The Critique of God ...

How scary is that?  How scary is the idea of having God Himself give your life, your work, His critique?  Keep in mind He sees all, He knows every motive, every failure, every shortcoming.  It’s not like a human version of this where some life coach tries to give you tips on how to live better.  We are talking about an impromptu critique by God Himself.  Has that ever happened?  I mean, short of our ideas about a judgment that nearly everyone places sometime in the future, has Jesus ever offered a critique on a living person’s life (well living at the time anyway)?  The short answer is yes.  And what would you imagine that critique to be, a stinging rebuke to the leadership of the church for their hypocrisy and refusal to submit themselves to the will of God?  Yes, Jesus gave a number of those, each one designed to wake up those church leaders, and stun them into the awareness of their true condition, hidden by the masks they wore, and the self-image they had constructed for themselves.  But perhaps more surprising to us, Jesus also gave out a “glowing” review as well.  Imagine that, perhaps the best review in history, handed out by the highest authority in the Universe, the one who created it.

Think about the significance of this.  An imperfect being, with imperfect doctrine, granted a glowing review by Jesus Himself.  Let’s get it straight, it was not the imperfections that were glorified.  But it was the submission in spite of imperfections that was.  Again, this is another departure for the Jewish people in the days of Christ of what they thought about the character of God.  To them, and to us, God was always some highly critical God, just waiting to point out everything we do wrong, to the point where nobody would ever be good enough to be in His company.  How well, the devil has been able to maintain this lie about the nature of our loving God, who would die Himself, rather than be separated from we who He loved so much.  The improper view of the nature of our God, was not only held in the days of Matthew, and another reason why he penned his gospel.  It is held in our own days, because what we read, we ignore.  The words of our Bibles pass our eyes, but do not penetrate our hearts.  Because like our forefathers we do not yet read them after submitting our very thoughts for Jesus to mold and reshape.

Matthew persisted nonetheless.  He begins his revelation, his uncovering, about the real nature of our God in form of Jesus, picking up in chapter eleven beginning in verse 7 saying … “And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?”  The disciples of John were just leaving to relay to him the good news of everything they had seen and heard of Jesus Christ.  That would be a message to cheer his heart, affirm his faith, give him the strength to face death.  And the crowd who remained behind was clueless of all of this.  So Jesus calls their attention back to the ministry of John the Baptist.  He poses the question, what did you go to wilderness to see? 

Were you looking for someone who is shaken with the winds of popularity?  Were you looking for someone who preached what was popular in order to gain favor?  Mega churches have been built upon this approach.  But John did not follow it.  He was firm in his singular doctrine that burned within him with a roaring fire of the Spirit.  His doctrine was absent all hate; and constructed on redemptive love.  He did not rail at the people, accusing them of every sin.  Instead he shouted of repentance and the healing it alone can bring.  He was not shaken by criticism, nor by the threats of the organized church, nor even by the ruler who would imprison him.  He was firm in pointing the people to redemption beginning in repentance.

Jesus continues his critique of John in verse 8 saying … “But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.”  Jesus asks the multitude again, what did they travel to the wilderness to see?  Did they expect to see a prince perhaps, someone of wealth and status, someone rewarded of God with fine things, and fine clothes?  John had enough listeners to regularly pass the collection plate for tithes and offerings.  Had he done this, his wealth would have certainly amassed.  He would have been justified in doing it, as he was certainly doing God’s work, and was certainly a minister of God.  No one, including us, would have questioned it.  But John accepted NO MONEY at all.  He did not change his eating habits (the things one can find in the desert on their own).  Nor did he change out his clothing (skins he made by himself, even for the linen robes the priests wore).  He constructed no mansion either.  If ever a minister “could” have earned a living in the ministry, it was John, and he chose to accept NONE of it.

Jesus continues once again picking up in verse 9 saying … “But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.  [verse 10] For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”  Jesus asks the multitude for the third and last time what did they travel to the wilderness to see?  Perhaps they went to see the crazy man.  Often crazy men like this were prophets who heard clearly the word of the Lord.  All through history prophets were always a little outside of normal society, maybe John was just one of them.  But Jesus says “more” than a prophet.  For while John prophesied about the coming Messiah, he also had a burning conviction inspired by the Holy Spirit.  He was God’s messenger.  He had a message of repentance, the people needed to hear, and needed to respond to.  John was making straight the way of the Lord, in the hearts of the people, by speaking the words the Holy Spirit would bless.

John had a conviction beyond the prophetic.  He had a conviction for the practical.  His message was not just to excite the people about what was coming.  It was to prepare the people in their hearts to receive what was coming.  Without repentance there is no room for submission, there is no room for the Truth, they are crowded out by self, and self-interest, and self-love.  Repentance leads to an opening, a re-beginning of the journey towards God, a reconciliation between man and God.  The message of John is one of the most important ones throughout all of history.  It was not just designed to be spoken or accepted in his day, but in every day.  Had Cain repented of killing Able, instead of lying to avoid penalty, his fate might have been different.  Were I to repent of my sin, and pain it causes others, my relationship with God might enter a new level I have not even imagined as yet, my heart beginning to become in even more harmony with His heart.  That message still works.  It still has relevance and meaning and depth.

