Timing is Everything ...

 

What does paradise look like to you?  I imagine it might look like some perfectly white-sanded beach with a gentle breeze blowing by; nestled in some secluded place in the Caribbean.  Still others might enjoy the night sky of a well-lit city from a very high luxury suite of some 5-star hotel, with room service, and an oversized jacuzzi to enjoy the view from.  Nature bugs might enjoy an undisturbed forest of the California mountains, or the perfect desert rock formations of Utah, or the gentle mist of the Smokey mountains.  However you picture paradise to you, I imagine having someone you love there to share it with, might be the key ingredient paradise would not be complete without.  Now let’s talk about timing.  If I told you I was going to send you and your significant other to such a place for a week or two, I should imagine you would consider that very exciting news.  I know I would if someone promised it happened to me.  But there are some elements of timing that come up almost immediately.  First is excitement at the news.  I don’t have to be there yet to be excited about going.  I can be happy well in advance just from knowing someone has graciously offered to send me and my wife on such an excursion.  Just the gift part of this news is something to be excited about on its own.  Knowing it is to happen soon, another reason to be happy.

Next, I would begin to plan, and imagine, what it will be like.  I would start thinking about all the things I would want to see on my upcoming trip.  Even if all I plan to do is vege-out and spend my time eating, sleeping, and sitting in a pool somewhere, my imagination can run wild with what peace or joy this might offer me and my wife with me.  After the initial news, and the modest planning, comes the execution.  Certainly, this is the stage where we believe we will have the most fun.  In my experience, my level of fun has always been in my ability to adapt to the reality of what is.  When my expectations have been too high, or too fixed, I sometimes find myself disappointed with reality.  Nevertheless, it is the reality of the execution of our trip that provides the photos, the memories, and the time we spend in the paradise we have imagined.  Most importantly for me at least, the time in paradise with the one I love. 

Now imagine what a gift like this would mean to you if it came at the lowest point in your life.  Imagine if you were offered this trip to whatever your version of paradise was to be, when everything else in your life had gone as bad as it possibly could.  Wouldn’t the promise of the change in your near future be even more meaningful, even more joyous.  When you are at your worst, good news is sometimes even more wonderful, than when you are at your best, or distracted by so many other good things in your life, that one more good thing, is hardly noticeable from the other noise.  Luke gives us a case study in such an event.  In his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why, Luke tells us of the best news we could ever receive in our lives, coming at the worst time, and therefore being even more meaningful because it does.  Our study focuses upon the malefactor (or criminal, his crimes never specifically identified in full) that is dying upon a cross next to Jesus.  Talk about timing.  If this criminal were to be sent to Calvary only one day earlier or later, he might have missed Jesus entirely.  But for the mercy of God the Father who would wish not even a single one of us perish, this criminal went to his execution on the same day as His salvation in Jesus Christ.

And the entire gospel, the entire Bible, the entire reason for the Bible; all of this wider story is found in the experience of this one criminal who unlike his partner in crime finds that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, and instead of making fun of Jesus, or demanding that Jesus find a way to free them all from death, this criminal looks to Jesus with a humble plea of mercy for what is to come.  All of them begin to realize death is to be certain.  Jesus will not be freeing them from death.  But there is something more at stake.  Luke picks up in chapter 23 beginning in verse 42 saying … “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”  Let us examine this simple plea.  It comes at the worst time in this man’s life, when he is set to die for his crimes.  He deserves his fate, he has earned it, by all the sin upon others he has committed in his life.  He was simply caught in his sin, and justifiably sentenced for it.  Just like us.  This is us as we sit today.  We are just like this poor criminal.  Whether we have been sentenced by society to pay for our deeds or not as yet; our sin still condemns us all for what we have done.  We deserve what should be coming to each of us.  This criminal deserves NO mercy, but DESPITE what the criminal deserves, he looks upon the Lamb of God dying next to him, and begs for mercy he knows he does not deserve.  That takes a good bit of humility and audacity at the same time.  He begs the King for his life, knowing he does not deserve the mercy.

