Best Intentions; Deadly Consequences ...

We make plans.  We spend time considering possibilities, evaluating finances, and hoping for outcomes; and then we plan.  In my life, I cannot tell you that my plans could have ever been more considered, more wise, and yet completely unable to reach fruition.  It is not as if every conceivable impact is not considered or taken into account.  Yet somehow, some way, the unforeseen infects the reality of your execution.  What was planned is no longer possible.  Something new must occur, or perhaps nothing will occur.  Yet despite a vivid history of plans that went awry, we continue to make plans.  If this insanity were constricted to our personal lives, to our vacation planning perhaps, then perhaps the impact of our repeated attempts at forestalling the variety of life would not be so dangerous.  But the thinking, the mindset of planning, happens in our religious lives as well.

As planning collides with our spirituality, we decide we will pray for “x” amount of time, on these three days, at 5:00am before our routines begin.  But when the day arrives, the time slips by.  Or when the prayers begin, our desire to sleep overwhelms us, and we find ourselves hitting a snooze alarm rather than in deep conversation with our Lord.  So we decide to change our plans.  Morning prayers must now become evening prayers.  We forecast new days and times for prayer.  At first our new routine seems to work and then subtly, with barely a notice, something else changes.  Our ability to pray for as long as we wanted gets reduced.  For Christians who believe they are saved by the amount of time they spend on their knees, this creates a crisis.  Their continued failures either results in guilt they can scarcely live with, or an acceptance that perhaps prayer is not needed at all.  Yet through all of this, we continue to make plans.

Our ministries at church are far from immune from our desires to make plans.  We decide to raise “x” dollars, to send “x” people, to participate in “x” ministry.  And so we set out to accomplish in our corporate life what we have failed at so miserably at in our personal lives.  And similar results ensue.  Perhaps the finances we intended to raise is just not meeting the timeline we had laid out.  Perhaps the people who initially volunteered to participate in the ministry just do not show up.  Perhaps the ministry we initially envisioned is not the one truly needed for the community we wanted to serve.  What is different in our corporate spiritual lives than in our personal ones, is our ability to compromise with our compatriots.  In so doing, our plans become flexible.  And in our flexibility, God is able to work His will, most often, in spite of, and in direct conflict with, our original plans.  Yet even in church, we continue to make plans.

The most dangerous spiritual plans however, are not the ones made in response to the call of God, but are the ones made to position God with “no other choice” than support what we have planned to do.  It would be as if Noah built an ark on his own, according to his own thoughts about how big it needed to be.  Hunted and gathered only the animals Noah thought were worthy, and stocked his ark, with his crew, and his spoils.  And then begged God to send a flood to wipe out his neighbors for their lack of following God, never having preached a single sermon, to invite them to escape the disaster that was on the horizon, Noah believed would come.  This kind of presumption would not have been a story about the patience of God, or the love of God in repeatedly trying to reach a people who hated Him.  It would have been a story about Noah, who took it on himself to do what he thought should be done.  And it would have failed, even if rain had descended.

Had Abraham taken Isaac up that mountain alone, without the call of God, to sacrifice his son.  There would have been no Israel, only another dead human sacrifice, slain to the spiritual pride of a man who did what he thought was right to do.  Both Noah, and Abraham, followed the plans created by God, the calling laid out by God.  They did not invent these plans.  They did not actually want to follow these plans.  But they laid aside human desire, and did what God had called them to do, regardless of what they wanted.  This should have been the lesson for Judas to learn.  For Judas made plans as well.  Judas knew the stories of Noah, and of Abraham, and Judas knew many of the rest of scriptures as well.  Judas knew what the Messiah was supposed to do.  And Judas saw that the Messiah was clearly not living up to what scriptures had foretold, at least not according to what the Pharisees, and scribes said, that the Messiah was supposed to do.

Judas, like us, had the right religion.  Judas, like us, had the right scriptures, which he believed he interpreted correctly.  The leadership of the faith, agreed with Judas, NOT with Jesus Christ.  So what was to be done to reconcile this discrepancy between what Jesus actually did, and what Jesus (or God) was supposed to be doing?  Judas, like us, made a plan.  Those who make plans ahead of the calling of God have the very best intentions.  They are also completely blind to the idea that they have put themselves in a leadership position that belongs only to God.  God is no longer in the driver’s seat.  He is now a passenger in the planning machine of the Christian who decides what is to come, and how it will be handled. But our plans cannot foresee what only God can foresee.  And sometimes as much as we want God to do something for us, what we want, is not what is best for us, or for our world.  Judas wanted Jesus to become the King that Judas knew He could be.  If Jesus had done this, the Israelite world would have been better for a time, but our ability to be better would have been crushed by the greed-of-the-moment hatched in the plans of Judas.

No matter what, Judas had a plan.  He did not betray Jesus from a random whim.  He did it to force a reconciliation between scripture (or his interpretation of it), and the actions of Jesus.  Judas reasoned, that once the life of Jesus was truly in jeopardy, Jesus would use His true power to escape the traps set for Him, and rise to become the King He was meant to be.  No one with the power to fix something, with the power to save themselves, would ever not use it.  Nobody, who could save themselves, would choose not to, and endure what was coming.  That had never happened before Jesus, so there was no reason to think it would be any different now.  Judas thought his plan was near perfect.  Jesus would rise to become King and thank Judas for helping Him see the light and wisdom of this plan.  Judas had it all worked out in his plan and in his mind.  Just like we do, as we set out to make plans that do not follow God, but attempt to lead Him.

Peter recalls to John Mark, the boldness of Judas’ plan.  Picking up in the Gospel of Mark, chapter fourteen, beginning in verse 43 saying … “And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.”  It was a small army sent to capture one Man.  Judas reasoned these first armed men could be converted into the first army of Christ.  It was sure to happen.  For how could Jesus allow Himself to be captured and face death, that He could easily preach His way out of?  The Temple had emptied its guard, to come to capture the owner of this building, the author of this faith, the inspiration behind every word of scripture, and the central player in every story.

