismay of our God.  There is no comparative holiness, nor wickedness.  There is only those who through Jesus have found a love of others.  And those (no matter the reason) who have not.

If I am to be saved, it will be Jesus who has saved me, or I will perish.  If you are to be saved, it will be Jesus alone who will save you, or you too will perish.  And there is hope too in the same words of Jesus.  Hope for me.  For where I should be last in the kingdom of God, Jesus may make me first in line, as He begins His process of re-creation in this world, in the here, and in the now.  Waiting is a sucker’s game.  For it is in the transformation that Jesus longs to bring to us, that we find real joy, real bliss, real peace that the world cannot take away.  To want to wait to see that, is a foolishness beyond reason.  I am not perfect.  I may never reach perfection before I enter the grave.  But the closer Jesus brings me to His love, is the closer I see what heaven was meant to be.  And the more I come to trust in Him, to see me there, and see me fit for that society.  I ask again, who are you?  And are you happy with your answer?  It can get so much better than it is.  Look to Jesus and experience it for yourself.

 

The Good Fortune of Others ...

Cancer still kills.  On the 29^th of May, my wife took our dog Oscar to the vet to see what could be done to help a pain he had developed in his leg.  Oscar never came home again.  It was not just some ordinary ache or pain, or even a case of treatable arthritis.  Instead it was the same aggressive cancer that killed his sister Layla only a few months ago.  It seems Oscar had it as well, for perhaps even a longer period of time, he simply had a higher tolerance for pain, so we never knew.  We were not prepared for this loss.  As is often the case, death comes and interrupts, what you were thinking.  And we did not lose Oscar without prayer, I had been praying for him since his sister got sick, never knowing just how much he needed that prayer, and was being sustained by it.  But cancer still kills.  And I have lost more than just a family pet, I have lost a nurse dog who stood beside me, and leaned against me anytime I was too shaky to attempt standing.  He would steady me as I moved.  One of the side effects of my medication is a shaky short-term memory, so when I would forget to take my medicine, Oscar would come and remind me.  He only did that when I needed it.  Otherwise he was content to sit on my feet while I work, even closer when it rained.  My dogs were very obedient, even learning to go to the bathroom on command.  They were full of love, and were fierce protectors of my family.  I cannot imagine life without them, and so will be looking to reclaim them once again in a Kingdom yet to come.

For now, while my life yet goes on, I will begin my search for another Akita breeder and hope I can do as well despite my doubt that will ever be possible.  These two have set the bar quite high.  It is somewhat ironic that my wife spends her career helping those with cancer.  It is her passion, even if there is no way to translate it to the animals in our circle.  Very often she brings home the need of a given patient and their family for prayer, as science has only been able to go so far.  And cancer still kills.  So we pray for them.  I seldom know their names, as HIPPA must be maintained.  But she knows them, and God knows them.  What I know, is that “horse lady” is in full remission.  But a “young man” recently died, an atheist his whole life, until a series of encounters with a few Christians including “horse lady” as they both got treatment.  There will be a star in her crown, even if she does not know it.  The “young man” came to know Jesus before the end took him.  “Frank” who chose to tell me his name, believes in God so strongly that he prefers to live on prayer, even more than treatment.  Much to the frustration of his Hindu cancer doctor.  But Frank still lives.

And it occurs to me, not all my prayers are answered.  As not all the prayers of those in that cancer treatment center are answered as they asked them.  And I wonder, do the families of those who have suffered loss, take great joy in those who still remain?  Or does our own loss so cast shade in our hearts, that the blessings of others are not cause for celebration, but only of mystery.  Why them, why not all?  Can we truly find joy in the good fortune of others, or is our joy constricted only to the good fortune poured out upon us?  For me, it brings me extreme comfort to know the blessing of remission for the “horse lady” my wife is so fond of.  And amazement with even greater joy, to know that Frank lives what he believes even against the advice of medical science.  That could not have been an easy decision for him or his family.  It could still go south, but then, it already could have gone south.  So each day that Frank lives, is a testimony to the love of God for a man I have never met.  And Frank’s life will lift up my faith, no matter the outcome, it already has.  It continues to, and I will continue to pray for him, because he needs it, as do I.

