Treasure Hunter ...

Every so often a story will come out in the news about a Treasure Hunter who has made some marvelous discovery.  Most of it is cleaning up after pirates, or chasing down some nefarious Hitler lead.  But in the end the idea of finding some long-lost treasure has an appeal to most all of us.  Kids get inspired and begin to dig holes in the backyard, hoping to hit oil like the Clampets (of Beverly Hills), or find pirate booty.  Going to the beach, we see the periodic eternal optimists holding one of those metal detection devices, scanning the sands looking for some hunk of gold that washed up since the day before, but is now buried just a few inches down, right there for the taking.  Free stuff sounds good.  Valuable free stuff sounds better.  Something for nothing even better than that.  But for every kid with an intense imagination, there is a zoning law that would prevent them from drilling oil wells in the backyard.  For every treasure hunter there are international laws that attempt to return lost or stolen items to their historical owner (or historical governments failing that).  Actually finding treasure, and keeping it, is perhaps the rarest of all stories.

So why did Jesus say it is something we could all be?  Oh Jesus had a different name for it, but the meaning was clear as crystal in comparing it to treasure hunting in our day.  Perhaps a little back story is warranted.  Jesus has been telling parables (stories) about the nature of growth in spiritual things.  His allegories are about a Farmer planting seeds, and what happens in that process all around.  But now Jesus begins to shift gears.  He begins to start telling more parables, but this time focused more from the perspective of the seed, that is us, instead from the process overall.  The first one emerges in the gospel of Matthew picking up in verse 44 saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”  Treasure hunter.

In this case, there is some form of ancient pirate booty (had to have been Assyrian, Philistine, Babylonian, or Egyptian pirates to have historical accuracy in those days), that is buried in some random piece of land.  Our hero had to have been searching for something, or perhaps he was just one of the luckiest guys around, and has stumbled upon the buried treasure.  But instead of just taking it with him, perhaps it was more than he thought he would be able to carry, or perhaps he wanted clear title of ownership to the treasure – he goes and sells everything else he owns, to buy the field where this thing is, and have ownership of the treasure he has discovered.  Voila!  He is now the best treasure hunter of ancient days.  But what is the point of this spiritually?  Now comes the real treasure hunting, for us.

While you consider what the meaning of that parable might be in terms of salvation (keep in mind this is Jesus telling them).  Lets take a look at a second story similar in nature that follows it in verse 45 where Jesus continues saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: [verse 46] Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”  Business Treasure Hunter.  This guy is a merchant by trade, a jeweler to be specific, a specialist in pearls to be more specific than that.  This guy is far from just some hapless schmoe who stumbles across buried treasure in a random field.  This second hero is a merchant looking for something very specific, and he finds it.  After much searching, perhaps searching for his entire life to that point, he comes across a single pearl that he believes is worth more than every other pearl on planet earth.  The current owner must be aware of its value to at least some extent, because while it is for sale, it is also a something that costs “a great price”.

But the merchant is undeterred by the high asking price.  He goes and sells everything else he has to buy this single pearl.  In this sense he is exactly like the hero from the first story, they both are gladly willing to sell everything else they have to get the treasure they have discovered.  They both hold nothing back.  Neither of them seem to haggle over price, they both think they are getting the far better end of their respective deals.  So I ask again, what is the importance of these stories where it comes to our spiritual understanding.  First, good thing these are parables.  We all know the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be bought by our wealth.  But we also know the model for the early Christian church was for a new member to go and sell everything they had, bringing the wealth of the sales back to the church and giving it everything they owned.  Then the church took care of their needs as they arose.  Continued labors were also deposited into church coffers (not just 10 percent tithe), but 100% of whatever was earned.

But I do not think these stories were told, just to get Christians to begin thinking differently about how to operate Jesus’ church once He left planet earth.  Something deeper was meant for us.  Perhaps that something was in how “we” would feel about the discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven.  That discovery happens here and now, not just after death.  The benefits we derive happen here and now, just as soon as we obtain the treasure of great price – not just later in our estate handed down to our children.  There is an immediacy to the benefit of our transformation.  Living without the pain sin causes, is living in a much better way.  Comparatively, this is living with buried treasure, or perfected treasure, like none other the world has to offer.  This is not about living a dull, boring, downtrodden life – where everything fun has been taken away.  This is about living a vibrant life.  This is about having a treasure you can find now, that is truly a treasure, something worth more than anything else – and YOU are the one who feels that way.

But not every great feeling, comes from a great place.  While these stories reveal how wonderful we feel about the discovery of the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven – those feelings of transformation away from sin are in fact the treasure.  The short term high of engaging in sin is by far not the same thing.  But some folks ignore the pain of sin, and just keep engaging in it more, hoping things will get better.  They don’t.  Jesus addressed this kind of discernment about the good from the bad picking up in verse 47 with another parable saying … “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: [verse 48] Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”  Forgiveness is not a license to sin.  Forgiveness is meant to heal, not to continue the disease, even unto death.  Instead of treating forgiveness like a baseline to restore us back to God, some of us treat it like a get-out-of-jail-free card that will allow us to sin without worrying about ever paying the cost of our sins.  In so doing we mask the pain of sin, instead of uncovering it.  We ignore what sin does to others, keeping ourselves blind to the pain of others, in order to try to keep ourselves happy.

This kind of attempt to feel good about the Kingdom of Heaven, to use forgiveness as a weapon to do bad, winds up leaving us un-transformed, and not in harmony with the Law or will of God.  And if this condition is not changed, it will put us on the bad side of the evaluation at the end of all things. As Jesus continues picking up in verse 49 saying … “So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, [verse 50] And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”  The wicked, believe themselves to be within the Kingdom of Heaven, after all they were scooped up in the net just like the righteous were.  The difference between the two, is that the righteous do not want to “do” good, they want to “be” good.”  The wicked want to do only that which makes them happy.  When the wicked do good, it is for points, for credit, for appreciation.  The wicked do good, in order to satisfy the list Jesus created – visit the poor, sick, imprisoned.  Once the wicked check these things off their list, they go back to the lives they want to live.

