The Schindler Moment ...

If you haven’t guessed yet, one of my favorite movies of all time is Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”.  There are too many things to list that I like about it, but what sticks with me, what is stuck in my mind that lives on undimmed by failing memory, is the moment near the end of the film.  [Spoiler Alert]  Oscar, realizes that he has saved a great many Jewish people by trading money to essentially buy them from the Nazi’s.  He has spent his fortune doing it.  But at the end, he realizes that perhaps he could have done more.  All the money wasted, the gold jewelry he is still wearing, all of it, any of it, could have been used to perhaps add one more name to his list.  The people he did save try desperately to comfort him, but he breaks down weeping at the magnitude of the loss of just one more person, someone he would likely not even have known very well, if at all.  His tears jump right off the movie screen and tear through me like a blender.  I call it the Schindler moment.  And what is clear to me, starkly clear to me, is that I am bound to share in it.  Each of us bound to face that same moment.  In the light of eternal joy, where love of others finally rules who we are, we will look in our heavenly mirrors and begin to weep, that we too, could have done more.  We could have loved more.  Cared more.  Done just a little more for someone else in need who will be missing eternity, perhaps in part, because of our own inaction.

Let me be clear.  This is not about salvation.  We will be saved.  It is not about perfection.  We will have been made finally completely perfect by Jesus Christ.  But it is only in that perfection of loving others perfectly that we will see the lives we have lived in this holocaust of Satan and know in the truth of our own hearts, that we simply could have done more.  And those tears are going to tear through us like a blender.  That is the ultimate judgment day, the day we finally see inside, and judge what we know is true.  It is my belief that when scripture records our God wiping away our tears, it will be those tears that require His mercy.  And the horror of this, is that we were, and we are, warned of it.  Jesus Himself gave us a parable of it, but I think we so often miss the true point of what He was saying.  In the gospel of Matthew written to his Hebrew contemporaries, picking up in chapter 25.  Jesus shifts the perspective of His second coming from the conditions that precede it, to the mission that precedes it.  What He now outlines is not so much what to be looking for before His coming, but what to be doing.  That mission is the literal salvation … of others.

It picks up in verse 14 as Jesus says … “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.”  This will be a parable, a story, an analogy of the work.  The man is our Lord Jesus Christ.  He travels to a far country, perhaps to places that needed Jesus before western Christian society was ever able, if not inclined, to travel to find native peoples.  Where He goes we do not know, only that it was a faraway country.  But this does not mean that the work He leaves behind is unimportant.  He calls “His own servants”.  These are not random strangers folks, this is you and me, followers of Jesus Christ.  And what does He give them?  He gives them His treasures.  Now our human minds immediately assume it is money.  Money is the currency we understand.  Money is most often what we crave.  But even if this were true, beyond the illustration of the story, any money gained will NOT be for us.  It is ALL given back.  So there is no “human” profit to be gained in this story.  I believe then, that money is NOT what the Lord values.  Keep in mind, he paves the streets of heaven with pure gold, making gold nothing more than concrete up there.

What our Lord does value, what He was literally willing to give His own life for, was you and me.  It is people that are the true treasure of the Lord.  People are His currency.  Not what we think of as money.  This distinction is important to the rest of the parable.  Jesus continues in verse 15 saying … “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.”  It is our Lord Himself who decides how much of His treasure to invest with us as He leaves on His trip to a far country.  I would bet He leaves more treasure with those who understand transformation best.  With those who have learned to submit, and learned to love like He loves.  As transformation is a journey, not all of us are at the same place at the same time.  Some are farther along, some have only begun.  So I would bet treasure is apportioned out to us based on our abilities to nurture it.  Notice though, as soon as the allocations are made, He immediately leaves.  Perhaps there is an urgent need for our Lord, where we have unable or unwilling to go.

Jesus continues in verse 16 saying … “Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. [verse 17] And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. [verse 18] But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.” It is interesting how the process of growing God’s treasures works.  It begins with the word “went”.  The one entrusted with 5 talents did not stay home.  They did not stay isolated.  They went out.  They met with others.  They interacted.  They likely loved others, and the love drew them to inquire about this Lord Jesus everyone was speaking of.  Inquiry, leads to interest, leading to the lure of His love, leading the new treasure to Jesus for themselves.  What began as a small team of five with a leader, evolves to a small team of ten under that leader/servant.  Yes, the analogy is written in the financial terms that would catch our attention, but the translation into heavenly currency of value, is the translation of cash into souls.

The team leader of two, did the same thing.  He went out.  He interacted.  He loved.  And the same result occurred, just on a smaller scale.  What was intended for the man only given one, was to find only ONE more soul for the kingdom.  No need for evangelism.  No need for mission work in the fields.  Perhaps just to focus his efforts on just one soul at work, or one at home.  Just one person.  But this servant only maintained the treasure of the Lord.  Now think about that.  Jesus does NOT lose money on this person.  He just does not gain anyone else.  This Christian was content to just work on his own salvation, not try to help anyone else with theirs.  Not even one more.  Just himself.  He buries the treasure he was given in order to return it as he found it, nothing better or worse about it.

Jesus continues the story in verse 19 saying … “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. [verse 20] And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. [verse 21] His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”  Here is where the rubber meets the road.  Jesus is happy with the results of the man with his initial team of five becoming now ten.  “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”.  And here is irony.  Jesus sees this as only a few things.  From our perspective this was the guy who got the most in this story.  But from the perspective of the Lord, this was only an initial test investment of a “few things”.  But, given the performance, it is time to increase the investment with this person.  More treasure will be entrusted with him. 