John Mark continues in verse 44 saying … “And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.”  Notice the direction of Judas.  Judas will kiss Jesus just in case in the night lighting they mistake who their target is.  The kiss will be a sign of respect and of betrayal or identification.  This mini-army must not become confused in the dust up.  They must capture Jesus, and in the event they are successful, they are to lead Jesus away safely.  The safety of Jesus is still uppermost in the mind of Judas.  The plan of Judas is not actually to kill Jesus, or hurt Him in any way.  The plan of Judas is to force Jesus to do what He is supposed to do, according to scripture.  How like us.

How often do our interpretations of scripture lead us to make plans that are as far from God as night is from day.  The Westboro Baptist church comes to mind.  In a zealous effort to warn sinners of their ignorant participation in sin, they spend tedious hours creating posters and banners that carry only the words of hate and condemnation to those in need of salvation.  The members of this singular church do not sit quietly and pray for Lord of love to make changes in the hearts that need it.  No, they would rather lead the charge in the fight against evil, never for a moment recognizing the evil that infects each one of them.  Hate banners proudly displayed in times and places where love is needed even more so.  Slogans of hate and condemnation screamed at those in need of love, until their voices and the voices of demons are indistinguishable.  But they have scripture on their side, don’t they?  They have the history of the Old Testament on their side, don’t they?  They certainly have their own interpretation of it, that somehow allows them to carry out their plans.  So did Judas.  So do we, anytime our interpretations lead us to think we can lead God.

John Mark continues in verse 45 saying … “And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him.”  Judas executed his plan.  He did not pray over it, or at least listen for the response of the Lord.  The plan of Judas involved betrayal, it risked violence, and Judas put those risks and realities aside to execute his plan.  The plans of Christian organizations and members, who would espouse condemnation as their method of salvation are no different than the plans of Judas.  Hate in any form is still hate.  Calling attention to the pain of sin, does not redeem the sinner, it only states the reality of his pain once again.  Redemption begins with forgiveness.  Redemption begins with God loving us in spite of our denial of who He is, and His love for us, that happens in spite of the choices we have made and are making.  Love that reaches out to us, even in our state of sin, is the only love that can draw us out of our sin.  Quiet testimony of how Jesus did this for you, would do more to redeem another who is still struggling with the pain Jesus brought you out of.  Any other words are meaningless.  A lack of love is meaningless and will accomplish nothing in someone else.

John Mark continues in verse 46 saying … “And they laid their hands on him, and took him. [verse 47] And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.”  Peter witnesses these events from a different perspective than John, and so his recollection comes from a different perspective.  The small army sent to capture Jesus does exactly that as Jesus submits.  But while Jesus is willing to be taken, the violence Judas has started will not end with him.  Peter responds by drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant.  An inch to the left and he might have split the head of the high priest’s servant in two.  Violence has come to Jesus, and violence will be used to stop it.  Peter has not thought through the odds, or the numbers.  The guards greatly outnumber him, but he is undeterred.  Peter need only make a distraction so that Jesus can escape.  Peter is ready for blood.  At this point Peter is ready for the blood of Judas most of all.

And so Christians who incorporate violence into their planning, find that violence is ready to be used against them.  Peter could argue that others drew the sword first, that others came with violent intent first.  So do we.  We argue that the world, under the watchful eye of Satan, has drawn the sword first against us, and against our faith.  We are not wrong.  The world is not above using violence against the faith.  But what does it say, when we are willing to take violence to them, when we initiate it.  The people who Westboro protests against, did not first come and protest against them.  The women who in their desperation find themselves at an abortion clinic did not come to our churches before they were pregnant to hurl stones and accusations against the faithful for their hypocrisy and their spite.  It was before they were pregnant that our love to them might have altered the course of their lives.  It is now in their time of greatest need when ONLY our love might still have a chance to alter it, to redeem it, to provide a consistency of love no matter what course they choose.  Will they meet that love from us, or will they meet something else?

The response of Jesus to Peter is not recorded here.  Nor is the miracle of Jesus restoring to the servant of the high priest the ear that was just cut off.  Perhaps Peter did not see or hear this.  Or more likely perhaps the rebuke of Jesus to Peter for using that sword still stings in the ears of Peter as it should in ours.  Peter does however, hear the rebuke of Jesus to this small army intent on his capture as John Mark continues in verse 48 saying … “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? [verse 49] I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”  Jesus points out that He carries no sword or spear.  Jesus has not been calling an army to Himself, He has been here to redeem all men and women instead.  Jesus points out that He was in the Temple very recently teaching, if they wanted Him, they could have taken Him there very easily.  But then, scriptures must be fulfilled.

It is with this, that the vows of men are recorded in the gospel.  John Mark states in verse 50 saying … “And they all forsook him, and fled.”  This includes John.  This includes Peter.  Even Judas may not have had the stomach to see where the best of intentions is now going to lead.  But there was another witness.  In the strangest of epitaphs, Peter recalls to John Mark beginning in verse 51 saying … “And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: [verse 52] And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.”  Who was this?  Scripture does not record, nor would it seem that Peter knew him by name.  Why was he there?  Could this person have been there all the while Jesus was in agony?  Could he have been staring through the mists watching the Son of Man become separated from the Father God?