It is the heart of the righteous that breaks when they suffer with the poor, relate to those imprisoned, feel the tragedy of the sick in our world.  The righteous shed tears they cannot control, because they know whatever they have done to alleviate suffering is so little compared to the need.  The righteous ache to see those in need, have their needs met, on whatever level it is.  They love like the heart of Christ loves.  It is not fake.  It is genuine, because the transformation of their lives is genuine.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth is done by the righteous in this world because of the heartbreak that sin causes.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth is done by the wicked at the end of this world, because they have finally gotten caught, and can see their time to please self is at an end.

Jesus continues in verse 51 saying … “Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.”  Jesus asks the disciples do you understand, as He asks that question to us today.  The disciples answered yes.  I am not as confident.  While taking a second look at these simple parables might reveal a point from a different perspective, that is hardly the end of truth, or the complete picture of it.  It is the luckiest hapless hero on earth scenario, stumbling across the treasure of so great a value and a price.  It will cost all of me, that is, the entirety of who I am.  I will be someone different when my transformation is done at the hand of my Creator, in the here and now, and after death if I taste it.  But the value of my transformation will be worth more than any pearl, or any pirate booty.  This is the Truth of what Jesus Christ offers.  But then Jesus makes a promise that gives me hope.

Jesus continues in verse 52 saying … “Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”  Treasure Hunter.  You and I, the modern scribes who are instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven are householders (i.e. Treasure Hunters).  We bring forth treasure, things old and new, from our search of the scriptures and the Word and will of God.  Different perspectives bring forth additional context, additional insights, additional understanding.  No one of us has it all.  Each of us has something to add.  Treasure Hunters.  As we all submit to Jesus before asking to be led in His words, we find more to know, more to share, and insight from each other as we get insight directly from Him.  In this, if it costs us all, it is worth it.  In this, if it totally changes who we are, and how we love, it is worth it.  Anything Jesus offers us is worth it.  Nothing else, is worth holding on to.  Sin is the disease we so long to see cured, in the world, and in our own hearts.  We are getting the better end of this arrangement by far, it is worth more than anything else we will ever own or aspire to own.  This is treasure we get to keep, and transformation that turns us into treasure for others.

 

Fields of Perfection [part two] ...

Why not simply “arrive” where it comes to spiritual growth?  Why take a journey that we know it is possible to complete in the twinkling of an eye?  It is easy to blame God for the delay, or perhaps develop doubt there is a God, because of the delay.  One of the effective arguments atheists and nominal Christians make, is that people have been talking about the “soon coming return” of Jesus Christ since the days of the disciples and over 2000 years have passed in that time.  Oh sure, if you stack that against time in Universal measurements or against the stars it is short, but against human life spans, it is well beyond any of them.  A belief in “soon” that does not come true, can sometimes equate to a belief that transformation just takes too long, and there are too many failures that keep occurring along the way.  Perhaps transformation too is just one of those “soon coming” things that for me will never seem to arrive; always to be lost in the journey.  There comes a time when even progress is not enough, the destination is just too much what we long for.  Not the destination of heaven, so much as the destination of perfection, even in the here and the now.

And if our “standard” is no less than perfection, we cannot just shrug it off, and act as though it is “OK” that we are imperfect.  It is never “OK” with God that we carry the cancer of sin, that we suffer from the pain and death it brings and causes.  God longs to give us the cure.  So when our failures teach us we are obviously not cured yet, we return to the question of why, or as with His long awaited return; how long?  And if knowing it must be a journey is not hard enough, it turns out the other complicating factor is … us.  What we believe, and how certain we are of our beliefs, can delay the journey entirely.  Even the beliefs that we are taught from the church, or from spiritual leaders we trust, or things we seem to have discovered on our own.  It is not even the incorrect beliefs that are our problem nearly as much as the certainty to which we cling to them.  We hold the mind of the unconverted even while we occupy the pews of the church we call home.  And because of it, our journey takes even longer.

This is not new.  There was an example provided in the gospel of Matthew in the thirteenth chapter.  Right in the middle of telling parables about the Kingdom of God, and salvation, and heaven; the reason why stories are being used is provided.  And those reasons are just as applicable today as they ever were, so much to sorrow over it.  Matthew picks up in verse 10 with the most obvious question … “And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?”  This is the gospel after all.  We are not just trying to explain how to build a kite; we are trying to save lost souls here, trying to provide the roadmap to doing it right.  But instead of providing direct, frank, and explanative words; Jesus chooses to tell stories to get the point across.  And it looks as though no one is getting it, sometimes even the disciples are having a hard time admitting they too, are not getting it.

Ever ask the question, if Jesus wanted us to know what to do about [insert some modern problem here] why didn’t He just say that in the New Testament?  The question about Sabbath observance is sometimes put in this category.  What you can do or not do.  Or which day is the right one.  There is a lot of other scripture to answer these questions, but it might have been nice since Jesus knowing what would happen later, if He would have just given some direct counsel on the matter in question – rather than bury it among tons of other texts that must be read in context to even get close to answering it right?  Homosexuality is another idea floated this way.  While the Bible is full of condemnation for it, Jesus never said one word in first person against it.  If Jesus is our final authority why not just state what His position is?  Instead we have stories, historical events, and societal prejudices that influence our ideas on any given topic we research in the Bible.  Seems like the lead is buried.

