Speaking Truth to Power ...

Pilate once asked, “what is truth”?  Jesus once said, “I am the truth, the way, and the life”.  I wonder when we talk about speaking truth to power, are we talking about the ever popular “my truth”, or are we talking about “the Truth”?  Our society seems bent on creating a version of truth that finds its center in “me”, that is to say, in each of us.  It is as if facts, viewed through “my” lens of perspective, create a version of truth that could care less what anyone else thinks.  Somehow, we come to believe in “my” truth with near total certainty ignoring the possibility that an application of the slightest degree of objectivity might actually result in revealing “my” truth as being nothing more than an amplification of “my” selfish desire.  What “you” want does not matter to “me”, only what “I” want, since after all it is “my” life.  We then get pretty brazen about our discovery of this new personal truth and share it ad-nauseum with any who cares to listen.  But none of this is speaking any kind of real “truth” to any kind of real power.  It is just another form of narcissism masquerading as self-discovery.

The idea of being true to one’s-self, is tantamount to the idea of coming to accept ourselves “just as we are”.  Usually when this bright idea occurs to us, we are in a much less than perfect state.  Our failure to reach perfection just looks too permanent, it is just too hard to get there.  So instead of trying and failing over-and-over again, we just give up, and discover that being true to ourselves means accepting our shortcomings and just embracing them.  We usually take that a step farther in the spiritual domain, by insisting that since we accept us “this way”, that God too must accept us “this way”, after all He made us “this way”.  It is then easy to believe that since God can forgive us literally anything, we can just rely on that forgiveness, and somehow we can save changing until He remakes us at the second coming.  This philosophy then adds spiritual credence to the idea that “my truth” is surely “OK” with God as well.  But when Jesus said that He was the Truth, He never mentions anyone else in that same sentiment.  It is not like Jesus says He is the truth, even alongside Moses, David, or John the Baptist.  All of those patriarchs of the faith were famous for their service, and their messages, but none of them qualified to be “the Truth”.

Even though scripture is inspired by God, and is our best method of coming to know God, Jesus is higher than our scripture.  For Jesus did not say, the scripture is truth, and I am just the author of the words in that book of truth.  Keep in mind, the Pharisees had scripture, and still managed to miss Jesus (the inspiration, author, and God of scripture) entirely.  And what happens when our interpretations of scripture, wind up coming in conflict with what God wants?  Do we apologize, submit, and change our way of thinking?  Not when “my truth” is more important than “the Truth”.  Not when being true to myself stands in obvious conflict with the changes Jesus wants to bring into my life.  When I am not looking for a new way of thinking, anything that comes my way different from what I think, just makes me mad.  I would submit the angrier the response, the more mistaken the thinking is in conflict with “the Truth”. 

Case in point; the Pharisees put Jesus to death.  Despite all the evidence they were warring with God, they did it anyway.  They thought that would end it.  It didn’t.  And the miracles that followed Jesus, did not follow Him into the grave and stop.  Instead, they were back in full force from the followers of Jesus who merely used/called on the name of Jesus to see them done.  Ask yourself how hardheaded you have to be to keep fighting that fight after all those miraculous signs that just will not go away?  But then, before we get too critical, perhaps we should ask ourselves how hardheaded we have to be, to keep trying to find perfection by our own strength and will, failing every time, instead of letting Jesus do that work for us?  It is not perfection that is elusive, or giving way to “my truth”.  It is the means by which we go about pursuing perfection.  We keep allowing “self” to have a role in our salvation from ourselves.  This is not what Jesus needs.  He just needs your permission, your willingness to let Him change you however He sees fit.  That’s all.  If you are willing to let Him change it, it will change.  If you try to do it yourself, or try to help God out, count on failure in your future.

It might make you mad to read these words.  The Pharisees sure did not want to hear that Jesus could end even your desire to sin, that Jesus could make you free from sin, from the inside out.  Pharisees had the law of Moses.  They believed that you lived your life according to the Law, and that was “how” you got saved (and rich by the way).  If you sinned, that was on you to fix.  Having some upstart Nazarene Hippy come claim to release you from sin just by freeing your very desires, sounded like pure apostacy to Law keepers who wanted no other way to win, even when that method only showed them the failure of our lives.  The secret they could not grasp was the idea that the Law of God points out our need of a Savior, to write it on our hearts and minds.  The Law is not the method of salvation.  It is the results of salvation.  We keep it, because we want to, because we cannot imagine any other way to live, not because we “have to” in order to be saved.  The Pharisees did not want any part of that thinking, it was too radical a shift for them and would up-end their whole way of living.  So you can imagine when Peter and John perform a miracle in the name of Jesus, then preach in His Name, convert 5,000 folks, and don’t stop doing this.  The Pharisees were angry beyond belief.

Luke gives us the account in Acts chapter 4 picking up in verse 1 the story continues saying … “And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, [verse 2] Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. [verse 3] And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. [verse 4] Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”  The Sadducees had only one main difference from the Pharisees and that was around the entire idea of resurrection.  They did not think it was part of Gods plan ever.  You lived, you died, end of story.  So having Lazarus be resurrected was a living, breathing, example that their doctrine was wrong.  Jesus doing it too, made it worse.  And all the others who were raised from the dead just kept putting nails in the coffin of this obviously mistaken ideology.  They did not respond, nor do we usually, by admitting they were wrong.  They did not apologize and embrace “the Truth”, because that Truth conflicted with “their” truth.  So they grab Peter and John and throw them into prison for the night.