And then comes the key phrase we usually gloss right over – “enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”.  The servant did not make any money, all that currency, all that treasure still belongs to Jesus.  So what is the joy this servant is now going to enter into.  It is not his own salvation, that was assumed from the start.  It is not heaven, the servant was already going there.  What is different?  There will be five more people in heaven than there was before, because of the work, and the love of this faithful servant.  That addition of five more people onto the heavenly list if you will, is a joy this servant will know for all of eternity.  The presence of these new five people will be an everlasting joy.  As they marry, or have kids, or just have you over to dinner some random Sabbath in the eons of time in heaven – the joy of knowing them, of loving them will have no end to it.  Company.  Proximity.  Companionship.  People, are the infinite joy when viewed in the context of eternity.  And it is people that are the joy of our Lord, in which He now invites us to share with Him.

Jesus repeats this same outcome as He continues in verse 22 saying … “He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. [verse 23] His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”  Just because some other guy was entrusted with five treasures, does not make the entrusting of two of any less value.  Think about that math.  Each treasure is priceless.  Therefore, the addition of two is just as valuable as the addition of five.  And our Lord is just as happy with the servant who was given two and turned that into four, as He was with the guy with five who turned it into ten.  The same exact reward is given.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  It is the joy of the Lord that is offered.  Not heaven.  Not salvation.  Those things were already in the destiny of a servant of Jesus Christ.  What is more than that is the infinite treasure of more souls in His Kingdom we will get to spend eternity with.  Even two more is awesome!!

And so it comes back to the one guy.  Jesus continues in verse 24 saying … “Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: [verse 25] And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.”  There are many important themes in this interaction.  First, the man is afraid of His Lord.  Why?  Is it possible his image of God is one of a “hard” God looking to punish us for what we do, instead of helping us to do better?  Is it possible this man believes salvation is a burden he must carry, and the work of his own salvation is so great he has no time or energy for someone else?  Or is that just how we think?  The image this servant has of his God is not a good one.  But it does imply that our God gets results from the most unlikely places (perhaps from the most unlikely people).  At the end of his excuses, he hands back over the soul he was entrusted with to his Lord.  If these talents are truly other people, the unfortunate side effect of this approach, is that he has taught the other talent/person to focus on himself as well, not to be used in the redemptive mission of our Lord.

Jesus responds in verse 26 … “His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: [verse 27] Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. [verse 28] Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.”  Ouch!  Notice the choice of reprimand Jesus has for His servant.  First, He does not disown His servant.  But He is very disappointed with the performance of His servant.  “Wicked” and “slothful” or lazy if you prefer.  Even if the servant has a poor image of what God does (reaping a harvest from the most unlikely places), the servant should have at least attempted to grow the investment incrementally.  That is to say teaching both himself, and the treasure/talent he was entrusted with, to grow a relationship or a transformation that bears some results (even if not the whole enchilada).  Because this servant failed to do this, the error in example had to be corrected.  The treasure/talent was taken from this servant and given to the man who now has ten talents/treasures under his care.  The idea here is that this talent will now learn for himself what it means to truly get out there and participate in the redemptive mission of Christ.

Any Christian who thinks working on themselves is the only part of their mission they should care about should consider the example of the last servant in this analogy.  This still is not about salvation.  This still is not about heaven.  This is about what will be missing from heaven.  Jesus continues picking up in verse 29 saying … “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. [verse 30] And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Those Christians who love like Jesus loves CANNOT ignore the needs of others.  It is hardwired into them.  It is the driving motivation in their lives.  It is not something they do part time (or never).  It is something they do incessantly, just like Jesus does.  For it is Jesus who transforms us as we submit ourselves to Him, remaking us exactly like He is.  Teaching us to love like He does.  It is in this transformation that perfect obedience can be born, in the passionate love of others.

What the fate of this last servant shows is perhaps one of two ideas.  First, either that he was mistaken entirely about how salvation works, never allowing Jesus to purge the sin in him, and teach him how to passionately love others.  Therefore, cast even out of eternity itself.  Or far more frightening.  The grace of our Lord can cover any and every sin, even selfishness (especially because selfishness is at the root of every sin).  So perhaps the servant remains in heaven, but is given a glimpse at the horror of not having just added one more soul to the ranks of eternity.  The Schindler moment in full and living color (or rather darkness in black and white).  This is the far scarier idea.  Because it forces us to see inside and realize our failure, our waste of His resources, of the time He gave us, of the love He showered upon us.  We see His perfect work and our broken tool of a response.  We see that because of what we failed to do, just one more soul may be missing from the ranks of the redeemed in heaven.  It is not that we save anyone.  But what we contribute to the redemptive mission of Jesus is real tangible love in the here and now – or a full lack of it.  It will be our apathy that brings us horror.  It will cause great weeping and gnashing of teeth.  And ultimately, I believe it will require the hand of a loving God to wipe away our tears lest we cry them forever.

This is a picture Jesus offers of the work we are to be engaged in before He comes back.  It is not about signs, or at least external signs.  It is about how we respond to His transformative love.  Do we embrace it and join Him to enter in to the joy of our Lord?  Or do we push it back, choosing to focus only on self, or even mostly on self, to the exclusion of others in great need all around us.  One thing I know, a Schindler moment is coming for all of us, for each of us.  There is no avoiding it.  And its tears are going to rip right through us like a blender.  All we can do, is not continue to waste the love He offers, but to employ it in reaching out to those in so great need.  We cannot avoid or defer our moment.  But perhaps we can build a great crowd of comforters to hold us in our day of sadness, like the Jews that Oscar saved tried so desperately to hold and comfort him.  That will have to be enough.

But Jesus had even more lessons to share regarding His second coming …

 

Using Cash as Kindling ...