But Jesus answers this question picking up in verse 11 saying … “He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. [verse 12] For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. [verse 13] Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”  So a little flattering that the disciples are going to be the privileged few who get to understand the mysteries.  We take that by extension to mean “us” as well since we get to read the written works of those disciples where it comes to the gospel.  The idea that to those to whom it is given, will be given even more in abundance sounds really good to us.  We think that must mean - to church folk, to folks who are searching, or are already in the aisles and pews.  But we missed one subtle word printed plainly there that perhaps our brains just wanted to miss.  To him shall be “given” more abundance.

The remainder of the answer of Jesus applies to those who believe they already know what they need to know.  They have learned it through joining a church, or having conducted years of study on their own.  They might have learned it by going to a Christian school system, or Christian University.  They are not newbies, but people long-in-the-tooth where it comes to spiritual matters.  They are not the nominal believers who never “do” anything, but they are the people who act on their faith and make it a point to get out there and serve in the plain light of day.  These are the people who hath … not.  Their eyes work or function, but they see not.  Their ears can hear just fine, but they hear not.  And worst of all, they, or rather “our” comprehension and understanding is poo-poo.  To “us?” shall be taken away even what little even what we have.

That reads like a punishment.  It reads like a punishment for well-meaning folks.  But again, this is actually about salvation, and what is needed here for “us” is exactly that.  We need a reset of what we are so certain about.  We need a reset of what University, or our local church has been pushing into our heads for so long we can nearly rote repeat it.  We must unlearn what we have learned, and be taught what we should know through a mechanism we have least tried out (becoming a direct student of Jesus).  Matthew reminds his audience this entire scenario was predicted long in advance by the prophet Isaiah, lest we think this only applied in the days of Christ, or will never be relevant again.  He continues in verse 14 saying … “And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:”  The prophet Isaiah had a relevant message to his people in his day of the same phenomenon that Jesus fulfilled in His own.  And that prophecy had no time stamp on it.  The same plague moves forward through time through the same people even within the true churches of God.

The reason is heartbreaking to hear continuing in verse 15 saying … “For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”  Queue the weeping and gnashing of teeth please.  We are “tired” of hearing.  We have closed our eyes to “The Truth”.  And perhaps worst of all, and the most telling sign, our hearts have waxed gross, we love very little anything that does not resemble ourselves.  And it appears that understanding will only come through the heart, which in this case has grown cold.  All of the signs of people or believers who would have made excellent members of the Sanhedrin in the days of Jesus.  People certain of their spiritual knowledge and completely unwilling and not inclined to submit that “knowledge” to the higher power of Jesus Christ.  Our journey is stunted because we refuse connection with Jesus that could have resulted in our conversion, and our healing.  Could sadder words ever be uttered, particularly when they are squarely directed at “you?” or “me?”.

So what made the disciples different? … They were stupid.  And they knew it.  And they depended on Jesus for their wisdom, looking to learn anything HE had to teach them, never even daring to teach Him anything.  The only beliefs they brought with them from before Jesus and they ever clung to, were WRONG!!  And those beliefs were taught to them by the church.  Freedom from Rome was not in the cards from a Messiah bent on freeing them from sin, freedom from sin was more important.  But the church disagreed.  And it still does.  So many churches continue to teach that freedom from sin is nothing more than forgiveness bundled with a license to continue sinning.  Dangerous doctrines that equate infinite forgiveness with the ability to infinitely keep sinning with nothing but a little guilt.  Or worse, they teach us that freedom from sin comes only when “we” try hard enough.  Neither is true.  But we cling to error in our beliefs about salvation that stunt our journey and prevent us from a connection with Jesus that would in fact actually save us, from us.  We don’t need a partnership with Jesus, we need a hostile take-over by Him (us out, Him in).  We do not have permission to sin because God “understands” our weakness.  We need a cure from God as we direct our weakness and everything else about us to Him in full surrender of what “we” think needs to be done about it.

Recognizing one’s own stupidity has an upside.  Seeing our true need has benefits we cannot imagine as Matthew continues the words of Jesus picking up in verse 16 saying … “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. [verse 17] For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”  Being willing to be taught by Jesus begins by recognizing we have nothing to offer Him, and everything to gain by listening and being taught by Him.  And on that score, “church” is not the same as personal submission and surrender to Jesus Christ.  Before accepting what others say about scripture (including this author), pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the leadership of Jesus Christ.  Otherwise, group think, or who you think may have a point, may not.  Jesus does not want to leave you blind to His word.  Nor is His word dangerous to you.  But your pride in your learning is dangerous to you.  Being unwilling to expand, alter, or change your mind about what you know when something new is brought to you by Jesus is very dangerous to your journey.  It can stunt it badly.

We have the wealth of scripture, not only of the New Testament, but of the Old Testament as well.  BOTH are views of our God’s intense love for us, and His work to redeem us.  If the OT does not read that way to you yet, you need to view it more through the lens of Jesus Christ.  If what you get out of the OT is a vengeful God who wipes people out because He feels like it, you have entirely missed the lens of Jesus Christ.  For the life of Christ was in full submission to His Father’s will from day-one to day-last.  He never did His own thing, and what is more, all those acts of love were His Father’s thing for you.  That intense love for you is not only from Jesus but from the Father as well.  That means when people die in the OT, it was not a time for joy, but a time for GREAT sorrow.  If the embrace of sin had to be cleansed; you should know that it made God sorry His efforts to redeem were so soundly rejected.  It did not give Him glee.  Jesus was saddened at the hearts of the Sanhedrin who would rather have killed Him, than learn from Him.  Have you joined those Sanhedrin ranks some 2000 years after they fizzled out?