To be naked in front of others is considered a high sin in the days of Peter.  It is clear in this exchange that the man had few clothes on to begin with and is clearly willing to leave them behind in the escape.  Perhaps this was yet another demoniac who stays in silent witness.  Perhaps this was the devil himself in human form.  Or perhaps this was a silent disciple awakened from his bed in the night, who has come to the garden in nothing but his pajamas.  We may never know until we reach that infinite kingdom of our Lord.  But what this man saw, what they all saw, was the results of a very finely crafted plan reaching its unintended fruition.  Judas crafted a plan he reasoned had only one outcome, when in reality the outcome was something completely different.

When we plan, when we consider possible outcomes, we must ask ourselves the only question that matters … do we plan in response to the call of God, or ahead of it?  It is far better to follow the plans of God, even when they make little or no sense to us, then to craft our own plans with the best of intentions and the deadliest results.  When we include violence, or the risk of violence in our planning, we step away from the path of our God, and enter ground we were never meant to tread.  For it is love alone that redeems, love alone that can change the course of a person’s life.  Violence cannot accomplish this feat, but love can.  Perhaps our best course of action is to be willing to be led, instead of constantly thinking it is our job to lead. 

The fight over sin happens in the heart of man, where only the Love of God can transform and give us hope.  Banners that state our condemnation, offer us no reason to escape this fate other than fear.  They do not picture a loving God, but only a vengeful one who delights in our time in the flames.  This is not the God I serve, nor the picture I find in these scriptures of Jesus who would rather suffer torture and death than to see us have to do it.  Perhaps the better poster to construct would look something like those old weight loss ones of a few years back … “End sin and pain now, ask me how”.

 

Bleeding and Dying No More [part three] ...

In this series, perhaps the World Series of establishing the identity of Jesus Christ, the first three events had happened in fairly quick succession.  In the space of only a few days, Jesus had commanded nature, and bent time and space.  In this first act, He established Himself as our world’s Creator, and the Author of physics (not its slave).  Next, the infinite power of His Love, commanded an entire host of nearly 2,000 demons to leave a tortured possessed man with a single command.  In this second act, He established that no amount of enemies could stand before His Love, they were compelled to heed the voice of the Son of God who they acknowledged despite what the Pharisees were saying about Him.  In the third act, a woman whose desperation led her to lift her self-imposed limitations and imagine a cure was possible if only she could secretly touch the hem of His garment, and her crazy scheme worked.  But in the third act, Christ wanted this woman to know that she and her terminal disease were important to Him.  He called her His Daughter, blessed her, and sent her home safe in the knowledge that she would never be unimportant to Him.  Now we resume an examination of his fourth and final act to establish and affirm His identity.

Peter recalls to John Mark in his Gospel in chapter five how the fourth act would proceed.  Jesus was still en-route to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter.  Jairus remained a part of the ruling class of Israel, part of the Sanhedrin that was already deep into conspiring to see Jesus killed.  Jairus maintained his association with the very group of men bent on killing Christ.  Justice would demand a life for a life.  Justice would demand that someone bent on killing Christ, should himself suffer the fate he intended for Jesus.  Even if Jairus was not personally a part of the group intent on killing Christ, he had done nothing to distance himself from them until this day, when he submitted in humility before Christ in order to see his own daughter healed from yet another terminal illness.  Justice is and remains the battle cry … of Satan.  It is Satan who cries for justice in the hallowed courts of heaven.  It is Satan that demands that we pay for our sins, for a penalty must surely be paid.  Those who demand justice, echo the demands of Satan.  Our God is not interested in ensuring equality, fairness, and justice; for His Love offers so MUCH more than mere equality and fairness.  His Love is willing to forgive what otherwise Justice could not forgive.  His Love is willing to serve that which does not deserve service.  His Love is willing to reclaim, re-create, and restore that which by self-decision had abased itself beyond comprehension.  There is no Justice in our redemption … there is only Love.

But the decision to humble himself before Christ must have been a hard one for Jairus.  When his daughter fell ill, Jairus must have done what all of us do, what the woman who was just healed did.  He called in the doctors, and physicians.  Money was no object to Jairus, he would gladly spend it all to see his daughter healed.  But alas the best of human wisdom is still often not enough.  And his daughter’s condition got worse instead of better.  Unlike the Roman commander, who “knew” Jesus could heal with a simple command, and did not need to be there to see it done … Jairus had made a different request.  Jairus had asked for Jesus to come to heal his daughter.  The faith of Jairus in Christ was there, but not as great as that of the Roman, who did not have to personally witness what Christ did, the Roman was content to hear the words from His mouth, and to know it would be done.  Jairus needed to see.  But the time Jairus had spent in seeking a cure outside of Jesus Christ, had proven to be time wasted.  Is it any different for us?

How often, in our desire to be redeemed, do we seek a cure for our sins, outside of the transforming power of Jesus Christ?  We look to find spiritual growth in the things we do.  We read the Bible.  We study our weekly lessons for church classes.  We attend services.  We sing our songs of praise, and pray our prayers for blessings (for us).  We give what we can afford to give, be it time or money, to those who are “less fortunate” than ourselves.  In short, we are like the rich young ruler of scriptures, who when he encounters Christ, states that from his youth he has “kept all the commandments” of our God.  But what we spend little time contemplating in our spiritual lives, and spiritual “accomplishments” is “why” we do what we do.  The list cited above is not a bad list.  In point of fact, the transformed heart does all of these things, but it does them for a different reason, and it experiences a different outcome.  Those who pursue doing these activities “in order to see themselves rid of sin” do not see their goals achieved.  It is not our actions that rid us of the desire to sin … it is our surrender to Jesus Christ alone.  It is only the power of Christ who can remove within us, what we cannot remove, no matter how many spiritual things we attempt to do.  It is not our power that can remove our sinful desires, it is the power of Christ alone.  When we seek another remedy for sin, outside of surrendering to Christ, we see only continued failure.