Building a fire has always been a bit of an art.  Before the invention of accelerants like gasoline (highly dangerous), and even when you have matches to get it started; you still need to use something to allow the fire to catch.  Small sticks, or dried out shrubbery, or paper – the stuff commonly referred to as kindling.  The idea is that once enough of the kindling catches fire, it will begin to catch the bigger stuff on fire, and so on, until it is burning the big logs in your fire place.  The goal is not to make a “huge” fire, but a controlled fire.  You want something that will safely burn for hours without too much tending to.  And most of the time, if you do it right, you only need the use of matches, and kindling, once; at the beginning of the fire when you are just trying to get it started – not constantly while you are trying to keep it going.

For those that prefer paper as their kindling, magazines, or old news papers work just fine.  But could you ever imagine using cash money instead?  Besides being illegal to destroy US currency (through any means), it would represent the epitome of waste, to literally burn money, for no other reason than to attempt to get a fire going.  A billionaire may not feel the loss as much, but it is a loss none-the-less.  And for most of us, who are far from being billionaires, we would feel the loss quite keenly.  Ask the person you just happen to be close to any moment in time if they have “enough” money, and the answer is nearly always a resounding “no”.  No matter how much money we have, we could always benefit from more.  If we had more, we could give more to the church (a common refrain).  If we had more, we could get out of the debt we are in (though there is even less evidence to support this; the same financial decisions that got us in debt, are the same ones we make when presented with more opportunity to do so).  And for the slightly more honest among us, more money would allow us to get that “thing” we reason we cannot do without.  Few people would refuse more money.  And only a crazy person would burn it, for the sake of starting a fire.

But there are more gifts we are given, some of them directly from God, that we treat like burning cash in response.  It is easy to say our health falls into this category.  We are given health, then we eat things that over time will ruin it.  We take drugs (prescribed or not) that over time do us harm we cannot predict.  We have to breathe the air we have, and drink the water we have; but our choices to protect these resources are less than our greed very often, so our environment becomes toxic, while our wallets get a little fatter.  We are slow to exercise, and quick to sit around.  And then to top it all off, we still do the crazy things from time-to-time that risk our life and limb.  No, I am not talking about rollercoasters, or theme park rides that make you think you are near death.  I am talking more about the stupid decisions one makes when driving their cars, because they “have” to turn left or right, even though they are three lanes away from their destination.  Going another block or two just seems intolerable.  So the crazy driver decides to make that turn, or run that light, or speed up to 20 mph past the speed limit, for whatever reason, and they in turn risk their own lives, as well as yours and mine.  Though most of us are guilty of this at some point or another in our own driving histories.  Causing angels to work overtime.

There is something else our God has given us besides our health.  A gift beyond salvation, and even our health, and ironically just as precious.  He has given us His church.  To be a part of His body, is meant to be a gift to be treasured.  To serve that church, to uphold that body, is akin to a sacred trust.  Yes it is serving others, but what that services does to you, when you love, like He loves, is life transforming.  It brings you a joy, that words are hardly adequate to enumerate.  To be blessed enough, to be able to participate in the redemption of another, has eternal consequences.  Imagine being the little light (where Jesus shines His love through your demonstration), enough to spark an interest in one who knows not the love of Jesus, but because of what they see in you, determine themselves to know more.  Pointing a person to the transforming powerful love of Jesus that changes lives, is the highest pinnacle of service you can perform.  When that person walks the golden streets of our Lord’s city called Heaven with you, they may realize their journey all started because you were able to demonstrate real love, in the face of their real rebellion of it.  And for an infinite number of years, you will both be able to glorify God, for He led you both because you let love flow through you.

That is worth more than cash.  That is the most precious treasure our God has to offer, the lives of you, and those you love, even of those you dislike and the ones that hate you completely.  It is human treasure our God measures, counts, and gave His life for.  It is human treasure that matters most in His kingdom.  His church then, is the place where the human treasure is cultivated.  His church is the organization where the body chooses to cling together, to uphold each other, to share love where it is easiest.  His church is meant to be the place where those with little knowledge can be brought to learn more.  We are to experience more of His love within His church.  Turning that institution, into a weigh station on the highway to hell, is more than burning cash, it is burning lives; God’s treasures.  And it only takes the lack of love to see it done.  When gossip is juicier than consolation, when back-biting more natural than tolerance, and accusation a normal part of combating sin – we make His house a place of burning treasures instead of polishing them.

This is not new to us.  It is one of the devil’s oldest tricks.  But he has not let up on it, since the days of the first church, until the days of our own.  Tempting us, with feelings of righteousness, that we are “better” than our brothers, or even our leaders, and therefore entitled to call a spade a spade, sin by its right name, and take over as judge, instead of allowing God to keep His role.  In our arrogance we take over the mantle of Pharisee and increase the destruction tenfold; for we have both the Old and New Testaments and still we misuse what scripture we have to judge and destroy the treasures of God, instead of loving them out of their current conditions (without judgment ever falling from our lips or eyes).  And in our destructive course, we burn the cash of heaven itself, and position ourselves for an even greater burning realization – instead of a little light of Jesus shining through us – we have become the stumbling block that keeps people from seeing the love of God.  We claim the name, and have no concept of who He is, or what love means.  And this did not start with us, but could it finally end here?

Jesus longs for us still.  He told the first story to us and our Pharisee forefathers in our previous study.  But in case one story was not enough, He will offer another.  In case we could not discern His clear truth to the leadership of His church (and any of us who know Him, and wish to work in His vineyard, are leaders by default), He will tell another of redemption and possibility.  So Matthew in his gospel in chapter twenty-one picks up again with the words of Jesus Himself in verse 33 saying … “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:”  Here Jesus tells us in story form, in parable that is, of how we are where we are.  It is God (the householder) who plants the vineyard (His church) and puts up a protective hedge of love around it so nothing from the world can get in.  He puts a winepress in it, so what grows inside the church, can continue to grow and serve an even greater purpose.  And finally, He puts a watch tower in it, so we can see beyond our walls, and provide a beacon of example for those looking who may have lost their way.  This is how His church begins.  The vineyard (or church) is then let-out, or entrusted with, a husbandman, or set of church leaders.  Then our God focuses His attention far away, perhaps looking to build other such vineyards across the world, like ours.

