A PhD in Cruelty ...

How hard is it for you to be “nice”?  Does your significant other (or perhaps a close family member) seem to enjoy sharing “painful” truth about you, to you?  Or is it you, who cloaks pain with truth, when you speak to others.  Often folks who do this, are not even aware they do it.  But the ones on the receiving end are acutely aware.  Everyone wants the truth.  And nobody wants pain.  So how you reconcile those two things may be a matter of sensitivity if you care about how someone else feels.  Blatant truth, that is, truth told without the slightest regard for how it will be received, or how much pain it can cause – is the mark of a student aiming for their PhD in Cruelty, whether they know it or not.  And for those who enjoy cruelty; to see tears well up, to see dreams dashed with reality, to break the spirit of the young.  For these folks, cruelty is something beyond the boundaries of education, it is a high art form.  But for Christians, the only blanket for truth is love.  You can share painful truth with me, when I know it breaks your heart harder than it breaks mine.  When your tears flow faster than my own, then whatever pain there is in my truth is couched in a love that cannot be denied.  At that point, painful truth, is constructive at best, and commiserated at least.

Cruelty however, is something that can be taught.  Victims become proficient perpetrators.  And long-time exposure to inflicting cruelty causes dullness in recognizing it, and lack of motivation to treat it.  It is a tool of Satan to stamp out the love-response-mechanism in us all.  And what you do for a living can greatly impact how much cruelty you learn to tolerate, and perhaps inflict.  For example, its harder for a cop.  Imagine how much horror and cruelty a policeman is exposed to over the years of their career.  Their job is to jump right in to man-hurting-man and try to stop it.  They see us at our worst.  Either inflicting great pain on others, or falling victim to the pain another inflicts.  Most of us don’t seek out cops to form friendships, have dinner parties, and generally be a support system for them.  Instead we sit behind our televisions or computer screens quick to judge the failures of a few; attributing those failures to everyone; and all the while decry racisms of all “other” forms as being rampant in those who chose to protect and serve us.  None-the-less they continue to serve.  Everyday a battle to remain human, while exposed to the worst of humanity seen in crisis nearly all the time.  But at least cops understand the hope to make society better.

Try being a front-line soldier for a living.  That career requires you to kill others.  Kill, or be killed.  It is hard to kill others without finding a reason to dislike them, perhaps to hate them.  So we try to walk the tight rope of teaching our soldiers to protect each other, while hating the enemy, enough to kill the enemy, but not enough to become barbarians in the process.  Let’s face it, America rarely enters a war with another nation, unless the deeds of that nation rank in our barbarism scale.  Then we fight back.  But history has a long habit of pointing out that war makes barbarians of us all, blurring the lines between the good side and the bad side if all we do is examine the worst of what each of us has done.  My grandfather was a full-bird colonel coming out of World War Two, I believe he served in the army aircorp at that time.  He is buried in Arlington National cemetery with his wife now.  He saw combat in the Pacific.  Survived an enemy bomb that killed every other officer in the tent, was promoted, and continued to fight.  My grandfather was a gentle man, at least what I knew of him.  But he brought home a visceral hatred for anything Japanese.  And he did not want to talk about it.  He saw something.  Something so horrible, he could not get it out of his mind.  Even decades later it was just as raw as ever.  The cruelty he witnessed was so bad he could never forget it, or ever stop blaming for it.  But he was blessed enough not to let it completely take him over.

The military has always had it hard, trying to walk that balancing act between horrifically efficient killer, and common man able to enter a peace-loving society when hostilities come to a close.  Now we have a myriad of psychological conditions we diagnose our vets with, and think because we have cute names and accurate symptoms, we have solved the problem.  But the problem is a fundamental one.  We train our men to kill, proficiently kill, then at some point, tell them killing is done.  And today’s suicide rates of our vets are way too high.  It is hard to take life, then deal with it.  Some men just never try to come back from it.  Look back through history, this is not a new problem, and its hard to say whether it is better now, or worse now.  We kill from farther away, but we kill many more people with our advanced weapons.  In Roman times, you killed pretty much only people you could reach at arms length.  Archery may give you distance but lowers the body count surety.  A sword in the chest, pretty much guarantees the job is done.  Is it any wonder the soldiers in the days of Christ seem so proficient in cruelty?

