Smack Down [part 3]; The Price of Getting it Wrong ...

How you do something is nearly as important as what you do.  Imagine the chaos that would reign in the ring if there were truly no rules, no holes barred.  If suddenly a tightly choreographed ballet of wrestler-meets-wrestler became a fully unscripted, unrehearsed free-for-all of may the better, stronger, and more determined man win.  Imagine the shock and surprise.  Imagine the real injuries that would come from doing for real, what up till now was only part of that tightly choreographed ballet.  People would get hurt.  Seriously hurt.  And all of the sudden it is not fun anymore.  Not fun to do surely, but also, not fun to watch.  It is easy to watch a melee we know in our hearts is tightly controlled.  But to watch carnage is not what anyone truly tunes in for.  For the audience, no one wants to see real harm, real damage.  It makes it hard to sit still and just watch it.  You want to get up, you want to do something, you want to make it stop.  And as God watches this earth.  He knows it is not choreographed.  The war for mankind is very real.  And the damage is very real, pain is very real.  And He just wants it to stop.  But He cannot make us listen, or instead of humanity, He would have only created biological robots.  Instead man must choose his fate.

But what happens when we choose wrong?  Oh sure, it is easy for the Christian believer to sit back in the easy chair and just think, once you choose Jesus, you’re done.  And frankly that is sort of true.  The problem is that we package Jesus, with a whole list of doctrines that are supposed to be teachings of how to connect with Jesus better.  Sometimes those doctrines do a great and wonderful work.  And sometimes we just get it wrong.  We wind up teaching something that not only does not bring us closer to Jesus, it takes us farther away, pointing us in the wrong direction entirely.  That is not just an oh-well-moment.  That is more like a literal oh-my-God moment.  Turning away from Jesus is a sure-fire way of finding carnage that you are at the center of.  It is removing the rules of protection, and entering the ring outgunned only to find your opponent brought a chain-saw he already has running and completely intends to use … on you.  Doctrines that distract put us in this position.  Fanaticism of nearly every kind can do the same thing too.  And the carnage is not pretty, and it really hurts.

So what does God do?  He tries to warn us.  He sends us His messengers (imperfect as they may be) to warn us, and try to keep us away from the carnage.  And I am not talking about avoiding some after life hell everybody bemoans.  I am talking about avoiding real painful carnage in this life, in the here and now, that any given demon is all to happy to bring your way.  He sends us His people to try to keep us of group mind, and more importantly of a group heart, where love might help us avoid, what otherwise looks attractive.  God has written His love letter in the form of His word (the Bible).  In this book of love, He tries to tell us the story of how we got it wrong to start, and He has been working every day since to help us get back to what “right” looks like.  We can read it.  And through the lens of the life of Christ, where Jesus demonstrates every day what love looks like, we can understand better what His love letter might mean.  But for those of us given to extremes, it is easy to misinterpret that love letter to mean some predefined agenda.  We package up those thoughts and ideas, and brand them a doctrine.  Then we force feed everyone else the doctrine that might save them or get them lost, based on how they respond.  What started as a love letter degenerates into hate mail; all by altering the perspective of the reader to fit their own agenda instead of what He originally meant.

This danger is not new.  It did not start with us.  But it has a horrific tendency to be continued by us, in ways we may have become numb to.  Sometimes when we do become numb, it takes a spiritual smack-down by Jesus to wake us up, and begin to see the error of our ways.  To make us see, we got it wrong.  And ultimately to help us change course before the carnage heads our way (chainsaw rumbling in the distance).  Matthew continues the object lesson of Jesus, of our price for getting it wrong in chapter 23 of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He picks up with Jesus talking in verse 23 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [verse 24] Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”  Yikes.  The first woe issued here is about fanaticism in the church.

Our Pharisee forefathers knew the obligation of paying tithes back to God.  They did not see the love in it, because they did not use love as the lens through which to read God’s love letter.  So lacking love, they read only the obligation of paying tithes.  Apparently God was only another tax master.  And while God did not have a readily apparent tax agent to collect His due.  There was a history of monstrous things happening to Israel when their sins got bad.  So better to avoid captivity by paying God off with what he required.  10% of the increase is tithe.  We generally hold that to be 10% of our incomes from jobs.  So did they.  But they took the matter a step further.  The word “increase” could apply to flocks and sheep.  So why not to spices in the spice rack.  Therefore in an effort to be fully compliant (again note the lack of love), they actually taxed themselves 10% on literally anything that went into the kitchen.  Even the smallest things we would never even consider.  Straining at the gnat.

It is like going to a picnic to eat.  And to avoid eating unclean things, you carefully sift your pepper, to insure not a single gnat has died and fallen into the pile or container.  And while you meticulously sift each grain of pepper with your left hand, you hold a camel burger in your right hand eagerly munching away.  While perhaps the notion of not eating a dead bug accidentally is OK (extreme given the venue, and low likelihood it is even a risk, but OK); eating camel burgers is strictly prohibited, and horrible tasting as well (just a guess, you don’t see many camel-burger stands going up everywhere for 2 thousand years).  Without love as the driving motive, Pharisees had only corrupt and selfish judgments.  They handed out rulings and decisions that favored themselves, no matter who else it cost.  Sound familiar?  We vote for ideas that will benefit us, even if others must pay for what benefits us.  Even if those who pay can least afford to.  And we call this progressive, or disruptive thinking.  Its not.  Its simply walking where our Pharisee forefathers once walked, for the same reasons they did.

The disease of extremes must continue to be called out.  Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [verse 26] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”  Apparently a strange custom had developed so long ago, of washing the outsides (or bottoms if you prefer) of plates and cups.  But leaving the insides or tops alone.  I guess the idea would be to let the crumbs of the last meal, help flavor the current one.  While this might work once, or maybe even twice, over time it is not flavor that lasts, but mold that begins to grow.  It is then a “new” flavor that infects the new food you intend to eat from the old that for whatever reason you keep neglecting to clean.  And mold flavor brings with it, you guessed it, carnage.

So with a dishwasher in every home (we call ours “me”).  Perhaps we cannot relate to a dirty plate analogy.  But how about a more personal one.  What is the dress attire requirements at your church for worship services?  It used to be “the best we had to offer”.  Over time that became a three-piece-suit.  That evolved into a jacket, lose the vest, keep the tie.  Then perhaps it was lose the tie.  Then for the bold, it might become lose the jacket.  But wear a pair of cargo shorts and a tommy Bahama look alike short sleaved shirt, with tennis shoes, and see what happens.  I know (it is how I go to services now).  And just so you know, my decision was not one of disrespect.  Rather, I dress like I do, every other day of the week.  I would like to believe that I dress to be able to help those in need when I encounter them.  And as my disabilities make it very hard to dress any more formal than this, this is the least pain in getting presentable.  But does anyone bother to ask me about that?  Does anyone look past the cane with the four feet, and reason perhaps that had something to do with it?  Not where I go.  My church family is surprising accepting of me (that is, no one has had the nerve to say a single negative word).  But I expected it, and still do.  Cause how I package the outside of the plate, is still something most church goers pay more attention to, than what is on the inside.  And forget me, this is a phenomenon that has infected our sanctuaries for years, from our ancient roots right up to this day.  We focus on the packaging, and turn a blind eye to the insides, and how we love.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. [verse 28] Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  It is almost as if Jesus peered into any traditional church body in America.  Or perhaps into any executive office suite where serious money is made.  Looking the part, is a distinct part of our culture, in and out of the church.  We worry about our packaging, believing it says something about who we are.  It does.  It says we worry about our packaging, perhaps more than being fit for practical service.  And perhaps our assemblies are more inwardly facing, where we feed each other, you know, the already fat sheep; instead of assembling out of our normal comforts and going where the need is, to meet it.  Not because we have to, but because we are driven to, because we just cannot sit still and watch others in carnage for one more minute.