He continues in verse 34 saying … “And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. [verse 35] And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.”  Here is where we go so horribly wrong.  It is time for the harvest.  The grapes can be pressed into wine, growing in their usefulness, their experience, and perhaps ready to travel to where the owner of this vineyard is now.  So servants of our God are sent back to His vineyard (His church), to gather up the fruit (us, the ones ready from the harvest), to be sent back to our God.  But the husbandmen (or group of church leaders) do not readily receive the servants of our God.  Instead they beat one of them, kill another, and stone another.  This is what happens when power, does not like the truth told to it.  The husbandmen is more interested in keeping absolute control over what happens in the vineyard, than to part with any of the fruit that should have been made ready within it.  Control does not breed growth, it inhibits it.

So to keep control, the servants of God who bring news of the harvest, and of the work beyond the walls we erect, are beaten for their truth.  Killed when they will not shut up.  And finally stoned or killed as heretics to the faith.  The husbandmen proclaim to what they believe is “their” church, that “outside” influences must be kept out of the church to keep it pure.  In so doing they reject the servants of God, and the truth those servants are sent to proclaim, to the church which God established.  This was the history of the Israelites to the prophets sent by God to the Kings and church of older days.  And it is the history of the Catholic church to the reformers sent by God to the leadership of that church.  And it is the present-day message of current church leaders to their flocks to avoid the lies of “other” denominations even today.  Death, and hate, espoused to heretics, even till today.  That response so categorically different than love which would rather die in the effort to redeem and reconcile.

Jesus continues in verse 36 saying … “Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.”  This was not just a single occurrence that happens only once in the life of God’s church.  It happens over and over again.  Because the mission of our God is to redeem, even the misguided, or wicked church leaders that have arisen in His body; He longs to restore them still.  But the response continues to be the same; a message of hate and death to those outside of the click, to those beyond the walls.  Control over what is inside must be maintained by those who believe they have it.  And messages beyond the borders of what we believe must be kept outside so they never permeate the thinking of the members within.  And history repeats itself, again, and again, until blood is more our record, than love could ever be.

Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. [verse 38] But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. [verse 39] And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.”  This is of course a direct reference to Jesus Christ Himself.  God sent His only Son to us.  And we cast Him out of our church, and slew Him, thinking to take all that was His.  And before you cast the blame of this backwards to those Pharisees who accomplished these feats, take a hard look in the mirror of our modern Christian churches today, who would rather legislate their own ideas of morality than to love like He loves.  Still we seek our power, only now we cloak it in political aspirations, and disguise the message as having the church under attack.  In our defensive postures we take up arms.  We “fight” back, not in submissive messages of Christ like love, but in messages of strength bathed in political affirmation, just like our Pharisee forefathers, and our Catholic forefathers after them.  We seek to unite church with state to take on the power of the state, when power is not what we need, or should want. 

It is only His love than can transform our hearts, but that message is beyond the walls of separation we have erected.  We praise doctrine over tolerance (sound familiar), and we tread the same roads the Pharisees paved, and the Catholics walked for nearly 1200 years.  And somehow we think the current course is different?  It is not.  The true Church of Jesus understands that His church belongs only to Him, not to us.  It is for Him to defend.  It is for Him to judge or not judge.  Our work is one thing alone, to love each other as He loves.  In that we would be known as His.  Not in the vastness of our structures, or collections of our art.  Not in our gospels of wealth and ease, but in our gospels of absolute love, even for those who are still trapped in their sins with no desire to get out.  It is in our embrace of sinners, our love of sinners, that may ever cause in them the notion of escaping their sins.  We need not join them in their behaviors to reach them.  But in loving them, while living in the way Jesus teaches us to live, that His love might one day reach them.  Pursuing a course of political power, so that we might instead legislate what we think He wants, is not a pathway to redemption, it is a cement highway of rebellion away from Christ.  It slays Him once again, this time in reputation, name, and purpose, thinking to take what is His.

Jesus continues in verse 40 saying … “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? [verse 41] They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”  Jesus asks what is to be done with His church leadership.  And while Jesus would still redeem us.  We in our human response, in our response that has no thought of redemption, turn our hate upon ourselves, answering we should be destroyed, slain, killed.  And the vineyard handed over to other more worthy husbandmen who would be obedient to their Lord.  The Pharisees are quick to answer this, taking no thought they condemn themselves.  We are no less judgmental even today.  But death is not the way of redemption, it is the result of refusing it, time after time after time.  The mission of Jesus was not to come and kill us all for what we deserved, but instead to redeem us all from what we deserved, and transform us from the slavery-of-self, to the freedom-of-serving-others.

Jesus then recites scripture to these leaders to bring home His point saying in verse 42 … “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?  [verse 43] Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. [verse 44] And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”  The church must be taken away from the Pharisees.  The leadership must be taken away from those who prefer power and control over absolute love.  It was taken from the Catholics and spread throughout Protestantism.  And it will be taken from us once again, if we cannot let go of our desires of power in any form, and instead seek love above all.  The cycle of repetition can end here in the last times, if we but heed the call of His redemption.  We must fall upon this rock, and be broken by it.  It is Ok to be broken.  It is OK to become someone else, to let His salvation remake us from who we are today, into who He intends us to be.  We will not be the same.  And this is OK,  It is more than OK, it is what it is needed

But to reject that process, to cling to pride, to the notions that we are already “good” enough.  Will find the weight of perfection grinding us into power.  There can be no true obedience outside of “being” in harmony with the laws and character of God.  That harmony is not self-made.  It is created only by the power of the Creator.  We cannot and will not achieve it, yet it can be achieved by Jesus within you, re-creating how you think, how you love, and what you decide.  The response of willingness to allow it, is perhaps humiliating, but also perfect in its wisdom and love.  The response to reject it leads to the only place it can inevitably wind up leading.  To death.  The desired death of the Creator, and the actual death of ourselves.  The final escape, and the solution least desired by our God.

