Conspiracies Uncovered ...

It is really hard to watch the news (pick any channel) for any length of time, and not begin to see a conspiracy behind a given event.  We used to call those folks conspiracy theorists (or nuts), now we just call them uncle 😊.  But where once we believed in the “good” of our institutions, or at least in the attempt to do good by our institutions; now we lose faith them in from the barrage of what we see on any news channel at any given point in the day.  Happy stories on the news are hardly even imagined.  If it bleeds, it leads, is still the mantra (perhaps a horrible reflection of who we are).  And this has never been truer since the advent of cable news (thanks Ted).  So to join the ranks of the conspiracy “team” (trying to be polite uncle), all you really need to do, is connect some of the relatively obvious dots.  Getting anyone to admit there actually was a conspiracy; or trying to prove one in the face of constant denials, keeps most of this stuff where it started out – in the backrooms, and dimly lit nocturnal abodes of the less-than-savory. 

And frankly, there has been a lot of practice to get a conspiracy right since the first one launched in heaven itself more than 6,000 years ago.  Imagine a pristine environment where a lie had never been told.  Imagine having the complete trust of anyone you came in contact with, because they did not know even what a lie was.  This was the condition, when Lucifer invented lies and began to dabble to perfect his new craft.  Before you know it, nearly a third of the heavenly angels (his peers), were convinced that God was an ego-maniac who would kill you for disagreeing with Him.  The first conspiracy was to overthrow God and take His place running the universe.  It failed.  But it has taken nearly 4000+ years for the Truth to come out to the rest of the universe, and the clock is still running here on planet earth for humanity.  The universe has made up its mind about the character of God.  We can’t seem to get our act together on that topic.  We are not quite sure Satan is wrong.  Just look at the imagine of God most Christian churches present when they talk about hell fire and eternal torture.

Assaulting God’s character and trying to overthrow Him may have been the first conspiracy against God, but it would not be the last.  Oh sure most of us have heard about the one at the Tower of Babel, when man decided the first time, to take his salvation in his own hands and build a tower so great not even God could flood it again.  Yeah, that one did not do well either.  But then comes one of the most dastardly conspiracies of all time against God.  The one where the religious leadership of His church, decided (under Satanic inspiration, but not much needed there), to kill Jesus Christ – just not on feast day – in case the people might get a little upset.  Yeah, it sounds a little crazy on a lot of levels.  But it was a conspiracy.  And of all things, Jesus knew every detail.  He did not nothing to stop it.  But He did unmask it, and try to warn the ones who would be impacted by it, perhaps to offer a last hope of salvation for them (even if it would be rejected again).

Matthew records this conspiracy for us, in his gospel, picking up in chapter 26 and verse 1 saying … “And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, [verse 2] Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.”  Catch the key word there that reveals the conspiracy, the word betrayed.  Someone Jesus trusted was going to turn Jesus over to someone else who hated Him and had in mind to kill Him.  Where there is more than one person working towards a nefarious goal, you by definition, have a conspiracy.  But here is the kicker, Jesus knows it is coming.  He even knows when.  Not because He has a spy keeping Him up to date, but because you simply cannot do anything that God is not aware of, even if it is still just an intent in your heart.  That’s scary.  At least, that is scary for those of us who think we actually have “secret” sins.  The only thing secret about them, is that for a while they may still be in dark from our peers here, but eventually the Truth will out.  And for God, even before we take action, our thoughts, and our motives were known.

Matthew is not subtle about it as he continues in verse 3 saying … “Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, [verse 4] And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. [verse 5] But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.”  This just blows my mind.  It was NOT the Romans who started this conspiracy.  Everyone likes to conveniently blame them because eventually they played a role in it.  But that is just convenient memory.  The truth is that the head of the religion handed down by Jesus Himself to Israel, to Moses, to David, to Solomon, to all the Prophets and Kings that preceded Him – that One true religion – was determined to kill its Author.  Can you imagine the Pope, and the archbishops of the Catholic church, just determined to kill anyone that ever disagreed with them?  Too soon?  Or can you imagine on a more personal basis, what the leaders of your church might do to hang on to power and money even today?  People have always killed to hang on to power or money.  We just seem to forget when they do it to the least of these, they do it to Christ.  However in this case, these Pharisees were just “actually” doing it to Christ.