When however, like Jairus, in desperation, we finally decide to humble ourselves and admit we cannot do what must be done … taking our sin, and our sinful desires to the feet of Jesus Christ … we finally experience what His power alone can do for us; whether our disease is in a terminal state, or whether we have already died in it.  Jesus can revive not only those who are spiritually wounded and suffering from a terminal disease, He can revive a heart that has experienced spiritual death and up to now has wanted nothing to do with spiritual things.  The transformed heart, learns to love like Christ loves.  The transformed and resurrected heart learns to love others like Christ loves others.  In so doing, the transformed heart looks for truth in the pages of Truth, and studies through the lens of Jesus Christ leading.  The transformed heart gladly goes to church because it longs for the joy of association and the opportunity to serve others, not to be served.  The transformed heart sings songs of praise, not just in sanctuaries dedicated to that purpose, but in the car, on the street, at the office desk, and in the home; because it CANNOT keep silent.  Gratitude overflows and leads to continual praise.  The transformed heart prays only for others, because it knows its own needs have been far exceeded in being met.  The transformed heart gives everything it has to others, and holds nothing back for itself, because it cannot afford to pass up an opportunity to give.  And in humility it never claims to have kept the commandments, but rather re-directs any notion of goodness, back to the source of Christ, for nothing within it is good without Him.  Why we do what we do matters.

But alas, the time Jairus (and us) spent in looking for a solution outside of Christ was time wasted.  And in this case, it was too much time wasted.  Peter recalls to John Mark beginning in verse 35 saying … “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?”  Game over.  You waited too long, wasted too much time, and failed.  It was too late.  She died.  There is no further point.  Once you were dead, you were dead.  Half the Sanhedrin did not believe in any form of resurrection even at the end of all things.  Jairus and his household may have been of that inclination.  But whether he was or not, the time to heal a terminal disease was done.  Might as well, let God move on to other priorities, help those who still have time to be helped, help those who have not wasted ALL of their time just yet.  Death was a bell that could not be un-rung.  In all of the scriptures Jairus was deeply familiar with, there had never been a story of the dead coming back to life.  They ALL slept, awaiting the final day of God’s Kingdom being established on earth.  There may have been ghost stories from witches who derived their power from Satan, but demons impersonating dead men, were still a far cry from an actual dead person getting a second chance.  So far, death was an absolute ruler over the fate of mankind.  It did not matter whether you were good or bad, faithful or not, everyone died.  So the game needed to be called for an expired time clock.  Death had claimed the players, and there was nothing left … or was there?

John Mark records the reaction of Christ in verse 36 saying … “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.”  This was asking the impossible.  Jesus, was asking Jairus, to do something to believe something, that there was no precedent for.  He was asking Jairus to believe in spite of the facts, in spite of scripture, in spite of his beliefs, in spite of his education, upbringing, and tenants of his job.  This was not a combination of scripture and God.  This was a request to believe only in Jesus Christ.  The interpretations of the Sanhedrin where it came to the Messiah were largely mistaken.  They had confused the second coming and final establishment of God’s kingdom with the first coming where the lamb would be slain.  They had scripture all jumbled up.  And in none of scripture was there hope of an early resurrection, and nothing about the Messiah doing one of those.  So the request of Christ required faith in only one thing … in the person of Jesus Christ standing before him right then, and right there.  Is it any different for us?  To have faith that Christ can do for you, what you have been unable to do, takes faith in only thing … in Jesus Christ.  It is not your understanding of scripture that can see you rid of your desire to sin, it is Jesus Christ alone.  Your doctrines will not do it, but your Savior will, if you let Him.

Then Jesus did something that is at first a little hard for us to understand, Mark records it in verse 37 saying … “And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.”  Jesus dismissed the crowd.  Even within His own disciples, only three were selected to see what was about to occur.  The obvious question was “why”.  The gospel of John we studied earlier offers us perhaps a little insight here.  John’s gospel highlights several occasions where the crowd was bent on forcing Christ to become their earthly king.  He had to use miraculous powers to escape those crowds or they would have succeeded.  The people at this time, and in our own, often look only at Christ through the lens of what is in it for them.  They seek Christ, like we seek Santa Claus and Bill Gates, to see what they might do for us.  We want, we want, we want.  Our prayers are like laundry lists of what we need God to do for us. 

Knowing He could heal, nearly the entire nation sought a health upgrade, and they got it.  Dealing with a matter of life and death, or more precisely, that death was no longer a barrier, might encourage a revolution against Rome where people would gladly kill themselves on Roman spears and swords, expecting to be raised up by their newly crowned Messiah.  If death itself could not stop their army, they would indeed be the greatest force on earth, and all the world including Rome would have to submit.  Even His own disciples harbored some of these feelings.  So the group of witnesses had to be smaller, in order to see this blessing occur.  Our inclination to selfishness necessitated a restriction of the vision of the power of God, as it does today.  How many believers today, if endowed with the ability to heal the sick without exception, would be able to withstand the temptation to take the credit for themselves, to accept the celebrity our society would heap upon them, to become a leader in the eyes of the nation, and in some ways be worshipped as a demi-god?  How many believers today, could refuse the praise of those impacted, and remain humble, dependent, and ever seeking ONLY the will of the Father as Jesus did.  Our inclination to selfishness, necessitates the restriction of the outpouring of the true power of the Holy Spirit.

Peter then recalls his own personal witness to what transpired next as John Mark continues writing in verse 38 saying … “And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. [verse 39] And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.”  There are several things to note here.  First the perspective of God is not like our own.  We see death as a barrier from which there is no return, Jesus and God see it only as a nap, or night’s sleep, like we take every day.  Time passes while we are unconscious, but when we wake up, we pick up where we left off, and resume doing what needs to be done.  From the perspective of Christ this remains true of death.  Adam is still sleeping.  Adam has no concept of the nearly 5000+ years that have passed since he fell asleep in death.  He is napping.  When Christ returns he will be woken up, and resume a life he is familiar with, but without the stain of sin any more.  When we sleep, we are unconscious.  We are not still living in some sort of ghost like state, we are simply asleep, unaware of time, or any other concerns.  The declaration of Christ is not just trying to get the crowd here to feel better about the girl’s condition, it is about getting all of us to understand better what death itself is actually like.