Or, are you ready to see the stupid in you, you call certainty of knowledge.  Are you ready to be taught, that is to be the perpetual student ever willing to give up an incorrect belief for the right one as Jesus reveals them to you?  Pay no attention to the vehicle for The Truth, only insure it is Jesus you follow, even if the messenger is flawed or not what you would expect, or through a means you otherwise never thought possible.  Or has your heart waxed gross, have you decided you have enough love for your lifetime and could not possibly need more.  Have you grown ambivalent to need, particularly the need of others you hardly know.  Have you closed your eyes to the new, believing the old will save you?  Have you shut off listening because you do not like the method or messenger the sound comes from, an imperfect vessel like yourself.  And we wonder why we need a journey, and why it takes so so long for us to learn to trust and fully surrender our own will.  Because what we “know” is likely the thing we need to relearn.  How desperately we need that connection to Jesus.

And the parables were not over yet …

 

 

Mystery of Reclamation ...

Not many of us prefer to ponder the idea that our tap water may well have gone through our sewer system at one point or another.  It is a difficult concept to grasp that water that was once filthy and unfit to drink could somehow be chemically “cleaned” to the point where we would not hesitate to fill our ice trays and drinks with it.  Perhaps it is equally ironic, if not disturbing, that the quality of our soil can be richly enhanced by adding fertilizer to it.  The chief ingredient of fertilizer being excrement.  Yet after adding perhaps the most disgusting substance on planet earth, which itself is composed of nothing but “waste” materials fit for no other purpose, our farm lands or gardens produce much better crops than if we had simply left the soil without this “precious” resource.  When we look at a bright fresh bowl of fruit on our kitchen table, and enjoy digging in to a fresh cold sweet harvest of berries, or citrus, we really have no idea “how” an infant seed, exposed to disgusting ingredients, in a generally polluted world, through a process of growth we did not witness, nor cause … results in such a delicious treat our bodies long for and enjoy.  We have a notional idea of how crops grow, and how resources can be reclaimed, but the details remain mostly a mystery.

The composition of the human mind and heart are infinitely more complex than the simple seed which will one day become a sweet berry, or an ear of corn, or an herb we season our food with.  The mind, like our soil and untreated water, can become a place of great pollution, waste, and darkness.  It is the inevitable result of having embraced the addiction of self-love and sin we are covered with.  It is a degenerative process, which would have us slide deeper and deeper into a muck fit to grow nothing, add no value, and become something only bent on taking, and “offering” little & only when there is a chance at greater rewards for doing so.  Our minds of greed, and our hearts of stone, are hardly the right place for any seed to grow.  To plant a seed of Love here, could only be done by a Farmer we would call “insane”.  We, are not good ground in which to grow anything.  We, are a toxic un-reclaimed section of scorched earth, with a history of destroying everything we touched.  We, are known for causing pain, not for relieving it.  Yet somehow, our Father God, chooses to do the unthinkable.  He comes to plant seed here, in us, and on purpose.  Why?  What does He know that we do not?

The mystery of how a corrupted mind and heart can be reclaimed is unknown by us.  And this is not a new phenomenon.  Peter recalls to John Mark in his gospel in chapter 4 the continuation of this theme and analogy that Christ used to teach us about salvation.  He begins in verse 26 recalling the words of Christ saying … “And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; [verse 27] And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.”  We do not see the seed opening up underground.  We do not see it take root.  We only see it when it emerges from the earth and begins to grow.  “Why” a seed grows is not just a metaphysical question, particularly when considering why “this” seed grows, but that one does not.  The farmer in this analogy plants a seed and time passes, and it grows.  But the “why” it grows remains a mystery to the farmer.  The “process of growth” is NOT up to the farmer.  The human farmer in this analogy is a “witness” to the growth, not the cause of it.

Understood in the context of spreading the gospel … “we” do not “save” others.  We may have the joy of spreading the “seed” of the gospel.  We may introduce people to Christ.  But that is where our part of the story ends.  The “process of growth” is NOT up to us.  We do not get to rush it, and should not slow it down.  This is true in ourselves, and in others.  The “process of growth” is contained WITHIN the seed itself.  In this instance, the “Seed” can overcome the pollution it comes in contact with.  The “Seed” is capable to reclaiming the excrement and untreated water of our lives, and purify it, for the purposes of making something wonderful grow within us.  The Love that grows within us, is the love of Christ for others; as it grows it will become evident to the world around us.  We begin to treat other people differently.  This is the key evidence to us, and to those around us, that the seed is taking root and springing forth.  All of the sudden, the focus is no longer on the earth, it is on the plant.  All of the sudden, the pollution and muck of our lives, is no longer the focus, it is the plant of love that is springing forth from our muck, despite all the odds against it.

“How” this occurs is a mystery to us.  Peter continues recalling the words of Christ in verse 28 saying … “For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. [verse 29] But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.”  The growth that takes place is not immediate, or completed in an instant.  It takes time to transition from seed, to blade, to ear, to corn.  Trust takes time.  Full submission takes time to achieve.  We must come to realize that what we “give up” to Christ, are not things we wanted or needed in the first place.  What we “treasure” today about ourselves, are things we come to despise later when we see them for what they truly were.  The things about us that we take pride in, are the very things we would be better off without.  In short, when diseased soil looks at itself, it does not think badly about what it sees.  But when pure water sees what untreated water looks like, it cannot imagine ever “wanting” to be that dirty.  As we learn to trust God, we come to see He does actually save us in spite of ourselves.  As we see Him tenderly pick us back up after we have thrown away His victories, and continue to tend to us, despite our lack of response, we come to “know” that He is bent on saving us.