Matthew wastes no time connecting the dots of the warning of Jesus, with the reality of what followed it.  Even though Jesus had unmasked the conspiracy, that conspiracy formed, and continued to plan and carry out its goals.  Notice too, they were not out to just assassinate Him, instead they wanted to take Him with subtlety (and not on feast day).  Hypocrites to the end.  We must kill our God, but not on one of His special days.  Not much different than folks today I know of, who have no love of the poor, and would be happy to see them go anywhere “else”, even if that means they go away to die in hunger.  As long as they are not here in our church on our “holy” day while we are trying to get our worship on.  We are busy “worshipping”, we have no time for the inconvenient distractions of people who are hungry.  We have on our “good” clothes, and don’t want to get messy.  Get a job.  Go away.  Anywhere else.  Just don’t disturb us while we worship.  And we have the audacity to call what we are doing “worship”.  But it is so easy for us to see the “least of these” and just not see Christ.

The disciples just seem oblivious to what Jesus said.  It’s like they went deaf for a few sentences or something.  There is no record of any reaction to it.  They don’t start buying swords to defend their Lord, (but perhaps Peter did, or at least he got his sword out of storage).  They don’t start looking to find the culprits and reason with them, perhaps diverting them to another course of action.  They don’t start praying for them.  Just nothing.  Life goes on, like if no warning had been given.  How eerily familiar.  But someone heard what Jesus said.  Someone who was listening, like perhaps what all women do, even when men think they don’t.  Matthew continues in verse 6 saying … “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, [verse 7] There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.”

How incredible.  We would like to think this woman was Mary Magdalene.  It is convenient for men, that all the heroic things that take place in the New Testament scriptures are done by Mary Magdalene, that way there is only “one” exception to rules.  But Matthew (who knew Mary Magdalene) does not name her so.  Ok so if not Mary Magdalene, then perhaps it was Mary or Martha one of the sisters of Lazarus who were also devout followers of Jesus.  But Matthew knew them as well, and did nothing to call either by name here.  Which by process of elimination, means this woman was a devout follower of Jesus, and unnamed to history – that would mean there is more than one exception to the rule, or perhaps better still there was never any rule in the first place where it comes to the roles of men and women as they follow Jesus Christ.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit is in charge of that, or should be.  Nonetheless, this woman was listening to the sad proclamation of Jesus, and she did something about it.  She did all she could.  She likely spent as much as a year’s wages (maybe more).  In short, she gave everything she had.

But no good deed goes unpunished, even within the church it seems, even the new church.  Matthew continues in verse 8 saying … “But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? [verse 9] For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.”  Given what will follow with Judas in only a few verses further, it is easy to assume this was at his instigation.  Judas was likely the one who carried the money for the poor, so putting a few gold coins in his purse might have appealed to him.  Again convenient memory.  Matthew is careful to use the word “disciples”.  When there is more than one person engaged in a nefarious action there is by definition a conspiracy.  If it were only Judas, everyone would have been all too happy to cast the blame solely on Judas.  Keep in mind this gospel was written well after the facts.  But it was not just Judas.  Peter, Matthew, perhaps John and yes, perhaps Judas too – were ALL too happy to complain about this woman’s good deed.  They were collectively guilty, not singularly so.  And they had the nerve to be angry about it.  Here is the “new” leadership of the church angry with a woman, for giving all she has to Christ.  How eerily familiar. 

Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. [verse 11] For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. [verse 12] For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. [verse 13] Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”  Jesus defends the woman, and her act of love.  He testifies that this act should be remembered as the gospel itself is remembered (and so Matthew records the entire incident, even to his own shame).  Jesus also calls out the hypocrisy of false motives if “anyone” intended to pocket some of the gold coins in a purse they might be carrying for the poor.  The leadership of the new church is rebuked for criticizing the act of love a woman has done for our Lord.  So strange that our modern churches remain so steadfast on a course of criticizing any woman for how she may be gifted to serve her Lord through love.  We still do it, and read these passages as if they are nothing more than history – no lesson for us here.