The second thing to note here, is that if death is actually not the end of our existence, if there is actually life possible after our earthly sleep of death … then what kind of life would that be?  Satan encourages us to sin like there is no tomorrow, because we only have “one life” and time is short.  But what if he is only half right?  What if time is truly short here, and our opportunity to make a difference, to lead someone else to the real eternal life is wasted?  A life after this one, intended to be permanent, and lived in loving others can actually begin here through the power of Christ.  But to waste that, is to waste the chance to help another see what you have seen, and learn from Christ, what you have learned.  If we spend all of this life focusing on only our own temporal needs, when in our next life, none of those things truly matter, do we not waste our lives entirely?  Whether you live 10 years, or 20, or 80, it is a drop in the bucket next to eternal life.  Would it not be better to live whatever time you have left fully, and intensely, with the primary mission of bringing others with you into the next life of eternity with Christ?  To connect them with the same Jesus who is saving and transforming you, is the ONLY goal that counts with whatever time you have left here.  To love others, like Jesus loves others, is truly living.  Everything else, is such as waste.

The perspective of those grieving people was a lot like our own, we do not see past the limits we have set for ourselves, past our ideas of the facts as John Mark records in verse 40 saying … “And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.”  The people in their grief, “laughed Him to scorn”.  They took their limited vision, and assumed that Jesus was making an alternate medical assessment of the condition of the child.  They could not see something broader, perhaps nor do we.  Jesus was talking about life and death, and what is truly important.  And what we see is limited by our own ideas of the facts, history, and certainty in our knowledge.  But we are wrong, misguided, and will not see what Jesus is truly saying.  So Jesus does what must be done, undeterred and non-responsive to their criticism and ridicule, He simply escorts all of them all out of the house. 

Even though Jesus is in the right, even though Jesus alone understands life and death better than anyone there, He does NOT force others to accept His own thinking.  He does not compel them to change what they believe or what they say.  He does not laugh back at them, and call them out for the fools they truly are.  He does not humiliate them for being wrong, and not understanding what He is saying.  But how often do Christians treat each other this way?  How often in our certainty about scripture and its interpretation do we use it as a weapon to punish those with less knowledge than ourselves?  How often do we “defend” ourselves against ridicule and scorn, by inflicting ridicule and scorn on those who “deserve it”?  Jesus does not react this way, ever.  He never “gets even”.  He never looks for justice against those who keep wrongly inflicting their own pain and ridicule on Him.  Instead He continues in acts of Love, undeterred by those who do not understand it yet.

Peter continues the story in verse 41 saying … “And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. [verse 42] And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.”  Perhaps Jesus took this girl by the hand before He offered that command, because without directing it specifically at her, the entire fallen mankind might have arisen at that moment in time.  A single command had only recently expelled nearly 2,000 demons at once, so we know what He says carries great weight in a world beyond our vision and self-imposed limitations.  The girl of course, did what Adam did when Jesus had breathed life into him, she arose.  Jesus was not calling this girl back from the paradise of heaven her disembodied soul would have surely preferred to stay in.  Instead He was doing what He had already explained, He was waking her from the sleep of death, and from her nap.  She had no concept of the passing of time, of the weeping and wailing that had been going on for her departure.  She was asleep.  And now through the power of Christ, life had entered her again, and she was awake.  For the first time the 5 souls in attendance had their self-imposed blinders lifted.  They were astonished.

John Mark concludes this series in verse 43 saying … “And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.”  What was being done, was to be witnessed by 5 people in person, and recorded not for them (they saw it), but for us.  The identity of Jesus Christ should have been firmly affixed in the eyes of three of His disciples, but all the more so for you and I.  What had just transpired was concrete proof that for those who believe in Jesus Christ, not even death was any kind of barrier to what He can do for us.  Our Creator has the power to re-create what we have by choice killed.  Our Creator can call life back into us, no matter how badly we have driven out every spiritual impulse in our lives.  But it is our Creator alone who can do this for us, not the power we mistakenly believe we have.  The dead girl was not a partner with Christ in her own resurrection, she was only a beneficiary of it.  Jairus did not “do” anything to see his own daughter raised, he was only a witness to it.  The disciples and closest followers of Christ, were not participant or partners in this ministry, they were only as witnesses.  A grieving mother, a hopeful father, a curious set of dedicated believers; all had different perspectives on what occurred and differing points of view.  But what was solely consistent was that Jesus Christ did ALL the work of raising the dead back to life.

It is exactly so in our Christian experience.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who plants the seed of faith in us, we do not even do that much.  Jesus is the one who does ALL the work of bringing us back from spiritual death to spiritual life in Him.  We do nothing but let Him.  The dead girl could not refuse the command of Christ, nature could not refuse, disease could not refuse, the demons could not refuse the command of Christ; and our desires to sin will be unable to stand before the commands of Christ if we are but willing to let Him utter them on our behalf.  None of the opposition to Christ were working with Him to see change, all were working against Him.  But change occurred because He commanded it.  Your sinful nature is not going to just go away on its own.  Your love of sin, is not just going to be erased by the power of your will, or ability to deny yourself that which you love.  But a single command of Christ, can knock that desire out of your life for good.  A transformed heart, can lead you to focus on new priorities, until acts for others become “normal” and acts for self are never needed again.