Service is rarely “pretty”.  When I do the dishes in my house, I look anything but pretty.  I struggle to stand, to balance, to get the job done right.  I am hunched over leaning on the sink to steady me.  And yes, we have an automatic dishwasher so why do I bother.  (Technically it is full of hoarded containers for some reason I am not allowed to throw out.)  But beyond the technicalities if I am able to do the dishes, my wife who works hard in her hospital trying to help patients facing life and death dilemmas get better or at least feel better, won’t have to come home to a dirty kitchen, and find even more work to do.  I am no saint.  Nor am I clean freak.  I make more than my share of mess as I am sure every husband does, that my wife without a word comes behind me and cleans.  We do what we can for each other, because we are afforded the opportunity to.  It is not a contest, it is a pleasure, the pleasure of trying to ease each other’s burden, even if only a little.  And what it leads to ultimately is time, more time we can spend together, which frankly is worth more than any place where serious money is made, or where euphoria over spiritual repetitions are recited ad nauseum.  We probably don’t look too pretty in our “house clothes”.  But as I said service is rarely ever pretty, at least on the outside.  But what I see when I look at her is a fire inside that is immune to age, health, or inability – and to me that is beautiful no matter whether it comes dressed in scrubs, 15-year-old house shorts, or a negligee from Vickie’s.

It is time for us all to see the beauty of service to others.  Not just to our families, but to any who have need.  Not for brownie points, or to earn heavenly demerits, but because the passion to sit still while carnage is ever present is just something we can no longer abide.  It is this passion that comes from transformation, and it is available without measure to any who seek it, in the form of submission to Jesus Christ.  My Pharisee forefathers refused to submit.  They preferred extremes of law, to extremes of love.  And they like we, cover the ears so as not to hear, even as God sent His messengers (imperfect as all of us are) to invite them back to love.  Jesus continues in verse 29 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, [verse 30] And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. [verse 31] Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. [verse 32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. [verse 33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

Smack down.  To me.  To my generation.  Woe to us.  For we say … “if we had been in the days of Jesus, we would not have been partakers with them in His blood”.  And in our next breath, we deny His love, rely upon ourselves, and fail miserably.  Then we propagate our doctrine of self-reliance to our children, and our sphere of witness, to no effect.  We teach action without motive.  Because self-reliance may control action, but has no effect on motive.  So we try to act our way into heaven, fooling no one.  It will be our own damnation we cannot escape when by grace we walk His golden streets.  To know the time we wasted, and lost.  To see the lives we could have showed just a little more love to, but failed and lost the opportunity, sometimes forever.  It will be our own knowledge of perfect love that will perfectly condemn who we are today in our own eyes then.  That damnation is our inescapable fate, even on golden streets.  Unless we can begin our journey of submission to Jesus now, in the here and the now.  Only then can our feet move from well-trodden paths of failure, into the green grass of His direction.

Jesus calls out to them and us in verse 34 saying … “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: [verse 35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. [verse 36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”  I am confused, is He talking to them, or is He talking to me.  When I ignore the prophets in His word.  When I deny the power of His gospel, by stubbornly holding to the image in the mirror to somehow find perfection when history would demonstrate this is impossible.  When my denial is as great as theirs, do I also share their fate, and the blood of those slain to try to recall me to the Feet of Love itself?

Listen to the ache in the voice of Jesus who so longs to love us, when still we reject Him.  Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”  He is not just speaking to those long gone from the earth.  He is still speaking straight to me, and to you.  How He longs to gather us under His wings.  But we are too evolved for that.  We are modern, and educated, and well to do.  We have no need of a protector, let alone of a savior.  We intend to do that work ourselves, strengthened by our doctrines, and certain in their interpretation, with no room for error or mistake.  And still Jerusalem would not.  Not the city.  But us the group of believers who claim His name, yet know not His real power to change.  And so it comes, the price of getting it wrong.  The price of our arrogance, and pride.  The price of our hypocrisy and refusal to submit.  The self-imposed hell of separation from His Love He so longs to give.

Jesus writes the epitaph picking up in verse 38 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [verse 39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  The smack down ends.  There is no point to more, if the message will never penetrate the person’s ear, because they refuse to let it.  Is this where our lineage to our Pharisee forefathers makes a break from their path of self-reliance?  Or do we too follow along blindly clinging to our doctrines, our hypocrisy, and our complete lack of passion for others on any level.  This is where I must rage against my heritage.  I wish to hear His words, open my ears, and my heart, and become someone other than who I would make of me.  There comes a point where forgiveness is just not enough.  Where a real change in behavior from a real change in motive is the goal we live for.  Forgiveness gets us started but it is not the end of the road, it is only the beginning.  A life past His transformation is the only thing we should seek with singular purpose.  To let Him remake how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  And Jesus will.  He does this to every willing seeker.  No matter your past, or your present, your future can still be something so much better.  It is worth more than anything.  Don’t ever let it go.  Let this smack-down be the last one we ever need …

 

Mis-Interpreting Doctrine ...

Start with a bad premise, and you will end in a bad place.  There are many books, authors, and scriptures in our collection of both Old and New Testaments.  But both the Old and the New “Testaments” are supposed to be testaments of the love of our God who is bent on our redemption and reconciliation with Himself.  If you remove that guiding principle of a loving God whose entire mission is to redeem you; the lack of love you apply when reading and interpreting scripture can be used to form some very hateful doctrines that focus more on punishment than they ever will upon reconciliation with our God.  That focus on punishment is a very human thing to do, a very human perspective.  You could go so far as calling it a natural one.  We are content when the wicked are punished for what they did to us, or to those we love.  But the evil in the heart of the wicked is not changed or removed from the hate they earn from us; no, if anything that mutual hatred is only amplified by more hate.  Evil is removed when it is confronted with the love of Jesus Christ that has the power to change how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  It is not hell that changes the wicked, it is surrender to the love of Jesus that does.  Hell can put an end to the life of one bathed in wickedness.  But Jesus can take that same life, end the evil in it, and show that person what it truly means to live once freed from the evil that is like a cancer upon our souls.