The Executive of the state washed his hands and passed the buck as much as he could.  But he still ordered Jesus to be crucified.  Jesus would hardly be unique in that death.  Rows of crosses lined the roads throughout all of Israel.  Where we have light posts, they had crosses.  It was designed as a warning to rebellious thinking people.  Act out, find yourself decorating the highways of Judea in blood, your blood.  It was abomination to have this much death, or partial death, going on all the time, nearly everywhere.  But there were many would-be Messiah’s who promised freedom from Rome, only to find themselves, and their followers, and their follower’s families, up on Roman crosses, marking the roads in and out of every city.  Hatred of Rome was visual, and earned, and mutual.  Soldiers did all the dirty work.  Pilate was not going to do “anything” to Jesus himself, he would order the military to do it.  Men bathed in cruelty, who were taught hatred of the enemy is the only thing that kept them alive.  Doctrines of Satan spread then and now, in furrows of the blood of our enemies, that we feel OK about shedding.

Mercy, while steeped in the heart of Jesus for his Roman military escort, was totally void in their hearts for Him.  Matthew picks up the story in chapter 27 of his gospel to his contemporaries, beginning in verse 27 it says … “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. [verse 28] And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.”  Modesty has left the building.  The circumcision of Jesus is now clearly visible to all.  What is left of his back is bare, but blood falls from its 39 chuncks of missing meat, taken by the shards of glass tied in to the tips of the whip (cat of nine-tails) used in his flogging.  He drops blood fast enough to bleed out, but no one tends to His already horrific wounds.  Jesus was a Jew.  He was bound to die.  The people hated Him (or so it looked).  So anything these Romans did to Jesus, would bring with it, not even a shred of accountability.  The only anger they would inspire in the priests, is from making them wait longer for the inevitable death of Jesus.  And let’s face it, that was part of the Roman “fun” of any crucifixion.

Once naked, they find likely in the dirty clothes hamper of Pilate, a scarlet purple robe of royalty.  How much fun it might be to put this robe on Jesus (dirty as it was) to make fun of Him.  The maids will wash the blood out of it before Pilate gets it back anyway, so why not.  Matthew continues in verse 29 saying … “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”  And Satan grants each of them an honorary PhD in Cruetly for following his lead in this matter.  What is a king without a crown.  So they make one, weaving together a thorn bush with 2 inch long thorns, long enough to push deep into the head of Jesus, causing new rivers of blood to emerge.  At this rate Jesus may not survive even the walk to the cross.  They give him a scepter made of a reed.  Then they mock Him, kneeling and hailing Him as the King of the Jews.  And this is where they believed anyone who dared to take that name belonged.  Here, bleeding out, being mocked.  Hate has no bounds, nor has it a high threshold.  Like love, when you think you have discovered all there is, more will be found in you.  Satan tries through all this cruelty to convince Jesus, that we, humanity, are not worth it.  He is right.  This is the painful truth, though it causes Satan no pain, only glee.

None of us are worth this.  At least none of us, would go through this for each other, yet Jesus is undeterred.  Now it is time to get physical.  Matthew continues in verse 30 saying … “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.”  None of us are too crazy about the idea of having someone else hawk-a-loogie right in our face.  To have the indignity of a spit bukaki in the face of your precious Savior should cause you to cringe in horror.  But it occurred.  Jesus did not react.  Not just because His arms were so tired He would not be able to lift them to wipe away the indignity.  But He just kept looking at these men as if He loved each of them, and knew each of them personally.  This was making it lose the buzz.  So they up’ed the game.  They take back the reed, and begin to beat Him on the head, pushing the crown of thorns even deeper into his flesh every time they made contact.  Producing a new squirt of blood as if from the pump of an artery every time they made contact.  They are laughing at Him.  He is crying for them.  They are why He is here.  To save each of them.

The fun is wearing off.  Cruelty cannot sustain a high, only get one started.  To sustain the high, one must find new ways to raise the game, make it worse.  There is never enough cruelty, to keep a high going.  Besides, Jesus has dumped so much blood on the ground in front of them, they are beginning to slip.  If they stay He will bleed out, avoid a crucifixion, and get them in trouble for not following orders.  Matthew continues in verse 31 saying … “And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.”  They put His own homespun on Him again.  But they leave the crown of thorns on Him, if they pulled it out surely He would have died from blood loss.  The clothing, such as it is, is now holding His back together after the flogging.  Not much skin left, so His clothing acts as a large sack holding His body together soaking with blood throughout.  But in this condition, He is completely unable to carry the cross as was the custom.  You can bet these cruel men had ZERO intentions of helping this Jew out, or any after Him.

Matthew continues in verse 32 saying … “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.  [verse 33] And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,  [verse 34] They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.”  They made it to the place designated for this execution.  Lucky them.  Had Jesus died en route there would have been no end to the anger.  The Romans could care less who they made help them out.  When they get there, they offered Jesus a pain-dulling stimulant, to give Him some chance to live longer.  This was not a mercy.  It was a continued act of cruelty.  The point was to see Jesus suffer as long as humanly possible.  If Jesus died right away, it kills the fun of it.  But when Jesus tasted what it was, He refused to drink.  In his depleted condition, you could not force Him, or you may just kill Him on the spot. 