It is unfortunate that we are such slow learners, but the level of our disease is great.  Despite the process of growth taking time however, it does continue to occur.  And at every point in time, there is an evidence of how mature His Love in us actually is.  We can measure our progress by how deeply we care about others, and how little we care about ourselves.  If those scales do not tilt the way we wish they would, perhaps we are not as mature as we would like to think ourselves as being in the Christian journey of transformation.  Again this is not a measurement of how complete our doctrinal understanding is, it is a measurement of how deep our passion for others is.  What is planted within us is a seed of Love, not a seed of mere wisdom.  We can already be “smart”, or “wise”, but lack all notion of what it means to love another.  A brilliant Christian can expound on the meaning of scripture, and the interpretation of prophecy, and still have NO concept of who Jesus is, and how He loves others.  It is Love that saves us.  His love for us, and His love for others reflected through us.

What is most evident to the Farmer … this time the heavenly Farmer … is when the growth process has been completed and when the harvest is ready.  It is the sickle that is used to gather the ripe ears of corn to feed those in need.  We are cut off from the lives we once knew.  We are taken away from our past, though the seed of the corn remains with the Harvest.  The self-perpetuating seeds of Christ, are still found in the berries, the corn, or the herbs.  Even when the fruit is cut off from the plants, the seed remains.  Without Christ we could never be saved.  If we were to be cut off from Christ, we would wither and die, and our love for others would die as well.  It is His undying love for others, which can remain ever green within us.  It is His strength to love the unlovable that can inspire us to do the same.  We do not need to rely upon our own strength to “be good people” and to love others.  Instead we can “reflect” His love for them, and His passion for them, through us.  We can simply get out of His way, and not limit Him, but provide Him unlimited access to strengthen our Love for others, and renew our physical being when we would otherwise be exhausted by human weakness.  Instead of attempting to be good, we can simply let go control to Christ, and watch Him actually make us into something we never thought possible.

The Harvest can feed the world.  It is not the process of growth that saves others.  It is the offering of fruit, the offering of Love for them, of meeting their needs, that awakens them to how much God loves them, which begins the process of saving them.  We do not offer the world in need a green leaf from the corn plant, something that is not ready yet to love, and cannot offer sustenance of love the hungry needs.  We offer them fully ripe, and ready harvest, the fruit that is laden with the Seeds of Christ and His love for others; offered in a tangible way.  It is not the idea of Love the world needs, it is the tangible meaningful example of Love it needs.  Speaking words is not enough, the fruit is driven to do something.  The fruit is so driven, because it is no longer just holding a single seed.  The seeds within the fruit have multiplied such that the fruit can hardly contain them all.  The Love of Christ for others reaches such a growth point within us, that we are literally driven to DO SOMETHING for others.  We do not sit still and remain steeped in our apathy, because our apathy has been driven from us.  We have so much passion, we MUST do, we have to do, we will not … just sit.

What was once a plot of muck and mire, a mix of untreated sewer water and excrement, has become a fruit of brilliant color and excellent taste.  The focus is no longer on the dirt from which we emerged, or the sins that once dominated our existence, but it is on the Love of Christ we are now so fully reflecting to those in the most desperate need of it.  We have become a delicious berry, or a wholesome ear of corn, or a seasoning herb that enriches the meals of others.  Our purpose is no longer to simply grow, it is to feed others.  This was the mission all along.  The growth was only the journey that would lead us to become something that would feed the world.  Our goal was not simply to produce a leaf, or get a little taller.  It was to reach maturity in the reflection of His Love to the world, as demonstrated within us. 

The magnitude of what we can become in this theme needed further clarification, and so Jesus continued to teach Peter and the others, as John Mark records in verse 30 saying … “And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? [verse 31] It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: [verse 32] But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”  A grain of a mustard seed is indeed a very small herb in its seedling state.  When looking at how small a thing it is, one could hardly imagine how large it can grow.  Well beyond a bowl of berries, or even a dozen ears of corn, the mustard seed will grow until it is a large tree with great branches shooting out in space.  It will offer the world shade, and become a place where even birds can make their nests.  Not only can our love for others become nearly infinite, as we begin to reflect the infinite love of Christ, our love can reach out to our physical world and the animals He created in it.  A tree does more than just feed humans, it offers other benefits that nature enjoys.  While providing shade, and bird lodging are hardly its first priority, they are certainly not omitted from the list of benefits it provides.

Think of the literally millions of seeds a single mustard seed tree can provide.  Think of how the time of harvest comes year after year from the plants God sees fit to save and grow, and reclaim.  There is a reason why God prefers the math of multiplication where it comes to spreading the gospel.  While He is fully focused on the single seed planted in you, He fully intends to see a harvest grow that will multiply exponentially the love for you He has, into love for others that was there all along.  The point was to save more than just one seed, but in so doing, to multiply the harvest in others.  Your reclamation project was not about changing the soil composition, or purification of the water in the mud of your life.  It was and is, about changing the focus from the ground, to the plant, to the fruit.  It was about altering who you are, to a point where you can hardly recognize who you were.  The goal of your reclamation, was not to teach you “how” the transition takes place.  God knows the “how”.  The goal of your reclamation was to be re-claimed, and re-created.  Attempting to control the “how” only slows down the process.  Submitting and trusting in God, speeds it up.

Mark concludes in verse 33 writing … “And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. [verse 34] But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.”  Christ chose to speak to His followers, both then and now through scripture, in the form of parables of storytelling because it was effective.  It gives us a chance to learn truth, every time we reopen the word.  These themes and analogies have much to offer, as long as we continue to view them through the lens of Jesus Christ, and His ultimate mission to see mankind redeemed, reclaimed, and reconciled to God.  Like any story, not everything is literal, and not every analogy holds up in every single point of detail; but the themes of salvation and redemption can be easily seen, if one chooses to look.  While we may never understand “how” Christ saves us, what is clear from these stories, and the example of His life, is “why” He chose to save you and I … He loves us.  It was Love that motivated God to reach out and save us, even when we were not certain that is what we wanted.  It is Love that can awaken the heart of the unbeliever to the knowledge that there is something more out there, and something better, and they too can experience it.  It is Love that is the Seed of Christ, planted in a human heart. 

