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.

 

Mis-Interpreting Doctrine ...

Start with a bad premise, and you will end in a bad place.  There are many books, authors, and scriptures in our collection of both Old and New Testaments.  But both the Old and the New “Testaments” are supposed to be testaments of the love of our God who is bent on our redemption and reconciliation with Himself.  If you remove that guiding principle of a loving God whose entire mission is to redeem you; the lack of love you apply when reading and interpreting scripture can be used to form some very hateful doctrines that focus more on punishment than they ever will upon reconciliation with our God.  That focus on punishment is a very human thing to do, a very human perspective.  You could go so far as calling it a natural one.  We are content when the wicked are punished for what they did to us, or to those we love.  But the evil in the heart of the wicked is not changed or removed from the hate they earn from us; no, if anything that mutual hatred is only amplified by more hate.  Evil is removed when it is confronted with the love of Jesus Christ that has the power to change how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  It is not hell that changes the wicked, it is surrender to the love of Jesus that does.  Hell can put an end to the life of one bathed in wickedness.  But Jesus can take that same life, end the evil in it, and show that person what it truly means to live once freed from the evil that is like a cancer upon our souls.

Throughout history, many have opened scriptures who did not understand who our God is, and what redemption is all about.  They have a notion of it, but no personal encounter with it.  So the doctrines they create; they reason are based upon texts in the Bible, sometimes a collection of them, where the conclusion seems reasonable, logical, and Biblically based.  Yet those conclusions should, and could have been denounced by pure common sense – if not by examining them through the lens of a loving Jesus Christ bent on our redemption.  We could begin for example with how women are depicted in doctrine.  The fact that Eve sinned first, and as a result, was asked to take a secondary role in the support of her marriage with Adam.  Not fighting with him, but choosing to defer to him, reminding him of the love of God, to help build him up and keep relations in the family harmonious through self-less service, this was a sampling of what was asked of her.  Men degenerate how women are treated throughout history until during the time of Moses they are completely secondary citizens.  Women could not hold property, without a male heir, or husband to affirm their ownership.  Was this what God intended?  NO.  The entire life of Jesus affirms this in how “He” treats women.  But in the minds of men, who lack the perspective of a loving God who would have sent His Messiah for Eve alone if it were Eve alone who sinned, it is now how scripture came to be interpreted.

Even to our day, the roles of women in the church are still debated.  Even though there have clearly been women who were prophets.  Women who first encountered Jesus even before He had ascended to His Father.  Women who first carried the gospel to the disciples who were still cowering in fear.  Women who headed the charitable services in the Early Church.  And women in our day who have clearly been given the gift of preaching and teaching.  Yet somehow, despite all the evidence of the Holy Spirit on these topics, some continue to believe “scripture” is very limiting on the roles of women in the church.  Not surprisingly those men who choose to continue to believe the roles of women are “limited” in the church, also have very definitive notions about the roles of women in a marriage.  These men preferring subservience by edict, rather than a woman choosing to serve her husband and family by becoming the chief support person of both.  A choice she makes only because her God asked her to, and in His wisdom, she finds a fulfillment no other choice could offer.

But a wife choosing to live in service is not about power or dictatorships, it is about redemption and reconciliation – the absence of self-love, and the embrace of the love of Jesus – through a choice.  When a man dictates this role, the marriage is doomed at the outset.  Treating women like property, and denying them property rights, is more akin to treating women like animals, not like people.  Even if culture develops traditions of these types, that does not mean scripture agrees, or that God wishes this.  It is the evil in the hearts of men looking for a doctrinal basis to remain evil.  Choosing to serve is a reflection of the love of Jesus.  Demanding what is due, is not the way of Jesus, nor should scripture be used to try to justify a “do it or else” mandate.  So the farther back in history we go, the more oppressive men are related to the roles, and rights, of women.  How marriage is seen then, in the days of Moses, is a reflection of how oppressive society was against women in general.  A bad premise, ending in a bad place.

Enter Matthew writing his gospel to his fellow Hebrews; it was the Sadducees turn at attempting to trap Jesus.  The Pharisees had failed.  They were up.  They determined to attack Jesus on two fronts; first on how a woman (treated no better than property) would wind up in heaven.  And of course implicit in that, a denial the resurrection could exist because of the kinds of problems it would create in perfection.  The Sadducees had come to the conclusion that life itself was a one-and-done proposition.  Doing good then, was a way to keep God from torturing or killing you early.  This is a punishment centric view of the Old Testament, and surprisingly similar to what some evangelists teach today.  But it is based on a bad premise, and it leads to a bad place.  Matthew picks up this story in chapter twenty two of his gospel.

Beginning in verse 23 it states … “The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, [verse 24] Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. [verse 25] Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: [verse 26] Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. [verse 27] And last of all the woman died also. [verse 28] Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.”  So many things to unpack here.  To begin, the laws of Moses, written in Deuteronomy to which the Sadducees refer should be understood in context.  The children of Israel were former slaves.  Their every movement was dictated by the will of the Pharaoh as carried out by their taskmasters.  They did not understand freedom, or what it meant to be able to do anything without anyone telling them “no”.  So the precepts Moses outlined in that book (of duties) were designed to put some practical limits around their societal behavior.