Matthew concludes this story by recording the responses picking up in verse 45 saying … “And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. [verse 46] But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.”  The church leaders sought to kill Jesus in response to His Truth.  Are you certain we are not doing the same?  Ask yourself how passionate you are to see Christian politicians in power and Christian judges on the Supreme Court.  To what end?  To have living witnesses of the love of Jesus by example to all the nation and the world.  Or to have legal protections enacted that further the Christian ideals, and protect His church, making your particular ideas of morality become the law of the land; instead of the law of our hearts.  When transformation is our goal, we will be broken, but we will be remade.  When we believe we need the power of the state to protect us, we have already lost the battle.  For the power of the state has never been able to change the hearts of men, or improve their motivations of anything other than fear.

But the efforts of Jesus to redeem us in story were not over yet …

True Currency Valuation ...

Where do you keep your funds?  For folks at the top of the middle-class strata, a financial portfolio is warranted.  You never want to keep too much cash just sitting idle in your average checking account.  But for folks a way down from “upper” the question has less meaning … we keep our funds in our rent, in our utilities, and in the food we put on the table.  For folks even farther down, it is not as much an issue of managing cash, but rather, managing credit and debt.  But no matter where you sit, the question is still relevant from a different perspective … what do you use your funds on, or plan to use them on?  From this angle, each of us might have more in common than we think.  We ALL use whatever funds we have, to maintain us, to maintain our families, and to try to put our children (if we have any) more ahead of where we started out.

So for nearly all American Christians, we value our funds, our currency, in what it is able to do for us, and for our families.  Money then, becomes a tool.  It is a mechanism we exchange for the basic needs of life.  On occasion, we have more than we need of it, and so we use it on something we “want” rather than something we “need”.  Even the poorest of us have spent credit dollars on something we wanted instead of something we needed, knowing that may not have been the wisest of decisions.  But the mechanics remain the same, and so our valuation remains the same. 

But then, what happens when heaven becomes our home?  All of the sudden, currency has zero valuation.  It no longer exists, even as a mechanism for exchanging goods or services.  We have everything we need without effort, and what we create finds its highest meaning in being given to someone else to bring happiness to another.  It would be harder to define the exact opposite of where we are now, than to simply picture what life in heaven will be like.  So how do we bridge the divide?  How do we find a practical way of transitioning our current currency valuation to our future state currency valuation without becoming destitute or going without the basic needs we have on a day-to-day basis?  Most Christians rarely attack this question.  Fear keeps them from thinking about it.  But as it happens Jesus lays out for us an excellent transition plan in His Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew continues recording it in chapter six of his gospel.

Picking up in verse 19, Jesus says … “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:”  To transition how we think about currency valuation, we must begin by recognizing that wealth itself is transient.  Beyond the addiction of always wanting “more” no matter how much we have now, there comes with it, an intense fear that we will lose even what we have.  Banks are built upon this fear.  We secure our currency in banks, because to keep it all at home, is to invite a burglar to a field day when they learn of this.  Keeping our money in a bank, insured by the FDIC, our funds are supposed to be largely safe from theft.  Until the theft comes in a three-piece-suit costing more than your home; packaged in the form of securities that not even the best accountants can easily decipher, with interdependencies so entangled it makes a plate of spaghetti look linear.  When the theft happens this way, the FDIC is no match for it.  Banks can easily collapse.  Your funds can easily disappear.  And your wealth, your savings, your insurance for your future, becomes a footnote in history about the next great depression as something too big to fail, does.

So the first counsel Jesus offers, is to change the strategy about where we place the currency we value.  He continues in verse 20 saying … “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”  As it turns out there is a better place to put treasures, it is the eternal city of heaven, where not a single thief makes his home.  Where no bacteria exist to destroy, rot, or age whatever you place there.  Now this sounds wonderful, except that the mechanics are clearly a bit fuzzy.  How does one place funds we will need access to, into the heaven first national bank, given the light years of interdimensional separation that exist between us and our God.  Could our angels become our currency couriers?  Or is there a more instantaneous method of making deposits and withdrawals?

Jesus continues in verse 21 saying … “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  This winds up being a very profound statement.  Jesus reverse engineers our mechanics of deposits and withdrawals.  Currency, no matter what format we currently value, coin, cash, certificates, stocks, bonds, etc.. should not be where our “hearts” are.  We use that currency on ourselves and our families today.  It is the object of our spending that winds up being closer to where our hearts are.  We love our families.  And sadly, as our spending patterns reveal, we love ourselves quite a bit too.  But there is a fix for this.  If we begin to examine our funds as a tool, a continuation of what we already do.  But instead of using the tool on ourselves, we begin to use the tool, on the people we love, the people we hate, and the people we hardly know … we start making deposits of our currency into the city of heaven.  In point of fact, we are exchanging our currency from disposable formats to permanent ones.

Money does not make it to heaven.  But your wife does.  Your son does.  Your daughter does.  The co-worker who edged you out of that promotion does.  The boss who makes your life miserable does.  The homeless man you are sure spends all your donations on liquor and drugs does.  Some guy in Africa you never met, and at the moment, could care less about, winds up in heaven, because the tool you employed here was translated into a tangible demonstration of love, meeting the needs of that person you never met, showing him Jesus in a real way, and making him curious about the love of this God he hardly ever knew until a random missionary introduced him.  You yourself, have never been to Africa, or Asia, or downtown L.A. on skid row.  You yourself, may not have ever moved much off of the pew you sit on at church week-to-week.  But your current funds can travel very quickly, and be translated into permanent impacts in the lives of people you may hardly know, or care about, or frankly dislike.