I would pray to become the fruit, driven to feed others; and not remain the dirt mired in a focus of only our pain and past.  I would see my apathy, replaced with passion that cannot sit still.  There is so much more than we have hardly imagined … and Peter’s gospel through Mark was still in its infancy.

 

Story Telling [part one] ...

Movies truly “move” the world.  The art of storytelling accentuated with visual effects, soaring musical scores, dramatic portrayals, and carefully scripted story lines combine into a 2-hour presentation that absorbs the senses and instructs the mind.  An entire industry exists to edit, package, and market a film.  Some films intended to entertain, others to offer the quick stimulus of fear, still others to make us feel kinship and empathy with a character who suffers injustice, or triumphs in spite of the odds.  But at the end of the day, a movie is nothing more than taking the art of storytelling to its highest level.  And this art did not originate with the birth of the camera, it has been a part of our culture from Adam to now.  The children of Adam never experienced the Tree of Life for themselves.  By the time they enter the story of our world, Adam and Eve had been forced to leave the Garden of Eden and build a home outside of it.  An angel stood there guarding the entrance to Eden with a flaming sword.  And despite the level of evil that would grow to cause the destruction of the world by flood … no human or dinosaur would ever challenge that angel for access .., and live.

So for Cain, Able and Seth to know what the garden was like, Adam and Eve would have to tell them about it from memory, and thus the art of the story was born.  It would be an oral tradition handed down all the way to Noah.  The grandchildren of Noah had never seen the angel who stood guard at the entrance to the Garden of Eden before the flood.  They never knew the world before it had been destroyed by water, and then abated to start over.  They never saw the creatures born of the evil of the minds of men, nor witnessed the abomination of altering DNA into things that should have never existed.  We discover the bones and the evidence of such atrocities now, but God chose not to preserve them in the great flood, to end those things that should have not existed but for the wickedness of men.  So to understand how evil, evil can be, the grandchildren of Noah would have to be told the stories of life before the flood.

Without the written parchment to record the recounting of witnesses who would pass on, stories tend to decay and pass away.  Even now, films of antiquity must be preserved with great care, or they too would disappear from our ability to enjoy them.  Oral traditions tend to have a much shorter shelf life.  When Moses would appear on the scene, the Law of God would be written in stone.  This would erase a complete dependence on oral tradition, and introduce something of permanence in the recounting of God’s saving love.  Stone does not decay.  The redemption of Israel from the slavery of oppression would be chronicled in books that would be meticulously preserved until our day.  Moses would be given a recounting of the important parts of the Genesis story, and it is through his record we understand what we do about our creation and our beginnings.

But outside of a documentary, no one expects a movie to be a truly accurate accounting of the story it attempts to portray.  The characters in it, rarely quote their inspiration word for word, second for second, as the story may have originally occurred … or a movie would last years instead of hours.  Instead paraphrasing main ideas occurs, symbolism is employed to accentuate a point, and what might have taken years in real time to relay can be condensed into a digestible time period to sit in a theatre and enjoy the spectacle.  This needed condensation of time is not intended to destroy the point of the movie, or lessen its emotional impact, if it does the movie is discarded as “bad”.  The condensation of time must be used to effect, the symbolism well employed, in order that we remain emotionally invested in what we perceive, and that our learning is accentuated not destroyed.  Often elements of a story may have never actually happened, they are “made up” to help move the story along, or help us understand the real dilemma of the characters portrayed so that the main point remains intact.  Audiences understand this phenomenon and do not stomp out of the theatre because one of the Marvel Super-heroes strays off the story line for a minute or two.

The reason why movies exist today, why oral traditions of storytelling began with Adam and Eve, why Moses wrote down the recounting of history in his age remain the same … storytelling is effective.  While we recall a favorite book, or movie, or time at the feet of our grandparents so long ago; we can remember new elements of the story, or new interpretations of what was relayed.  In point of fact, the original story was never changed in its telling to us … what has changed is our perspective, our own experiences, and the truth we can now perceive in the same words, and same stories, we heard or experienced so long ago.  The story remains the same, but our ability to understand more of its truths is brought about by our maturing process and life experiences.  It is perhaps for this reason that Jesus chose to reveal some truth about the gospel in the form of parables, or storytelling, to those who sought to hear Him.

In our day, I have often joined in the voices who wish He would have just spoken plainly instead of through parables.  But then I must remember the Bible is full of plainly worded speech and language, and it is perhaps my own resistance to truth that keeps me from accepting those ideas.  So perhaps “I” needed Jesus to preserve the art of storytelling for “me”, in order that I too might return to the same stories and discover new truths in them, because my own experiences have changed since the last time I read them.  They are the same truths, the same main themes, the same ideas that Jesus wished for me to learn.  The stories and parables of Christ are not point for point, exactly accurate literal words; that I must mimic with precision in order to understand what Christ was attempting to communicate.  They are instead like the movies and storytelling of my own day, without all the production quality, but with a far deeper scripted story line, that offers me truth like no movie I have ever seen has been able to do.  As I begin to grasp His main themes, I begin to get a different perspective on truth, and salvation, and what it means to be made free from who we are.

