Recursion Boggles the Brain ...

One of the harder concepts to master in the field of computer programming is the idea of recursion.  What it represents is the ability for a sub-routine (or collection of statements) to call itself during execution until some condition is met.  The easiest non-computer-geek way to illustrate this is to stand in front of a mirror, with another mirror behind you.  All of the sudden the mirror in front reflects your image in the mirror behind you, which in turn reflects the image of you in the front mirror and in the rear mirror, which in turn … you get the idea.  Programmers face the same dilemma you do when standing in between a front and rear mirror; how do I get useful information without the danger of creating an infinite loop. 

Another type of recursive example might involve time travel.  If you could travel back in time to witness an event, but because you did so, you changed that event; then why would you have traveled back in the first place?  The event you went back to witness never existed, so your motivation to see it would never have existed.  Even assuming you could travel through time, you would have likely picked a different event to witness … but then if witnessing changed that event … you begin to get the idea of a recursive sort of outcome.  The only way to avoid it, is to travel through time on a linear basis always moving forward.  But what if your perspective on time (and space) is not linear at all?  Imagine for a brief moment, how our God sees time (and space).  If God is everywhere at once, or omni-present, it stands to reason He sees all of time at once.  The author of space / time is likely not bound by our perspective of space / time.  He transcends it as He wishes, since after all, He is its creator.

Being able to see everything as it occurs, because you witness it, would allow you to “know” everything from shear witnessing if nothing else.  Being participatory in events however, intending to change their outcome for the better, would provide the best hope to positively affect them as is possible.  This may well be the state that our God exists within (being described from a human perspective).  This may also be but a glimmer of the potential of the state our God exists within.  But why mention it?  If just the examination of recursion, time paradox, and infinite perspective that might boggle the brain of even our best quantum physicists just gives us all a headache; why bring it up?  Because if in our vanity, we ever assume, we “know” more about science than our God, we may want to dial back the arrogance, or find ourselves coming to an all-too-late realization, that our tiny perspective limited God’s potential impact in our own lives.

Jesus, had a test of His own like this.  The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes who made up the Sanhedrin or ruling body of His day, had just been testing Him on 3 different subjects, all designed to trap Him in front of the people.  They had all tried and failed, to embarrass Him, expose His limited knowledge, and get the people to abandon this fraud; but He was not a fraud.  They did not succeed, instead they exposed their own lack of knowledge, and hypocrisy.  They walked away from their encounters with Christ, angrier with Him, because they had tried and failed to prove Him wrong.  Not all did, there were a few, who may have allowed their own minds to be opened by the Truth of the responses of Jesus Christ.  But most, emerged humiliated, angrier, and more determined to expose or kill this upstart from Galilee, for after all, what good had ever come out such a place as Galilee?

But Jesus was not done with them yet.  When an enemy declares their intentions against you and I, we tend to respond in kind.  If our enemy strikes at us, we try to strike back.  We even use scripture to justify our actions declaring the admonitions of Moses and the Law stating … “an eye for an eye”.  We found our quest for revenge, or justice depending on the perspective, based on this idea we believe is deeply rooted in the Old Testament.  Yet for the stories where punishment, or the ends of justice was meted out in the Old Testament, each one was accompanied by repeated attempts at mercy.  We ignore the facts that our God’s first response to our hate, our attempts to strike at Him, our vanity is mercy, forgiveness, and love.  He wants us back, not dead.  He wants us home with Him, not out wandering hurting ourselves and those we claim to love.  But our view of even scripture has been warped to suit our blood lust against those who would dare to declare themselves our enemy, or worse take action to prove it.

But Jesus is not done with us yet.  To the vain leaders of His own day, who were so sure they knew scriptures better than the Author of Scriptures, Jesus had a test for them.  To the vain leaders of our own day, who are so sure they have a full grasp of everything within scripture, Jesus’ test of recursion, still endures.  The point Jesus was trying to make with those who declared themselves to be His enemy, whether then or now, was that there is more in scripture than meets the eye, and more in science than we still can understand fully.  Peter recalled the incident that followed the failed tests of men to John Mark in his gospel in chapter 12.  Perhaps when Peter recalled it, even he did not fully understand it.  Perhaps when John Mark wrote down the words of Peter, perhaps he did not even fully understand the very words he wrote.  But then, this may have been the point of Jesus for them and for us.