Imagine what your co-worker thinks when you take the time to shop for their child to buy them something they wanted at a holiday.  Or to meet a need they may be struggling with when life presents the challenges it does.  Translating currency into real world impacts, into tangible offerings of love, has a heaven bound deposit on the transaction.  And when you submit yourself to your Lord, the passion He puts inside of you for other people is so intense, you may wind up going through your earthly currency very fast, in favor of heavenly currency.  What you value changes.  And it must.  For the American currency system is headed for the fires that will purify the earth.  But your co-worker does not have to be.  The guy who calls himself your sworn enemy, can still be the guy you spend eternity with.  Not begrudgingly trying to find the far side of heaven where he will not be.  But the guy you want to live right next door to.  The guy you keep trying to give your mansion to, but he won’t take it, insisting you take his instead.  The kind of real love you will have for each other in heaven will be so intense, you will think he is family.  And he is.  Not because of birth, but because of choice.  Ultimately because the currency you had here was nothing more than a tool, to help get him there.  Otherwise it was worthless.

This comes because what you value changes.  What you focus on changes.  It is a post-transformation realization such as nothing like it before.  Jesus continues talking about that change resuming in verse 22 saying … “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”  If we focus on the real value of finding ourselves, and the community we touch and encounter in heaven, the light we will reflect will be enormous.  Jesus continues in verse 23 saying …” But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”  First, this second portion of this text is not about your particular salvation.  You may be saved because of the grace and mercy of God, no matter what or how you spent your funds on in this world.  But if your focus with your funding is centered upon yourself.  It will be spent upon yourself.  And the opportunity you had to use it as a tool for the salvation of others is squandered and wasted, and will never return again.  You cannot get that time back or the impacts you might have made.  You cannot back up time and do it right a second time.  You have only one shot to get it right, and the community you encounter has only that single shot from you as well.

How great the darkness!  To be in heaven and have the Schindler’s List moment; realizing there could be so many more people here if you had been willing to part with your funds and your love more generously here on earth.  If you could have seen what your currency was truly valued at, and used it to bring others to Christ.  You would not retain a penny.  But the Monday Morning Quarterback realization does nothing to change the game that has already been played.  If your co-worker is lost to heaven, he is lost forever.  And YOU above all others will feel that loss, because in your heart of hearts, you know you could have done more, but instead you held on to your funds and your love, fearing a reduction in either.

Jesus then summarizes the problem with money we refuse to value in the light of heaven in verse 24 as He says … “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  You cannot serve God and the acquisition of funds.  Spending your life making money.  Spending your life making just a little more of it.  Winds up exhausting the time clock of the life you have been granted.  The abundance of your life’s work is not spent moving souls to the Kingdom of Heaven by introducing them to Jesus.  It is instead spent in meetings, in office politics, in debating financial strategies with the spouse, in trying to recover from the challenges life throws your way.  The abundance of your life is spent battling the effects of stress, because currency acquisition is a cruel mistress, unforgiving, and fickle.  While you give your life and time to it, it gives you back nothing but a hunger for more.  An aching hole of more and more and more.

When at last you look back upon your life, how many meetings will you remember, and how important will they be?  Would you not trade the accumulation of whatever wealth you have, for just more time to insure the love you could have expressed is expressed?  If I am always working to sustain myself.  I am always working.  Period.  The scraps of what is left, are scraps, not the bulk of what we had to offer, but the left overs.  It is the left overs we offer to our families.  The left overs we offer to our church.  Nothing to the co-workers, the folks we don’t know, and the folks we don’t care about … because to prioritize, I must reserve what left overs I have for the folks closest to me.  And so we live our lives content to share only our left overs with those we love most, and we call this “normal”.  And it truly is.  It is the normal Satan has convinced us all, is the only way we can survive.

But Jesus continues to offer us another way.  And the sermon was far from over …

Seven Angels [part three] ...

So far in our study of the proclamations and work of this second set of seven angels, three messages have been conveyed to the earth.  First, that salvation is come, and it comes on a global scale in the final hours of earth’s history.  Second, that Babylon has fallen has fallen, the lament warns us not to trust our historical greatness because it has been overcome by greed and avarice and is no longer what it once was.  And Third, that our motives and our actions, can reveal if we are willing to trade in our identity as followers of Christ for commercial expediency in the world of the last days.  Should we declare as the third beast wishes accepting the compulsion of our conscience, or should we remain silent yet also having not been willing to have our hearts transformed by the power of Christ, we will have taken on the mark of this beast.  In so doing we forever distance ourselves from Christ and the salvation He alone can offer to us.

These messages are delivered in sequence, in order.  They are delivered AFTER the rise of the third beast.  It is after all the mark of the third beast we are trying to avoid.  So from a timing perspective, it is to us who John writes.  It is to us, who John is trying to reveal Jesus Christ, and our Lord’s plans for our salvation.  If we read the preceding revelations with dread, it is perhaps because we have not yet come to a place in our lives where we are willing to be fully rid of sin.  Perhaps some cherished idea, or current habit, still takes a priority in our hearts.  The way in which we greet these three messages, delivered against the finality of our existence, should help us see what spiritual condition we are in, in these last days.  While there is no such thing as being “ready”, there is the real condition of being in “transformation” by the power of the love of Christ.  Our submission of our will, and our desires, to Christ allows Him to alter them.  He can alter how we think, what we want, and therefore what we do.  This is the basis of salvation, to be saved from the slavery of self-service we have embraced.  The revelations of John of these final events were NOT meant to scare us, but to bring us joy.  If we have faith in the ability of Christ to save us from ourselves, despite our own inability to conceive of how He could do it, we can remain followers of Christ.  Our identity confirmed in the book of Life and records of heaven.