I wonder then, if it is different for you, if you are young enough, or blessed enough, not to have suffered many losses so far.  In those instances, I wonder if the good fortune of others, is something you take great joy in or not?  I fear sometimes we are so busy, that what joy our neighbor experiences never even touches our doorstep.  We post a like on Facebook, and continue to scroll.  In real life, our neighbor is not someone we socialize with, and so hear their happy and sad stories only on rare occasions.  But you would think the church might be the one place where the joy and the sadness come together for the sharing with the rest of the body of Christ.  I don’t think it is.  We have very structured worship services.  We ask for participation in the joy, and offer no venue for the sadness.  We do hold the funerals from time to time, so the ultimate loss might be shared.  But prior to that it is made of prayer requests, and brief 30 second explanations of what might be profound struggles we deal with.  My wife is terrified that without Oscar I am going to wind up falling through our glass tables, or will continually forget my medicine being distracted by work at home.  Those are real fears for her.  But the church as it sits, is not the place for her to share them.  It would take a weaving of personal conversations there with people who take a personal interest, otherwise she might come and go, and no one be the wiser.

That is how the modern church is today.  We ask for believers to come and share their joy.  To participate in worship music.  To try to get a sense of the positive from having gone to church.  We mask the sadness, and ignore it.  And then we wonder why people lose interest in coming.  Does church offer a place to meet the need?  What if your problem is ongoing?  What if you are struck down by inabilities that shape the very fortunes of your life?  Luke in chapter thirteen of his gospel letter to this friend Theophilus about what we believe and why tells of a woman who suffered for 18 long years without the ability to fully extend her body.  She was perpetually hunched over, severely.  Yet she still struggled to go to synagogue every week.  She sought God.  Even if the church, governed by the iron hand of men, was not a friendly venue for a woman to find God.  Even if her fortunes were judged as punishment for her vast sins, by an angry God.  She was at best a cautionary tale.  A horror story parents told their children would happen to them, if they did not obey.  But that was not true.  And Jesus had something to say about the image of an angry God, and the insensitivities of men who thought they ruled the church which He founded.

Luke picks up in verse 10 saying … “And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.”  You will note, the failure of the church both then and now, does not prevent our Lord from going to meet us at church on His Holy Day.  This is yet another of the many texts that show Jesus attending church on the Seventh Day Sabbath He ordained for such joyous occasions.  Not only attending, but teaching, the true image of His Father and our Father God.  Imagine what it must have been like to hear the Truth of God right in front of your eyes and ears.  Way better than any worship music.  Way better than offering calls, and children’s stories, and a regimen that does not have the time for an individual.  When Jesus spoke, He spoke right to your heart.  He cut through the noise of life’s distractions and reminded you what Love was.  He reminded you why you were not only worth saving to God, but that God had made it His number one mission to save you, despite anything you encountered in life. 

Your fortunes are not governed by disease, or bad luck, or natural consequence.  They are a tapestry, woven together, to save you as well as everyone you encounter.  My wife told me how much her “young man” hated God when he entered that cancer treatment area of the hospital.  He encountered other patients, some of them Christian who died before he did.  But what they said lived on in his ears, and their lives became a celebration in his own heart.  They did not pass without meaning, but instead their passing offered him a greater perspective on the next life possible with a loving God.  It was only then that his encounters with the “horse lady” would seal the deal.  And now his own life remains a testimony to the all the medical staff who knew him, touching their hearts and lives, and standing as a firm candle to the light of God.  I wish our churches had time for sharing like this with each other, beyond the greetings of hello and goodbye, but real time to listen, and comfort, and pray.  That kind of real sharing might do more than rekindle interest in going to church on Sabbath, it might change the body entirely for the better.