The identity of Jesus Christ should be most affirmed in your mind and in mine.  The revelation of this gospel is a revelation of Jesus Christ to you and I.  It is an unveiling of the truth to us.  The stories are not mere history, they are predictive for our lives.  They are applicable in our here and now.  Disease is not our master, nor are the rules of nature and physics, we serve the Lord who is over all of them.  Not even death is a barrier to our God of Love who sees infinitely beyond the night’s sleep of death we may take, or the brief nap we enjoy between our last day, and His first day at His second coming.  What matters, is how we love.  What matters is who we love, in that it is others, and not ourselves.  We waste time when we love ourselves, and we enjoy life when we spend it loving others.  The identity of our God is a deep association with a love for others.  He won His world series.  We should enjoy that victory, and let Him win one in our lives, for us, that we too can benefit from …

 

Genetically Modified Organisms ...

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 …

 

Story Telling [part one] ...

Movies truly “move” the world.  The art of storytelling accentuated with visual effects, soaring musical scores, dramatic portrayals, and carefully scripted story lines combine into a 2-hour presentation that absorbs the senses and instructs the mind.  An entire industry exists to edit, package, and market a film.  Some films intended to entertain, others to offer the quick stimulus of fear, still others to make us feel kinship and empathy with a character who suffers injustice, or triumphs in spite of the odds.  But at the end of the day, a movie is nothing more than taking the art of storytelling to its highest level.  And this art did not originate with the birth of the camera, it has been a part of our culture from Adam to now.  The children of Adam never experienced the Tree of Life for themselves.  By the time they enter the story of our world, Adam and Eve had been forced to leave the Garden of Eden and build a home outside of it.  An angel stood there guarding the entrance to Eden with a flaming sword.  And despite the level of evil that would grow to cause the destruction of the world by flood … no human or dinosaur would ever challenge that angel for access .., and live.

So for Cain, Able and Seth to know what the garden was like, Adam and Eve would have to tell them about it from memory, and thus the art of the story was born.  It would be an oral tradition handed down all the way to Noah.  The grandchildren of Noah had never seen the angel who stood guard at the entrance to the Garden of Eden before the flood.  They never knew the world before it had been destroyed by water, and then abated to start over.  They never saw the creatures born of the evil of the minds of men, nor witnessed the abomination of altering DNA into things that should have never existed.  We discover the bones and the evidence of such atrocities now, but God chose not to preserve them in the great flood, to end those things that should have not existed but for the wickedness of men.  So to understand how evil, evil can be, the grandchildren of Noah would have to be told the stories of life before the flood.

Without the written parchment to record the recounting of witnesses who would pass on, stories tend to decay and pass away.  Even now, films of antiquity must be preserved with great care, or they too would disappear from our ability to enjoy them.  Oral traditions tend to have a much shorter shelf life.  When Moses would appear on the scene, the Law of God would be written in stone.  This would erase a complete dependence on oral tradition, and introduce something of permanence in the recounting of God’s saving love.  Stone does not decay.  The redemption of Israel from the slavery of oppression would be chronicled in books that would be meticulously preserved until our day.  Moses would be given a recounting of the important parts of the Genesis story, and it is through his record we understand what we do about our creation and our beginnings.

But outside of a documentary, no one expects a movie to be a truly accurate accounting of the story it attempts to portray.  The characters in it, rarely quote their inspiration word for word, second for second, as the story may have originally occurred … or a movie would last years instead of hours.  Instead paraphrasing main ideas occurs, symbolism is employed to accentuate a point, and what might have taken years in real time to relay can be condensed into a digestible time period to sit in a theatre and enjoy the spectacle.  This needed condensation of time is not intended to destroy the point of the movie, or lessen its emotional impact, if it does the movie is discarded as “bad”.  The condensation of time must be used to effect, the symbolism well employed, in order that we remain emotionally invested in what we perceive, and that our learning is accentuated not destroyed.  Often elements of a story may have never actually happened, they are “made up” to help move the story along, or help us understand the real dilemma of the characters portrayed so that the main point remains intact.  Audiences understand this phenomenon and do not stomp out of the theatre because one of the Marvel Super-heroes strays off the story line for a minute or two.

The reason why movies exist today, why oral traditions of storytelling began with Adam and Eve, why Moses wrote down the recounting of history in his age remain the same … storytelling is effective.  While we recall a favorite book, or movie, or time at the feet of our grandparents so long ago; we can remember new elements of the story, or new interpretations of what was relayed.  In point of fact, the original story was never changed in its telling to us … what has changed is our perspective, our own experiences, and the truth we can now perceive in the same words, and same stories, we heard or experienced so long ago.  The story remains the same, but our ability to understand more of its truths is brought about by our maturing process and life experiences.  It is perhaps for this reason that Jesus chose to reveal some truth about the gospel in the form of parables, or storytelling, to those who sought to hear Him.

In our day, I have often joined in the voices who wish He would have just spoken plainly instead of through parables.  But then I must remember the Bible is full of plainly worded speech and language, and it is perhaps my own resistance to truth that keeps me from accepting those ideas.  So perhaps “I” needed Jesus to preserve the art of storytelling for “me”, in order that I too might return to the same stories and discover new truths in them, because my own experiences have changed since the last time I read them.  They are the same truths, the same main themes, the same ideas that Jesus wished for me to learn.  The stories and parables of Christ are not point for point, exactly accurate literal words; that I must mimic with precision in order to understand what Christ was attempting to communicate.  They are instead like the movies and storytelling of my own day, without all the production quality, but with a far deeper scripted story line, that offers me truth like no movie I have ever seen has been able to do.  As I begin to grasp His main themes, I begin to get a different perspective on truth, and salvation, and what it means to be made free from who we are.