Matthew again is not too subtle about connecting the dots as he continues in verse 14 saying … “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, [verse 15] And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. [verse 16] And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.”  People have always killed to hang on to money or power.  If Judas must bear the rebuke of Jesus over a few coins this woman wasted, there are other ways of making money, money he will not have to share with the poor either.  And here is where our hearts should break.  Judas cast out demons.  Judas healed the sick.  Judas was a missionary in partnership with one of the other twelve, commissioned by Christ to spread the gospel in earlier days.  That means Judas was a witness, who spoke, who healed, who had the Holy Ghost within him while engaged in these actions.  And yet it is Judas who throws his whole relationship away, and for what?  A few coins?  A perception of an insult or rebuke?

Judas would rather give up his role in church leadership and join a conspiracy to kill his Lord and ask yourself for what?  What would you give up a close relationship with Jesus over?  What conspiracy would you want to join?  Is it a conspiracy for wealth that drives you.  Would you focus more on career to bring you what you think you need (like Judas may have done) – than to sacrifice your job, or your promotion, or your career trajectory - in favor of time with Jesus Christ, even if only revealed through the least of these?  Judas is a cautionary story for us.  Not of betrayal, that’s too easy.  It is of forsaking victory in favor of self-service.  Even when he was directly warned by Jesus that “someone” close to Him would “betray” Him.  The conspiracy was already unmasked.  There was already a light shining in the corners.  Yet Judas ignores the warning and joins it anyway.  As usual this conspiracy against God did not work out well, nor would any other.  They may have appearance of success in some limited fashion.  But in reality, they continue to fail.  Because to fight God, is by definition, to fail.

It is also worth noting that “group think” does not make you right.  There was an entire array of church leaders engaged in the same conspiratorial plot, the same ideas.  They may have had varying motives, but they nearly all wanted Jesus dead.  And the ones who might have disagreed with this stance were certainly quiet about it before time.  Having your entire church leadership of one mind on any given topic is great for unity, until they are united in doing the wrong thing.  To try to determine the right or wrong of a thing in our by-design very-gray-world, ask yourself – what love will this thing show to the least of these, or what love might it take away.  Don’t try to hide insults and hate speech behind the wall of doctrines, claiming you are merely doing God’s work.  That same excuse came right out of Caiaphas’ home that night word-for-word in the matter of trying to kill Jesus to protect the church and “save” the people from His incessant focus on love.  If you find yourself already in the conspiracy, drop out.  Look up.  Go back to Jesus and ask Him what He would do.  Then try to listen and do what He leads you to do.  That might be the distinction to tell if you are in a conspiracy or not – are you following Jesus’ lead; or are you deciding what must be done next.

 

The Wolves of Racism [part two] ...

So how do we rid ourselves of the wolves who would gladly destroy the flock?  The first step, is to look in the mirror, pick up the wool overcoat, and make sure “we” are not actually the wolves we are talking about.  Hatred, and its little brother - a lack of forgiveness, come in a variety of packages disguised as only “fair”; but the net result is the consumption of sheep, with only the remains of a wolf left in its place.  And the damage left behind does not only hit us, but has the ripple effects of every sin, extending outwards from us, first hitting those we love.  Then those same ripples of pain, begin to hit our church, our community, our country.  We may wonder how racism, bigotry, prejudice, or baggage could negatively impact our nation; but it can and it does.  Imagine the pain and damage done when hiring decisions are made purely from a point of prejudice of any kind.  Perhaps I don’t like bankers, or even former bankers, so I don’t offer this job to that candidate simply because he/she worked in an industry I have bad feelings about since the fall of that sector.  And because of my feelings, an otherwise fully qualified candidate is discarded because of what I feel about it. 