Picking up in verse 35 it begins … “And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?”  Jesus begins with the premise.  The view of the Messiah that was to come out of the Sanhedrin would be the point upon which Jesus focused.  Jesus did not wish to focus on some random minority opinion about a characteristic of the Messiah.  Instead Jesus wanted to keep the focus on a main point, something the great majority of scribes would be in agreement with.  Scribes were the transcriptionists of the day.  It was their job to record scriptures over and over each day from old to newer parchments, preserving the accuracy exactly to maintain truth from one generation to the next.  They prided themselves on this feat, and on this responsibility.  And for all their accumulated knowledge that comes from writing and re-writing the words of the Bible, they had yet to absorb the love contained in its pages.  None the less, Jesus would question and thereby draw attention to, a chief characteristic of the Messiah, as agreed upon by the Scribes.

Jesus continues in verse 36 saying … “For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.”  Jesus now outlines the scripture to sustain His point made above.  A few things are worth note.  Notice that Jesus quotes David directly about this assertion.  Jesus says that “David himself” said these following things.  This was not written by a scribe in David’s day about David.  This was written by a scribe in David’s day quoting David.  Then notice that Jesus immediately follows that David did not write these words of his own volition.  David was being prompted and guided by the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.  It would appear from this citation of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit has been in charge of our scriptures since way before Pentecost occurred.  The Holy Spirit has been with us much longer.  It may be we were not looking for Him until Pentecost, but He was indeed here.  Lastly then, Jesus lays out the recursion with “the LORD said to my Lord”.

Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.”  Jesus explains the dilemma for the all-knowing Scribes of His day; how can David call himself Lord, and also be His son?  We examine this scripture with hindsight, answering that since Jesus created the world, David is His son.  And since Jesus had established David as the King of Israel, David was also Lord.  And since Jesus was to descend from the lineage of David, Jesus was also the son of David.  So looking back at history, the answer comes by broadening the perspective of this textual question, to include the passage of time that our God would not be subject to, even if David was.  In short, our God is immune to the passage of time, He is not bound to its linear perspective.  Sounds easy for us right?

But take a deeper look at what Jesus was saying.  If our God is not bound by the same perspective we are as it comes to time / space.  Then when it comes to our salvation, does it not stand to reason, every attempt that could be made to save us, would be made to save us?  Our God is not just silently witnessing time beyond the bounds of linear passage, He is actively engaged with each of us, attempting to change the outcomes from bad to good.  But He cannot force us to love Him or accept His love, and still call it love.  Love must be a choice, or it is not love at all.  The only thing then that matters to a God of infinite love, is that He proves to us He loves us, and hopefully receives our love in return.  Going back only a few verses earlier, Jesus declares the most important summation of the entire Old Testament, is to love God.  Here, He reveals wisdom beyond the normal, a glimpse into capabilities of our God we seldom consider, to show us that loving God because He loves us, is the ONLY thing that matters.  This is told to us by a God who sees time differently than we do.  This is told to us by a God who participates in events, who does not just witness them.

It is we who attempt to put God in our own box.  We try to constrain what cannot be constrained into thinking and ideas that make us happy, but are not true.  Since our perspective on time is only linear, we believe that God’s must be too.  If we die, we meet our end, any future beyond the grave is in jeopardy due to a vengeful God who we believe has a history of striking down His enemies with fire and justice.  Yet it is our God who uses time and our passage through it; to perfect in us what we could not perfect.  He uses our passage through time to give us better perspective on Himself, but also as a teaser that infinity will never be dull, we will ever be learning more about love and its power.  Our God uses our time to offer us His love, His redemption, and His forgiveness.  He does not just post a sign, or billboard, or document on Facebook.  He gets active with us, involved in our lives, in our needs, and in the messes we make, that He alone can clean up.  Our God is interactive, in real life, with a passionate love for us that not even time / space can restrain.

Our danger is only our arrogance, a trait we inherit, but nurture from our spiritual forefathers.  Jesus continues in verse 38 outlining the dangers saying … “And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, [verse 39] And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:”  The list Jesus describes here reflect character.  They reflect the lack of a transformation of the heart.  Even in spiritual matters.  This list is not about being wealthy, or even famous per se, it is about loving how we look to others.  The danger of the Scribes of His day, were that they enjoyed their position in the church, and wanted others to recognize them for it.  They wanted respect in spiritual matters.  Sound familiar?  How many of us also want to be recognized and respected as leaders in the faith?  How many of us simply want deference?  We long to be sought out as the resource to answer a question, and it is our longing, that is our downfall.  Only Christ has the wisdom to answer any question.  If He does not provide us the answer, we have NONE of our own worth dust.