And the modern Christian likes to apply much more in his simple request than was there.  We equate this to a “death bed” confession of repentance and ask for forgiveness for what this criminal has done.  But no such words appear from this man.  He does not say that “he repents”.  Perhaps he is not sorry.  Perhaps he stole bread to keep his wife and children alive, and therefore does not regret what he did, even though it was still wrong.  Or perhaps he killed someone who threatened the life of his child, and even though he killed, he was not sorry.  We have no idea of his circumstances.  We have no idea of his heart.  And that remains the case today.  You have no idea who I am, what I have been through, what I regret with every fiber of my being, even if I never say it.  You do not know how my heart has pleaded with God for mercy for sins you may never thought me capable of.  Nor do I know you.  Only God could know either of us.  And when the journey of salvation begins, I dare say we are not so sorry for what we have done wrong.  It takes time, and the Holy Spirit to convict us, of the error of our sins, and reveal to us the pain and death they bring, not only to us, but to those we claim to love the most.  So while most Christians believe there is an implicit declaration of repentance and request for forgiveness in the words of this criminal, there were none.  And it is up to Jesus to know his heart, for none of us are capable of knowing it.

Timing is also interesting here.  There is no presumption that anything is about to happen right then.  The request is made to “remember me” when you come into your kingdom.  The kingdom is to be the final one, a kingdom that will only occur at the end of all things.  The criminal knows he will have been dead a good long time before the final judgment of the world occurs, the final separation of sheep from goats, and the beginning of heaven and our return to it begins.  Further, the criminal knows he is but a goat.  It will take the mercy of the King to change this man from goat to sheep.  It will take the mercy of our God to see him for more than he is.  To see him changed.  To see him made new, transformed.  And to be frank, there is no time for transformation here at the end of his life.  There is only time for mercy, time to plea one final time for it.  He asks Jesus to remember him, and remember him fondly, through the lens of mercy.

The modern Christian likes to believe there was faith here.  But they hate to separate the concepts of faith and doctrine or beliefs.  This criminal had time to believe in Jesus as having the power to save his soul.  He did not have time to believe in every doctrine of any particular denomination.  The views of this criminal on tithing or the Sabbath are wholly unknown.  Perhaps even non-existent.  We have no idea what his background might have been relative to baptism.  Maybe he was graced by John the Baptist earlier with a Baptism for the remission of sins.  Or maybe even better baptized by Jesus into a faith into Himself as the Messiah.  Both Jesus and John baptized in the river Jordan in recent years.  But perhaps this criminal had never even heard of the concept of baptism and had no idea what it meant or how to do it.  His plea for mercy was not based on the fulfillment of doctrine.  It was based in a raw faith in Jesus.  He had no time to learn about anything.  He was in the middle of dying for his sins.  So are we.  And we so often forget that all of our doctrines are supposed to be tools to help us find more insight into the Jesus we believe in, instead of lists of do’s and don’ts meant to grant us entry into heaven or keep us out of it.  We are all just sinners, dying in our sins, asking for mercy from the King, knowing we do not deserve it.

Don’t get me wrong, the whole point of transformation is to rid us of our sins; and it is the goal of our salvation.  A goal we can only achieve through submission of our will to Jesus Christ, who gladly offers to do this work inside of us, changing us from the inside out.  But wherever we find ourselves on the road of transformation, we are always in need of mercy from the King, and we still know we deserve none of it.  Yet we ask anyways.  And He is always faithful to provide it.  But I suppose the biggest point I would like to make in the case study doctor Luke offers us regarding this man, is that while clearly not deserving mercy of any kind, he yet asks for it, and finds it.  Luke continues in verse 43 saying … “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  And here is where timing becomes everything.  Was the criminal still alive to hear this answer?  We know he was.  Did he drop dead that very instant?  No, it would be later when the Romans would break the legs of the criminals after the death of Jesus from a broken heart, when this criminal would finally meet his earthly end.  But when was his salvation offered?  And when was it confirmed?  When Jesus spoke those words.  Even while still on the cross, even while still unworthy, even before he met his end, he was SAVED.