Matthew continues in verse 35 saying … “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. [verse 36] And sitting down they watched him there; [verse 37] And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  The doctors of cruelty who have no idea about ancient Jewish prophecies now fulfill another of them without the slightest knowledge they do so.  They threw dice for the homespun of Jesus.  Once you wash His robes, they might be awefully nice to add to a wardrobe.  Further cruelty, He will die naked and exposed now for all the world to see.  What would be our shame is now His shame.  No modesty, no compassion, only cruelty.  They choose to nail His hands and feet to the cross.  They could have tied Him up there with ropes, but ropes are less painful.  Nails, or rather spikes, will pearce Him clean through and increase the pain by an order of magnitude.

But while the sound of spike through bone is heard by all, what is not heard, is even a whisper of condemnation for those who are in the middle of inflicting all this cruelty upon Him.  Jesus had to die.  But this level of cruelty was our choice, not His will.  Yet still he does not call out any who sin against Him personally, to condemn them for what they do, even though their cruelty would have surely gotten any one of us to hate them in response.  The horror of sledge hammer through bone is heard.  Continual planking and squirting of blood, yet not a word of condemnation.  This was the most evident public sin of all time, yet nothing from Jesus who knew their every thought.  And somehow still, modern Christians believe it is “their job” to point out sin.  Leave the sin diagnosis with Jesus, and frankly focus on getting the repair there as well.    The sign they erect over His head proclaims Him King.  None of these men probably read; they are not even sure what they posted.  But orders from Pilate so, so be it.

It is convenient for us to think we would never stoop to this level of cruelty to anyone, especially to Jesus.  So instead of pounding in a crown of thorns, or planking spikes through bone, we offer death by a thousand cuts instead.  We speak our blatant truth with no regard, and let the chips fall where they may.  But they are not our chips.  They are the pieces of hope and faith we shatter in another because we demonstrate to them that our version of what love means, is devoid of any caring for what another thinks and feels.  We believe it is “our duty” to call sin by its name, and speak the “will of God” as if “we” knew that will.  Our Pharisee forefathers had equal arrogance.  They too recited scripture and clung to their singular interpretations and were now killing Jesus because they too believed they knew the will of God. 

We call ourselves Christian, and then proceed to dismember others with our speech, ironically thinking we do them a favor.  We do not.  If we loved them, so much that it broke our hearts to even consider sharing with them a truth that might hurt them as well, we would find another way to say it.  We might even follow the example of Jesus during this entire event and keep our peace, keep silent.  Or we would stand there with our brothers & sisters sheltering them throughout, so that they knew we were with them forever.  If tears are to flow, let them be our tears first.  Love that cares, cares.  It is not blind to the heart of others, even in matters of truth.  Let us burn our degrees in cruelty, and study love in its place.  Let us wrap truth in a hand-stitched blanket of love, never more in a platted crown-of-thorns, before we even consider delivering it.  Let us elevate love to a high art form, ever pursuing a mastery we may never fully attain.  And in so doing, speak or see cruelty never again.

 

Stone Stadiums ...

Popular speakers, singers, and performers have an uncanny ability to fill a stadium to sold-out capacity for people who want to see and hear them in person.  Logically this makes little sense, as for all but a few extraordinarily rich and privileged individuals, the seats typically preclude actually getting a good personal view of the celebrity.  To overcome this obvious dilemma, large stadiums install even larger monitors that hang from the ceiling in a central location and use television cameras to capture more close up images and display them so that everyone is at least able to see better what is actually happening on stage.  But this more close up, captured view, is generally the same one produced on DVD and BluRays that could have been consumed and enjoyed in the comfort of our own homes.  Logically, one would think live presentations should be going the way of the dinosaur, but somehow in spite of all these facts, they persist and thrive.  So what is it about seeing a “live” event that we still crave to be a part of?

But what if the conditions to attend an event made the participation even more difficult?  What if, instead of stadium surround sound, and projection TV, with padded seats, there were none of these things present.  Only the crowds remained, outdoors, in the blistering desert heat … would any celebrity be worth contending with those conditions?  What if there were no bathrooms, or even nearby access to water.  What if it was hard to hear, nearly impossible to see, and getting close just like in our events today, was precluded simply by the size of the crowd.  Under these conditions, would you attempt to attend such a live event, to catch a glimpse of the celebrity?  In a make-shift stadium made of jagged stones, rocks, and dirt, such an event was to take place nearly 2,000 years ago … to a sold out crowd that rivals the crowds of today.  Peter was there.  He recalled what took place to John Mark in his gospel in chapter six.