The same thing can happen when I let beliefs about age result in similar decisions.  In this age of technical proficiency how easy it is to decline the application of the clearly older candidate in favor of the young and up-and-coming because I believe inherently the young will adapt much faster than the old to change.  Of course this perspective usually occurs more often in the young, who have not yet experienced change the way the older folks have.  Just as hiring a former banker might give a qualified candidate a chance at something new, without the baggage of the past.  Prejudice can be subtle, it does not always have to be overt, and about black / white race relations.  Underlying it all is the fear, that at some point in the future, damage will happen to us (again) based on our past experiences, how we were raised, and what we choose to focus on in our news venues.  This fear begins to drive hate in us.  And instead of adopting a spirit of forgiveness, we adopt a spirit of what we call “justice”.  We begin to seek fairness above all things.  But fairness, justice, and equality sound objective, when in reality are anything but.  They are based on the perspectives we hold.  Ask yourself, is it “fair” for you to be rejected for a job opportunity, when another person of another race gets the job, particularly if race was the main reason they did?  Nearly ALL of us would say that it is not fair, unless “we” got it, then maybe we justify it as fair somehow (even if done for the same reasons).

Ironically, it is this spirit of justice, that makes us wolf, not sheep.  The sheep realizes they themselves are far from perfect, have done many wrongs to others, and thus crave forgiveness above all else.  And if we crave forgiveness, then we must be willing to offer it as well.  The world is unjust.  You can survive in it as wolf, or as sheep.  Case in point.  Matthew resumes the stories of Jesus in chapter eighteen of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He resumes picking up in verse 21 saying … “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”  This was Peter attempting to blend justice with forgiveness.  Most people, whether they know it or not, tend to have a three strikes rule.  You wrong me, and ask forgiveness, and I grant it – especially the first time.  The second time, I am a little more reluctant or cautious, but I still try to grant it.  By the third time, I pretty much no longer believe you mean what you say.  At this point, it is really hard to convince me you want genuine forgiveness.  It looks more to me like you are establishing a pattern of causing me harm, and then attempting to white wash yourself, so that you can simply do it again. (Imagine how God feels).

Peter however, was trying to be more generous than this, and was going the extra mile of offering 7 full times at forgiveness (despite how hard it would be to do this following the third declining shot).  Now translate that to us and the prejudice we develop over time regarding nearly anything.  Where prejudice remains, forgiveness is by definition, pushed out.  We fear damage more than we embrace a spirit of forgiveness.  This is how prejudice is fed, off our fears.  Lose the fear, it is then possible to lose a state of constantly prejudging what others will do, and why they would do those things.  Then people become just a series of one-on-one individual encounters.  I do not tally the sins of the last person (based on some characteristic I fear), with the new person who may also commit similar wrongdoings to me.  Instead the new person starts with a clean slate, because fear does not keep me holding on to a tally, that forgiveness would have otherwise reset.

But Jesus has a startling response picking up in verse 22 saying … “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”  It might as well be infinity.  Imagine being slapped in the face by someone who then asks forgiveness.  You grant it.  Then they find occasion to slap you in the face once again.  For 490 times?  If you can get past the third time, you are doing better than me.  If you can get past the seventh time you are doing better than our generous Peter proposed.  And when this pattern repeats for the 146^th time, and you are still able to grant genuine forgiveness on your part.  A few things will emerge.  Your concrete ability to share the forgiveness your God has granted you (monkey see, monkey do, in a great way).  It likely means your ideas about how to love, have become fully in harmony with your God’s ideas.  And I expect that at occasion #491, your mercy will not cut off, it will probably be there forever (as your God’s is).  The infectious, liberating nature of forgiveness will have taken over completely.  The sad part of this scenario however, is on the part of the wrongdoer.  It also likely means they are doomed to a life of inflicting pain, unable to stop, unable to control themselves, unwilling to allow Jesus to transform this behavior, ending it, so that no more forgiveness from you is needed.  Their path is the one of far greater sadness, even if yours must endure the pain in your cheeks on multiple occasions.

Forgiveness is supposed to be contagious.  Jesus then continues picking up with a story in verse 23 saying … “Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. [verse 24] And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.”  The story opens with the authority of a king, something the folks in His day and age, would have appreciated.  Everyone knew if Caesar decreed it, it was going to happen, whether for mercy, or for great evil.  It moves forward with a reckoning of the king’s servants (not strangers mind you, but folks assigned to serve the king, likely in a financial capacity (perhaps tax collectors)).  And one of the servants is discovered to owe the king 10-thousand talents.  This debt might as well have been infinity.  A single talent was a thing of great wealth.  With ten thousand of them, you could fund your own kingdom.  And no servant would ever “make” that much money on their own.

Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. [verse 26] The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”  Here is where we must read carefully.  Because the servant could not pay, his life, was the thing he would have to offer of value.  Because he was the head of his home, what he did, would also cause great impact on the life of his wife, and his children as well.  What we do is never in a vacuum, it has repercussions.  And beyond the most precious things he had (the lives of his family), everything else he may have accumulated he was going to lose.  So he begs.  But for the wrong thing.  He begs for an extension of time, in order to pay back everything that is owed.  This was an exercise in futility.  If he lost this kind of sum of money, he could never pay it back (or he already would have).  How often do we line up beside this man, and ask God for a little more time and patience with us, so that we can conquer our sin?  We will stop swearing, or stealing, or lusting – if we just have a little more time to get it done.  But we fail, because we rely upon our own strength to succeed.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.”  Again pay close attention.  What the servant asked for was an extension of time to pay back what was owed.  What God offers him, is simply to forgive his debt completely.  God is looking to transform the life of the servant.  To take the pressure and the fear off of him, from spending every moment looking for a penny he can add to pay back to the debt.  And instead to enjoy his life (have a real one), and impact the lives of his wife, and his children in a positive way.  To use his belongings with a sense of gratitude, for they all belonged to the king.  But the king has returned them, given them back, given them in the first place, to the man in this story.  How often do we line up beside this man, and treat our families, and our goods as if they belong to us – not as though they were ALL gifts from our King, who has erased a debt of ours we could never pay back.

This was all designed to change the heart of the servant.  To change how he lives, how he loves, and make the rest of his life so much better.  But alas, one must be willing to have a heart changed.  Jesus continues in verse 28 saying … “But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. [verse 29] And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”  Instead of love and forgiveness, the man given so much of these, holds none of them in his heart.  He turns around and immediately seeks out a fellow servant who owes him only 100 pennies (less than one talent).  He does not mercifully ask or remind him of the small debt, but instead grabs the fellow servant by the throat.  There is violence in this.  For without love in a heart, violence has much room to grow.  What his fellow servant does, is the same thing he did only moments ago.  His fellow servant uses the same words.  And while it would have been impossible to pay back 10 thousand talents with time, paying back 100 pennies is actually plausible.  This debt was a much smaller thing.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. [verse 31] So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.”  Despite the dejavu, the man forgiven everything, the man offered a new life by the king, does not have the mercy in him to show even the smallest mercy to the man who owed him so little.  Debtors prison is the fate for the one who owes only 100 pennies.  His wife and his children must now find a way to pay back this small debt, but without their primary bread winner.  This may will be a degenerating condition, that impacts the fellow servant, and his family, and his possessions in a way he never recovers from.  No mercy.  No forgiveness.  No change of heart.  Only an expression of that heart, that impacts the witnesses and breaks their hearts when they see it.  They take it to the king, so that perhaps the one in prison might be released, but there is greater justice to be outlayed if justice is the course we choose for our lives.

Jesus continues in verse 32 saying … “Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: [verse 33] Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”  Pay close attention once again; Jesus says “O thou wicked servant”.  He speaks not in parable anymore, but in plain English to us, to you, to me.  We have been forgiven everything.  Yet we would cling to our fear, and drive out the freedom embracing forgiveness might offer us.  For the brother who has wronged us, who refused to hear us, whether in private, in the company of witnesses, or even as a matter of prayer for the church – is it not possible to forgive that man?  Why do we make it a matter of attempting to punish a wrong doer, rather than a matter of forgiveness between family under the same church umbrella?  Why would I look at groups of people who share some characteristic, and develop baggage, or prejudice, or racist hate – expelling all the forgiveness I have been offered; and instead of being changed by that gift, harbor all the hatred that dwarfed my heart and ability to love by clinging to it.  Wolves hunt for justice.  Sheep rely on the mercy of the Shepherd to keep them alive, they rely on the closeness of the flock, not on subdividing it along every line of prejudice they can imagine.