The criminal was destined for paradise.  Can you imagine this news came at his lowest hour, and under the worst conditions possible in his life, when fear might otherwise have wrung it from his heart.  But instead paradise was coming.  Jesus told it to him.  Jesus told it today.  He did not have to wait until some condition had been met.  He was in no position to meet any action to perform.  And Jesus did not require an oath of belief, or long list of repentance for each sin he may have committed.  Jesus offered him blanket forgiveness for his life not only up to that moment, but for the moments that would continue to the end of this man’s life.  A different kind of pardon than we imagine.  It is not our sin that keeps out of heaven, it is our sin that keeps us away from Jesus who alone can save us, and make us ready for heaven.  We are pardoned, for we are guilty and all deserving of death, none us worthy of anything else.  Our judgment has already occurred.  And we were found guilty, worthy of death.  But Jesus died in our stead.  So transformation is not about making us worthy for heaven, it is about making us worthy to live from now to forever, helping us understand what it truly means to live.  Our salvation was written upon that cross by Jesus, Savior of the world.  We need only ask for His gift, which He gladly gives, no matter what we understand about doctrines.

Transformation is His further gift to us, to free us from our sins beyond our salvation, to help us learn what it means to truly live, and live in harmony with heaven.  Transformation is not about our salvation from sin, but our freedom from sin, our freedom from wanting sin ever again, about living without the stain of sin upon us, upon our hearts and minds, but instead gone forever more.  It is only then that we can truly understand life at all.  We do not have to be perfect to be saved.  But having been saved, it is perfection we are also offered.  We may be saved in our sins, but we are never intended to remain in our sins, suffering the pain and death they bring.  And this gospel news comes today.  The moment we ask.  The moment we seek mercy from the King we find it.  And the journey of our transformation begins.  Only a faith in Jesus can begin that  So many Christians get caught up in the idea that the moment this criminal dies he is immediately transported to heaven to be with Jesus, all because Jesus uses the word today.  But that timing is simply off.  Jesus did not go to heaven that day.  We know he rested in the grave until the upcoming Sunday morning.  And even then He tarries to greet Mary Magdeline and share the gospel with her “before” He goes to heaven to see if His sacrifice has been enough to save us.  So for 3 days Jesus does not even go to heaven.

Obviously the “today” part of what Jesus said was not a literal we are going to be there today.  But instead it was a declaration of when this criminal was to be saved.  He was saved today.  His sins were forgiven today.  His journey of transformation begins today.  And even if he has no time on the journey of transformation at all, his salvation is still assured.  And even if this criminal will rest in the grave for 2000+ years waiting for the resurrection of the righteous, or whether raised with Jesus on that Sunday, as a first-fruits offering to present to God the Father, when the criminal is called back to life, he will be called back to salvation, and transformed in the twinkling of an eye from criminal to saint.  We can have absolute faith in the salvation of our Lord for each of us.  And transformation then is not our punishment, but our relief from the sins that would otherwise plague us in the life we have left to live.  And the best news of all, is that paradise is our destiny, it is coming to each of us, who have had the good sense to beg mercy from the King, even if we know we do not deserve it.

This is the summation of the entire Bible, of the entire gospel.  We need only believe in Jesus, to be saved and better than that, to be transformed by His power, into the creatures He intended us to be.  We yield our will, our desires to Him, and He transforms our inherent wickedness into righteousness, changing what we want, what we do, and how we love, into a mirror reflection of His image.  And Jesus Himself says it begins today, it is assured today, it is here for you today.  Just ask.  And today it comes.  Timing is everything.  I am excited about the paradise that is coming for me, but more concerned that I do anything and everything I can to help my wife be there at my side, and she does this for me.  And we do this for our children, and our parents, and our families, and friends, and even our enemies.  The joy of paradise was not meant only for me, but can only be enjoyed fully with those we love at our sides.  Not only our spouses but every other precious soul we come to love through the power of Jesus.  Paradise is coming, I dare say a paradise greater than any you have capacity to imagine.  For those who love a well-lit city, you have no idea how great a city is coming.  For those nature bugs, you have yet to see the gardens God hangs in this world made new.  And for those with imaginations too great to be bound to one world, there are no limits to the worlds of creation that span the universe you have yet to discover.