Peter recounts the storytelling technique of Christ to teach truth about salvation for the first time in John Mark’s gospel in chapter 4 and verse 1.  Up to this point, only literal recollections of events that had occurred were cited by Peter through Mark.  “Plain speech” had formed the record up to this point, so chapter 4 was a departure from the style of the gospel till now.  However, there was a reason why Christ chose to teach us through stories, and Peter was keen to preserve them for us.  So he begins his recounting in verse one saying … “And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. [verse 2] And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,”  The doctrines, or the truth of redemption as taught by Christ would be slowly revealed in parables.  This would allow His audience to digest them over time, and not be inundated with too much too quickly.

Imagine the alternative for a moment.  You and I know, through the study of His word, that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God almighty.  He is God on earth at this time, in the flesh.  If the crowds had grasped this concept thoroughly and believed it with all their hearts, how could they allow the Romans or the Jews to put God to death?  They, like you and I, would have fought to the death to protect their God from human stupidity.  You and I know that it is only through the power of the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, that we can be made free, even from the desire to sin.  Had the crowds of that day embraced this idea with all their hearts, the world may have been made ready for saving right then and there.  No need to delay His coming, and again yet another fight to the death to protect the savior of our very souls and nature, from the stupidity of those steeped in evil.  These truths necessitated time to understand and adopt by those being taught (including us), in order that we build trust with our God, and do not react in haste to the truth that is revealed to us, interfering with the plans God has for our own redemption, and the redemption of others.

So the story begins by Jesus in verse 3 saying … “Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:”  It is easy to simply continue with the story here instead of pausing for a bit.  But the point here is critical.  It is God who takes the initiative to go out and sow the seed of His Word in us.  We did NOT ask for this to occur.  We were instead steeped in our embrace of sin and self-love.  We were not really interested in asking for redemption from our condition.  Instead, we were where the story finds us in just a few moments.  However God, was keenly interested in our redemption.  He does not wait for an invitation from diseased souls who are incapable of asking for what is good for them.  Instead He goes about His mission to see His precious children redeemed, even when they do not know this is good for them, or do not have the good sense to ask for the freedom He offers.  God initiates the process of our salvation.  Lest you think your faith originated in you, it did not.  Lest you think your desire for God originated in you, it did not.  Your ability to even make a choice to find the freedom God offers, began with Him taking up His role of sower of seed.

The story continues in verse 4 saying … “And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.”  To better understand this part of the main theme, I will recount the words of Christ to explain this passage found in verse 15 below as He says … “And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.”  Ouch!  For a brief fleeting moment, nearly before a decision can even be reached, there are those of us who squander our opportunity to be saved by Jesus Christ, to be made free from the sins we have chosen to embrace through our addictive love of self. 

These may well be those poor souls who have no one praying for their salvation, and have only a limited opportunity to ever hear the word of God.  The one single chance presents itself, and in nearly an immediate response, the love-of-self Satan sells us, floods over them to quickly take away the adoption of the seeds of salvation.  It may represent an even worse scenario where the love of God is misrepresented by someone bearing the name Christian, and the hate of Satan that spews from the mouth of the supposed “Christian” robs the unbeliever of even a motive to begin to seek change.  We might pray to be vessels of His love, and not thieves of souls spouting the hate speech of the enemy.

You will note, this story is not about a gardener who is transplanting fully grown trees.  That symbolism does not work.  The process of salvation does not begin with maturity, it ends with it.  The removal of sins from our lives does not happen in full in an instant because we won’t let it.  For us to bear fruit will take time with God to mature, we will need to learn what it means to love like He loves.  We are too ignorant to know that is what we need.  We are too stooped in our addiction to self-love to recognize how bad off we are, and how desperately we need to be saved from ourselves.  So the process of salvation begins with a seed, with a still small voice, with an inclination to seek something more, to end the pain we bring upon ourselves.  It begins with something small, but it ends with something huge and magnificent.  It is worth considering, that repeated attempts to get us to find the salvation God offers are themselves an added blessing.  For this crowd described in this first allegory received only the one invitation, squandered it, and were never able to find another attempt.  There is a finality that comes from choosing to continue to embrace the self-styled-salvation Satan offers.  That finality ends in our destruction, not in our self-based-salvation.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: [verse 6] But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.”  The explanation Christ offered is found in verse 16 saying … “And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; [verse 17] And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.”  There is a depth to the story that is revealed in this scene.  The Word is Jesus Christ.  It is not the accumulation of our interpretation of doctrines or the wealth of our memorization of scripture that is described here.  It is our willingness to submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, and allow Him to remake our desires and who we are.

There is a class of Christian who appreciate the theory of salvation.  They believe in the power of Jesus Christ to save them, and they profess to accept His offer.  Immediately the Word sprang up in these souls.  They did not allow Satan to take it from them, as the first group willingly did.  But they did not allow the seed to penetrate into the core of who they are either.  These are the Christians who want God to solve some particular sin they struggle with … but not all of them.  They are willing to give a part of themselves over to Christ to be saved, but the stone of their hearts remains unconverted.  The benefits of following Christ and lessening the pain of their self-love appeal to them.  But to truly change everything about themselves is just something that is a bit too far for them.  These Christians are able to give to the poor what they have in excess, but not everything they have.  These Christians have 50/50 marriages made up of give and take, not a marriage based on giving everything all the time no matter the response.  In short, these Christians are living with a “balanced” idea of salvation where being “reasonable” about how much we give, and how much we allow Christ to change our hearts seems like the right approach to them.