But it didn’t matter. 5000 folks were converted by the power of the Holy Spirit moving through the words Peter said about Jesus.  The church leadership still hoped this might not be about Jesus.  They still clung to the idea maybe something new, or something else, was driving the miracle.  So on the next day they got together to flush out the details and find out what was going on.  Luke picks back up in verse 5 saying … “And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, [verse 6] And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. [verse 7] And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?”  This was the last desperate hope that the Jesus thing was dead and gone in the grave.  But in their hearts, they already knew it was not.  The Roman guards at the tomb already told them the truth about the resurrection and there was no way around that truth.

Peter then responds, again He is filled with Holy Spirit, it picks back up in verse 8 saying … “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, [verse 9] If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; [verse 10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. [verse 11] This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. [verse 12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Yikes.  Now that is an example of speaking real Truth to a room full of what we call power.  This was the head of the church, at least the head of the original one.  These men were rich, powerful, full of influence.  They could have Peter killed if they really wanted it.  And this was certainly NOT what they wanted to hear.  My guess, these old church leaders would have rather heard that Peter was on team Satan, than on team Jesus.  At least Satan could not claim to be the Son of God, well, without lying anyway.  Jesus had a rational claim, a claim that fulfilled scripture and prophecy, a claim steeped in truth and love.

Imagine yourself in that room of angry men.  Would you tell them the unvarnished truth?  Peter did not hesitate to remind these guys that “THEY” killed Jesus.  Peter does not blame the Romans.  Peter blames them personally.  As they all had personal accountability, and frankly so do we.  Each sin we embrace requires that blood fresh upon the cross of calvary once more, the nails driven into His hands and feet, by us.  And we know what we are doing.  That kind of truth demolishes the idea of “my” truth.  What Peter spoke was not just his own words, but because he was filled with the Holy Ghost.  And despite the criticism of them, or me, here was again another opportunity to repent and be saved.  Another chance to let go of my errors, and embrace His Truth.  To see that Jesus alone is Truth.  For those leaders to change, they would have had to admit they were wrong in the first place.  Not many of us are willing to do that.

But it was not certainty that fueled the obstinance of the Pharisees, or of us.  It is pride.  It is pride that refuses to admit the possibility of being wrong, of having someone else know something that we did not know first.  We sometimes harden into the core beliefs of our spiritual ancestors instead of building upon the foundation of faith they left us.  Our church forefathers in their day, were the champions of change, they endured more of it than we will ever allow ourselves to know.  But instead of treating the Word of God as a living breathing document, a wellspring of relevance that never runs dry – we treat it more the like the rocks upon which the Law was written, fixed, immovable, when in truth it is we who have become fixed and immovable.  Take the Sabbath being kept Holy for example, in the time of Christ, the church leadership had made the Sabbath so burdensome, that the miracle of healing someone on Sabbath was not celebrated, it was ruled as a means to kill the healer.  Jesus sought to change that.  Not just in what we do, but in how we think about loving others and how that does not take a holiday on Sabbath, instead it is supposed to be amplified on Sabbath.  Jesus was a radical change agent to the common thinking about the Law in His own day.  Why do try to put cement sandals on the Lord in our own day?

Let us not become so fixed in our positions, that we cannot accommodate the Truth when it knocks on the doors of our hearts.  Let us instead see ourselves as clay, ready to be molded into an image of the Truth who fashions us daily upon the craftsman’s wheel.  What He intends us to be is yet to be known to us.  But if we are to hold on to certainty, let it be certainty in the love of the Craftsman who remakes us into His own image, at our request.

 

Who We Become ...

 

A tiny child takes something that belongs to another, because they want that thing, and they want it now.  A parent could hardly decipher any more reason than that.  But the parent immediately works to address this injustice, with the clear goal of teaching the child that this indulgence-of-want is just “not” OK.  The easiest thing to do is simply take back that thing from the child who took it, and return it to the one who lost it to them.  And all is right in the world again, or is it?  We have taught our child several things during this incident, that their tiny brains are big enough to absorb.  First, mom or dad, or whoever took away the thing to return it to its rightful owner is bigger than me.  Therefore, whoever is bigger, can impose their will on whoever is smaller, that is the way of life.  Next, the child in error has not considered the impact to the victim they took from, not before, not during, and certainly not afterwards.  So justice, is nothing more than undoing the wrong I have done.  I do not have to feel “sorry” about it, to accomplish justice, I just have to make up for it in some tangible way.  Justice then is nothing more than undoing what should have never happened at all, and usually only follows getting caught.  Finally, but what all parties here should be most concerned with, is that an incident, does not turn into a habit, that does not in turn become a part of the definition of who this child becomes.  Ask yourself, does every thief become a thief, because they knew how to get away with it, and just never stopped.  Or were they missing parental correction, or does being a thief even bother them in some way?  What do we learn in the absence of consequence?

I was a brutal child.  I was bigger.  I was stronger.  And my “most often” playmate was a beautiful little girl younger, smaller, and in no way any competition for me.  So I imposed my will.  I took any toy from her even if she was right in the middle of enjoying it, in fact, that time always seemed like just the right time to take it.  And she cried.  I was unmoved.  I should have been spanked.  I was for many other crimes, but strangely not for this one.   My mother had another approach.  She forced me to see what my actions had done to this poor girl, how I had hurt her, how she was grieving and did not understand my cruelty.  It worked, I returned what I had taken, and immediately began trying to comfort her.  It was now my comfort I would obsess over, trying to make her feel better, for what I had done.  My mother forced me to see my actions in the light of the heart, the toy was immaterial.  The thing I took lost all meaning.  I did not want it, or anything else.  I wanted the little girl to feel better, to be happy, to recover from what I had done.  My mother did not impose her will on me in this instance, and it had more effect than any other approach might have.  One could say she tried to “guilt” me into the right response.  But guilt only works if you feel something in the first place.  I didn’t, at least I didn’t until I saw that little girl’s heart as akin to my own.  Until I could empathize with her pain, and begin to seek to undo the pain, by any means I could imagine.