Shall we not learn to live now, like we would live then, in perfect harmony with our God, and in perfect love of others?  This is the gift He offers, starting now, starting today, no need to wait.  Timing is everything, so when will your timing begin? …

 

When it Comes Down to It ...

What will you choose?  Who will you serve?  When it comes down to it, when all you have left are precious fleeting moments fast fading from view, what will you choose when time is no longer a commodity?  Most of us just don’t think this way, and the evidence of our lives would show, we certainly do not live this way.  The healthy believe health will just continue for the length of our lives.  The accident free, find the idea of falling victim to an accident, an entirely foreign idea.  Those who have never lived under threat simply cannot imagine any other way of life.  But when you struggle to breath, finding yourself in a make-shift ICU ward, never having gotten around to getting vaccinated – you begin to realize that each breath is getting harder and harder to take.  The tubes put down your throat to ease your breathing prevent you from communicating just how desperate your situation is getting.  Fear begins to grow in your heart and mind.  You could die.  You may be actually dying right now.  There is no family nearby to see and sense your need.  They are not allowed in here.  You are alone.  And breathing just keeps getting harder and harder to do.  Your time is nearly up, and there is nothing you, or medical science can do about that anymore.  This is not the plight of some random patient in some forgotten hospital you never heard of.  This is the plight of so many, the Advent Health main campus in Orlando is fighting with, that the entire campus has gone code-black.

So when it comes down to it, when you don’t just see your life flashing in front of your eyes, you are struggling to take every breath slowly and painfully over what may be the last hours of your life – what will the choices of your life add up to?  Will you have the brain capacity left, enough oxygen left in your brain, to even make a choice you may never have made in your life up to now?  Welcome to the crucifixion, more pointedly, your own.  Jesus lived His life knowing this day would come, knowing these moments of struggle would come.  For Him it was not some far off fate, most of us dream will only happen in our nineties when we are ready, tired, and well prepared for it.  Nope, this fate of Jesus would be thrust on Him in His early thirties.  And as for Jesus, He would have to endure all of it, at our hands, without using any of the limitless power He had to avoid a single moment of it.  When it comes down to it, Jesus would have to go through all of it, even the loss of His own life, in order to save us.  For Jesus there would be one other wrinkle; all of Jesus’ life He could always sense the Father God with Him every moment.  But here at the end that would not be true.  Jesus must die alone, without the Father.  For the Father must turn His eyes away while His Son carries the immense weight of our sins to the ultimate punishment of our sins, in order to save us.

Jesus had never known that solitude.  He could not have imagined dying alone like He was.  When it comes down to it, would Jesus go through with it?  Luke records the saddest events of our salvation in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why picking up in the 23^rd chapter in verse 26 saying … “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.”  Simon being forced to carry the cross of Christ, was because Pilate had already beaten Jesus with 39 lashes of a whip with broken glass in the tips.  This beating ripped the flesh off of the back of Jesus so badly he nearly died from blood loss.  The pain was so excruciating He could not carry the cross for it was too much for Him.  His humanity just could not bear up under it.  So after collapsing, the Romans realized they needed a different victim to carry this cross or it would never move again.  They conscripted Simon the Cyrenian to do it for them.