Jesus concludes the story picking up in verse 34 saying … “And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. [verse 35] So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”  If we are determined to be wolves, determined to reject the forgiveness of our king, determined not to let it change us, and how we love.  We are wolves, left to no other fate, than the hunger of wolves for a justice they will never believe is fully satisfied.  Instead of being made free, we hold to the bondage of what we call justice and fairness.  We are left to the tormentors, others like us, who also seek justice and fairness.  But whose ideas of that justice and fairness conflict with our own.  Their justice steps upon our justice.  Their fairness does not line up with our fairness.  So we call them wrong, as they call us the same.  And we torment each other, each believing we are right.  And the tormenting of sin will not let us go, because we will not let it go.

Forgiveness is designed to free us from the burden, and the torment, of holding on to pain.  While the “fact” that we were wronged may never be in question.  Justice and further pain do not release us from our own, they remind us of it.  But forgiveness frees us from it.  We release our pain to the wind, think of it no more, and are free to cherish the one who may have hurt us.  To seek out the love that is possible between us.  Imagine if our Father God, who has a perfect memory, were to remember our slights, and our wrongdoings, that must have hurt Him deeply.  How could He love us, holding on to that pain.  Forgiveness is a part of love we required Him to invent, if He were to choose to love us still.  Forgiveness does not need a measure of justice first, it needs only a matter of choice to love first.  Forgiveness does not set all our wrongdoings right – we still did them.  But genuine forgiveness sets the tally to zero once again, and lets our relationship continue and grow.  The goal is not to use this mechanism as a means to continue inflicting pain, but rather as a means to change how we love, and over time need it less, until through Christ we need it no more.  Transformation will see to that.

Let us then, become sheep, blissfully absorbed in the love of our shepherd, looking to hunt no more in packs for a justice that can never be, but wander in flocks behind a Shepherd whose love transforms our ideas, and our actions on that very topic …

Unpardonable ...

And speaking of criticism … today it seems all the world is a critic.  We freely dole out “advice” to others about how they could have done a better job.  We feel it our duty, our responsibility, after all we are only trying to make the world better.  And the recipients of our advice clearly need it.  None of us are too receptive to the advice of others, but it would seem all of us are inclined to share criticism, often without being asked.  And what happens in the secular arena, being a reflection of character, is dragged right through the doors of the church into the ministry where it least belongs.  Yet our critique is freely shared inside the church with nearly every ministry offered, and every leader or participant who dares to stand in front of us long enough to listen.  We explain that our motive is only to “help”, to make the ministry “better”, or to avoid the pitfalls of the world.  But the net effect is that criticism flows freely, and our own participation flows slowly by comparison, if at all.

Knowing the condition of man, and the struggle of men against sin in all its form, you might just write this off as an “oops” of our characters that will one day get straightened out by the Lord.  This is true if we let it, rather than in true human form, keep attempting to fix it ourselves.  But there is a danger here in this area that is like none other.  As it turns out there is a much MORE dangerous sin, than homosexuality (which most modern Christians believe is by far the worst).  There is much more permanent sin than even murder.  Hard to imagine that, as life once lost sure looks permanent from a “this world” perspective.  And perhaps worst of all, the sin looks so innocuous that most of us don’t even consider it a sin.  We regularly participate without a second thought, and venture in to unpardonable zones with glee.

The first response to this is to recoil.  Perhaps this is only the opinions of the author of this Blog, nothing more.  I wish that it were so, for I am as guilty as any of my brothers and sisters in the faith.  But unfortunately for me, I am unable to argue with the words of my Lord.  Matthew picks up in his gospel in the twelfth chapter in verse 31, not his own words, but the quoting of the words of Jesus Himself as it reads … “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”  Ouch.  There is something that sits on the “shall not be forgiven” unto men list.  Blasphemy against Holy Spirit.  So what is Blasphemy then?

For us to claim something is from the Holy Spirit which is truly not would constitute blasphemy.  Not many of us claim to be prophets of God, so the danger here is low for most.  Not many of us claim to have direct communication from the Holy Spirit on any matter, we are nearly all too timid for that.  But for those who do, they better be right, or into this list they march.  But a false claim of authentication is not the only definition or use of this term.  The converse is also true.  To attribute something to Satan that is truly from the Holy Spirit, is also a blasphemy against God.  This is the one church goers are so quick to offer opinions about, particularly the conservative branch of our body.  How many times have you heard the opinion offered … “that music is of Satan”.  Or, bringing drama into the church in the form of Christian plays, or short skits, is of the devil?  It could be an instrument, a method of ministry, a manner of dress, or the message offered.