Throughout history, many have opened scriptures who did not understand who our God is, and what redemption is all about.  They have a notion of it, but no personal encounter with it.  So the doctrines they create; they reason are based upon texts in the Bible, sometimes a collection of them, where the conclusion seems reasonable, logical, and Biblically based.  Yet those conclusions should, and could have been denounced by pure common sense – if not by examining them through the lens of a loving Jesus Christ bent on our redemption.  We could begin for example with how women are depicted in doctrine.  The fact that Eve sinned first, and as a result, was asked to take a secondary role in the support of her marriage with Adam.  Not fighting with him, but choosing to defer to him, reminding him of the love of God, to help build him up and keep relations in the family harmonious through self-less service, this was a sampling of what was asked of her.  Men degenerate how women are treated throughout history until during the time of Moses they are completely secondary citizens.  Women could not hold property, without a male heir, or husband to affirm their ownership.  Was this what God intended?  NO.  The entire life of Jesus affirms this in how “He” treats women.  But in the minds of men, who lack the perspective of a loving God who would have sent His Messiah for Eve alone if it were Eve alone who sinned, it is now how scripture came to be interpreted.

Even to our day, the roles of women in the church are still debated.  Even though there have clearly been women who were prophets.  Women who first encountered Jesus even before He had ascended to His Father.  Women who first carried the gospel to the disciples who were still cowering in fear.  Women who headed the charitable services in the Early Church.  And women in our day who have clearly been given the gift of preaching and teaching.  Yet somehow, despite all the evidence of the Holy Spirit on these topics, some continue to believe “scripture” is very limiting on the roles of women in the church.  Not surprisingly those men who choose to continue to believe the roles of women are “limited” in the church, also have very definitive notions about the roles of women in a marriage.  These men preferring subservience by edict, rather than a woman choosing to serve her husband and family by becoming the chief support person of both.  A choice she makes only because her God asked her to, and in His wisdom, she finds a fulfillment no other choice could offer.

But a wife choosing to live in service is not about power or dictatorships, it is about redemption and reconciliation – the absence of self-love, and the embrace of the love of Jesus – through a choice.  When a man dictates this role, the marriage is doomed at the outset.  Treating women like property, and denying them property rights, is more akin to treating women like animals, not like people.  Even if culture develops traditions of these types, that does not mean scripture agrees, or that God wishes this.  It is the evil in the hearts of men looking for a doctrinal basis to remain evil.  Choosing to serve is a reflection of the love of Jesus.  Demanding what is due, is not the way of Jesus, nor should scripture be used to try to justify a “do it or else” mandate.  So the farther back in history we go, the more oppressive men are related to the roles, and rights, of women.  How marriage is seen then, in the days of Moses, is a reflection of how oppressive society was against women in general.  A bad premise, ending in a bad place.

Enter Matthew writing his gospel to his fellow Hebrews; it was the Sadducees turn at attempting to trap Jesus.  The Pharisees had failed.  They were up.  They determined to attack Jesus on two fronts; first on how a woman (treated no better than property) would wind up in heaven.  And of course implicit in that, a denial the resurrection could exist because of the kinds of problems it would create in perfection.  The Sadducees had come to the conclusion that life itself was a one-and-done proposition.  Doing good then, was a way to keep God from torturing or killing you early.  This is a punishment centric view of the Old Testament, and surprisingly similar to what some evangelists teach today.  But it is based on a bad premise, and it leads to a bad place.  Matthew picks up this story in chapter twenty two of his gospel.

Beginning in verse 23 it states … “The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, [verse 24] Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. [verse 25] Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: [verse 26] Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. [verse 27] And last of all the woman died also. [verse 28] Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.”  So many things to unpack here.  To begin, the laws of Moses, written in Deuteronomy to which the Sadducees refer should be understood in context.  The children of Israel were former slaves.  Their every movement was dictated by the will of the Pharaoh as carried out by their taskmasters.  They did not understand freedom, or what it meant to be able to do anything without anyone telling them “no”.  So the precepts Moses outlined in that book (of duties) were designed to put some practical limits around their societal behavior.

In those days, women were hardly treated better than cattle.  They could not hold property without a male heir, or husband to validate the claim.  That was NOT what God intended, but this was such a cultural norm, the people were nowhere near ready to abandon this kind of practice.  So the scenario outlined above by the Sadducees in such a callous way, was actually intended to benefit the woman in question – allowing her to raise up an heir to hold her property and namesake in Israel.  It was targeted at keeping her in the family (as a recent widow) rather than turning her out into the streets to find a stranger somewhere who might be willing to take her in.  In fact, as this duty or precept is written, should one of those brother’s refuse to marry her – he would be publicly ridiculed in Israel for failing to protect her rights through this arcane practice.  Was it ideal?  No.  Was it what God intended, or wanted for His precious daughters? No.  But it was a safeguard to keep them from having a tragedy of losing a husband become an even greater tragedy of losing everything they knew.

Ignoring the fact that Moses was actually trying to protect widows (for which he writes quite a bit more in Deuteronomy), the Sadducees present this as a resurrection dilemma.  The Sadducees are fairly certain there is no good answer to this riddle, and that they will humiliate Jesus while getting Him to acknowledge there is no resurrection at all.  But they would be disappointed.  Jesus responds in verse 29 saying … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”  Those words are haunting and they echo through time, all the way into the sanctuaries we visit each week while we worship God, and cling to premises that end up in bad places.  “YE DO ERR”.  Let that sink in for a minute.  These men were SURE of their doctrines.  They did not just casually read the scriptures, they lived in them.  They read every day.  They debated every day.  They honored the scholars among them who made new discoveries and debated the merits of each one.  They did not just stumble on their beliefs, their beliefs were the results of generations of scholars who reached the same conclusions.  ALL of them wrong.

Are we any different?  Do we become so comfortable resting on the work of our church forefathers, and the conclusions they reached, that no message from outside our walls can ever penetrate our thinking?  Are we so sure we are right about everything, we have no more room to learn, only room to recite.  But the words of Jesus to these church leaders echo down to us.  Ye Do Err!  We look at scriptures with the lens of punishment and an angry God, and therefore come to conclusions He never intended us to reach.  Just like they did.  What is more, just like them – we deny the POWER of GOD!  We do not account for it in our thinking, or in our doctrines.  Some would like to say that this is a specific example of Jesus telling the Sadducees that they are mistaken about the resurrection.  But they were also mistaken about marriage, the roles of women, divorce, the value of women, and what love looks like in heaven.  Worst of all they underestimated the power of God.  Perhaps we are all just as guilty on all of the above topics.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”  First, there WILL BE a resurrection.  News I am certain they did not want to hear or accept.  Second, in the “resurrection”, not in all eternity, or the earth made new, or a hundred other points or descriptions we have about heaven, but at least during the resurrection and perhaps for a while thereafter – there will not be people getting married and more importantly nobody getting divorced.  Keep in mind how we think of this institution has degenerated a long ways since Eden.  And our notions of forever need quite a bit of adjustment where it comes to a single partner throughout eternity.  Being like the “angels” – can anyone tell me if angels have a special partner or not, like something we would refer to as marriage on earth?  Show me the scripture please that explains this, outside of this reference right here. 