Beginning in verse 30 Mark transcribes … “And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.”  The disciples had recently reached a good breaking point in their respective outreach to the surrounding areas, regarding the revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ.  They had been publicizing the arrival of the Messiah, the arrival of the very Son of God.  Adding power to their words, were acts of miraculous love that Jesus had endowed them with.  In His name, they were casting out demons, and healing the sick, just like their Lord was doing.  The audience might have easily ignored the ravings of mad-men, or the ramblings of disaffected disciples of yet another wanna-be Messiah.  But when those men performed the same miraculous deeds as their Master, in the name of their Master … this was something that could not be ignored.  The audience responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and to the power of the words He inspired in the mouths of the servants of Christ.  Hearts were turned in Israel.

The disciples had returned to Jesus in order to bring Him up to speed on the success they were seeing in their partner-team ministries.  They likely did not realize, that the recounting of their experiences, had the side effect of boosting their own faith (as Jesus already knew each event in detail before they recalled it).  It is similar in our prayer life.  We ask God for things, that He already knows we need.  We thank Him for things, that He already knew we would express our gratitude for.  Our prayers are not meant to be a news service, or an information brokerage.  They are meant to be a method for us to bring to our own minds, how much our God loves us, and proactively interacts with us, meeting our needs, and comforting us through events we were not meant to experience, but were made so by the evil of sin in this world.  The reaction of Jesus to these recollections is worth a special note.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. [verse 32] And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.”  As always, the FIRST concern of Jesus, is not for Himself, or in this case, even for the ministry and the harvest that was being reaped in Israel.  His First concern, was for those who He loved, and for the needs of His own disciples.  People respond to love.  The inherent need in people to be loved is great, and when it finds an outlet, it will latch on.  When the needy realize there is someone to love them, they cling tightly to this person, looking to share their needs, and unload the stories of their lives.  This emotional need of the seeker, can quickly translate to an emotional burden of the minister, and it can drain the limits of human patience, care, and empathy.  Our very humanity, our human nature, needs time to rest and recover between great acts of service and love.  We are weak vessels after all.  And our imperfection sometimes makes us less effective in sharing love with others, than the perfect patience of our Master would have otherwise given witness to.

Jesus sees the effects of stress on His disciples, and immediately offers a plan for their recovery and renewal.  Both then and now, Jesus is keenly aware of your physical and emotional condition.  He knows what you need.  Sometimes we ask to push on, and the answer given is to pause, take time away and refresh ourselves in order to be ready to push on when the time comes.  Rest, is not a sin.  Rest, is instead the cornerstone of the Sabbath, and time away with Christ.  The success of your personal ministry and personal testimony of what Jesus Christ has done in your own life, and the sins He has freed you from, is not measured in your activity level.  We do not need to run from site to site, or from witness to witness, in order that the greatest number of people can be reached.  Instead our success can be measured in how deeply we are led to love others.  It is not our words the world needs, it is our passion to really love someone who has never known the depths of what being loved means.  This may preclude us from loving millions and leave us only loving a few.  But to love those few so deeply as to make a tangible difference in their lives in the name of Christ, is to share true success in His ministry, and offer a true revelation of His identity.  Loving this deeply is draining.  Because in our world, our imperfections taint both our ability to selflessly love another, and their response to this love.  Rest then, becomes a key part of the ministry cycle.

To get away from the crowds, one must go where people do not typically want to go.  In this case, the desert offered solace from the crowds in Israel, because it is hot, dry, arid, and not conducive to social events or interactions.  It is an isolated place, because conditions for life are difficult there, so while you make choose to visit, few choose to attempt living there.  As such getting away from the crowds, by going to a place they do not typically ever want to go made sense.  So the disciples and Christ got into a boat and sailed over the Sea of Galilee looking for a good spot of desert isolation.  But what happened next, perhaps reveals to us, how great a need there is in the world around us, to simply be loved.  Peter recalls it to John Mark in verse 33 saying … “And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.”  The people saw Jesus setting sail with His disciples.  They guessed at their destination as a preference of isolation.  And they ran.

People ran home, to gather their families and friends.  They ignored the heat.  They ignored the pebbles that would invariably get in to their sandals.  They did not think about food or comfort.  The lame had spent too many days on the ground unable to move, they were made whole now, they were up, and longing to run.  The blind had spent too many days in darkness.  They were eager to see the light of the sun, and the Son of God.  The deaf had spent too many days in silence.  They now enjoyed the sound of waves along the shore, and craved the words of the Master who had broken through the darkness, the silence, and the chains that bound them to the ground.  In every town, every village, the word went out that Jesus was near.  And people gathered in numbers to rival an army.