None of us still drawing breath in the comfort of our living rooms, and homes, truly know what the pain level is like for someone who is headed for death in a random ICU ward, of a local hospital.  We just assume they are drugged up enough not to truly feel much of anything.  But when you are fighting to take the next breath, you need a certain amount of awareness to make that struggle.  If you are out of it entirely you may lose that fight quickly.  None of us know, what pain can be like, how extreme, or not, when set upon by accidents in a car, or stones in a kidney, or slipped discs in a spine, until or unless you have experienced one of these things.  We never plan for that.  We never anticipate it coming, knowing we must face it.  It just happens to us, all at once, out of the blue, then begins our cursing and crying it has happened at all.  Pain will sober that up quickly.  But if we were ever in that kind of extreme pain, and had the power to fix ourselves, we would not waste a second enacting that fix.  Jesus didn’t.  He could have fixed any portion of it for Himself.  He didn’t.  He endured it.  For you.  For me.

Luke continues in verse 27 saying … “And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. [verse 28] But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. [verse 29] For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. [verse 30] Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. [verse 31] For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”  It was tradition to mourn the dead (or the dying).  Often it was spectacle, without real feeling, just to make a show for those who might actually care.  But Jesus even in His depleted state, sees what is coming upon Jerusalem in the very near future.  Jesus sees its siege and ultimate destruction.  He sees mothers eating their own children to survive.  He sees the trauma of all of this, the guilt that will never go away.  He sees the victims begging for death and the peace of sleep in the grave, for life in the barren land without Jesus there anymore in person, offers just no comfort to face all this horror.  Horror that will come from the decisions these residents will make despite the warnings.

The cries for the mountains to fall on us, is often attributed to the last days of mankind, but here Jesus attributes it to the coming days of the destruction of Jerusalem.  There were warnings sent to Jerusalem before the Romans attacked it.  Warnings that begin in a message “not to rebel” against the Roman empire in the first place.  Leave politics and who runs the world up to God, stop trying to interfere with it.  Instead focus the energy of your life on loving others and that love will begin to change the world.  But as the time for Jerusalem to be destroyed got close, signs in the clouds and the sky, alerted the Christian community that the time had come.  They fled.  They left not only the city but the region, taking with them the gospel into all the world in every direction.  But not a single Christian died in the destruction of Jerusalem.  Because they heard the warnings, and took action, immediately.  Yet here we sit today, with the biggest hospital I have ever seen, on a code-black lockdown, because despite every warning, so many people refuse the vaccination that might have kept them out of the ICU, away from the ventilators, away from the pain of struggling to make that next breath, with the horrible fear it may truly be their last breath. 

These conditions in our day do not persist for lack of warning, or for lack of a way out.  They persist for the decisions people make in their health, that they foolishly believe will last them forever.  All the while venturing into public spaces, encountering so many others, risking exposure to a pandemic they refuse to acknowledge.  They care little for their own lives, and even less for the lives of others.  And for what?  When it comes down to it, do you really think lives will change, people will live differently, begin to value the lives of others even more than their own?  Why, because the fear of losing it all has finally become a reality.  No, fear is terrifying, but wears off quickly.  Transformation is what has been needed.  But no one is seeking that.  They look to be “saved” just as they are, every sin still preserved in tact, sent to heaven this way with nothing about them changed except their bodies and health.  They would prefer to be Lucifer sent back into His Kingdom unchanged by his experiences.  When it comes down to it, your time may already be past.  The residents of Jerusalem suffered, experienced the horror of a siege, and many died in the battle that destroyed the city.  If you were “lucky” enough to have survived you lived out the rest of your life as a slave taken across the world to be sold, abused, and finally killed from the hardships you would have endured.

Ignoring the signs, the warnings, and the cure – are ALWAYS done at the cost of your life, one way, or the other.  Misery loving company as much as it does, there would company at the horror of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Luke continues in verse 32 saying … “And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. [verse 33] And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”  Jesus would die between two criminals who had no choice about where they were, or how they would die.  They had been caught at their crimes, tried, and convicted.  They were going to die, no choice at all.  They would struggle for their last breaths as well.  They had lived badly.  They were sinners caught in their sins.  And now death was to be thrust upon them.  When it comes down to it, how would they die?  Suffering was certain, death was certain, but salvation was right there in between them.  They had only to reach out before it was too late.