But I wonder, what other horrifying personality trait might I have developed, if this early experience did not serve as a catalyst in my memory?  After all I am anything but a saint as it is.  How much worse would I have been without this story, reinforced by the retelling over the years, even into my adulthood.  Disobedience does not seem like such a meaningful thing at the time we pursue it.  The devil tells us it is nothing more than a singular incident, that carries no more weight than a one-time-thing ever could.  So if we indulge, what real harm could not be undone, from just one thing?  We make excuses.  We rationalize.  And we carry out a deed we should have never gone near.  And here is the kicker, the consequence, is almost always missing from the equation as that occurs.  It is as if the devil himself takes special measures to make sure we are not caught, and do not suffer, from what we have done.  We are the thief who gets away with it.  Nobody knows, so nobody is hurt.  Given this, what harm in repeating our nefarious deed?  And an incident repeats itself.  And then again.  And before long it is a way of life for us.  And the kicker remains, still no consequence.  At least none we can see, or care to consider.  But damage is being done, each and every time, and is as inescapable as death itself.  We are accumulating an account of pain, that will one day be paid, in the lives of those we claim to love, in our own, and in the heart of God.  Who we become matters, and it is who we have become, that we must be saved from.

People who think the pain and consequence that God describes is a myth, think this, because they have never experienced it … yet.   They live in a cocoon of disobedience kept out of real harms way by Satan himself, to reinforce bad behaviors till we no longer think them bad.  But the rules, the laws, the admonitions of scripture act as a mirror against our hearts of disobedience.  They force us to see ourselves and what we do against a standard of purity that will not yield to accommodate our wickedness.  What we do in this confrontation may well decide our very fates.  Lest you think position in the church will act as a shield for you in this regard, think again.  No one is immune.  Nor is even leadership in the church body a protection against it.  Consider for a moment our Pharisee forefathers.  They were devout men, dedicated to the standards of the church Jesus had established.  They read the right scriptures.  They studied them all the time.  They sought righteousness in their lives.  So what had they missed?

Luke discusses an incident in scripture in the 16^th chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  He picks up with an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees beginning in verse 14 reading … “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. [verse 15] And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”  The Pharisees were pissed.  Jesus had just declared that you cannot serve both God and wealth or money.  The Pharisees were generally well to do, they had money, they thought money was a sign of the favor of God, of His blessings.  Jesus just undid all of that.  Jesus just declared that money was not really a blessing, instead it was a problem.  The clothes they wore, the fine linens, the rings on their hands, and chains that adorned their chests and wrists – none the blessing of God, but rather a mark of the curse of this world.  These men were guilty of covetousness.  In spite of what they had, which was not small, they still wanted more, much more.  The Romans stood in the way of that, but then, so did this upstart Hippy talking about wealth being a problem.  So they started to deride the Son of God, to make fun of Him, of His clothing, His poverty.  His disciples were no prize either.  All losers.  All nothing next to them.  They were the top of the church.  They were the gold standard.  These idiots were nothing to them.

But Jesus looks deep into “who” they have become, as He stares into your heart this day as well.  He sees the rationalizations we use to tell ourselves we are not so bad.  He sees the ways we dodge the rules, avoid the laws, and compare ourselves into holiness by focusing on the sins of others.  We lie to ourselves as we lie to others.  But God is not fooled.  He sees past our lies to the truth of who we are.  And Jesus utters haunting words that should echo in our ears still today.  What we use to justify ourselves, those very things, are actually abominations in the sight of our God.  What men hold us in high esteem over, are the very things that God cannot stand to look at in us.  He has lost our hearts, for we have closed off our hearts from Him.  We stand on the scriptures, as did the Pharisees.  We stand on church attendance, as did the Pharisees.  We stand upon being the leaders in our day, as did the Pharisees in theirs.  But our prayers are empty for they touch not our hearts in the slightest.  We have lost the feeling for the lost, they are now nothing to us.  Nor do we count ourselves among them because no consequence exists to remind us it may be so.  And we mistake patience for acceptance of who we have become.  But we are wrong.

So Jesus turns to the law to prod these proud men into seeing how what they do is a complete contrast to what God would have them do.  Jesus continues in verse 16 saying … “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. [verse 17] And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. [verse18] Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.”  The Law remains.  It is not optional.  Our commitments not trivial.  What we pledge before almighty God, and incite Him to bless and seal, remains sealed, and is not subject to the whims of a wicked heart.  The Pharisees believed that if their respective wives did not please them, they could just put them away on the backburner, and go find someone else.  Divorce had become a meaningless tool to seek variety to the heart’s content.  And they, and we, treat our God no differently.  We do not commit ourselves to His Law any better than we commit ourselves to the woman who stands before us now.  Let ease or comfort be found in the arms of another and how quick we are to stray – ever building an account of pain that will one day come to full harvest.  Consequence had been delayed for the Pharisees, so they believed there would ever be no consequence.  Shielded from how bad the pain could be, they mistook patience, for tolerance and acceptance, but it is not so, not for them, nor for us.