Perhaps it was the lame who sprinted at full speed to outrun the boat Christ was on.  Perhaps it was the blind who pointed the way to those who could not move as fast.  Perhaps it was the deaf who shouted directions to those lagging behind, the mission was to meet Jesus where we He would land.  Those who had been bound to evil spirits, infecting them and insidiously controlling their actions, and corrupting their minds, were bound no longer.  They longed to sit again at the feet of the Son of God.  They were made free to love others.  They were restored and renewed.  No desert sun, no lack of water, no lack of food, even entered their minds … all that consumed their thoughts was to reach Jesus, even if it is only one last time to spend precious moments hearing the Word of the Lord, from the Lord Himself.  The voice of God had freed them.  That voice must be heard again.  So they ran, ignoring any human pain or limits.

Mark continues in verse 34 saying … “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”  The intent of this trip was not to preach or teach, but to allow His disciples to rest.  But on landing on shore, the great needs of those who had run themselves ragged for just a glimpse of His love was so great, it could not be ignored.  Jesus would have to impart His strength miraculously into His disciples to renew them for this event.  Just like He does today.  When the limits of our humanity have far been exceeded, it is not up to us to find more strength to go on.  It is up to us to allow God to renew us, and give us strength we have long run out of.  And so it occurred.  The disciples were miraculously made ready for the work of love, the crowds were in such desperate need of.  And Jesus begins to teach and preach in the jagged stone stadium that was originally meant to be a place of isolation and escape.

His powerful voice begins to echo in canyons of stone.  With another miracle, the crowds can hear every word.  The sky is crystal clear, and the sun should be melting the crowds in heat normally hot enough to melt stone; but while no one can explain it, it does not.  Today is just like in the days of the exodus of the children of Israel, when for forty years not even a single sandal wore out in the desert heat.  Every day in their sojourn back then the weather was kept mild in the camp of Israel, both day and night.  Scorpions, snakes, spiders, and all manner of dangerous and indigenous desert creatures were made to stay in their homes, and not a single snake bite occurs.  On this day, with this many people clamoring to get a good seat, to get comfortable looking for shade and rocks to sit on, snakes would have surely been in abundance, normally that is.  Yet not a single bite occurs.  Nature bends its will to the voice of its Creator.  The curse of sin, is made moot, by the only feet that can transform dirt into Holy Ground.  It is not Sinai that is Holy today, it is the stone stadiums along the shore of Galilee that are, because the Creator of Heaven and Earth is teaching there.  It is His feet transforming the earth they walk across, and dirt is transformed into Holy Ground.

In what seems like the blink of an eye, the hours of the day have been spent.  Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: [verse 36] Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.”  Notice the effects of being close to Christ.  The disciples now find themselves concerned not for their own welfare, but for the needs of the people.  Jesus made His first concern, for their well-being.  Now the disciples are making their own concern for the well-being of the people.  When we love others like Christ loves others, we begin to truly understand who He is.  When we love others like Christ loves others, we begin to see that the entirety of scripture and of our salvation has always been about that love.

The disciples are thinking about the needs of humanity, but limited in their scope of solutions to the limits of humanity.  This error in their thinking needs to be addressed.  We should not limit ourselves to the solutions only humanity is capable of, for we do not serve a man, but a God who has no limits.  Peter recalls the response of Jesus in His loving words in verse 37 saying … “He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?”  The story might have ended differently if the directions of Christ had been followed when they were given.  How like us.  Instead of doing what God commands, we pause to question Him, and His logic (or lack thereof) from our perspective.  Jesus had said to feed the people.  The disciples still looked at this idea in the context of human limitations.  They now made the more fatal mistake of introducing funding as a further limitation.  They point out to Christ, that 200 pennyworth does not buy what is required for this ministry.

How often have we looked our God square in the eye (metaphorically) and “informed” Him that we simply do not have enough money to perform the ministry He has asked of us?  If He wanted this ministry done, He should have provided more money to see it accomplished.  So after all, it is really His fault, that nothing gets done.  Or perhaps is it our total lack of faith the size of a grain of mustard seed that actually allows a financial discussion to even come up in the context of ministry.  How dare we introduce money as any kind of limiter to the love of God.  How dare we, like our disciple forefathers, explain that 200 pennyworth is simply not enough.  Jesus did not ask the disciples to buy bread, or for that matter to charge money for healing and the freedom from demons.  Money, was nowhere a part of the ministry of Christ.  Freely, they were given gifts, freely they were to impart them.  The request of Jesus never mentioned money, or purchasing, or financial transactions.  It was to feed the people.  Does He ask anything different from us today?  Why is our first response always couched in the financial terms that will invariably limit our responsive actions to His commands?