What I do believe is meant by being like the angels is an understanding of perfect love we have no idea about today.  Perfect love you could think of in a number of examples.  Imagine every person in heaven looking at every child in heaven (babies, kids, rugrats, you know the younglings) and loving each one as much as you would have loved your own child.  Imagine every man loving every other man as much as you would your own father, son, or brother.  Imagine every man loving every other woman as much as you would your own mother, daughter, or sister.  Only the love of a special intimacy remains untapped in the scenario of perfect love, and the power of God might account for that quite nicely, as it is God who picked Eve for Adam in the first place.  But perfect love decimates the ideas of treating any woman as a second class anything.  Instead perfect love treats everyone else as the greatest person ever.

But Jesus was not content to leave the Sadducees in their error on their main topic of descension with the Pharisees and with the entire purpose of redemption and reconciliation in the first place.  So He continues in verse 31 saying … “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [verse 32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. [verse 33] And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.”  Jesus points out, that without a resurrection, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be dead forever.  God is not the God of the past alone, He is the God of the present, and of the future.  There will be a future for them as when the resurrection comes, they will be redeemed and reconciled to the side of Jesus Himself.  Just as all the other children who sleep in the hope of our God will see.

The crowds were amazed at this.  Are you?  A bad premise leads to a bad place, but a premise based on His love can lead to an astounding place.  As a woman and wife, are you ready to make service to your husband and family the choice that brings you fulfillment every day.  Never seeking for what you deserve, or what you have earned, but only for what you can offer.  Separately, and having nothing to do with how your wife has chosen to live -  husbands, are you ready to choose to love your wife and family so much, that you would literally lay down your life for them, and while you draw breath find ways to demonstrate that love for them so that they never doubt your heart on any day they draw breath.  No wife should wait for her husband to live this way, before she reciprocates.  And no husband should demand anything from his wife, before he is willing to show her the full measure of his heart and dedication to her own.  It is a different way of thinking to decide “how” you are going to love regardless of what others do.  If this seems foreign to you, take your life to Jesus, surrender to His love, and watch what happens to you.  It is breathtaking.  And it is beautiful.

But the traps for Jesus had one more shot …

Mis-Spent Power ...

We surround our ideas with the vacuum of space itself.  We insolate our opinions with a thick bubble of like-minded friends & followers and create distance between ourselves and those who may disagree.  There is no room for “different” to seep through.  In politics we think ourselves open-minded, but others see us a part of the fringe whether left or right.  Once viewed long enough this way, our gestures are anomalies that convince no one that we are as we view ourselves.  In our families, we are that “crazy uncle, or aunt” that everyone talks about but no one sees in the mirror.  No matter who we are, there is always a family member crazier than me.  And in church we have become the Pharisee or Sadducee we ridicule when we read their stories in the Bible.  We ask ourselves how they could have been so stupid, so stubborn, so wrong – and not have caught it.  We ask ourselves this, close the book, and fail to see us as we really are, through a different set of lenses, through a different perspective – because different has no entry door into who we are.

Case in point.  Matthew records a story of de-ja-vu.  It was only a few chapters ago in chapter twelve where the Pharisees and Sadducees (and us) came looking for Jesus to provide a sign to validate “who” He was and is.  The response offered was only the sign of Jonah.  The rebuke was that only an evil and adulterous generation goes looking for signs.  Ouch.  This was not a rebuke directed at the atheists or pagans of His day (though the logic still holds).  This was a rebuke directed at the church leadership of His day.  They, like us, had insolated their own opinions so well, that no sign of Jesus would have ever penetrated it to the point of a change of beliefs.  Now before you recoil at the idea of “us” being that stubborn, consider for a moment the denominational boundaries we embrace, and the wall it creates between ourselves and our fellow followers of Jesus Christ.  Name tags do more than differentiate us.  They create a “we are right” / “you are wrong” set of ideas where it comes to interpreting the Bible.  We all have the same set of facts, and same scriptural writings, but widely different views of what it means.

It is no different in life.  MSNBC, CNN, and Fox all report the same stories, but from widely different vantage points because they fundamentally hold widely different opinions about them.  An apple may be an apple, but it can be red or green, it can be small or large, it can be rotten full or worms and unfit to eat, or it can be a gorgeous work of perfection fit for baking in a pie like mom makes.  All of this, still looking at an apple, just from different viewpoints.  In church, we have decided exactly what the apple looks like.  Others of like mind join our spiritual social circle, and voila, a Christian church is born.  But Christian churches are not defined by their beliefs as much as they are by their differences of beliefs with other Christian churches.  Think about that.  Where we could have the Love of Christ so defining our lives, our actions, our responses, and our relationships that ALL our other beliefs are hardly even known – the opposite is true.  Our beliefs are known, our love isn’t.

Adventists are defined by their belief in keeping the Saturday Sabbath, the state of the dead, prophecy, and a trend towards vegetarianism if not an avoidance of unclean meats.  Mormons, who do believe strongly in our savior Jesus Christ, are defined by a history of multiple partner marriages, an entire world of beliefs about Jesus in the USA, and a widely different picture of the end of all things in heaven.  Catholics are defined by their Pope, by a history of persecution, by rituals of confession and communion and a preponderance of tradition still embracing Latin in traditional churches.  Baptists are defined by immersion of baptism, by traditions of hell and brim fire sermons, by forgiveness but in equal measures of condemnation for those who refuse to repent.  Here are four simple examples of large bodies of believers of Jesus Christ.  And instead of being known for the overpowering Love of Jesus Christ, in how we live, how we act, how we hold our familial relationships – we are known instead for the differences of our doctrines.  Would it not be better for others to see no distinguishable differences between us, because of the transformative power of Jesus in our lives, making us who He intended us to be, rather than clinging to the ideas we think important.

Instead what we do share, is a look towards heaven in our prayers, for God to take action, to solve problems … for ourselves and our families and those we love.  There is nothing wrong with praying for mom with the passionate love of her child.  It is simply where it comes to our enemies, or to those we hardly know, that passion nearly completely disappears.  We are lucky to “remember” to mention the prayer requests we hear in church, or are asked for on Facebook, or are asked for by friends at work.  We repeat the words, we might even muster a bit of concern, but then it’s done.  If it were us, or mom, or our child, our repetition would be often, and our passion high.  But for others, we are no stranger to “casual” in how we ask what we ask.  It is hard to manufacture feelings that simply are not there.  So in our private talks with God, we ask for a sign, for Him to validate “who” He is, by pouring out what we want in the lives of us and our families.  And if He has time left over, or blessing left over, perhaps He could answer some of these other requests we hear about as well.