Despite the warning nature of the previous message, what follows next is an event of great joy.  Keep in mind there are 7 angels who have a work in this sequence of events and so far, we have only heard from three of them.  John continues in chapter 14 of his book of Revelations of Jesus Christ in verse 14 saying … “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.”  What follows the emergence of the mark of third beast is a new work of the Son of Man, or Jesus Christ.  In this instance He is situated on a white cloud.  The imagery itself is reminiscent of how He ascended back to heaven on His first coming, and so may represent His second.  John continues in verse 15 … “And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”  The fourth angel in this sequence bears a message to Jesus, informing Him that the time has come to reap the harvest of this world.  And so in verse 16 … “And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”

This series of events announced by the proclamation of the fourth angel could be interpreted in 2 ways.  The most likely first interpretation is that the reaping described and performed by Jesus Christ is brought about by His physical return.  It should however be noted that once before the idea of “cleansing” the sanctuary was interpreted as the physical second coming of Christ and caused a great disappointment.  If the reaping described here in this sense, is the second coming, then the Mark of the Beast would have been implemented on a global scale and as such, the only thing left to do is to come back and claim those faithful few who have not taken up this mark by “reaping” the harvest.  However, if this interpretation is correct, the work yet to come of the fifth angel makes a bit less sense.  And the entire sequence of plagues described in the next chapter of Revelation also makes less sequential sense.  Why pour out plagues on a world that has already been destroyed?

The alternative interpretation might be that the “reaping” of the harvest of souls, is more about the work Christ performs in those who refused the mark of the third beast.  Humanity has so long waited to see the work of the transformation of Christ fully completed in our lives while we yet live them.  Successive generations have gone into the grave still under the process of transformation.  Even the apostles never claimed to have seen the work completed in themselves.  Only Enoch appears to have seen it done prior to the grave that we are aware of.  But in these last days of earth’s history, there is to come a declaration of finality, proclaiming let he who is holy be holy still.  We are the farthest things from holy in our current state.  But, if the work of transformation is completed within us, while we are still alive, and prior to His return, He may well create holiness where none existed before.  In this sense, the final “reaping” of this world may occur after the warnings of the mark of the third beast, but prior to its universal implementation.  This may represent the time of the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the world of those who continue to follow Christ.  This may represent the latter rain poured out upon the earth before He returns to take us home.

Imagine for a minute the effects upon this world of having a broad spectrum of Christians in every denomination, in every country around the world, in every language, finding themselves with the work of transformation of the perfect love of others completed within them.  No more hidden agendas.  No more attempts to take credit for benevolent actions performed for others.  Motives that are pure.  Actions performed for the joy of loving others without thought of reward or credit.  Imagine too the words of Christ that one day we, His final servants, would perform actions and miracles greater than He did on a global scale before He returns.  This was not idol flattery by Christ to His followers.  It was a promise that one day, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that we would be honored to join with Christ in the mission of the redemption of mankind.  These final actions would indeed “seed” the earth and cause the final harvest to be plentiful.  God does not desire that wicked men and women be lost for all eternity.  These revelations are designed to counter that notion at every turn.  Perhaps the better interpretation of this fourth angel’s work is see a great number of “former” wicked people redeemed at the final hours and brought into the sheepfold of Christ.

Consider also the imagery of the sickle in gathering the wheat of the harvest.  In order be gathered, the wheat must be cut from its roots.  It must be separated from the ground in which it grew up, from the nature of the earth that birthed it.  But as Christ harvests the wheat, He separates it from what it used to know, and then alters it for a greater purpose than it knew before.  We cannot be transformed while we cling to what we once knew, and loved.  We must be separated from the love of self.  We must be transformed for a higher purpose, to serve others and love others.  What we offer of ourselves after our transformation feeds others, not ourselves.  The act of cutting us away from what we once knew might seem frightening at first.  How will we survive being cut away from our roots, from everything we ever knew?  But Christ tells us to trust Him, that in His hands what we will become is greater than anything we ever knew before.  Trusting in Him, despite our fears, or apprehension, is what leads to our transformations in the first place.

Whether the work of the fourth angel is in the announcement of His second coming, or in a great outpouring of transformation that will change the world; the news remains happy to all who retain their identity as followers of Christ.  Hope has not been lost, it has been amplified.  These series of messages and events are not designed to “scare” us into a false submission.  They are presented to enlighten us as to the mission of redemptive love we are to see poured out in our each of our lives, by the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  If the message of the fourth angel heralds the second coming of Christ, so be it, we are to return with Him to be with Him forever.  If the fourth angel describes only a massive harvest of our world of souls that were once lost, to now find Him and entrance into His kingdom, then so much the better.  In the latter version, we find ourselves gathered by Christ for a greater purpose, and throughout eternity we will be overjoyed to find those around us, who are there because the redemptive love of Christ was reflected through us in these final days.  In either version of events, the joy is overwhelming.