Luke continues in verse 11 saying … “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. [verse 12] And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. [verse 13] And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”  Hold the phone.  Stop the sermon.  Interrupt everything.  Through the crowds that gather, in the very back of the synagogue in the places set aside for the women, (so that they do not disturb the men, because it is only the men who matter), is a woman unable to straighten herself up.  You do not see her head bobbing up and down with all the others.  Instead you catch a glimpse of it at waist or knee level of the others, intently listening, but unable to move well.  And she had been like this for 18 years.  But this was not a genetic disease.  It was an actual demon inhabiting her and causing her great misery.  This demon thought if her misery was high enough and struggle hard enough she would not even try to go to church.  But she did.  And this week she was hearing about the Love of God in words so clear, they cut her like a knife.

But then the unexpected happened.  Jesus stopped everything, and called to her.  Just His voice, gave her strength she had never known.  She obeyed without question and went to Him.  And He told her, “Woman, that art loosed”.  With that, the demon was sent spiraling out of this church and far far away.  The woman remained, but the years of damage to her body had now taken their toll.  So Jesus reaches out and puts His hands upon her.  He helps her up, and His creative energy flows through her, correcting bone, muscle, and joint.  She is restored to what she was intended to be.  This is the testimony of salvation for us all.  First to rid us of the devil in us.  To take the burden of sins from us and loose those chains that bind us.  Then to restore what has been made deformed over so many years.  To restore us to what He intends for us to be.  That is the very nature of salvation.  And when you finally allow yourself to experience it, through the submission of your will to Jesus, you will explode, like this woman exploded, no longer silent, but glorifying God for all to hear.  Her joy could not be contained.  It could not be pushed back into the rear of the building and muffled so as not to disturb the men.  It was right there in center court, loud for all to hear, and God was lifted up in praise that could not be denied, for she had been saved in spirit, heart, and body.

All of this in the middle of church, in the middle of church service.  Jesus made time for this woman’s grief and sadness.  He stopped teaching to demonstrate healing.  The needs of the one sheep, the least sheep in the flock, became more important to him, than the other 99.  Jesus wants the full 100 to be restored.  But alas, the elders who value tradition, reverence, and rules, did not share in the good fortunes of this woman.  They did not join her praise to God, but rather became angry at all this flaunting of so many years of established tradition and male dominance.  Luke continues in verse 14 saying … “And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.”  How many times have I heard that.  How many times has true “ministry” been criticized because it dared to be seen on Sabbath in His church.  True “ministry” looks too much like real work.  Why not wait till the other six days of the week to conduct it.  Why attempt it when Jesus is there in the building.  And today we make “work” our excuse not to minister, so that we can hurry up and leave to go to the nearest restaurant where we have no problem being served by those who would benefit from time away with our God.  But this leader of the synagogue not only did not share in the good fortune of this woman, he actively condemned it, and condemned Jesus for creating it.

Jesus responds in verse 15 saying … “The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? [verse 16] And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? [verse 17] And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.”  Jesus knows it is “work” to feed the livestock, but he also knows it is work that cannot skip a day.  It is ministering work that reflects a love for our animals.  I never actually thought it was work to take care of my dogs.  Oscar was so close in my heart, he was like another child, with special needs and rewards that only he could offer.  His hunger was never something to be categorized as work to me, it was only hunger, and needed to be addressed.  And his love for me was never in question.  People sometimes have a hard time loving others like that, myself included.  But Jesus was making a greater point.