In those days, women were hardly treated better than cattle.  They could not hold property without a male heir, or husband to validate the claim.  That was NOT what God intended, but this was such a cultural norm, the people were nowhere near ready to abandon this kind of practice.  So the scenario outlined above by the Sadducees in such a callous way, was actually intended to benefit the woman in question – allowing her to raise up an heir to hold her property and namesake in Israel.  It was targeted at keeping her in the family (as a recent widow) rather than turning her out into the streets to find a stranger somewhere who might be willing to take her in.  In fact, as this duty or precept is written, should one of those brother’s refuse to marry her – he would be publicly ridiculed in Israel for failing to protect her rights through this arcane practice.  Was it ideal?  No.  Was it what God intended, or wanted for His precious daughters? No.  But it was a safeguard to keep them from having a tragedy of losing a husband become an even greater tragedy of losing everything they knew.

Ignoring the fact that Moses was actually trying to protect widows (for which he writes quite a bit more in Deuteronomy), the Sadducees present this as a resurrection dilemma.  The Sadducees are fairly certain there is no good answer to this riddle, and that they will humiliate Jesus while getting Him to acknowledge there is no resurrection at all.  But they would be disappointed.  Jesus responds in verse 29 saying … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”  Those words are haunting and they echo through time, all the way into the sanctuaries we visit each week while we worship God, and cling to premises that end up in bad places.  “YE DO ERR”.  Let that sink in for a minute.  These men were SURE of their doctrines.  They did not just casually read the scriptures, they lived in them.  They read every day.  They debated every day.  They honored the scholars among them who made new discoveries and debated the merits of each one.  They did not just stumble on their beliefs, their beliefs were the results of generations of scholars who reached the same conclusions.  ALL of them wrong.

Are we any different?  Do we become so comfortable resting on the work of our church forefathers, and the conclusions they reached, that no message from outside our walls can ever penetrate our thinking?  Are we so sure we are right about everything, we have no more room to learn, only room to recite.  But the words of Jesus to these church leaders echo down to us.  Ye Do Err!  We look at scriptures with the lens of punishment and an angry God, and therefore come to conclusions He never intended us to reach.  Just like they did.  What is more, just like them – we deny the POWER of GOD!  We do not account for it in our thinking, or in our doctrines.  Some would like to say that this is a specific example of Jesus telling the Sadducees that they are mistaken about the resurrection.  But they were also mistaken about marriage, the roles of women, divorce, the value of women, and what love looks like in heaven.  Worst of all they underestimated the power of God.  Perhaps we are all just as guilty on all of the above topics.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”  First, there WILL BE a resurrection.  News I am certain they did not want to hear or accept.  Second, in the “resurrection”, not in all eternity, or the earth made new, or a hundred other points or descriptions we have about heaven, but at least during the resurrection and perhaps for a while thereafter – there will not be people getting married and more importantly nobody getting divorced.  Keep in mind how we think of this institution has degenerated a long ways since Eden.  And our notions of forever need quite a bit of adjustment where it comes to a single partner throughout eternity.  Being like the “angels” – can anyone tell me if angels have a special partner or not, like something we would refer to as marriage on earth?  Show me the scripture please that explains this, outside of this reference right here. 

What I do believe is meant by being like the angels is an understanding of perfect love we have no idea about today.  Perfect love you could think of in a number of examples.  Imagine every person in heaven looking at every child in heaven (babies, kids, rugrats, you know the younglings) and loving each one as much as you would have loved your own child.  Imagine every man loving every other man as much as you would your own father, son, or brother.  Imagine every man loving every other woman as much as you would your own mother, daughter, or sister.  Only the love of a special intimacy remains untapped in the scenario of perfect love, and the power of God might account for that quite nicely, as it is God who picked Eve for Adam in the first place.  But perfect love decimates the ideas of treating any woman as a second class anything.  Instead perfect love treats everyone else as the greatest person ever.

But Jesus was not content to leave the Sadducees in their error on their main topic of descension with the Pharisees and with the entire purpose of redemption and reconciliation in the first place.  So He continues in verse 31 saying … “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [verse 32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. [verse 33] And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.”  Jesus points out, that without a resurrection, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be dead forever.  God is not the God of the past alone, He is the God of the present, and of the future.  There will be a future for them as when the resurrection comes, they will be redeemed and reconciled to the side of Jesus Himself.  Just as all the other children who sleep in the hope of our God will see.

The crowds were amazed at this.  Are you?  A bad premise leads to a bad place, but a premise based on His love can lead to an astounding place.  As a woman and wife, are you ready to make service to your husband and family the choice that brings you fulfillment every day.  Never seeking for what you deserve, or what you have earned, but only for what you can offer.  Separately, and having nothing to do with how your wife has chosen to live -  husbands, are you ready to choose to love your wife and family so much, that you would literally lay down your life for them, and while you draw breath find ways to demonstrate that love for them so that they never doubt your heart on any day they draw breath.  No wife should wait for her husband to live this way, before she reciprocates.  And no husband should demand anything from his wife, before he is willing to show her the full measure of his heart and dedication to her own.  It is a different way of thinking to decide “how” you are going to love regardless of what others do.  If this seems foreign to you, take your life to Jesus, surrender to His love, and watch what happens to you.  It is breathtaking.  And it is beautiful.

But the traps for Jesus had one more shot …