But the problem with withholding parts of ourselves, and entry into our hearts of stone from Christ, is that the disease we suffer from remains within us.  When the trials of life, and the desire of Satan to hurt God by hurting us enter our lives, we run from God, instead of running to Him.  We compromise beliefs and ethics in order to lessen the pain the world brings.  We align with the world to lessen its hatred of us.  We become offended at the idea of giving “everything”.  We become offended at the idea of having to change “who” we are for the sake of our salvation.  We believe we should be able to change parts of us, and leave the other parts intact.  Having to become someone else entirely is offensive to us, as we see ourselves as “good people” who are plainly “good enough” and if that is not enough for Christ, then that is His problem instead of ours.  Who is He anyway to ask us to give “everything”, nobody gives “everything” … except … well Jesus Christ did to redeem us.  Giving everything was what our God did for us, and it is in giving everything to others, that our hearts of stone begin to melt into hearts of flesh, that are moved by the needs and pain of others, not just ourselves.

Scene 3 in our story resumes with the work of the Sower continuing His efforts for our redemption and begins in verse 7 saying … “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.”  The explanation of Christ found in verse 18 saying … “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, [verse 19] And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”  This is the horror scene of this movie.  It might be frightening to think of Satan’s evil crows stealing our salvation with our gleeful willingness at the outset of this story.  It might be scary to think we might embrace it partially, and then find we have lost it to the stone of our hearts in a brief time.  But this is the horror scene altogether.  Jason, Freddy, and Manson together conspire for this scene of the movie.

A few things to note.  The ground of these souls is not condemned as was the stone of other recipients.  They did not immediately reject the word, or allow Satan to steal it from them.  All indications are the ground looks like good ground.  These souls embraced the salvation of Christ, or so it would appear.  They spend time with Christ.  Weeds do not kill in an instant, they take time to grow up as well.  In fact the distinction between the seeds of grass and the seeds of weeds is hard to tell in the infancy of the life of the plant.  They both look green.  They both look pretty.  They seem to equally decorate the lawn we hope to enjoy.  But there is a distinction.  The plants are actually different.  One is rooted in the salvation of the Lord, the other only looks that way.  The Christian in this scene looks like a good guy, and seems to be doing the right things.  His only problem is that it appears his best friend is Charles Manson.  And when Chuck is not around, he looks for counsel from Freddy Kruger, and Jason to get advice.  Of course to the Christian, these ruthless psychopathic killers look as harmless as the cute little yellow Minions.  But they are not, they are in fact, ruthless killers, who leave no one left alive.

An “innocent” Christian considers the needs of his own life as he makes decisions about his future.  His job, the needs of getting a promotion, and a good increase in pay are important to him.  He worries about the repair costs of his Mercedes, and whether he can afford to buy the necklace for his wife.  The pressure of wealth is no less a burden to him, than the advice of Charles Manson.  Jason and Freddy stand ready to inform him about where money should be invested in the stock market, and that becoming a millionaire is not as rewarding as becoming a billionaire.  The horror of this scene, is that it is not the poor who are its victims, it is those who consider themselves successful Christians.  Americans meet this criteria in no small quantities.  We live in a country of relative wealth, or at least comparative wealth.  We have ease, vacations, weekends and pools.  We eat out, and drive advanced automobiles.  We work in industries and jobs that require better education, or offer better pay than any contemporary in any other nation.  Our families need our financial support, and we are blessed enough to be able to provide it. 

The horror story of this scene, is that it looks to impact those who are NOT in great need, instead they look “normal”.  The condition of this horror does not impact the poor, it impacts the rich, and even more terrifying … the middle class.  This could well describe the state of Christianity in every denomination in our nation.  We have our poor, and sometimes we consider ourselves to be in need, but most of us are surviving.  And in our survival, we consider the cares of this world that begin to choke out our ability to spend our resources on others.  We can afford to give less and less instead of more and more.  Our blessings look more and more like Freddy Kruger, an anchor around our souls, than an opportunity to make a real difference in the life of someone else who neither deserves our love, nor can repay it.  The deceitfulness of the lure of our wealth, is that no matter how much we have, we will always “need” just a little bit more.  We lie to ourselves, that if we get that raise, or bonus, we will surely use part of it as a gift back to God.  But for every dollar we acquire there is always a destination in mind for it before it even touches our hands.  Our “needs” always find a way of outpacing our supply.  And thus the lie of the lure of wealth chokes our “ability” to give.

Had the movie ended in scene 3 with the horror of losing salvation slowly insidiously and over time, choked out by the Charles Manson’s of the world who look like regular guys and seem to offer practical advice; this would be a horrible story.  But fortunately, in the movie script Christ was relaying, the movie had one more act.  A scene 4 was ready for entry on the big screen as follows beginning in verse 8 saying … “And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. [verse 9] And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  The explanation Christ offers beginning in verse 20 saying … “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”  This is the redemption scene.  This is the scene that is the main point of this picture, and the reason why the story was told in the first place.

The intent of this story was not to leave any single audience member in the danger of immediate loss, or quickly withering away, or even losing the battle over time to the lie of wealth in this world.  The intent of this story was to get it right.  To find salvation, and witness the results of what it does.  In this scene, the seed grows up and does something the other scenes have lacked.  It bears fruit.  The amount of fruit for these souls varies.  It is not uniform.  It is not exactly the same for each of us.  But it is common to each of us.  It is unavoidable.  We cannot help but bear fruit.  It is His fruit in us.  This is the end state of maturity not the beginning of it.  When we grow up in Christ, we become like He is.  We begin to love others like He loves others.  When we love this way, we cannot help but to meet another’s needs.  We don’t look at it as a burden to us financially but as an opportunity to us to love someone else.  The fruit we bear is “real” wealth.  It is the wealth of providing for others, for loving others like He loves them.  This is the only “real” currency in heaven.  When we love like Christ loves, we regret that giving our all, is so meager.  If we had one more penny, we would share it, even if it were our last one.  God does everything for us.  He loves us that much.  This story was designed to show us that.  It was not designed that any should be excluded, but that ALL should be in the good ground category.

But there was more Christ had to teach His disciples and us that we will soon learn …