They had been hit with the Law.  Now it was time to hit them with a parable based in the fears they held most personal, fears they could not avoid.  Jesus continued in verse 19 saying … “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: [verse 20] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, [verse 21] And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.”  Here was the height of contrast in Jewish society of this day.  The rich man was the Pharisee.  He had fine clothing and ate the finest foods every single day.  By contrast the poor beggar Lazarus, had nothing, had no one, and was near starvation.  Moreover he was covered with sores, a sure sign of the displeasure of God in this world, a perfect contrast to the rich man, to them.  And as if it could not get worse, dogs came and licked the sores of the beggar.  This was meant to be the height of disgusting to the rich, to them.  But they had forgotten their charge, their duty.  It was not just to share with those in need, but to meet the need itself.  The Pharisees, instead of contempt for the mans obvious sins, should have been set upon healing his sores, giving him raiment, putting food in his belly, and helping him find work.  A different heart would have pursued these duties gladly, but alas, it was not so then, or now.

Jesus continues reminding us all what comes for us all and is inevitable picking back up in verse 22 saying … “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; [verse 23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. [verse 24] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. [verse 25] But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. [verse 26] And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”  This is not a parable about salvation, or the afterlife.  It is a parable to reset the priorities of what we think is important in this world.  You will note the logic (clearly not about salvation), the rich man suffers in hell, because in this life he had extreme wealth, so in the next one he is tormented.  And by the same token, the poor beggar suffered here so in the next one he sits at the side of Abraham.  Our suffering does not save us.  Only Jesus can do that.  What we need is to become different people than who we have made of ourselves.  Just because consequence is delayed, does not mean consequence is never coming.  It is coming with the intensity of hell itself.  And the gulf between heaven and hell keeps any who think of visiting the other place kept firmly in their respective sides.  i.e. fates will be forever, whether for good, or for evil.

So the rich man realizes there is no more hope for himself.  The best he can do, is try to influence his own family before it is too late for them.  Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: [verse 28] For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. [verse 29] Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. [verse 30] And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. [verse 31] And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”  And here is where the parable goes sideways, and becomes prophecy.  The Pharisees (and us) refuse to hear the law, the prophets, the scriptures we are supposed to value so much.  Instead we are casual with our commitments, and loose with our behavior and motives.  We treat God like the booby prize at the fair, instead of treasuring our salvation from who we are.  And so we do not hear what was written.

The Pharisees would not hear scripture, nor the God who spoke to them right that minute, nor the risen Savior would be with them after His own crucifixion.  They would not repent, no matter what.  So what say you?  Are you willing to be broken upon the anvil of Gods love?  Are you willing to have what your life looks like now shattered into a million pieces by a loving God until it can be rebuilt into something you cannot possibly imagine today?  For that is what He wants.  To save you from who you have become.  To spark the heart in you until it is overflowing.  To cause so much love in you, that you see the need in this world, not as your duty, but as your opportunity to reflect His love outwards.  In this process you may be forced to confront the pain you have been accumulating for years on account.  It may come all crashing down in your life.  Those you love you may break with your past.  But what can be broken by sin and its consequence can be remade by a Creator with such tender love and mercy that what emerges anew wont ever be broken again.  Let us look to Jesus as our sacred Creator, and allow Him to work His wonders in the very soul of who we are, making us into who He would have us become, not just later, but now and forever.

 

Should have known better ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Eating Food in the House of a Critic ...

The best meal can so quickly be ruined by the conversation that comes with it.  Imagine being invited to Gordon Ramsay’s home for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  For those vegetarians or vegans among us, hang on to your hats, Gordon is not much on this kind of cuisine.  For those of us who prefer to eat a kosher diet, avoiding the unclean, and sticking with only the clean meats as outlined in scripture; we better hold on to our hats as well – Gordon makes no such discrimination in his menus, or in my guess, his home.  Which leaves the rest of America that pretty much eats anything, and only avoids foods that just sound ugly, or gross.  But even with the dietary restrictions outlined previously, I would still bet we could find food on Gordon’s table that would not only fit the restriction, but would burst out in taste, flavor, enough to make your mouth water, and your stomach dance with delight.  Hard to imagine getting a better thanksgiving invite from the world’s top chef, if not its top critic, than this one all things considered.

But then continue to use your imagination, and picture yourself at Gordon’s home, only to find he invited other guests, and the one who sits next to you, is perhaps the biggest racist you ever heard of in your life.  A secret member of the Nazi party, who up until this meal, had kept his beliefs secret from everyone including Gordon who had no idea this was who he invited for this wonderful meal.  Now comes the question; is it possible for you to eat if the words that spew from this racist Nazi mouth continue throughout the duration of the meal?  Does it even matter how good the food might have been?  Could you stand it?  Sometimes we just want a meal in peace.  It is the peace that makes the meal even better.  It is the fellowship that truly makes us thankful.  And even though most of us will not be eating at Gordon’s home this year (or any other due to a lack of invitation 😊), eating at home with someone next to you, who espouses hate in the name of our God, under the claims of Christianity, is almost as bad as discovering a secret member of the Nazi party, whose message is ironically not much different.