Jesus continues his critique in verse 11 saying … “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”  Imagine these words spoken of you.  Among children born of women there has not risen a greater than “you”.  The decisions of John the Baptist lead him to this great compliment.  How he lived; by choice in poverty, depending upon God every day for his food, water, clothing, and shelter.  How his mother raised him as a Nazarite from birth, honoring the traditions of the faith, to commit his body to God and offer signs in his hair and flesh that he was to be offered to God, even before he had the maturity to understands what this means.  The ministry of John, both prophetic, and practical.  Everything about John had led to this compliment by the Savior of the Universe, in spite of the fact that the organized church did not care for John, and that John was sitting in prison on death row at the time.

But, says Jesus as well.  The human greatness of John, is nothing next to the least of people within the Kingdom of Heaven.  Yes, you heard that right.  Hitler, Saddam, Al Capone, pick the greatest villain you can imagine.  Have that villain submit to Jesus right before he dies and be saved in his final thoughts.  And that forgiven villain, least in the Kingdom of Heaven, is now greater than John the Baptist.  It is hard to imagine Jesus offering a critique that could potentially place Adolph Hitler or Pol Pot (the Cambodian genocidal leader) as greater than John the Baptist.  How could this be?  Because our earthly lives will never measure up, to our eternal ones.  Submission to Jesus, and the salvation that results, puts our lives on course for a greatness that simply cannot be achieved in the world in which we live, no matter how well we think we live here.  Submission is greater than sacrifice.

Then Jesus shifts from direct critique of John, to a critique of His own church, continuing in verse 12 saying …” And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. [verse 13] For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”  The fate of nearly every prophet all the way through John was a fate of suffering, and of violence.  Satan takes advantage of the long-suffering nature of God, hurling violence against the innocent, to test the patience of God, and attempt to lure Him into retaliation and violence in return.  But Satan does not understand the nature of God.  God loves the victim, as He loves the perpetrator, longing to save both from the fates Satan would devise.  The messages of the Prophets were designed to help those trapped in error to see that error and turn from it.  The Prophets were God’s way of warning those trapped in the snares of Satan, that he had doom in mind for them.  The Prophets tried to challenge evil with the message of a loving God, not content to see those He loved, suffer the fates they had chosen.  But these same Prophets were met with violence more than listening ears.

Jesus continues His critique of John picking back up in verse 14 saying … “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. [verse 15] He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  This is where scripture is interpreted by Jesus Christ Himself.  The prophecy of the return of Elijah before the promised Messiah, is now attributed to John the Baptist and the message and ministry he has accomplished.  The prophecy interpreted in this way, means there will be no literal return of the prophet of old for them to look for, but a literal return of the message of repentance, the only way it is possible to make straight the way of the Lord, in the heart of the people.  Jesus tweaks His audience, all of whom have perfect hearing, some likely restored of His hands to be just so; to think about what He is saying.  Jesus asks them to see the wisdom of what He is saying - about both the scriptures, and the message and ministry of John.  This is not an insult to his audience.  It is a challenge for them to think differently about what they think they know about the scriptures.  To embrace a new way of looking at old scriptures.  Outside the purview of the organized church leadership, but inside the direct teachings of Jesus Christ Himself.

Are we too ready to examine our scriptures in this way?  Or do we continue in our certainty of what we know, allowing no room to be taught, even if that teaching were to come from Jesus Christ Himself?  Our will must ever be subservient to His.  Our wealth of knowledge, and understanding, must stand the shadow of a fool, compared with the wisdom of our God.  The doctrines we cling to, enforced by years of tradition, should be pillars we gladly release, when the voice of Jesus bids us … those who have ears, let them hear.  So much of how we view our Bible’s begins first with the notion of a cruel and just God, interested more in our punishment, than in our redemption.  Our preconceptions begin that redemption is hard, and sin is easy and fun.  But in truth, our sin is the source of our pain and our punishment.  Our redemption is easy, and the only way to escape the fate we have otherwise doomed ourselves to suffer.  In the light of Jesus Christ, many of our false ideas and rigid doctrines, seem to melt away.  And this is how it was meant to be.  Jesus the Messiah, was meant to rid us of the notions of men, and the burdens of traditions, and free us to love in a way we have yet to imagine.  To love as the heart of God loves.  To value others as the heart of our God truly values others, even when they are still steeped and trapped in sins they have no way to escape on their own.

The critique of Jesus Christ of John was a glowing one.  Your critique could easily be the same.  Through the lens of Jesus Christ it already is, but it could be even better.  Through the lens of full submission of who you are to Jesus Christ, your critique becomes one infinitely better than it is today.  The true meaning of life you begin to experience.  True obedience based in harmony with the heart of God, something that naturally occurs in your fingertips and feet.  All of this is available to you, if you but ask, and submit to Jesus who longs to give it to you.

And while Jesus had so many good things to say of John, His critique of His own church was not quite so glowing …