Why did this woman suffer in this synagogue for 18 years, instead of only 1 week?  Why didn’t the leaders of this church lay hands upon her, and call for Father God to heal her, and drive out the demon within her?  They did not, because they cared not.  Women were just not that important to begin with.  These leaders were too timid to publicly demonstrate their lack of faith, never believing it was even possible.  And they did not visit her on the other six days they recommended for this kind of work either.  No, instead they were content to let her suffer and blame her for her suffering.  Has anything changed?  If God is supposed to be praised in our services, don’t you think we could offer those in need, and those who are suffering a reason to experience new joy.  Why instead do we mask their suffering, and pretend it should not exist.  Why not uncover their suffering, and offer the healing ministry of Jesus Christ to see it removed, once and for all.  Isn’t that what church is supposed to be all about?  If you want to see explosive joy today, get off your butt, and interact with God, to bring Jesus into the life of the suffering, so that they have reason to explode in praise to God.  When Jesus pointed these things out to the leaders there, they were ashamed.  As should we be.  If we are content to see the suffering, continue to suffer, we should also be ashamed.  For we know the cure, we know the medicine, it is Jesus Christ and Him alone.

But there is hope.  For the believers who knew this woman, and attended church with her, shared in her joy.  And they too began to praise God.  An act of Love as demonstrated by God Himself, to interrupt even church for the sake of one in need, touched the hearts of those in attendance.  News of it would spread far and wide.  Relieving suffering was even more important to God, than delivering His own sermon and Truth.  He could take the time out to see suffering relieved.  The sermon would be waiting till He was finished changing lives.  That was the priority of the Son of God, and His Father, and His Holy Spirit.  Why is it not ours?  Why do we so value and treasure structure in church, that we make no time for those in real need.  If we cannot demonstrate the love of Jesus in real time, to real people, we are nothing more than noise.  We need to adjust how we think about church.  We need to adjust our ideas about why people praise, and become more active in giving them reason to.  Let our own tapestry make more of a difference.  And as my wife reminds me, take joy in the lives of others, even when you have suffered loss in your own.  The families of patients who have passed on, still celebrate the lives of those who have not.  Those families have suffered horrific loss, yet they can share joy with others who have not.  Not all of them Christian.  So should we do any less?  Would that in church we grieved more together, and then sought the Lord to relieve our grief, until we have reason for overwhelming joy.  It has happened before.  It will happen again.

 

A Hard Truth ...

Is hate systemic?  If so, must it then be found in each of us?  Oh no, we recoil, not in me, surely not in me.  I do not hate any man or woman.  But then, how do I treat any man or woman?  Do I offer more than I expect.  Do I offer anything without expectation.  In times of great personal stress, do I put away my own feelings, and tend to the feelings of others?  Or as is considered normal, do I look to my own house before looking anywhere outside.  Do I focus on the needs of myself, and my family, before I ever consider the needs of another.  And in so doing, my lack of concern, whether based in apathy, or dislike, begins to show in how I treat another.  Not long ago, a man died in our country.  Not because there was need.  But because there was a lack of concern for him as a person.  Reckless apathy.  Blind apathy.  And though these events took place in public, no one else stepped in to intercede.  Think about that for a moment.  Other well-trained police officers who all knew this was wrong in real time did not intervene, and change the outcome for our brother.  But then, the public gathered there, chose to film this, instead of putting themselves in harm’s way to change the outcome as well.  Film over risk.  Words over deeds.  Then descends the endless parade of high-profile attorneys, and media consultants, who claim they only seek justice for George – when underneath, they seek a percentage of massive law suits against the wrong doers.  And the family who has suffered unspeakable loss, is now in the care of those who prolong that loss, feed off of it, put it in the public’s eye, and take their cut of what follows.  So those who suffer most, suffer longest.