This sounds like a problem of the twentieth century.  But if you could put yourself in the place of Jesus back in His day, to be filled with so much love, and find those you came to save, filled only with so much pride and hateful speech; do you wonder how Jesus was able to put up with it?  I wonder how He was able to eat any food at all, given the conversations He must have had to endure.  Perhaps one of the bigger differences between Jesus and me, was that He was able to take each situation and turn it into a learning moment.  I go crazy and just want to run away before I feel something I should not feel, or worse, say something I should never have said.  And the Love of Jesus was so great, He never seemed to turn down any invitation, even when He knew what was coming.  Luke offers us a few examples of Jesus in just such socially difficult situations and how He handled them.  We pick up in the seventh chapter of Luke’s letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

The story begins in verse 36 saying … “And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.”  If ever there were a story that proves Jesus came to save everyone, and He would embrace any who dared to embrace Him, this was it.  Jesus came to save church leadership from itself, as much as He came to save the poor from themselves, and me from me.  Keep in mind the Pharisees were constantly trying to trap Jesus in some wrong word or deed, in order to shame Him in front of the people and prove He was a false Messiah.  But that does not deter Jesus one minute.  Jesus was invited in, and so in He went.  This should also serve as a lesson to us.  Jesus was sure to be invited in this case into the home of someone who believed radically different than Himself.  But Jesus is not afraid to be stained by this encounter.  He does not seek isolation from those who may believe differently.  Instead He jumps right in and has dinner with them.  Jesus does not take this opportunity to go and condemn the stupid or ignorant of how salvation works.  He uses it to demonstrate in love how salvation actually does work.

But before Jesus has any chance to speak a single word, a sinful woman interrupts the festivities to demonstrate what the Love of Jesus means to her.  Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, [verse 38] And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”  OK, our conservative brethren are not going to like this part of the story much, but facts are annoying because they tend not to go away.  First there is no mention of this woman’s husband.  She could have been a widow, who inherited a bit of wealth.  But then the tag “sinner” would hardly have been needed for Luke’s story.  So if we rule out widow, then perhaps she was a tech billionaire with an aspiring career with an ever upward trend.  But no, women did not have careers back in these days.  They worked in the home to keep it, or on a farm to keep it, or both.  They did not get paid for that, they survived by it, with little if any to spare. So … that leaves the world’s oldest profession so to speak.  A woman of the night would have had time and opportunity to collect the wealth needed to fund an alabaster box of ointment.  Men paid for it, many men, no mention of their sin or role in this, only a subtle way of identifying what kind of woman she was, without actually providing her name to get her stoned by angry self-righteous patrons of her services.

Then there are the tears.  A Hollywood camera shot of the single tear welling up in the eye of the actress will simply not due here.  It takes many many more than that to wash the Saviors feet and get them clean.  And this sinful woman is not moved so much by the love of Jesus that her heart breaks only a little, it is decimated, as should our own be when we contemplate how much Jesus has given and gone through for us.  Yet most of us fain a little gratitude, say a quick prayer over meals, attend church, and call it a day.  Our hearts remaining as much made of stone as they have always been.  But when we truly contemplate His love for us, there is no heart that can stand it.  What was stone breaks, and tears flow.  Whether alone when we realize it, or as witness to the acts of another’s love, or no matter the audience as what is around us is no longer a constraint to the weeping we will not be embarrassed too much to offer.  This woman knows what she is and who she is, and what she has done.  But she also knows how great His love is for her still.  And it breaks her.  She has no pride left.  She cares not for the condemnation that is sure to accompany her for the public display of her gratitude.  Men grow uncomfortable in the company of one they have been partner in sin with.  But despite it all, her tears flow like a faucet left on.  Having no towel and daring not to ask for one, she uses her hair to dry His feet.  And to seal her love she kisses His feet no matter what dung they may have walked through on His journey to this place.  Dusty, arid, deserts are not kind to feet especially in sandals which offer little protection.  But to her, their beauty is unmatched and far more than she is worthy of.

And what we say is now shattered by example.  For it is clear that Jesus did hang out with hookers after all, and not just this one, and not just at this time.  Jesus did not fear their company.  Jesus did not feel guilt when they entered His presence.  He was glad of it.  For the love that saves this woman, is the same love we – His church – should be showing all those who work in the night, performing acts which destroy the soul.  We are not to shun them or avoid them.  We are to embrace them, and let our demonstration of His love, give them perhaps the ONLY reason they may decide they want to change.  How can we point them to Christ, if we never dare to be in their company?  And not only the hookers of our world, but the drug addicts, and thieves, and homosexuals and adulterers.  Our pews are already filled with those in secret sin, who above all else wish not to be exposed.  But instead of being broken upon the anvil of His love, we remain stone, and claim we should never put ourselves in a position to be in contact with those in public sins of this world; lest those sins rub off on us.  But our words are hollow, and they are shattered upon the example of our Lord.  And in irony of ironies, the hooker was not found the in brothel this time, but in the home of the Pharisee.  I get it that she did not live there, or work there as best we know.  But how many more might come to know Jesus, if we – His Church – were finally willing to go to them and love them right where they are, meeting their needs as best we know how.  Letting our love be our sermon.

But all too many of us worry too much about reputation.  You can imagine the Pharisee cared more for this than he did this woman who somehow knew where he lived, and somehow had gained entry into his home in the first place.  Luke continues in verse 39 saying … “Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”  And there it is.  Condemnation and complete lack of concern for the woman.  Reputations matter way more than she ever will.  Followed by a shaken belief in Jesus because He did not act likewise.  Hey think about it, if I can deduce from Luke’s account what kind of woman she was, and I am but a bear-of-little-brain [Winnie-the-pooh reference] – why couldn’t Jesus easily see just what kind of diseased tears were falling on His feet at the moment.  And further, why not make her stop and throw her out before it gets worse.  Who wants a meal with a weeping hooker in the room anyway?  Let her find God in church like everybody else is supposed to.  But how many of us actually find God in church?  I would bet we find Him way more often outside of church walls, and in the company of church believers who truly know how to love, and choose to love, in situations far more messy than the conditions our pristine pews offer.