Peter recounts the storytelling technique of Christ to teach truth about salvation for the first time in John Mark’s gospel in chapter 4 and verse 1.  Up to this point, only literal recollections of events that had occurred were cited by Peter through Mark.  “Plain speech” had formed the record up to this point, so chapter 4 was a departure from the style of the gospel till now.  However, there was a reason why Christ chose to teach us through stories, and Peter was keen to preserve them for us.  So he begins his recounting in verse one saying … “And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. [verse 2] And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,”  The doctrines, or the truth of redemption as taught by Christ would be slowly revealed in parables.  This would allow His audience to digest them over time, and not be inundated with too much too quickly.

Imagine the alternative for a moment.  You and I know, through the study of His word, that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God almighty.  He is God on earth at this time, in the flesh.  If the crowds had grasped this concept thoroughly and believed it with all their hearts, how could they allow the Romans or the Jews to put God to death?  They, like you and I, would have fought to the death to protect their God from human stupidity.  You and I know that it is only through the power of the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, that we can be made free, even from the desire to sin.  Had the crowds of that day embraced this idea with all their hearts, the world may have been made ready for saving right then and there.  No need to delay His coming, and again yet another fight to the death to protect the savior of our very souls and nature, from the stupidity of those steeped in evil.  These truths necessitated time to understand and adopt by those being taught (including us), in order that we build trust with our God, and do not react in haste to the truth that is revealed to us, interfering with the plans God has for our own redemption, and the redemption of others.

So the story begins by Jesus in verse 3 saying … “Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:”  It is easy to simply continue with the story here instead of pausing for a bit.  But the point here is critical.  It is God who takes the initiative to go out and sow the seed of His Word in us.  We did NOT ask for this to occur.  We were instead steeped in our embrace of sin and self-love.  We were not really interested in asking for redemption from our condition.  Instead, we were where the story finds us in just a few moments.  However God, was keenly interested in our redemption.  He does not wait for an invitation from diseased souls who are incapable of asking for what is good for them.  Instead He goes about His mission to see His precious children redeemed, even when they do not know this is good for them, or do not have the good sense to ask for the freedom He offers.  God initiates the process of our salvation.  Lest you think your faith originated in you, it did not.  Lest you think your desire for God originated in you, it did not.  Your ability to even make a choice to find the freedom God offers, began with Him taking up His role of sower of seed.

The story continues in verse 4 saying … “And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.”  To better understand this part of the main theme, I will recount the words of Christ to explain this passage found in verse 15 below as He says … “And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.”  Ouch!  For a brief fleeting moment, nearly before a decision can even be reached, there are those of us who squander our opportunity to be saved by Jesus Christ, to be made free from the sins we have chosen to embrace through our addictive love of self. 

These may well be those poor souls who have no one praying for their salvation, and have only a limited opportunity to ever hear the word of God.  The one single chance presents itself, and in nearly an immediate response, the love-of-self Satan sells us, floods over them to quickly take away the adoption of the seeds of salvation.  It may represent an even worse scenario where the love of God is misrepresented by someone bearing the name Christian, and the hate of Satan that spews from the mouth of the supposed “Christian” robs the unbeliever of even a motive to begin to seek change.  We might pray to be vessels of His love, and not thieves of souls spouting the hate speech of the enemy.

You will note, this story is not about a gardener who is transplanting fully grown trees.  That symbolism does not work.  The process of salvation does not begin with maturity, it ends with it.  The removal of sins from our lives does not happen in full in an instant because we won’t let it.  For us to bear fruit will take time with God to mature, we will need to learn what it means to love like He loves.  We are too ignorant to know that is what we need.  We are too stooped in our addiction to self-love to recognize how bad off we are, and how desperately we need to be saved from ourselves.  So the process of salvation begins with a seed, with a still small voice, with an inclination to seek something more, to end the pain we bring upon ourselves.  It begins with something small, but it ends with something huge and magnificent.  It is worth considering, that repeated attempts to get us to find the salvation God offers are themselves an added blessing.  For this crowd described in this first allegory received only the one invitation, squandered it, and were never able to find another attempt.  There is a finality that comes from choosing to continue to embrace the self-styled-salvation Satan offers.  That finality ends in our destruction, not in our self-based-salvation.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: [verse 6] But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.”  The explanation Christ offered is found in verse 16 saying … “And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; [verse 17] And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.”  There is a depth to the story that is revealed in this scene.  The Word is Jesus Christ.  It is not the accumulation of our interpretation of doctrines or the wealth of our memorization of scripture that is described here.  It is our willingness to submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, and allow Him to remake our desires and who we are.

There is a class of Christian who appreciate the theory of salvation.  They believe in the power of Jesus Christ to save them, and they profess to accept His offer.  Immediately the Word sprang up in these souls.  They did not allow Satan to take it from them, as the first group willingly did.  But they did not allow the seed to penetrate into the core of who they are either.  These are the Christians who want God to solve some particular sin they struggle with … but not all of them.  They are willing to give a part of themselves over to Christ to be saved, but the stone of their hearts remains unconverted.  The benefits of following Christ and lessening the pain of their self-love appeal to them.  But to truly change everything about themselves is just something that is a bit too far for them.  These Christians are able to give to the poor what they have in excess, but not everything they have.  These Christians have 50/50 marriages made up of give and take, not a marriage based on giving everything all the time no matter the response.  In short, these Christians are living with a “balanced” idea of salvation where being “reasonable” about how much we give, and how much we allow Christ to change our hearts seems like the right approach to them.