Instead Jesus has other ideas as Mark transcribes in verse 38 saying … “He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.”  You will note that Jesus asks them to examine their inventory of food, not money.  You will note that people do not eat money, they eat food; which if the disciples had truly wanted to discuss the limits of feeding this crowd, they would have assessed prior to their first response.  Jesus continues in verse 39 saying … “And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. [verse 40] And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.”  Hey wait a minute … why is this not game over?  The inventory had come back as 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, the picnic lunch of a caring mother for her son in all likelihood.  That was far too few resources to accomplish so great a ministry, yet Christ does not deter moving forward for even an instant.  He does not “explain” why too little resources have been provided, and He is “sorry” that everyone will just have to be disappointed.  In short, He does not do what we always do when confronted with the same set of facts.  Instead He organizes for what is about to occur.

Then Peter recalls what a lack of limits can accomplish beginning in verse 41 as John Mark transcribes … “And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. [verse 42] And they did all eat, and were filled. [verse 43] And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. [verse 44] And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.”  Dead fish do not breed.  Nor does wheat spring forth, get milled, baked, and reach perfection within the confines of a picnic basket.  What happened was not a gathering and preparation of food for the crowds.  It was not the impracticality of even assuming that local merchants would be capable or prepared to feed so many.  Instead food and scare resources were replicated in the hands of Christ to meet the needs of the people there.

This could have been done by the disciples directly, if they had responded differently to the original command of Christ.  How like us.  We delay, drag, and attempt to reason with God, as to why His demands are impractical and impossible, instead of just doing them.  We introduce money as the constraint from which there is no escape.  And we limit ourselves to the point of failing in ministry altogether.  But Jesus patiently does for us, what He asked us to do.  Still willing to have us participate in what was to be His mission and His ministry in the first place, despite our initial failures.  He blows away our limitations and through the blessing of our participation in ministry with Christ, we again find our faith re-affirmed and His goals accomplished.  Christ did not create money and disperse it to the crowds.  It was not money they needed, and perhaps would have been tempted to hoard, or steal from one another.  It was not temporal wealth Christ was looking to create.  For wealth is nothing more than a burden.  Instead He met the needs that they had in that moment alone.  The excess food would be carried back to the towns and villages and given to the poor who were unable or unwilling to make the desert journey. 

You will note that there were 12 baskets of excess gathered up in the stone stadium.  One for each tribe of Israel perhaps, or more likely, one for each disciple to remind them that their imposed limitations are not really limitations at all.  Perhaps this was Jesus subtly reminding the disciples they were going to need to think differently where it comes to participating in ministry with Christ.  Then to consider the magnitude of what took place here this fine evening.  Dinner was served to the entire crowd.  The number 5,000 was only the men in the crowd, in addition would have been their wives and children.  Figuring a mostly married crowd, and 2-3 children on average (without the benefit of birth control), this total crowd size could have easily been two to three times the 5,000 number.  Yet every child was filled, every adult has more than enough.  Not a single person with need goes hungry.  That is mission success.  To meet the need of every single person, not just most of them, or some of them, but all of them.  Every person there had tangible evidence of the love of Christ for them, of His tender concern for their hunger.  You will note there is no mention of Christ taking a break from His teaching, preaching and loving others throughout the day, in order for Him to eat.  Instead He works tirelessly depending on the strength of His Father, in order to meet the needs of ALL in attendance.

Stone stadiums in a desert venue have never been so transformed as they were that day and night.  Desert temperatures, and native inhabitants never so mild as on that day.  Perhaps 12 to 20 thousand people were reached and fed.  To be at this live event, was perhaps the envy of history.  No modern equivalent has ever been offered or sustained.  And no modern celebrity could ever come close to offering what Jesus offered.  This was not dinner and a show.  This was a spiritual feast, listening to the words of God, from the mouth of God.  This was a living interaction with a God who clearly loves you.  This was a meal offered out of nothing, with enough for everyone, and excess for the poor, as a tangible demonstration that every single person there was loved.  And so were those who were not even there.  Sharing the excess with the poor upon their return offered even more chance to participate with Christ in ministry that continued long after the original event was concluded.