Jesus does not flee in righteous anger.  He does not have a near heart attack from the elevated levels of frustration I would have succumbed to; unable to figure out how to resolve such a situation without verbally destroying at least someone in the process (and I would have been leaning at the Pharisee, as I do all too often).  Instead Jesus uses this meal and this moment and these conditions to make them all become a learning moment designed to offend no one and embrace everyone.  Luke continues in verse 40 saying … “And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. [verse 41] There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. [verse 42] And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? [verse 43] Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.”  Jesus does NOT condemn the hooker, and He does NOT condemn Simon the Pharisee.  He forgives both.  The hooker who knows how much she needs it, for she needs much forgiveness.  And Simon even though he does not know he needs any forgiveness at all, but in point of fact, may need it more than the hooker on display.  This is not about replacing the “righteous” in the pews with street hookers to fill the place.  It is about embracing both.  This is about healing both, some from secret sin they fear will be exposed, and some from public sin that already has.

Jesus continues in verse 44 saying … “And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. [verse 45] Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. [verse 46] My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. [verse 47] Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”  And here is the lesson … for Simon the Pharisee, and for us.  This lesson is not for the hooker, she already gets it, she already loves so much, she would do all of this with a heart broken by love.  By contrast this lesson is for the Pharisee, for the church leader, and for you and I.  We don’t get it.  Simon did nothing for Jesus upon entering his home.  He didn’t think to.  Neither do we.  We are not that thankful yet, because we still keep holding on to that private sin, we live in fear of exposure of.  We refuse to let it go.  We cling to it, and it hardens our hearts against His love, turning us into stone from the inside out.  When we let Jesus transform us, He takes our sin from us.  Not just in forgiveness which we need, but our desire to continue to sin in the future.  He remakes us in harmony with His Laws of Love.

Luke continues in verse 48 saying … “And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. [verse 49] And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? [verse 50] And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”  I ask you, what does this woman have need to be saved from?  Not the condemnation she endures in the home of the church leader, she knew that would come, and she does not shy from it.  Not the entrance into the pearly gates when time shall be no more and resurrection will abound.  That promise is secure, but it is not the thing that is plaguing her in the here and now.  No.  She needs to be saved from … herself.  She needs to want a different life a better life, a life where she is not held captive to the whims of sexual desire and expression.  But she has for her lifetime always lost that battle.  So what changes when she leaves without the blessing of Jesus?  Jesus does not just forgive her (note the first part of the texts), He saves her from herself.  He frees her from the desires that put her in front of Him, broken by the magnitude of His love.  The people in attendance in this meal only question the ability of Jesus to forgive sins – but miss entirely the ability of Jesus to change the heart of the sinner bound in chains.  And so do we.

In the home of Simon the Pharisee, or the home of Gordon Ramsay, or our own home – it is time to seek more than just the forgiveness of Jesus for what we have done, but the salvation of Jesus for what our hearts of stone are captive to today.  Instead of spewing ideas about the gospel that make us sound more like the Nazi in ears of His angel’s than we might imagine, let us hold our tongue and let our love speak our sermons in plain and simple ways.  Let us use our words to point others to Jesus for the removal of slavery to sin in the here and now, as being the place we go to find it too.  It is the place where the pain ends, and a better life begins.  Let us not keep ourselves in isolation from the world, but go to meet need where we find it, sometimes in places of great discomfort, sometimes away from those same pews.  If we are to be truly thankful, let us measure it in our tears, and find the brokenness of our hearts a welcome change to what has so long been in its place.

 

Smack Down [part 3]; The Price of Getting it Wrong ...

How you do something is nearly as important as what you do.  Imagine the chaos that would reign in the ring if there were truly no rules, no holes barred.  If suddenly a tightly choreographed ballet of wrestler-meets-wrestler became a fully unscripted, unrehearsed free-for-all of may the better, stronger, and more determined man win.  Imagine the shock and surprise.  Imagine the real injuries that would come from doing for real, what up till now was only part of that tightly choreographed ballet.  People would get hurt.  Seriously hurt.  And all of the sudden it is not fun anymore.  Not fun to do surely, but also, not fun to watch.  It is easy to watch a melee we know in our hearts is tightly controlled.  But to watch carnage is not what anyone truly tunes in for.  For the audience, no one wants to see real harm, real damage.  It makes it hard to sit still and just watch it.  You want to get up, you want to do something, you want to make it stop.  And as God watches this earth.  He knows it is not choreographed.  The war for mankind is very real.  And the damage is very real, pain is very real.  And He just wants it to stop.  But He cannot make us listen, or instead of humanity, He would have only created biological robots.  Instead man must choose his fate.

But what happens when we choose wrong?  Oh sure, it is easy for the Christian believer to sit back in the easy chair and just think, once you choose Jesus, you’re done.  And frankly that is sort of true.  The problem is that we package Jesus, with a whole list of doctrines that are supposed to be teachings of how to connect with Jesus better.  Sometimes those doctrines do a great and wonderful work.  And sometimes we just get it wrong.  We wind up teaching something that not only does not bring us closer to Jesus, it takes us farther away, pointing us in the wrong direction entirely.  That is not just an oh-well-moment.  That is more like a literal oh-my-God moment.  Turning away from Jesus is a sure-fire way of finding carnage that you are at the center of.  It is removing the rules of protection, and entering the ring outgunned only to find your opponent brought a chain-saw he already has running and completely intends to use … on you.  Doctrines that distract put us in this position.  Fanaticism of nearly every kind can do the same thing too.  And the carnage is not pretty, and it really hurts.