Luke continues in verse 34 saying … “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. [verse 35] And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. [verse 36] And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, [verse 37] And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. [verse 38] And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Notice the contrast of Jesus, who even while struggling for His own final breaths thinks of us, thinks of His own persecutors asking forgiveness for those who clearly want no such thing.  Instead those He just asked forgiveness for, strip Him naked, start making fun of Him, cast lots for his clothing.  Soldier mock Him as well.  Everyone telling Him if He really is the Son of God, just prove it, come down off the cross and everyone there will believe.  That was a lie.  Everyone there already knew who He was, but could not imagine the Son of God willingly allowing Himself to be put thru torture and death.  As Jesus struggles to breathe, hate is hurled at Him.  But Pilate will have the last word in all of this, He will place a sign above Jesus to list Him as the King of the Jews whether the Sanhedrin likes it or not.  They won’t.

Luke continues in verse 39 saying … “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. [verse 40] But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? [verse 41] And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.”  One of the criminals joins in the verbal abuse of Jesus, demanding a different outcome rather than death.  But death was to be certain.  The other criminal realizes they are not going to get away, nor perhaps, should they get away.  But the second criminal realizes he is guilty, Jesus is not.  The love and forgiveness of Jesus even in this state so near to death, has reached in to this condemned man’s heart, and found him for to save him.  When it comes down to it, what will you choose?  The outcome was not to change.  The decisions these men made in how they lived before they were criminals, had gone badly.  Not because they were caught, but because they did not live rightly.  There was not much left to them.  But salvation was still there.

But rather than waiting till it comes down to it, rather than waiting till your brain may not even be strong enough to make a different choice, why not look to Jesus for salvation right now.  There is time right now, if you are able to read this, to find the transformation your life and mine so desperately need.  We can still live like Jesus would enable us to live.  We can still see the signs in the sky, read the warnings, get the help, show the love.  There is no reason for us to be caught up in the code-black make-shift versions of an ICU.  Getting the shots, wearing the masks, being mindful of the lives of others, is a far better outcome than grasping for every last breath, like these men would do in the crucifixion they faced.  But it is not death we are trying to avoid, it is life we are trying to embrace.  Living for others, for the time has come when it comes down to it.  Will you find yourself calling for mountains to end the pain of your struggle, or find yourself reaching out the salvation of Jesus who was right there in between you all the while.  If you can read this, or hear this, it is not too late.  What will you do?  Who will you serve?

 

The Mystery of Trump, Barabbas, & Covid ...

Personal freedom entitles you to be wrong.  Personal freedom entitles you to make bad decisions and do stupid things.  That is your right.  It is guaranteed to you; not by the Constitution of the United States, but by the free will that God created our species with.  You could say then it is not something the law should attempt to interfere with.  But the catch is in the word there - “personal”.  When your freedoms intersect with mine, or when mine step on yours, laws are created to temper us both.  If you chose to let’s say smoke a pack of cigarettes every day, that should be your choice.  It is a stupid decision given all the medical evidence available to show you how cigarettes will kill you.  But free will guarantees you the right to make that stupid decision.  “Where” you smoke is another matter.  Pulling out your pack of smokes in the surgical ward of a hospital is a big no-no.  Whipping them out in church is probably another no-no.  The hospital tries to make people healthier, so in the interest of that, they collectively ask you not to make your bad decisions in that place.  As for church, anything that hurts the body is generally another no-no, because they too are trying to help people get better, a healthy body is a good first step.  So when “personal” is really not so “personal”, what we do as Christians, should be about the well being of others, even if we are less concerned about our own lives.

