How can a blade of corn resist the poison of our
pesticides? How can an infant sprouting
of seed withstand the onslaught of bugs, birds, drought, or flood? In an effort to create stronger plants (and
animals), large chemical corporations experiment with modifying the genetic
composition of “life” in order to create more “sustainable” harvests. But the science of GMOs, particularly when
published by companies that have a long history of covering up the damage of
carcinogens found in their products, does little to reassure the fears of the
consuming public. Does the process of
genetic modification end in the plants we alter … or does it continue in us
after we consume them … and to what effect?
Does altering a tomato to make it more red, and less seedy, have a side
effect in me when I consume it? In short,
how could we possibly assess the damage that genetic alteration could do to us,
especially when we are certain profit was the motive behind the science?
But perhaps the more interesting question is … does humanity
itself need a genetic level alteration?
In our previous studies, Peter recalled to John Mark is his gospel, the
first parable or story-telling lesson of Jesus Christ to His followers. It was a story of the sower (God the Father)
sowing His Seed (Jesus Christ) into the earth or (hearts of mankind). The response to the Father taking the
initiative to sow His Son into us varied in this story. And without the lens of Jesus Christ and His
mission to redeem all of mankind, we might tend to miss the point for the
details. But our salvation from ourselves,
that is, the removing of even our desire to sin, can only be accomplished as we
allow Christ to change us from the inside out.
In short, we are asking Jesus to modify what we want, how we think, and
who we are. Perhaps what humanity needs
is a genetic level re-wiring of who we are, in order to become something else,
and something better. At least we know
the changes God proposes to us, are NOT motivated by profit, or any selfish
reason on His part, they are motivated by a love that would see us be happy and
live lives of meaning and fulfillment.
And it is the “process” of salvation that follows the
analogy of growth or decay. Peter picks
up the conversation with Jesus in chapter 4 of John Marks gospel and in verse
24 saying … “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure
ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be
given.” This is not just an admonition
to be fair with others in our business dealings. It is bigger than that. “Take heed” or pay attention to, or give
consideration to … what we hear. The
“wisdom” of the Pharisees was all around the disciples at that time. Many were content to seek the wisdom of
tradition, of what their parents had taught them, of what the establishment
dictated was truth. This collective
“wisdom” gathered through centuries of studying scriptures, was ready to deny
Christ and see Him murdered for His dissent.
To choose to listen and learn from Jesus Christ instead of from the
religious leadership of His day, was considered a radical thing. It was enough to get you thrown out of the
Temple, and denied re-entry.
Imagine the irony of being cast out of the earthly Temple,
because you sought the wisdom of the Heavenly sent Temple of Christ. What understanding of real Truth the
disciples would gain, would come only from the direct interactions and study of
Jesus Christ. It is no different
today. We risk losing Jesus in our quest
to master the scriptures. We allow our
preconceptions to govern what we permit our minds to absorb from the reading of
His word. And we translate our certainty
about what we “know” from scripture to create boundaries between one Christian
and another, because we do not see eye-to-eye on every point of faith … while
ignoring our privilege to love one another like He loves us. Instead we prefer to denigrate one another
for a “lack of understanding” of the written word, and in so doing, reveal we
know so little ourselves of the personification of the Word. What disagreement over doctrine should so
cause us to isolate ourselves from each other, and refuse love that is so
desperately needed from each other?
Perhaps if we “took heed” of what we heard in the voice of Jesus Christ
calling us to love each other as our first priority, the other differences
would resolve themselves, or we would discover, they did not matter anyway.
When we are harsh with each other in the application of the
word, Christ warns us that our actions and motives will be returned to us. The phrase … “with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you” … is not about retribution from others, or from
God. It is more dangerous than that, it
is a warning about self-created GMOs of a spiritual nature. As we permit ourselves to apply the word of
God in judgment and condemnation of others for their misdeeds, we “become” judgmental
and condemning people. We slowly but
surely extinguish the caring for others from our insides out. We modify our genetic spiritual condition
over time such that we do not realize what we are doing until we become the
people we used to pity or despise. Love
is destroyed within us. Love is altered
to the point where our hate speech is rationalized as a form of “loving”
others. We actually think we are doing
them a favor for condemning them for their sins, all the while ignoring our
lack of love in us. We may go so far as
to perform miracles in the powerful name of Christ, but in truth He does not
“know us”, because we have no Love in us.
Too many Christians apply this text as a warning of
punishment from God if we are unfair to others.
The punishment is not FROM God, it is FROM us; and will be inflicted on
us, by us. This text is a warning label
from God about the dangers of spiritual GMOs.
We have the ability to alter ourselves in a negative way by attempting
to use scriptures as a method of judgment, instead of a tool of
redemption. The point was never to
condemn sinners as they justly deserve, but instead to redeem sinners in spite
of them (and us) never deserving redemption.