John then continues in verse 17 … “And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.”  The fifth angel emerges from heaven also carrying a sharp sickle, apparently there is another harvest yet to come.  John continues in verse 18 … “And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.”  The sixth angel enters the scene, coming from the altar of God, and noted has having power over fire.  He proclaims to the fifth angel that the earth’s clusters are ready for harvest.  They are in fact fully ripe.  John continues in verse 19 … “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [verse 20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”

So if the work of the fourth angel was to announce the second coming of Christ, then the work of the fifth and sixth angels could be interpreted as being the destruction of the wicked who remain at the second coming.  First note that the fifth angel emerges with another sickle to perform another harvest.  But in contrast with the wheat who are fitted for a higher purpose, the grapes are ultimately to be “cast” into the great winepress of the wrath of God.  This harvest is not conducted with a spirit of joy and hope, but instead appears to be punitive.  Further the location of the winepress is outside the city, in this version of events perhaps outside the city of heaven.  When the winepress is engaged, it is not wine that springs forth (grape juice), instead it is blood deep enough to stand all the way up to a horse bridle.  By estimation that may be as deep as 5-6 feet.  The area of this product of blood covers a space of 1,600 furlongs or roughly 200 miles.  We do not know if John’s intent was to mean 200 square miles, or 200 miles by some other measurement of width.  But regardless, this a quite a measure of blood.

If following the first interpretation that the fourth angel heralds the second coming, then the work of the fifth and sixth angel may be a fulfillment of the promise of God, that those who take the mark of the beast will drink the wine of the wrath of God from the cup of His indignation.  This imagery described here is certainly to be seen as the winepress that creates the blood drink to be given to those who took the mark of the third beast.  In any event the destruction of the wicked will occur at the second coming so this series of events could support that interpretation of the revelation.

Another interpretation might be found in what occurs to those “Christians” who claim the name of Christ but who have no love for others within them.  The division between the wheat and the tares will become more apparent at the end of days.  While the transformation is poured out and completed in those who submit their lives to Christ.  It is fully rejected by those who do not wish it to occur in themselves, choosing rather to retain sins, than give them all away.  These keep the name “Christian” but reflect no love of Christ through them at all.  For love of others is not inherent, because no transformation has taken place, only the love of self is evident in their lives.  These “Christians” will be genuinely surprised at the return of their Lord, expecting fully to partake of His kingdom, without ever having known how it works beforehand.  They go as far as to work miracles in the name of Christ, but have never visited the sick, met the needs of the needy, or seen to those in prison.  In His commission for us to love others, Christ did not limit us to love only our own families, or other “deserving” peoples.  Instead He intended us to love those who did NOT deserve our love.  We were to love our enemies, not just those who love us.

Perhaps the winepress of the wrath of God has been reserved to stamp out of these purported Christians, the results of the love of self.  Perhaps what is revealed from the engagement of the winepress is the blood of those who have been hurt and abused by those who bore the name of Christ.  Throughout history, those who truly love others as Christ loves, have been systemically killed by others who carried the name of Christ, but knew nothing of His love.  Purported “Christians” in every denomination have by omission, or direct negative action, seen those who truly loved, put to death for their dissent with the majority.  The Catholic church of the dark ages is not unique in this.  Puritans were no less forgiving in earlier ages.  And our modern churches are content to watch the suffering in the world around them and do nothing to relieve it.  We give our money, but not our time, or personal energy.  We would prefer to buy ourselves free time, while others actually engage in ministry using our means.  Modern Christians are all eager to enact laws of “morality”, and attempt to compel the conscience of those with dissenting beliefs.  In so doing they align with the beast and the dragon behind him.  As this course will end in only one outcome, the same one it has always followed, the death of those who would dissent.

Perhaps what is seen emerging from the winepress of this harvest is the produce of blood that is inevitable when sin is embraced, when love of self, triumphs over transformation offered by Christ.   If the work of the fourth angels heralds not the second coming, but rather the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit and transformation of all who will yet hear before it is too late, then the work of the fifth and sixth angel must begin after the probation of God has expired in our world.  The time to decide must have ended as now the choices of the wicked are to be allowed to fall upon them.  The mark of the third beast is in full universal effect.  No more will the protective hand of God, keep the wicked from bearing all the consequences of their own evil actions.  Instead the winepress will engage, and the blood resulting from the deeds of the wicked will be seen, mixed with that of their own. 

Every attempt at avoiding this fate has been made in this series of revelations and the work of these angels.  But as in the days of Noah, evil will not be permitted to go on indefinitely.  It will come to an end, if not of choices to find the salvation offered by Christ, then by the final edict that time has expired by a God who will not see us live in torture forever.  The work of the seventh angel begins in chapter 20 of this book.  We will study its description in more detail later, however it centers around the millennia between the second coming of Christ, and the last great judgment and end of evil that occurs after that final thousand years.  What occurs next is the final seven last plagues that are poured out upon the earth.  The sequence of these events is important to the understanding and interpretations we can gather from what is presented here by John.

The work of this second set of seven angels begins AFTER the rise of the third beast.  What happens AFTER the work of the fifth and sixth angels are the final seven last plagues.  Perhaps it makes more sense then, that the work of the fourth angel described here is more about the transformations completed in our lives, than about the second coming of Christ.  If taken in context, and in sequence with what follows in chapter 15, this interpretation seems to make more sense.  However as stated before, in either interpretation, the news for those who have retained their identity as followers of Christ, the news is good either way.  The relevancy and immediacy with which we should take these final messages cannot be understated.  For we live now in a world where compulsion of the conscience is considered acceptable, even by those who carry the name of Christ, let alone by those who oppose Him.  Given the time in which we live, the messages and works of these angels could not be more relevant to us.  Our salvation is here.  Our Babylon has fallen.  And our world is nearly ready to enact a mark of the third beast, intended to deny us commerce if we do not submit and declare against Christ.  This is the time in which we live.  It is not intended to be a time of fear, but rather one of hope.

Our salvation is here.  This is the great hope we should center our attention upon.  Submission to Christ is our key to finding perfection in the here and now.  A transformation of how we love others, is to see reflected in us, His perfect love.  We, the broken tools of His mission, are to be used to help point others to Him, and see salvation spread across our world.  As we love others without limit, or precondition, or restraint, there can be no other result.  This is the message of hope and the revelation John offered to those of us who live in our day.

And the revelations were not completed yet …