But what happens when our “personal” choices are more subtle than cigarettes?  Not everything in life is guaranteed to kill you, or harm you outright, some things are far more insidious than that.  Take a quick look at the Taliban on that score.  The Taliban seems bent on becoming like Hezbollah at the moment.  They want to appear more “centrist”, more rational, the better of a series of bad choices.  They would like nothing more than to be recognized on the world stage as a party who is legitimately in charge, and can be negotiated with.  They want to build, become stronger, and then what?  To seed control to them in Afghanistan is no great choice.  But if the American regime folds in a day without an American military to back it up, what other choice is there; Al-Qaeda, or Isis, or traditional warlords, mostly members of one of the other more organized groups?  If the Taliban claims they will do better; what if they do better.  We may not see the damage of these choices for years to come, but when we see that damage who knows what form it will come in.  What we do now, we may regret deeply later.  But it leads us back to the idea of what other choices are there, to stay forever and make Afghanistan a defacto US province forever?  An eternal war, and over what, desert?  None of the choices are good, and we just don’t know what will come of all this, it just sets off all the spidy-senses of alarm.

So for those US citizens that blame Biden for the disaster that is, next election they will look for an alternative.  Enter Trump?  He is decidedly an alternative to every Democratic nominee, and most republicans too.  His character and misdeeds, or treatment of women, should set off all the spidy-senses of every conservative Christian in the party but somehow they don’t.  His crimes are overlooked, rationalized, and set aside – i.e. forgiven (without that ask, I would add).  How does that mystery work?  It is a personal freedom who you vote for.  You are allowed to vote for who you want.  But what motivates folks to vote for Biden or for Trump.  Biden seems rational.  He may not be, but he seems that way.  Trump is a known quantity, a whole lot like Barabbas was.  The people back in the days of Jesus knew what they were getting in Barabbas, just like we know what we get in Trump.  I am sure Barabbas was not “all bad” either.  When Barabbas murdered Romans for example, most Jews thought he was doing the right thing.  Imagine the contrast with Jesus who murdered no one, and instead said we should love everyone (including enemies like the Romans).

Barabbas stood for something.  So does Trump.  Naked self interest maybe, under the disguise of patriotism maybe?  How was Barabbas any different back in his day.  And the contrast back then was one of ideas and ideals, just like it is today.  Barabbas stood for doing it yourself, for taking control, for taking charge – Trump echoes a number of those themes.  Barabbas stood for lifting the poor man up, by putting a knife in his hand, and asking him to join the merry gang of thieves.  Trump gives us examples of same exact behavior.  Take charge, take control, be loyal to yourself, expect help from no one.  But Jesus offers a completely different model.  Jesus teaches there is no control, only God has that.  Jesus teaches absolute dependence on God for everything, we earn nothing, but are given everything.  Jesus teaches us to love each other so much, we would live serving each other, and if came down to it, to offer even our lives for each other because we love that much.  Hold nothing back.  Give everything.  Keep nothing.  That contrast of ideas and ideals is stunning, and lives on even today in our world, in our personal choices.

And the people chose back then.  Luke recounts the case study for us in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  In chapter 23 it picks up in verse 13 saying … “And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, [verse 14] Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: [verse 15] No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. [verse 16] I will therefore chastise him, and release him. [verse 17] (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)”  Pilate knows Jesus is innocent.  Herod knows it.  Neither of them wanted to kill Jesus.  So tradition allows for a single pardon during the annual feast and Pilate offers to beat Jesus (nearly to death), and then release Him back to the crowd.  The crowd knows what a beating looks like, and what it feels like, so they should have been satisfied with this.  But in the war of ideas and ideals, this is not enough.  Reason is not enough.  Logic is not enough.  Personal freedom demands its due.

Luke continues in verse 18 saying … “And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: [verse 19] (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)”  Barabbas was a known quantity.  He was a murderer, as bad as bad gets.  But at least he killed “the right people” some of the time.  He was in prison for just cause, and the people were better with him in exile.  But the people wanted him back.  Not far off from what I see regarding Trump these days.  All sins of the past forgiven (without the repentance), and all crimes committed which may have impacted us rationalized until they are not crimes at all.  This was the attitude towards Barabbas.  The difference between Barabbas and Trump, is that Trump expects this warm welcome back, Barabbas would be immeasurably stunned by it.  For it makes no sense.  Why welcome back the thing that might actually kill you?  It is like putting the Taliban in charge and hoping they will do better this time.  It is like turning the medicine designed to save us from the pestilence of Covid into some sort of warped religious test, or political test, and refusing to live to make a statement about our personal freedoms.  But none of these choices are truly personal are they?  What we choose across all of these choices will impact more than just me, or you, they impact everyone.  And the people want their own ideas, not necessarily the ones for the common good.