The evil, and the adulterous, of our generation, are to be found in our mirrors – and this is not from a lack of belief in God (though some struggle).  It is not just from the sexual sins we wrestle with.  It is not just from our greed.  But it is instead a focus of our God’s attention forever on me first, then those I love, then those I can remember to ask for, then perhaps in a brief mention – my enemies.  We would mis-spend the power of our God, by reinforcing our own selfishness.  Something Jesus carefully avoided in the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness.  He would not spend His power on Himself.  He would not offer a sign to “prove” who He was.  He is God.  He does not need to prove it to anyone.  Pay better attention, and you will know exactly who He is.  For His love for you is hard to miss.  Back to the Case in Point from Matthew.

Matthew opens chapter sixteen of his gospel to the Hebrews in verse 1 saying … “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.”  When you see the word Pharisee or Sadducee, put your own name there.  Don’t read scripture as a history lesson, read it as an object lesson, not meant for your crazy uncle, or “other” people you know, but for you and only you.  Notice the word “tempting” Him.  This was not an earnest prayer spent on the behalf of someone else.  It was a temptation from Satan’s mouth, directed right out of the mouth of the church leadership of His day.  These were the folks who studied scripture night and day, who debated it, formed theories about it, and knew it better than anyone else.  They believed the Messiah would come to establish His Kingdom to reign forever and ever – the right belief, simply the wrong timing, the wrong visit.  Before that could happen, we would all need the blood of Lamb, to take away the sins of the world.  They knew those scriptures as well, and never believed for a minute they were becoming the vehicle of their fulfillment.

The best educated minds, the most devout, the church leaders bent of making sure Israel never broke the law again – got it wrong.  Because they insolated their opinions with so much ego, nothing new, nothing different, even the entirety of the Life of Christ, and the miracles He performed could not make a dent.  Jesus responds to this temptation picking up in verse 2 saying … “He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. [verse 3] And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? [verse 4] A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.”

De-ja-vu.  The same request from church leadership, gets the same response and rebuke.  Jesus does actually take the time to point out that their ability to look into the sky and generally predict or assess the weather is based on what they have seen in the past.  Jesus has already performed so many miracles – not the least of which is freeing the human character from its desire to sin.  And yet they disregard all of these signs of the times, in favor of something else, something bigger, something meant just for me and only me.  But it will not come.  Not for the Pharisees of old, or for me.  Asking God to mis-spend His power on me, would only reinforce the selfishness I already struggle with – selfishness He is trying to free me from.  He already loves me.  He is already meeting my needs.  Now a prayer with passion for the salvation of my enemies, for God to help me find a way to witness through the persecution and injustice they are happy to inflict, for a way to reach them – that is one God is happier to answer.  It helps my enemy most of all, and me incidentally in the process, teaching me where my love should be poured out - on the greatest need.

But the lesson was not over yet.  Matthew continues the story picking in verse 5 saying … “And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. [verse 6] Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”  Take heed.  Beware.  Be aware.  These are not the admonitions of something casual.  They are weather warnings to avoid the storm on the horizon.  It was not only Pharisees who in history thought it wise to “add” to the law, or introduce the traditions of men as being equal to the law.  Many a church leader has done that since and does it still.  The history of the Catholic church it littered with examples, and a belief that even changing laws is permitted by a power they alone have been granted – though no evidence in scripture exists for this.  Even in the days of Matthew writing this gospel, power struggles within the new Christian church were beginning to emerge.  Churches already taking pride in who founded them, or what human messenger they followed.  Already the leadership of the Roman church believing they had a natural right to exert leadership on a broader scale.  And where there is a struggle for power, there is introduced the same leaven the Pharisees introduced.

But the disciples took this literally as Matthew records picking up in verse 7 saying … “And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. [verse 8] Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? [verse 9] Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? [verse 10] Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? [verse 11] How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? [verse 12] Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

Jesus reminds His own disciples that they just misinterpreted what He said.  They, His disciples, got it wrong.  These were not perfect men, and though they may be on a journey towards perfection, they had not arrived.  They still believed some wrong things.  Wrong like the same beliefs the Pharisees held that the Messiah would free Israel from Roman oppression.  And now wrong, that the leaven of the Pharisees somehow had anything to do with forgetting to bring bread to feed them all.  The facts you have on hand today are not always the reference point to be used in interpreting scripture.  A good deal of prophecy has been misinterpreted this way.  Sometimes there is something more in the message.  Sometimes what is meant has a more profound meaning.  The disciples finally got it that the leaven of the Pharisees was the doctrine of the Pharisees.  Church leadership got it wrong, making church leadership quite dangerous.

But here is where the vacuum of space we put around our ideas rears its ugly head once more.  The disciples never seemed to question themselves about “which” doctrines the Pharisees got wrong.  Nor did they follow up with Jesus about that topic.  They all still believed that Jesus would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.  They believed it so strongly they were already making plans about who would do what in the next Jesus Administration.  They “wanted” to believe that.  They did not want to let that belief go, even if it was wrong.  That belief gave them hope.  But it was mis-directed hope. 

It would have been mis-spent power.  Jesus came to conquer evil, all of evil, all of sin – that victory was far more important.  For without that, I would be doomed to be who I am.  With the victory of Jesus, He is able to re-create me into who He wants me to be, freeing me from my slavery to self-love, and self-obsession.  As I surrender to His victory, I can be remade through the power of that transformative love.  And this transformation was not just reserved for me, it was intended specifically for you.  It will be a unique transformation for us both, because we are unique.  But our Jesus is the same, His love is the same, and the results of His recreation will be as He intends it to be, for each of us, and for both of us.  Why ever trade that for a simple victory over Romans in a particular time in earth’s history.

But the opinions of the disciples were insolated by a group of like-minded friends & followers (just as thick as social media offers today) and were so protected that their worlds would have to shatter to let the “new” in, the “different” in.  It would destroy what they all believed in this moment, to accept the Truth of what Jesus had to offer.  Church leadership can get it wrong.  Even when that is the Church leadership of old, or the person standing in the mirror.  How will we begin to allow the Truth to mold, reverse, and change our thinking?  Will it take a shattering of our world to accomplish this?  Are there beliefs we hold to so tightly because we do not want to let them go in favor of the Truth?  Are we so firm in our doctrines, that not even Love can break through?  It sure looks that way from an outside perspective sometimes.  To an outsider, we sure look a lot like that crazy uncle – not because we love like a banshee – but because of our crazy ideas are based in doctrines we refuse to even begin to consider could be wrong.  How sad our doctrines still out-shadow our Love instead of enhancing them.

 

Peter's Second Epilogue ...

Our Bible is such a precious gift to us.  It is a collection of works that have been meticulously preserved throughout the history of this world until now.  Make no mistake, it is not by chance, coincidence, or good luck that we have this specific volumes of inspiration to study.  It was by design, and often by miraculous intervention, that our Bible exists today, and is available for us to learn about the deep and abiding love of God for mankind.  Our Bible records events and actions from Adam through the early Christian church in painstaking accuracy.  Both the good and the bad events are recorded and presented in clarity to us, that we might learn both the salvation that God offers, and the consequences of rejecting that salvation.  We can see all throughout history what happens when mankind trusts himself, and his own wisdom or will, in any given situation.  And by contrast we can see what happens when mankind recognizes that he is unable to save himself, and God does what ONLY God can do, saving someone when everyone else thought it “impossible”.