Enter the news media.  CNN moves from a daily coverage of the worst pandemic in modern history, to a non-stop barrage of the injustice of what happened to George.  They claim only to want justice and change, but that is an empty claim when measured against ratings.  And when those in our society who crave attention, and themselves care little for George or his family, see what they might be able to do, they insert themselves in peaceful demonstrations and create violence where none should exist.  Looting starts, and the desire for change is now corrupted by those who care little for anything more than themselves under a masquerade of “no justice, no peace”.  And the media covers every detail of the violence as if that is all that matters.  They show it live.  They interview everyone.  They bring in opinion personalities, to talk about it.  And in the end, they do nothing but stoke it.  For violence brings even greater ratings than injustice.  And no network is immune.  And a family who looks for the comfort of change, becomes mired in the outbreak of violence, as if they ever wanted any association with violence.  Still the call for change continues.

But here is where a hard truth begins to emerge; what must change is not the behavior of others, but how I love others.  What must change is not the Minnesota police department, that is but a drop in the bucket.  All the police officers in this country are but a drop in the bucket.  What needs to change are the hearts of the people of this country, and of every country.  Hearts that would hold out one race over another; one sex, or orientation over another; one religion or creed over another.  It is not “white” supremacy that needs to be abolished in our thinking – it is “supremacy” – period.  There are none of us superior or inferior to any other human on the planet.  Money does not tip the scale.  Intelligence does not tip it.  Even an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ does not make us better than anyone else, in fact it teaches us to be the servants of everyone else; them first, us last.  This truth is hard, because in ways we don’t like to talk about, we all like to feel superior.  And inevitably that superiority makes us separate from the others we then look down upon.  Even Christians are far from servants, instead holding themselves out to be different, but with hearts that have never met Jesus, and never submitted to His changing Love.  But our problem is not just a racial divide, it is an internal war for the soul of who we are to be.

The end of that war within us can only begin with repentance.  Jesus spoke to this very idea.  And do not justify yourself because the deeds of another seem worse to you.  Do not think that the greater sins of that policeman in Minnesota wash your heart and hands clean, from the apathy you maintain, from the superiority you continue to feel, or from the treatment you show to any man or woman.  The self you hold highest in your own estimation, who stares back at you from the mirrors in your home, is what needs most in this nation and time of need to change completely.  The goal of this transformation is not to make you clean in my eyes, or the eyes of any man, even you.  But to cleanse you, and change you, according to the good will of God the Father, through Jesus Christ, enabled by the Holy Spirit.  Your suffering will not be relieved by lawyers, or news media, or even the sympathy of protestors.  Your own suffering can only be relieved by the Jesus who knows your pain, and can make it less, and take it away.  Jesus can keep you from making your own suffering worse.  Only Jesus can do that.  Luke opens his thirteenth chapter with these very ideas.

Picking up in verse 1 it begins … “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.”  Talk about governmental over-reach.  Talk about the degradation to which superiority complexes and absolute power can take us to.  Governor Pilate, a Roman, thought it of no consequence, to slaughter Jewish people, and mix their own blood in with traditional Jewish sacrifices performed at the Temple.  And there were no demonstrations, or riots, held in protest.  There was only silent anger in response.  Because the power of Rome was absolute, and to protest would find your own blood mixed in there next.  There was also no respect for the God of the Jews, who considered human sacrifice an abomination above all others.  Yet their traditions and their God was to be mocked by Pilate openly in defiance of they as a people.  Jews thought themselves better than Romans because of their God.  But Romans were sure they were better than dirty Jews.  And a hatred is born that carries forward all the way in to modern times.  Until in Germany that hatred is amplified and propelled even further into the modern age.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? [verse 3] I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. [verse 4] Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? [verse 5] I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”  The thinking in the time of Christ, was that only the worst of sinners found themselves the victims of such heinous crimes, or horrible accidents.  The thinking was that these crimes and accidents and tragedies were all punishments from an angry God.  But by that logic, it is Pilate that should have been punished.  He wasn’t.  Or the Romans at large who were decidedly pagan and had little interest in the God of the Jews.  They were not punished by God, instead they were the conquerors of the entire then known world.  And they stayed that way for centuries.  So if God was the one doling out the punishments for our sins, they would have been first in line.  They were not.