If stadiums of stone could be transformed by the power of Christ, into a cathedral that has never had an equal, how then can we not find the blessing of ministry in far more comfortable conditions?  To offer the deep and passionate love of Christ through you to someone in need, can occur in any office, in any home, in any venue.  And the stone that once composed your own heart can be broken and become flesh.  And the stone that once greeted you in response can be melted in the blinding heat of His love reflected through you.  We need not fear a lack of food or water, or resources of any kind, for the only resource that ever mattered was love.  Love is what it is all about.  His love transforms.

 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? ...

Intent is difficult to define.  What we perceive about any given event is then influenced by our own mind-set at the time.  If we witness someone crossing the street, and at the time we are coming from a joyful place, where things are going well for us, our world seems full of potential, and our dreams are right around the corner – we tend to associate good or at least neutral “motives” or intentions with the scene of someone crossing the street.  However, if we have just been burglarized, our security shattered, our wealth threatened – the person crossing the street may well be in the midst of a get-away.  It is the same person performing the same action, but how we “judge” or evaluate that identical action is not influenced by the person, but influenced by where our own mind is at the time. 

It is not that dissimilar when someone does something nice for us.  We may think the gesture comes from a place of love in the heart of the giver.  This is particularly true if our own heart longs to show love to others.  But we may also think the gesture is done for an ulterior motive, we become suspicious of what we will be obligated to do if we accept it.  We begin to resent the person for placing us in an uncomfortable situation – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  The negative evaluation of the identical gesture can lead us so far, as to begin to avoid the giver, or worse begin to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against them.  It is sad to say, but a heart that loves only itself, or itself above all others, tends to see “good deeds” through the lens of selfish motives.  We accuse others of the behaviors we are familiar with … because we see them in ourselves.  We come to believe that others are incapable of “good deeds” because we too are largely incapable.  But in typical fashion, we deny the transference, and convince ourselves, this is just being “practical” in our world.

How a “gift” is received is a reflection of the heart of the recipient – it is not a statement about the motives of the giver.  To offer something freely, regardless of how it is received, perhaps in spite of how it is received, is a reflection of the heart of the giver.  Christ offers us the “gift” of freedom from sin.  But in our sin, we judge that He is just trying to take away from us, something that we hold dear.  He may be trying to take away our “fun”, and leave us with the “drudgery” of obeying the law.  Yet Christ continues to offer us this “gift”.  When we begin to realize, that there is no more precious a “gift” that He could have offered us, the realization is a reflection of change in our own hearts.  His “gift” has not changed, our responses have.  We may have at first rejected what He offered, and even been resentful that He would put us in the uncomfortable situation of – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  We may have gone so far as to avoid Him as the giver, or worse to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against Him.  But He loves and offers just the same.  And when once we accept, He transforms how we think about the same “gift”, forgiving us completely for what we might have done against Him and His “gift” in the past.

If our Savior must endure this rejection, this improper judgment of His motives, this devaluation of the most precious “gift” in all of history as He works to redeem you and me – can we seriously think our minor good deeds will not undergo the same phenomenon as we attempt to reach out to those around us?  Peter understood this phenomenon.  He had witnessed it first hand as Christ healed the lame man, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised Lazarus from the dead.  The beautiful gifts of Christ, were judged by the religious leadership of His day, to be the acts of Satan, because those actions did not conform to the authority of the church.  Having seen this, Peter is keen to share the foreknowledge with the early Christian church, not only about what to expect, but about continuing to return good for evil in spite of how it is received.

Peter continues in chapter 3 of his first letter to the church beginning in verse 14 … “But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; [verse 15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”  Offending an oppressive authority carries a substantial risk.  A citizen of North Korea who openly insults the “precious leader” is likely to see his life forfeit as a result.  The same is true in religiously based totalitarian states; offer offense to the dominant religious thinking or ideology and lives are lost as a result.  It was no different under Roman rule, perhaps only that it might have been worse.  Insulting Kim in Korea is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, that could apply to a host of people.  Insulting Islam in a predominantly Muslim country is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, there were a myriad of religions that came in and out of favor, each particular “god” having its own set of rules and regulations.

Peter has just given wise counsel in our last study about the secret to living a long and happy life.  In a nutshell, he offers that it may be as simple as keeping your tongue in check.  When you speak, avoid malice, mischief, and speak with the love that comes from the inherited blessing of working in conjunction with Christ for the redemption of the lost.  He states in the above verses, that even after following that advice, there may be those who continue to judge you harshly, and threaten your very existence.  But the consistent response of returning good for evil, will drive your oppressor to wonder “how” you are able to respond this way.  Peter then offers, that this event, is what we longed to see.  Stand ready to give an answer of the reason for hope within you, in both meekness and respect, to the one who asks.  It is not in returning equal violence and equal evil for what is done to us, that our oppressor begins to cease his actions.  His heart remains untouched.  But when he is offered love for evil, his heart must understand this, and in so doing can become changed.