But despite the consistency in the themes of Biblical stories and events, there are a wide variation of beliefs that have arisen based on the same set of scriptures.  There are literally hundreds of different Christian churches that are founded on differences in the interpretation of the same book, and same set of inspired texts.  Central to all appears to be a belief in the divinity and salvation provided by Jesus Christ.  But outside of that shared tenant, the variation is wide, the differences distinct, and the walls between faiths have been built high in order to preserve the specific differences we determine from the same inspired Bible.  Each Christian church believes that “they alone” have the “best” understanding of scripture.  While Christians are hesitant to criticize each other, each still holds that the set of doctrines they believe in, are the most accurate, the most truthful, and follow closest the will of God for mankind.  But given the differences, they could not ALL possibly be correct.  Some of us, must be mistaken, because the differences are too distinct and mutually exclusive to ALL be right. 

So given this dilemma, how do we use the “word”?  If each church believes its own doctrines are biblically based to the exclusion of all others, then has our mission degenerated into debating our varied interpretations of the Bible with each other – each attempting to prove their own position is correct, and the position of their contemporaries is incorrect?  Is this the point of Christianity … that is … to be right?  In the time of Christ, the spiritual leaders of the nation were known as Pharisees.  But in that same time, were another group known as Sadducees.  The same set of Biblical writings had interpretations that differed even then.  Pharisees believed in the resurrection of mankind at the end of all things.  Sadducees did not.  Both had Biblically founded beliefs.  And BOTH were united in only one major purpose … to put to death the author of Love and the writings they both held dear.  Both sets of Biblical scholars were willing to kill God, in the name of God.  Both would rather kill God, than to cede authority to the Inspiration behind all scripture, the Truth that can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ.

Imagine how the story might have been different, if the spiritual leadership of the day, had simply humbled themselves and sought to find truth from the mouth of Jesus Christ, instead of in the mirror of interpretation of the written ”word”.  Christ had no inconsistency with scripture.  He did not deny the validity or accuracy of scripture; in fact he quoted it repeatedly, using it over and over again throughout His ministry here on earth.  The problem was not with what was written.  The problem has ever been how men interpret scriptures.  We “use” the word to establish dominance over each other.  We “use” the word to judge the actions of others, in order to make us feel better about our own comparatively less misdeeds.  We “use” the word to prove we are right, and others are wrong.  And in so doing, we inject “self” into how we read and use the word.  Christ used the word to uplift mankind, to redeem mankind, and to correct the errors of the religious leadership of His day.  His mission was ever redemptive.  It is hard to misuse the word when your goal is ever based in the redemption of another, in loving that person into the kingdom of God.

This difference in perspective on the scriptures was keenly in the mind of Peter as he faced his end.  In the closing verses, the epilogue of his second letter to the church, his last opportunity to write down his thoughts, he spoke to this issue.  He begins in chapter 3 beginning in verse 15 writing … “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;”  Peter continues his rebuke to the scoffers who challenge the validity of the return our Lord, due to His delays.  It is because our Lord is longsuffering, intending that everyone should come to repentance and salvation that He delays His return.  Then Peter again acts in concert with Paul and the writings that Paul has already provided to the church.  Peter states that the wisdom Paul has offered was “given unto him”.  Paul is not merely writing his own opinions about the state of Christianity and the emerging ideology of a new church sect.  He is writing messages to the churches with wisdom and inspiration that is a “gift” of our God. 

Peter continues in verse 16 … “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”  Here Peter lays out the fundamental problem with how some of us use scriptures.  It is the unlearned.  It is the people who do not see scripture through the lens of surrender to Jesus Christ; that are unlearned in the proper use of scripture.  This is not a statement about education, or higher education, or becoming a doctorate in religious studies.  It is about studying the word without looking through the lens of the transformation Jesus Christ alone can enact within you.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were devout men, who dedicated their entire lives to the study and debate of the word.  They were sincere in their quest to discover truth.  But they refused to see the Truth of Jesus Christ.  They refused to acknowledge His supreme authority over matters of interpretation of the word, choosing instead to trust their own wisdom, history, and traditions on the matter.  How many modern Christians have an identical level of certainty around their doctrinal interpretations?

It is the unstable.  Those who have never been made free from sin through the transforming power of Jesus Christ are unfamiliar with the experience of salvation.  They wrestle with texts that espouse the need to do good works, because their inherent nature wars against such things.  They see texts that define what evil looks like, and what evil deeds we should avoid, as threats against themselves, because they know in their hearts, they are guilty of such thoughts, feelings, and deeds.  They wrestle with texts that show that salvation is a free gift of Christ, that we need only accept.  Because even though they believe that Christ can save them, they remain the same person, bound in the same sinful desires they have always cherished, unable to free themselves from the grasp of these sins, and with no clue how to see it change.  Without the lens of Jesus Christ, we cannot interpret scripture rightly.  The same words are used or misused in a variety of ways, but ultimately only leading to a destructive path.

To believe we can be saved by our good works, is to ignore the text that states that “all our righteousness is as filthy rags”.  To discard the law of God as no longer binding is to ignore the words of Christ when He said … “I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.”  The reason so many variations of Christianity exist, is because we have lost the fundamentals of following Christ, in favor of the distinctions of how best to do that.  Instead of humbling ourselves, surrendering to Christ, and allowing Him to lead us to truth; we assert our knowledge of scriptures and insist only we are qualified to lead others.  Everyone else is doing it wrong … except us.  Instead of allowing the transformation of Christ to reveal to us the beauty of loving others like Christ loves others … we obsess about keeping our doctrines pure from the influence of the world, and tend to cut ourselves off from the world, in order to avoid its corrupting influence.  We, like our Pharisee and Sadducee forefathers, turn away from the redemptive mission of God, and inward towards a self-focused effort to achieve purity.

It is this path that leads to our destruction.  It is this path that takes our eyes off of Christ, and focuses them squarely on our own scriptural interpretations as the means to achieving our salvation.  We lose sight of the Author, in order to focus on the words He inspired and we misinterpret.  This is the situation Peter wants his own readers to avoid.  We can find the Truth and beauty in scriptures, but only as we are led to these truths in the person of Jesus Christ.  When we love others like Christ loved others, the meaning of the words come into sharp focus.  When we do not love others, and instead love ourselves and cherish our own wisdom, we lose all the meaning of the same written words on the same inspired pages.