But Jesus does more than bust the myth that our God is up in heaven angry with our misdeeds, and handing out our punishments.  He takes it further.  Jesus says to all listening; unless you repent, you will all suffer a horrific death that none can escape.  Now some will argue, that not everybody listening was going to wind up being slaughtered by Pilate and having their blood mixed in with sacrifices.  Or for that matter being crushed by a tower that collapsed in the city of Jerusalem.  But horrific death does not have only two forms of expression.  George proves that, watch the video, if you can stomach it.  That was horrific.  All death is in fact horrific.  And the second death which will be the only real death that God will hand out, will happen with fire, at the end of all things, when nothing touched by evil will remain in the world to come.  That death above all others is horrific.  And without repentance will come as inevitably as the punishments we inflict on ourselves from our own sin comes today. 

But that is the point, there is no one group of sinners worse than another.  In sin, as in life, we are all equals.  The porn-addicted masturbaters, are the same as the adulterers, are the same as the pedophiles, are the same as animal abusers, are the same as the homosexuals in the eyes of God – all perverting the gift of intimate sexual expression, into a me first – everyone else last, point of view.  And for those within the modern church, there are a ton more sexual sins than just the focus on homosexuality as if it were the only one.  But that is the point, not one over another, but all equal with each other.  And all in need of the healing, restoration, and change only submission to Jesus can ever bring about.  It is not left for us to judge each other, or anyone else.  It is left for us to find healing through a constant focus on Jesus Christ.  It is up to Jesus what to do with my sinning brother or sister, not up to me.  It is my job only to love them, and lift them up in prayer, as I hope they lift me up in prayer as well.  And it may be that it takes heaven itself to purge me of my sin, if so, I trust Jesus in that as well.  But it is only in looking to Jesus that my salvation will ever come.  For there are a great deal more sins, and self-love expressed, than just within the topical boundaries of sex.  George proves that as well.  We murder when we care so little for others.

Luke continues in verse 6 saying … “He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. [verse 7] Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? [verse 8] And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: [verse 9] And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”  We are the fig tree.  Jesus is the gardener.  Society is the owner of this vineyard.  Society comes looking for what it is owed.  When it does not get it.  It become impatient and wants to cut the loss, and get rid of us.  But Jesus says, no, lets wait and let Me tend to the tree.  Let Me fertilize it, and trim it, prune it, and tend to it, for just another year.  If after that, it still bears no fruit, then you can cut it down.  Jesus hopes to save that fig tree.  The Father God delays His second coming, just so that there may be time to yet save that fig tree (which is you and I).  But time is not without end.  And fruit matters.  If we refuse to allow Jesus to change who we are from the inside out, we are then only varying degrees of the police officer who refuses to hear the pleas of a dying man.

But the point of this parable was not for us to foresee our own doom, it was for us to accept the way of salvation from that doom.  Jesus looks to rid us of our sin in the here and now.  Not just forgive it, but take it away.  Change the motives within us that drive us to it.  Change our desires.  Change who we are.  And ultimately change how we love others, and put aside ourselves.  It is that where salvation is ultimately based.  The question remains, will you accept it?  Or will you keep pushing it away?  There are so many of us, even Christians, who believe we are already “good enough”.  We believe our association with Jesus makes us “good enough”.  But then we find ourselves with our own knee on the figurative neck of another and we are deaf to their pleas, blind to their need, and willing to stay put until all their cries are silenced forever.  I would be willing to bet, that police officer thought himself as well to be “good enough”.  But the loss of George proves that to be in error.  George now rests in the Lord.  But it is not too late for the policeman, as it is not too late for you, or for me.  What will we do with the invitation of our Lord?  Will we ignore it as we so often have done or will we let Jesus overcome us, until the world can barely recognize who we are, and see only the imprint of Jesus in our hearts that so desperately need change.  I will never be “good enough” until my Lord can safely say welcome home.  I want my heart to look just like His