The point of scripture was to find true forgiveness for every single
misdeed we ever did, no matter how bad, how often, or how premeditated our
actions were. And beyond forgiveness, to
find a way to escape repeating these painful deeds, in our submission to Jesus
Christ, and His power to remove even these desires from within us. We should allow Christ to modify who we are …
if we attempt the modification process ourselves, we produce no better results
than Monsanto. Instead of true spiritual
growth through having Christ re-wire us, we produce true spiritual decay
because we attempt to do it ourselves, choking all signs of love for others out
of our stony hearts.
But there is a promise in this text as well for it further
reads … “and unto you that hear, more shall be given”. This is not a warning, but a cause for
celebration. It is liberating to be made
free from ourselves, and our past, and our tendency to cause pain to those we
love. The seed of Jesus Christ, can grow
within us as we let it. He can teach us
how to love others like He loves others.
In so doing, more light and real Truth is brought to our minds. As we love others in a tangible way, we begin
to learn His Truth in a tangible way. We
begin to see the fallacy of attempting to bring others to Christ, while casting
stones at them every step of the journey.
We begin to see that the positive motivation of love that would free us,
is far more alluring, than the threat of a punishment God does not even want to
give out. Instead of painting God as a
tyrant who demands obedience and love, we begin to see Him for who He truly is,
a God who loves us so much, He would rather die than see us suffer and share
that fate. He came not only to forgive
us, but to redeem us from the self-inflicted pain we are helplessly addicted
to. In short His love motivated Him to
save us, not see us punished for being who we are. He wishes to free us from who we are, and
modify us to restore us, to who we were intended to be.
The lesson of Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “For he
that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken
even that which he hath.” Here again is
a promise of growth and bearing fruit for those who seek wisdom from Jesus
Christ. Instead of looking to other
“spiritual” pathways to God as every other religion would have us do; and
instead of looking to self within Christianity to find “our interpretation” is
king; we can safely look to Jesus Christ for the wisdom we need. That wisdom is only found in our
transformation in becoming like Him. It
is not found in a refusal to be changed by Christ, but an embrace of His
changes for us. We become like Him, that
is, we become the ears of corn He intends us to be, when we allow Him to modify
the core of who we are. When we attempt
to find wisdom internally, or through “alternative” means, we remain only the
weeds we ever were, sustaining a self-fulfilling prophecy for our destiny.
It is the destiny of “self” that is described in the latter
part of this verse saying … “and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even
that which he hath”. The little
understanding of Christ a person may have had before, will be extinguished
within them as they choke it out, by constantly seeking other means of finding
spiritual wisdom. Christians naturally
assume this text is meant to apply to Muslims, or Buddhists, or people who seek
any other god but Christ. However all
too often it is Christians who have lost the distinction of relying upon self
for wisdom, instead of being willing to un-learn, and re-learn, the Truth from
Jesus Christ.
A symptom of this can be revealed in how willing you would
be to worship God or share His love in a church that is not your own, in a
denomination that is not your own, on a day you normally choose to do other
things on. There are those Seventh Day
Adventists who believe finding themselves in church on a Sunday is a sin, and
non-SDA’s who equally dislike the idea of worshipping on Saturday. While both struggle to honor God on the day
they believe is correct, I do not recall a preclusion to worship God on other
days of the week. Both lines-of-thinking
typically conduct meetings of prayer on a Wednesday evening. Does our disagreement over doctrine so
preclude us from association with each other even in the middle of the week, in
the evening, in order to pray? Are we so
hardened in our doctrinal positions, that we are unable to cross self-imposed
denominational boundaries even to associate for prayer mid-week? And yet we claim our wisdom is based on
Christ, and we remain “certain” of this fact, and steadfast in our refusal to
associate with other believers, let alone pray with them … “because they don’t
understand”. Someone does not
understand, but it is not “them”.
That Christians would so fear each other that they cannot
meet together, crossing self-imposed denominational boundaries, for prayer
midweek is beyond comprehension. That so
many Christians would refuse to take time to attend these midweek meetings for
prayer (even within their own denomination), is a further testament to where
our priorities are, and how little we perceive our “need” of God to be. Being too busy to dedicate a small amount of
time to pray to God to ask Him for His blessings … not for ourselves (we do
that nearly all the time) … but for others who so desperately need our intercession,
is a testament to how much we truly love others. Our television schedules, the demands of
raising a family, the project at work that requires extra effort, all find a
way of making us “too busy” to go to the inconvenience of a midweek meeting to
pray for the souls of others, who remain lost in their self-inflicted
pain. Our spiritual GMO created through
the lens of self is bearing fruit … just not the kind we would eat, if we truly
saw it for what it is.
And the lessons of growth had only just begun …
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