So what does God do?  He tries to warn us.  He sends us His messengers (imperfect as they may be) to warn us, and try to keep us away from the carnage.  And I am not talking about avoiding some after life hell everybody bemoans.  I am talking about avoiding real painful carnage in this life, in the here and now, that any given demon is all to happy to bring your way.  He sends us His people to try to keep us of group mind, and more importantly of a group heart, where love might help us avoid, what otherwise looks attractive.  God has written His love letter in the form of His word (the Bible).  In this book of love, He tries to tell us the story of how we got it wrong to start, and He has been working every day since to help us get back to what “right” looks like.  We can read it.  And through the lens of the life of Christ, where Jesus demonstrates every day what love looks like, we can understand better what His love letter might mean.  But for those of us given to extremes, it is easy to misinterpret that love letter to mean some predefined agenda.  We package up those thoughts and ideas, and brand them a doctrine.  Then we force feed everyone else the doctrine that might save them or get them lost, based on how they respond.  What started as a love letter degenerates into hate mail; all by altering the perspective of the reader to fit their own agenda instead of what He originally meant.

This danger is not new.  It did not start with us.  But it has a horrific tendency to be continued by us, in ways we may have become numb to.  Sometimes when we do become numb, it takes a spiritual smack-down by Jesus to wake us up, and begin to see the error of our ways.  To make us see, we got it wrong.  And ultimately to help us change course before the carnage heads our way (chainsaw rumbling in the distance).  Matthew continues the object lesson of Jesus, of our price for getting it wrong in chapter 23 of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He picks up with Jesus talking in verse 23 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [verse 24] Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”  Yikes.  The first woe issued here is about fanaticism in the church.

Our Pharisee forefathers knew the obligation of paying tithes back to God.  They did not see the love in it, because they did not use love as the lens through which to read God’s love letter.  So lacking love, they read only the obligation of paying tithes.  Apparently God was only another tax master.  And while God did not have a readily apparent tax agent to collect His due.  There was a history of monstrous things happening to Israel when their sins got bad.  So better to avoid captivity by paying God off with what he required.  10% of the increase is tithe.  We generally hold that to be 10% of our incomes from jobs.  So did they.  But they took the matter a step further.  The word “increase” could apply to flocks and sheep.  So why not to spices in the spice rack.  Therefore in an effort to be fully compliant (again note the lack of love), they actually taxed themselves 10% on literally anything that went into the kitchen.  Even the smallest things we would never even consider.  Straining at the gnat.

It is like going to a picnic to eat.  And to avoid eating unclean things, you carefully sift your pepper, to insure not a single gnat has died and fallen into the pile or container.  And while you meticulously sift each grain of pepper with your left hand, you hold a camel burger in your right hand eagerly munching away.  While perhaps the notion of not eating a dead bug accidentally is OK (extreme given the venue, and low likelihood it is even a risk, but OK); eating camel burgers is strictly prohibited, and horrible tasting as well (just a guess, you don’t see many camel-burger stands going up everywhere for 2 thousand years).  Without love as the driving motive, Pharisees had only corrupt and selfish judgments.  They handed out rulings and decisions that favored themselves, no matter who else it cost.  Sound familiar?  We vote for ideas that will benefit us, even if others must pay for what benefits us.  Even if those who pay can least afford to.  And we call this progressive, or disruptive thinking.  Its not.  Its simply walking where our Pharisee forefathers once walked, for the same reasons they did.

The disease of extremes must continue to be called out.  Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [verse 26] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”  Apparently a strange custom had developed so long ago, of washing the outsides (or bottoms if you prefer) of plates and cups.  But leaving the insides or tops alone.  I guess the idea would be to let the crumbs of the last meal, help flavor the current one.  While this might work once, or maybe even twice, over time it is not flavor that lasts, but mold that begins to grow.  It is then a “new” flavor that infects the new food you intend to eat from the old that for whatever reason you keep neglecting to clean.  And mold flavor brings with it, you guessed it, carnage.

So with a dishwasher in every home (we call ours “me”).  Perhaps we cannot relate to a dirty plate analogy.  But how about a more personal one.  What is the dress attire requirements at your church for worship services?  It used to be “the best we had to offer”.  Over time that became a three-piece-suit.  That evolved into a jacket, lose the vest, keep the tie.  Then perhaps it was lose the tie.  Then for the bold, it might become lose the jacket.  But wear a pair of cargo shorts and a tommy Bahama look alike short sleaved shirt, with tennis shoes, and see what happens.  I know (it is how I go to services now).  And just so you know, my decision was not one of disrespect.  Rather, I dress like I do, every other day of the week.  I would like to believe that I dress to be able to help those in need when I encounter them.  And as my disabilities make it very hard to dress any more formal than this, this is the least pain in getting presentable.  But does anyone bother to ask me about that?  Does anyone look past the cane with the four feet, and reason perhaps that had something to do with it?  Not where I go.  My church family is surprising accepting of me (that is, no one has had the nerve to say a single negative word).  But I expected it, and still do.  Cause how I package the outside of the plate, is still something most church goers pay more attention to, than what is on the inside.  And forget me, this is a phenomenon that has infected our sanctuaries for years, from our ancient roots right up to this day.  We focus on the packaging, and turn a blind eye to the insides, and how we love.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. [verse 28] Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  It is almost as if Jesus peered into any traditional church body in America.  Or perhaps into any executive office suite where serious money is made.  Looking the part, is a distinct part of our culture, in and out of the church.  We worry about our packaging, believing it says something about who we are.  It does.  It says we worry about our packaging, perhaps more than being fit for practical service.  And perhaps our assemblies are more inwardly facing, where we feed each other, you know, the already fat sheep; instead of assembling out of our normal comforts and going where the need is, to meet it.  Not because we have to, but because we are driven to, because we just cannot sit still and watch others in carnage for one more minute.