A lack of real transformation leaves us loving only ourselves.  Jesus concludes in verse 40 saying … “Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.”  Ouch!  The Scribes of His day, the religious leaders, were willing to devour the home of widow.  They were willing to take the money from the poor, to destroy what little they had, to swindle them.  To maintain their own lifestyle, the Scribes or leaders of the church, would happily accept offerings and tithes from those who could scarcely afford to give them.  We who offer ministry to the church, or to the world, do we do the same?  Do we take our gifts of preaching, teaching, healing, singing, or just caring … and make them trades in exchange for wealth our audience is ill able to provide?  Taking from those who cannot afford to give, to sustain more than we need, is to follow in the footsteps of the Scribes of old.

But the Scribes of His day were not content to steal and remain quiet.  They had to cover up their deeds, draw attention away from what they did.  So they made long prayers in the Temple.  Or rather, they pretended to pray.  Observing the posture of prayer, the stance of prayer, is not the same as engaging the mind and heart in prayer.  Casually saying we will pray for someone, usually only when asked to do so, is not the same thing as praying with our hearts near breaking for their pain.  We do not feel their affliction, because we do not feel any affliction but our own.  The heart of stone feels nothing but for itself, and so feels nothing at all.  But a pretend religion, a pretend relationship, is worse than none at all.  Spending all the time pretending to love God, prevents us from actually loving God.  Avoiding His transformation of our hearts, leaves us offering weak prayers, selfishly focused, and looking for credit from other believers every chance we get.

The greater damnation is not greater flames in hell.  It goes back to our linear view of time.  Each moment that passes for us is gone, and gone for good.  We will not relive it, ever.  Our salvation is not up to us, it is God’s work in us, as we submit to Him.  But the time we waste delaying Him, putting Him off, asking to be transformed, but later … these are the moments we will never get back.  The time we could have used for something other than me loving me, is a resource that will not return.  I will damn myself for my selfishness.  My transformed heart will break at my own stubbornness and refusal to let go to God sooner.  The greater damnation will be a self-examination of my life and its potential, through transformed eyes.  So much time to lose.  So many opportunities squandered.  So many souls who needed love from me, who had to endure without it.  Oh the pain, of love lost, of love hidden.  This is the greater damnation, that surely comes from a pretend religion, and a pretend relationship with Christ.

I will love you in heaven, but your need of that love will not be same.  It is here at our worst, where His love is needed the most, His love reflected through me.  Delaying that, is losing the opportunity for that, and I will never get it back.  It is lost forever.  The punishment is not meted out by God in flame and fire, it is realized by me through the lens of linear time I will not recover.  To end it, submit.  To end it, no matter how long it has taken you, how many years or moments you have wasted thus far, submit to Christ now.  Let Him make an end to it now.  Let Him change in you what could not be changed.  Let Him transform the heart from stone to flesh, from apathy to passion.  Let not the greater damnation continue to accrue, for the curse of it will only get heavier. 

One day, when your heart has finally been transformed by the power of His Love, you will feel this weight for what it is, an irreversible damnation of your own regret.  It is not a question of your salvation, or “if” it will occur.  Believing in Jesus assures that.  His great love assures that.  It is a question of “when” that salvation will occur within you, whether sooner or later.  It is a question of self-examination through more perfected eyes, and more perfected heart, that will feel the weight of moments forever lost to delay.  When through perfected eyes we really see the value of treasure only found in others, how we treated them in this life, when they were in the most pain and needed us the most, will forever weigh on our minds. 

I believe it will require our God to remove these tears from our eyes lest we never cease from weeping, even in the heaven He prepared for us.  The contrast though is striking.  By submission to Christ now, every moment spent from now till we are home with Him again, can be spent in the service of loving others.  Perhaps that love will be just the thing they needed to look for Christ.  Perhaps eternity will be enhanced by only one soul who sees His love reflected through you, because your heart was transformed.  And your greater damnation will cease from expanding, and by His mercy, become something He helps you someday forget.