Luke continues in verse 20 saying … “Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. [verse 21] But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.”  When it comes down to it, people would rather crucify Jesus, than listen to Him.  They don’t want to hear the message of Jesus, they want a perverted view of the message in the Old Testament (not seeing that the real message there was not actually different than the message of Jesus).  People want vengeance masquerading as justice.  People want self-control, not submission to God.  We would rather have Barabbas than Christ, Trump than an alternative, the risk of Covid (until we get it) than a simple shot or two.  None of those choices are actually in our best interest.  But our personal freedom guarantees us the right to make them, to pick the stupid, to do the stupid, to remain stubborn in our feelings and our choices – until God is dead, and our chance at redemption killed by the very freedoms we hold so dear.  We cling to personal freedoms until all they are is our epitaph, buried in the sins we too refused to repent of.  How sad.

Pilate tries for the third and final time again to reason with this crowd as Luke picks back up in verse 22 saying … “And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. [verse 23] And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. [verse 24] And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. [verse 25] And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.”  Pilate sees what we all refuse to see.  Jesus is innocent.  His teachings would change the world for the better.  There is no evil in the teachings of Christ, even if they ask you to surrender your personal freedoms to find the salvation we should all be seeking.  This is what it means to give ourselves over to God.  It means we give away what we want, how we think, how we love.  And Jesus transforms us from the inside out, from the core of who we are.  We surrender our personal freedoms, our personal choices to Jesus because He knows better than we, what we really need, and what we should want, even if that is not something we want today.

But when we remain steadfast to our own ideas, they do on occasion win out – much to our shame, and regret.  In the war of ideas and ideals, Jesus was killed to stomp them out.  It did not work, but it does reveal how far our personal freedoms can take us, and frankly will take us, if we are unable to surrender them to the God we would otherwise try so hard to put to death within us.  The future victims of Barabbas were probably none too happy with having seen him be let go, or worse being a part of that.  The future dead from Covid who clung so hard to avoiding the vaccination will suffer from that decision and pay the ultimate price, save for those they leave behind.  We may come to regret leaving the Taliban in charge.  But if we ever put Trump in charge again, our regret will be swift, and well deserved.  But there will always be some of us who freely choose these outcomes.  In the immortal words of Pilate – “Why?”  There are alternatives, even if not easy, even if not perfect, there are alternatives.  Why pick the known outcome, when what is known is straight evil?  Why not pick the known outcome of Jesus instead?

We were created with personal freedoms, not to choose to use them to make ourselves feel better, but to choose to use them to make the lives of others better.  That is what loving others is all about.  But it cannot be love unless it is freely chosen.  Being forced to do the right thing does not make us love, it makes us robots.  And that is not what God wants.  But God also knows that since Adam and Eve chose badly, our propensity to choose evil is greater than our ability to choose rightly.  So to return to righteousness we must choose to surrender our natural propensities, our will, our freedoms back to God so that He can remake us to what He intended us to be – free from the chains of evil, and free to love as He loves. 

Being free to love others is to be truly free.  It does not come naturally anymore.  It comes only from our Savior who died to make sure we could experience it, if we chose to, through Him, and only through that mechanism.  On the other side of transformation, making bad choices that we used to want, will become even more of mystery to us than we can imagine.  When asked why, on the other side of transformation, we will have no good answer, because there is no good answer.  God forbid we find ourselves locked in our personal freedoms, and therefore locked in the sins we refuse to remit.  Time is short.  Why waste another second walking a road you don’t want to go down.  Make a gift of yourself to Jesus, and watch what Jesus does with the gift of your life in return.  That is a decision you will never regret.