Peter continues in verse 17 … “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.”  Peter reminds his readers that they have not only heard the gospel message before, they have experienced the freedom only Jesus Christ can bring.  Being led by Jesus Christ is the key to discovering and maintaining the truth taught in His word.  We cannot disconnect from the Author and still expect to get the book right.  Peter challenges his readers to avoid the error the wicked inevitably make, that is putting their trust in themselves.  While we trust in Christ to save us, we can and will be saved by Him alone.  When we begin to trust self, we fail repeatedly.  Instead Peter asks that we maintain our steadfastness in surrender to Christ.  We are not to let scriptural interpretation get between our surrender to Christ, and our salvation.  For without surrender there can be no salvation.  The Law does not save us, but the Author of the Law is alone able to bring us into harmony with it.

Peter concludes his final epilogue in verse 18 writing … “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”  “Grow” in grace.  We are not to stagnate, or come to believe there is no more to achieve.  There is always deeper love to experience.  Understanding His grace for us, is found in an experiential knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Experiencing how He loves us, helps us to know what it is like to love others the same way.  When we allow Him to transform us in this way, we find new meaning in the same written words.  Where once we saw only condemnation of who we are, we now see a promise of who He will have us become.  Where once we saw our judgment and accurate condemnation for the misdeeds we are bound and enslaved to, we now see texts of promise and hope, and a fundamental change in what we want and who we are. 

It is Jesus Christ alone who is worthy of glory and honor.  He is worthy both now, because His work is started in us today, and forever, as His work in us will forever be growing within us.  There is no limit to the love of God, His love is infinite.  Therefore we will never meet the boundary of where that love ends.  Therefore, the same love that lives in the Author of love, can be reflected in us towards others.  The absence of self, enables the experience of loving others, from the same infinite point of view.  That is, no end to how much we can love our wife, our children, our parents, even our enemies.  Think of it.  No end to the amount of love you are capable of experiencing, both to you from God, and through you to others.  That my friends is a solid reason why Christ alone is worthy of glory and honor both now and forever.  Peter understood what it means to love like this.  Peter had a taste of it.  And he wished with his final parting words to the church, that they too never lose sight of what it means to experience the transformative love of Jesus Christ.

 

Eternal Dependence ...

Seeing through a glass darkly does not reveal the whole of the scene.  While we remain in this world, the process of His perfection wrought in us, transforming who we are, into who we were intended to become will open our eyes.  But it opens them slowly.  We seldom instantly see, all that is possible to see.  We carry baggage.  We rely on our accumulated wisdom.  To learn to depend upon God to the point where we are willing to let go of everything we think we know; in order that He may lead us into what His brand of wisdom truly is … takes time.  So confident are we as we utter the words … “thus saith the Lord.”  But very few of us would consider ourselves to be prophets of the Most High.  More often than not, we base our confidence in our interpretations of scripture, which after much study and tradition has evolved a certainty within us that there could be no other way to see the texts we espouse.  And like our Pharisee forefathers, we take pride in our certainty.  We use it to evaluate the spiritual discernment of others, yet hesitate to put even our own “knowledge” upon the alter of humility in letting Christ teach us, that which may prove different from what we expected.

We know not, that we are blind, and poor, and naked.  It is hard to see our poverty when we choose not to see it.  It is hard to see our destitution and naked spiritual condition when we constantly tell ourselves that we “know the truth” … not the Truth of Jesus Christ, but the truth of our doctrinal integrity.  To see then, becomes critical to know our condition.  To see then, becomes the first step towards knowing what Truth really is.  We need the abolition of darkness, and a strong embrace of His light.  We need it in this world.  And as John was blessed to witness, we will have it literally in our next one.  Towards the end of the chapter 21 and beginning of chapter 22, to John was revealed a picture of heaven, our eternal home.  In this revelation was contained what humanity would need, not just now, but forever.  The revelation was shared perhaps to show us, that even in the context of forever; our dependence upon God never really goes away.

So in chapter 21 and verse 23 of his book of Revelations of Jesus Christ, John begins … “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”  How salient a point for us today.  Scripture is the word of God to us.  Scripture is not God.  What lights up the 1500 mile-across-city of our eternal home is the Lamb of God.  It is the glory of God.  There is not some book of life, or copy of the Bible, or other written sacred scroll mounted on the top of a hill in order that all light should come from its pages.  Instead, the living God, that the scripture paints a very detailed picture of, is the source of the light.  The word of God is a reflection of who He is, it is not a replacement for Him.  We are to learn from His word, not to worship our own wisdom derived from its study.  Our God is our light.  Not just for a day, or “while He is around us”, or when He is not visiting some distant planet.  Our God is our light continually.  The city of heaven is well lit, by the very presence and glory of our God.

We are able to navigate the streets of the city.  We are able to see where we are going and not blindly bump into walls and obstacles, because of the light provided to us from Christ Himself.  What a model for the study of scripture today.  As we fully submit our will, our decisions, our desires, over to God, we enable Him to re-teach us what each scripture was meant to say.  What we thought of before as “simple”, can be re-examined and find the depths of profound thought and study.  Imagine what it means to truly know what the simple text “Jesus wept” really means.  Yes, He literally cried.  But there is so much more meaning bound up in that little verse than a mere historical recollection of tears shed on a donkey, or in front of the tomb of His friend.  “Thou shalt not kill” … seems very straightforward.  But past submitting our “wisdom” to Christ, that one edict contains so much more meaning.  It encompasses more than murder, but hate, war, and even death itself.  Our God desires life to be eternal, killing and even death were never supposed to be a part of our existence.  Sin brought these things, God didn’t.

No matter what text we think we know, in the perfect light of Christ, there is more for us to learn.  Sometimes the process of that learning changes what we used to think.  Belief in our God, and submission of our will to His, enables learning – it does not end it.  We will forever study.  We will forever see truth in the light of His presence.  So why wait?  Why limit what God can teach us in the here and now, because we prefer our blindness and stubborn interpretation of truth, over His intention to lead us to the Truth that can ONLY be found in Jesus Christ.  The only distinction between ourselves, the modern churches that call themselves Christian and believe they are right to the exclusion of all other faiths, and our Pharisee forefathers (who had an equally valid claim) – will be determined in whether or not we actually allow Christ to lead our wisdom, or remain silent in the face of our so-great certainty.  Our fundamental trust must be based solely in Christ, not in our doctrines.  It is His doctrines we seek to learn.  This must be done ONLY in His light, following not leading, and in a humility few of us have yet to adopt and appreciate.

John continues in verse 24 saying … “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.”  Notice that nations of the saved, are saved, because they walk in the light of it, in the light of Christ.  Our journey to our ultimate heavenly home begins here as we make a choice to follow Christ.  In so doing, we allow Him to transform us, surrendering more and more of who we are, until His glory shines through us.  We begin to reflect His light and love to others.  We begin to feel within ourselves a passion for loving others that did not used to exist.  Where once our calloused hearts knew little expression, now we find a yearning and caring to get deep into the lives and interests of those around us.  If there is a need un-met, we want to find it, and meet it.  In so doing, we begin to emulate the life of Christ without even realizing we are doing it.  We honor God by loving others, and even in our eternal home, we bring this with us into His paradise.