But the problem with withholding parts of ourselves, and entry into our hearts of stone from Christ, is that the disease we suffer from remains within us.  When the trials of life, and the desire of Satan to hurt God by hurting us enter our lives, we run from God, instead of running to Him.  We compromise beliefs and ethics in order to lessen the pain the world brings.  We align with the world to lessen its hatred of us.  We become offended at the idea of giving “everything”.  We become offended at the idea of having to change “who” we are for the sake of our salvation.  We believe we should be able to change parts of us, and leave the other parts intact.  Having to become someone else entirely is offensive to us, as we see ourselves as “good people” who are plainly “good enough” and if that is not enough for Christ, then that is His problem instead of ours.  Who is He anyway to ask us to give “everything”, nobody gives “everything” … except … well Jesus Christ did to redeem us.  Giving everything was what our God did for us, and it is in giving everything to others, that our hearts of stone begin to melt into hearts of flesh, that are moved by the needs and pain of others, not just ourselves.

Scene 3 in our story resumes with the work of the Sower continuing His efforts for our redemption and begins in verse 7 saying … “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.”  The explanation of Christ found in verse 18 saying … “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, [verse 19] And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”  This is the horror scene of this movie.  It might be frightening to think of Satan’s evil crows stealing our salvation with our gleeful willingness at the outset of this story.  It might be scary to think we might embrace it partially, and then find we have lost it to the stone of our hearts in a brief time.  But this is the horror scene altogether.  Jason, Freddy, and Manson together conspire for this scene of the movie.

A few things to note.  The ground of these souls is not condemned as was the stone of other recipients.  They did not immediately reject the word, or allow Satan to steal it from them.  All indications are the ground looks like good ground.  These souls embraced the salvation of Christ, or so it would appear.  They spend time with Christ.  Weeds do not kill in an instant, they take time to grow up as well.  In fact the distinction between the seeds of grass and the seeds of weeds is hard to tell in the infancy of the life of the plant.  They both look green.  They both look pretty.  They seem to equally decorate the lawn we hope to enjoy.  But there is a distinction.  The plants are actually different.  One is rooted in the salvation of the Lord, the other only looks that way.  The Christian in this scene looks like a good guy, and seems to be doing the right things.  His only problem is that it appears his best friend is Charles Manson.  And when Chuck is not around, he looks for counsel from Freddy Kruger, and Jason to get advice.  Of course to the Christian, these ruthless psychopathic killers look as harmless as the cute little yellow Minions.  But they are not, they are in fact, ruthless killers, who leave no one left alive.

An “innocent” Christian considers the needs of his own life as he makes decisions about his future.  His job, the needs of getting a promotion, and a good increase in pay are important to him.  He worries about the repair costs of his Mercedes, and whether he can afford to buy the necklace for his wife.  The pressure of wealth is no less a burden to him, than the advice of Charles Manson.  Jason and Freddy stand ready to inform him about where money should be invested in the stock market, and that becoming a millionaire is not as rewarding as becoming a billionaire.  The horror of this scene, is that it is not the poor who are its victims, it is those who consider themselves successful Christians.  Americans meet this criteria in no small quantities.  We live in a country of relative wealth, or at least comparative wealth.  We have ease, vacations, weekends and pools.  We eat out, and drive advanced automobiles.  We work in industries and jobs that require better education, or offer better pay than any contemporary in any other nation.  Our families need our financial support, and we are blessed enough to be able to provide it. 

The horror story of this scene, is that it looks to impact those who are NOT in great need, instead they look “normal”.  The condition of this horror does not impact the poor, it impacts the rich, and even more terrifying … the middle class.  This could well describe the state of Christianity in every denomination in our nation.  We have our poor, and sometimes we consider ourselves to be in need, but most of us are surviving.  And in our survival, we consider the cares of this world that begin to choke out our ability to spend our resources on others.  We can afford to give less and less instead of more and more.  Our blessings look more and more like Freddy Kruger, an anchor around our souls, than an opportunity to make a real difference in the life of someone else who neither deserves our love, nor can repay it.  The deceitfulness of the lure of our wealth, is that no matter how much we have, we will always “need” just a little bit more.  We lie to ourselves, that if we get that raise, or bonus, we will surely use part of it as a gift back to God.  But for every dollar we acquire there is always a destination in mind for it before it even touches our hands.  Our “needs” always find a way of outpacing our supply.  And thus the lie of the lure of wealth chokes our “ability” to give.

Had the movie ended in scene 3 with the horror of losing salvation slowly insidiously and over time, choked out by the Charles Manson’s of the world who look like regular guys and seem to offer practical advice; this would be a horrible story.  But fortunately, in the movie script Christ was relaying, the movie had one more act.  A scene 4 was ready for entry on the big screen as follows beginning in verse 8 saying … “And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. [verse 9] And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  The explanation Christ offers beginning in verse 20 saying … “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”  This is the redemption scene.  This is the scene that is the main point of this picture, and the reason why the story was told in the first place.

The intent of this story was not to leave any single audience member in the danger of immediate loss, or quickly withering away, or even losing the battle over time to the lie of wealth in this world.  The intent of this story was to get it right.  To find salvation, and witness the results of what it does.  In this scene, the seed grows up and does something the other scenes have lacked.  It bears fruit.  The amount of fruit for these souls varies.  It is not uniform.  It is not exactly the same for each of us.  But it is common to each of us.  It is unavoidable.  We cannot help but bear fruit.  It is His fruit in us.  This is the end state of maturity not the beginning of it.  When we grow up in Christ, we become like He is.  We begin to love others like He loves others.  When we love this way, we cannot help but to meet another’s needs.  We don’t look at it as a burden to us financially but as an opportunity to us to love someone else.  The fruit we bear is “real” wealth.  It is the wealth of providing for others, for loving others like He loves them.  This is the only “real” currency in heaven.  When we love like Christ loves, we regret that giving our all, is so meager.  If we had one more penny, we would share it, even if it were our last one.  God does everything for us.  He loves us that much.  This story was designed to show us that.  It was not designed that any should be excluded, but that ALL should be in the good ground category.

But there was more Christ had to teach His disciples and us that we will soon learn …