Peter continues in verse 16 … “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. [verse 17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”  Keeping a positive consistent, Christ-like love in our speech, has the added benefit of freeing our hearts and minds from the guilt that comes in speaking or doing evil to others.  Those who are consistent in loving others, sleep better.  And “if” we are to suffer because of the wickedness of other men, then let us suffer for our good deeds and good speech – than to suffer for the gossip we spread, and the lies we tell, and the jealousy and judgmental-ism that so often cross the “Christian’s” lips.  To suffer for our misdeeds is only justice; there is no nobility in it.  But to suffer for our good deeds, is to walk the path of patient love that our Savior tread before us.

Peter continues in verse 18 … “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”  Peter reminds us that Christ suffered and died, not only for those who would accept His gift, but for those who would choose to reject it.  He died for everyone, not just for His followers.  He longed to have all the world experience the freedom from sin He offers.  But how an individual responds to Christ is the choice of that person.  Christ died for him.  How he responds is left to him. 

Peter continues in verse 19 … “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”  The New Testament does not talk much about the prison ministry of Jesus.  There are some interactions between the disciples of John the Baptist when he is imprisoned that are recorded.  There is also the parable Jesus tells of the separation of sheep and goats based in part on how they visited those in prison.  John’s gospel states that many more things Jesus did while he was here, so many that no volume of books could contain the whole of them.  So perhaps Peter here alludes to a personal knowledge that Jesus did indeed visit those in prison to offer them hope.  Or perhaps Peter here is talking about how Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to free us from the prison of sin and self-slavery we have embraced.  In either case, our Lord is highly concerned about our freedom from sin, and often is misjudged by us, throughout the process of salvation.

Peter continues in verse 20 … “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”  Notice that even when the world was judged to be so continually evil that it must be destroyed, the sentence was delayed for 120 years, so that perhaps some of mankind might reconsider and be saved.  Entry into the ark was not forbidden by Noah, it was encouraged.  He preached for 120 years about what was coming, and how mankind might be saved.  It takes very little risk to enter the ark “just in case” Noah is right.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the first-hand accounts of Adam and Eve who lived nearly half the time between the garden of Eden and the flood.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the angel with the flaming sword who stood at the entrance to the garden of evil to insure mankind no longer ate from the tree of life.  There was first hand and physical proof of the existence of a creator God.  Yet not a single soul took the precaution of entering the ark “just in case”.  Only Noah and his family were saved.  The disobedient were set in their course, despite the mercy God continued to extend to them.  And as it was in the days of Noah …

Peter continues in verse 21 … “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: [verse 22] Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”  Peter compares the flood where evil men died, to the symbolism of baptism, where the evil in our hearts is drowned by our choice to submit and follow Jesus Christ.  Peter qualifies that it is not our actions that save us, but our willingness to be transformed by God, brought into harmony with how God thinks, and loves others.  As we emerge from the baptismal waters, so Christ emerged from the grave.  As Christ is ascended into heaven, and has been given all power and authority sitting on the right hand of God, so He is able to save us from the slavery of sin that would have cost us our lives and existence, and bring us home to Him.

The process of our salvation is founded on the patient love of God.  God allowed time for the people in Noah’s day to hear the message, and have the chance to see redemption.  It was the people of that day that refused to be saved.  The actions of the life of Christ did not return hate speech for hate speech, instead constantly trying to guide the Pharisees and unbelievers to the knowledge of the love of God for man.  It was the Pharisees who refused to ever embrace that love, with only few exceptions.  Peter reminds us that our consistent positive love-centered speech is not always going to be received well.  We will be judged harshly, often by those most in need, and most steeped in evil.  But that should not diminish our showing love to them; instead it should serve to increase it.

The end-game for God is about our redemption.  He was willing to endure tremendous pain and suffering and insult, even death, in order to see us redeemed.  He is willing to forgive everything we have done to Him, just hoping so fervently to see us accept His love, and be with Him forever.  There was no price He was not willing to pay to see the job done.  Nothing He would not endure.  That kind of love is limitless, infinite, and beyond our comprehension.  The best we will ever do is accept it.  We may never come to fully understand it.  Our carnal nature can simply not make sense of it.  Yet it exists.  If evil is to be eliminated, it must be by a choice for something else.  His love provides a reason to seek that choice.  His love provides a method of seeing that choice become a reality.  His love abides with us before, during and after this process takes place.  His love is everything …