John continues in verse 25 … “And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. [verse 26] And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.”  In the time of John, city gates were closed at night, for the fear of what might sneak in while residents slept.  In our eternal home, there is no night.  There is no time when the residents are unaware of their surroundings.  And further what there is in constant supply is a deep abiding love of others.  It is this “glory” and this “honor” that is brought into the city by ALL the nations who reside there.  There is no more spiritual slumber, and no need for the physical downtime when immersed in the light of Christ.  It is a model for us today.  We need not consider the limits of our humanity when considering how to love others.  For we need not rely upon human strength, will, or motive to see loving others accomplished.  We can instead, lean on Jesus Christ, and take on His strength, His will, His motives and let them replace our own.  Living in His light, does not need to wait.  It is available to us today.  We need but ask.

John writes in verse 27 … “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.”  John reminds us that the time of sin, disobedience, and death itself will be a thing of the past in the scenes revealed to him.  Nothing that defiles will ever see the inside of that city.  If something within us would cause defilement of any kind, it must be removed, before we enter those gates, before we become residents.  This removal of what would defile us, is the very process of our salvation.  We are being saved from ourselves, and from the slavery that binds us to self-love.  We are being made free to love others, and only others, never self.  For the love of self, is at the root of everything that defiles.

John continues the scene in the beginning of chapter 22 and verse 1 saying … “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Humanity does not long survive without water.  We are largely made up of it.  To remain healthy, we need a fairly sizeable quantity of it every day in our diets.  Despite being in perfection, the very water we need, the water of life is not a random gift for us to enjoy.  It has an origin.  It flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  The source of our greatest needs comes from our God.  He gives us light to see.  Now He adds water for us to drink.  Our needs do not terminate at the end of this sinful world.  We are still going to be human, perfectly re-created humans, but humans still.  We will still need water and light.  And so here is John stating that for all eternity, our greatest needs will ALWAYS be met by Jesus Christ.  We do not “create” the water we need.  Instead we will drink the water He “gives us”.

John continues in verse 2 … “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”  Our next greatest need is food.  Here John reveals that the tree of life has 2 trunks (perhaps symbolism for God the Father and Son) that are located on either side of the river.  The tree of life yields 12 different fruits, one each month.  It is through the eating of this food that our lives are sustained.  It is the reason why Adam and Eve were denied access to the tree of life after sin, because God did not want them to have to live forever in the condition of sin.  And you will recall that Adam and Eve lived nearly nine hundred years after being denied access.  You and I will be eating every month.  But I believe the symbolism is deeper than this.  Our lives, our existence, is not found apart from God.  We are not immortal of our own.  We eat this fruit and live forever, we are not immortal creatures without need of God, or food, or water, or light.  We are dependent creatures, whose needs are met because of the love of our Creator.  When God breathed breath into Adam he became a living soul, not an immortal one.  Adam had to eat from the tree of life to sustain his existence forever.  Now, even past the end of things we know, we still have that need.  We need to eat, and this food in particular to sustain our lives forever.

John continues the thought in verse 3 writing … “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:”  The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  The curse that occurred in Babel, which differentiated our languages, and altered our appearances, will be once and for all be undone.  In our present condition, each of us naturally assumes that our ethnicity will be the dominant one, resetting the rest of humanity to resemble those of our race.  But in the light of heaven who is to say what man was intended to resemble.  Case in point, the light of God is referenced by John several times to be green in color, resembling that of a Jasper stone.  Hard to imagine humanity tilting green, but why put a limit on it?  And why assume we are even capable today of discerning the spectrum of colors we will recognize when perfection removes the curse of our blindness from us.  Does it really matter if we are darkest black, or lily white?  Would it really even matter if we were all emerald forest green?  Whatever our appearance then, it will be the perfection God intended.  Our beauty will emanate from within as our love for others will be what makes us precious, unique, and valued without measure.

John wraps up his vision of heaven by focusing on what matters most as he writes in verse 4 … “And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. [verse 5] And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”  The most important characteristic of heaven is that we will see the face of God without any veil, or any filter between us and Him.  We will have His image and name ingrained in our foreheads, in our thinking, in the essence of who we are.  We will see without the need of artificial light, because the real source of light will illuminate our world and our lives.  And we will reign, not as kings who seek the services of others, but as kings who delight in serving others.  We will serve this way forever.  Forever in service to our God,  Forever in service to each other.  Forever finding delight in the perfection of loving another.

This is what makes heaven, heaven.  The beauty of the architecture pales in comparison to the beauty of love.  The idea of gold, and precious gems, are dwarfed by the beauty of a human heart intent on serving others.  The ability to see God, to live with God, to enjoy the presence of God every day; this is what makes eternal life, a life worth living.  Even in our world, we understand there are many kinds of love.  We have all experienced to some extent the love of a parent, of a child, of a friend, of a lover, or a sibling.  How many more varieties of love might we yet discover?  Over the course of many years of marriage it is possible to find that you love your spouse more today, than you did in the past.  And every single day that statement is both surprising and still true.  You cannot conceive that it will happen tomorrow yet again, but it does.  Heaven will be like that.  No limit to love, no limit to joy, no limit to discovery, to creation, to the boundaries of exploration – in short, no limits at all.  In the perfect freedom of loving others, there is no need for laws that limit behavior.

Our concepts of heaven are often warped by the self-centered desires we cling to today.  We admire the gold and ideas of no more pain with eternal life.  But heaven is not intended to be a place where we spend eternity trying to fill a hole of greed that will never be filled.  Heaven is not a place where we can live forever, constantly plotting how we gain our next thing.  It is not a place where perfect creations provide us an endless slew of candidates to lust over.  Our selfish tendencies are the things we are being made free from.  Our salvation comes as we depend on God to save us from us.  It is our dependence upon Christ to save us from who we are, that allows Him to do just that.  When we look in the mirror for salvation, we find only destruction.  To depend upon self, is to lose.  To depend upon Christ is to live.  The lesson of heaven itself reinforces this idea of dependence for all of eternity. 

It is Christ who gives us eternal light.  It is Christ who gives us the water of life, and the tree of life.  It is Christ who will sustain our lives forever and ever through His gifts.  And in this world, our dependence is no less great, it is more.  It is Christ who will save us from who we are.  It is Christ alone who can teach us His Truth in His word.  We must abandon human wisdom, and human strength, and certainty in what we think we know.  Instead we embrace the humility of trusting in Him to teach us what we need to know, and when we need to know it.  Intellect will not save us.  Doctrine will not save us.  Our force of “will” cannot save us.  Only Jesus Christ can remake who we are from the inside out.  If He does not, it will simply not get done.  Our faith must be that He will do as He promised to do.  Our part is to let Him do it.  Our role is to depend upon Christ.  That dependence begins in the here and now, but as John has revealed, it will never be over.  We will live eternally depending upon the love of Christ to sustain us.

His revelations of heaven were over … but his messages and counsel to us was not …