Service is rarely “pretty”.  When I do the dishes in my house, I look anything but pretty.  I struggle to stand, to balance, to get the job done right.  I am hunched over leaning on the sink to steady me.  And yes, we have an automatic dishwasher so why do I bother.  (Technically it is full of hoarded containers for some reason I am not allowed to throw out.)  But beyond the technicalities if I am able to do the dishes, my wife who works hard in her hospital trying to help patients facing life and death dilemmas get better or at least feel better, won’t have to come home to a dirty kitchen, and find even more work to do.  I am no saint.  Nor am I clean freak.  I make more than my share of mess as I am sure every husband does, that my wife without a word comes behind me and cleans.  We do what we can for each other, because we are afforded the opportunity to.  It is not a contest, it is a pleasure, the pleasure of trying to ease each other’s burden, even if only a little.  And what it leads to ultimately is time, more time we can spend together, which frankly is worth more than any place where serious money is made, or where euphoria over spiritual repetitions are recited ad nauseum.  We probably don’t look too pretty in our “house clothes”.  But as I said service is rarely ever pretty, at least on the outside.  But what I see when I look at her is a fire inside that is immune to age, health, or inability – and to me that is beautiful no matter whether it comes dressed in scrubs, 15-year-old house shorts, or a negligee from Vickie’s.

It is time for us all to see the beauty of service to others.  Not just to our families, but to any who have need.  Not for brownie points, or to earn heavenly demerits, but because the passion to sit still while carnage is ever present is just something we can no longer abide.  It is this passion that comes from transformation, and it is available without measure to any who seek it, in the form of submission to Jesus Christ.  My Pharisee forefathers refused to submit.  They preferred extremes of law, to extremes of love.  And they like we, cover the ears so as not to hear, even as God sent His messengers (imperfect as all of us are) to invite them back to love.  Jesus continues in verse 29 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, [verse 30] And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. [verse 31] Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. [verse 32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. [verse 33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

Smack down.  To me.  To my generation.  Woe to us.  For we say … “if we had been in the days of Jesus, we would not have been partakers with them in His blood”.  And in our next breath, we deny His love, rely upon ourselves, and fail miserably.  Then we propagate our doctrine of self-reliance to our children, and our sphere of witness, to no effect.  We teach action without motive.  Because self-reliance may control action, but has no effect on motive.  So we try to act our way into heaven, fooling no one.  It will be our own damnation we cannot escape when by grace we walk His golden streets.  To know the time we wasted, and lost.  To see the lives we could have showed just a little more love to, but failed and lost the opportunity, sometimes forever.  It will be our own knowledge of perfect love that will perfectly condemn who we are today in our own eyes then.  That damnation is our inescapable fate, even on golden streets.  Unless we can begin our journey of submission to Jesus now, in the here and the now.  Only then can our feet move from well-trodden paths of failure, into the green grass of His direction.

Jesus calls out to them and us in verse 34 saying … “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: [verse 35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. [verse 36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”  I am confused, is He talking to them, or is He talking to me.  When I ignore the prophets in His word.  When I deny the power of His gospel, by stubbornly holding to the image in the mirror to somehow find perfection when history would demonstrate this is impossible.  When my denial is as great as theirs, do I also share their fate, and the blood of those slain to try to recall me to the Feet of Love itself?

Listen to the ache in the voice of Jesus who so longs to love us, when still we reject Him.  Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”  He is not just speaking to those long gone from the earth.  He is still speaking straight to me, and to you.  How He longs to gather us under His wings.  But we are too evolved for that.  We are modern, and educated, and well to do.  We have no need of a protector, let alone of a savior.  We intend to do that work ourselves, strengthened by our doctrines, and certain in their interpretation, with no room for error or mistake.  And still Jerusalem would not.  Not the city.  But us the group of believers who claim His name, yet know not His real power to change.  And so it comes, the price of getting it wrong.  The price of our arrogance, and pride.  The price of our hypocrisy and refusal to submit.  The self-imposed hell of separation from His Love He so longs to give.

Jesus writes the epitaph picking up in verse 38 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [verse 39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  The smack down ends.  There is no point to more, if the message will never penetrate the person’s ear, because they refuse to let it.  Is this where our lineage to our Pharisee forefathers makes a break from their path of self-reliance?  Or do we too follow along blindly clinging to our doctrines, our hypocrisy, and our complete lack of passion for others on any level.  This is where I must rage against my heritage.  I wish to hear His words, open my ears, and my heart, and become someone other than who I would make of me.  There comes a point where forgiveness is just not enough.  Where a real change in behavior from a real change in motive is the goal we live for.  Forgiveness gets us started but it is not the end of the road, it is only the beginning.  A life past His transformation is the only thing we should seek with singular purpose.  To let Him remake how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  And Jesus will.  He does this to every willing seeker.  No matter your past, or your present, your future can still be something so much better.  It is worth more than anything.  Don’t ever let it go.  Let this smack-down be the last one we ever need …