We have all done it.  We do it still.  We think it our Christian responsibility to “call out” things that we believe are of the world, so as to keep the sacred free from worldly influence.  But the key part of that sentence is “we believe”.  It is our belief, stemming from our opinion and interpretation of scripture, that something is of the world or not.  And those opinions and interpretations are often heavily influenced by our own preferences and traditions.  In these instances, we approach scriptures with the conclusions already made, looking only for texts which will support them, leaving no room to be led, or to find we are wrong.  Yet still we present ourselves with such a level of certainty in our criticism you would think we were ready to wrest the role of Judge from our God and carry it on our shoulders without a care in the world.

Perhaps blasphemy is strong enough as a word in its imagery to give you comfort that you “never” go that far with your critiques.  Perhaps because you associate the word blasphemy with such a level of sin, you believe yourself to be incapable of this, making it something you do not need to worry about.  So Jesus continues as if reading the notions of your heart 2,000+ years later.  He continues in verse 32 saying … “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”  The problem extends beyond blasphemy.  The problem extends to merely “a word against” category.  Now even the slightest slight falls into the same unpardonable zone as does full blown blasphemy.

Jesus makes the distinction that all of these same sins against Himself are forgivable.  But NONE of them are forgivable when offered against the Holy Spirit, to be clear, not in this world, or in the world to come.  The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Godhead.  It is an independent entity of God, that we understand little about.  The Bible is about Jesus, and His creation of us.  It is about our fall from trust, embrace of sin, and the redemption of man due to the love and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.  Jesus is the main character, and the lens through which we see God the Father.  The Holy Spirit however, while equally active in the redemption of mankind is not what scriptures are written about.  He like a silent partner who does not want the spotlight, seemingly content to work in the background, noticed only when His power moves upon us and we reflect the impossible because of Him.  But He is there.  Some of us hypothesize that the Holy Spirit might be the mom character in the Godhead, but we are as clueless as ants trying to describe the scientific properties of stars.  Perhaps we are only trying to make the Holy Spirit more human, to be more understandable, and in this we mean no criticism.  Stupidity perhaps, but not criticism.

On the other hand, we are quick to judge things, and even results, where the methods are not of our liking.  How many Christian musical artists have been verbally associated with the devil, because we do not like their brand of music?  The phenomenon is not new, organ music was given this attribution 100 years ago.  Now it is having electric guitars, and drums in the sanctuary that gets some folks all riled up.  For some it is worship music that is so repetitive and simplistic it strikes more of inane meditations than music that truly expresses our praise to God.  The point is not what we like or do not like.  The point is the results.  When music points the heart to God, when through our experience of music, we find ourselves coming to Jesus, longing to submit our lives to Him.  The Holy Spirit is in that.  For the Kingdom of heaven is bent on bringing people to Jesus, the method of that journey far less important, than the destination of it.

Our tastes evolve over time.  What we may like as a child expands as an adult.  What we once thought so important, becomes less so as we age.  And Jesus, if we have submitted even our desires to, is the Author behind those changes we do not even understand.  So many Christians are so quick to judge methods, ministers, and messages they feel are inadequate; but whose results are leading of people to Jesus, as being “of the devil”.  This attribution is unfortunately a venture into the unpardonable zone which even after the end of all things is still remembered by the Holy Spirit and not forgiven us.  And why should it be?  We are saying our opinions matter more than the ministry of God to lead people to Jesus.  Better we should say nothing and let the Holy Spirit do as the Holy Spirit wishes.

And do not think this issue is confined only to criticism of music and its various genre’s and methods in the church.  It extends to issues or topics like women’s ordination as well.  This topic is not a debate over doctrine or tradition.  It is a recognition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or a rejection of them based on the opinions we hold.  When the Holy Spirit gives the gift of ministry to a woman pastor, and we as the body of Christ reject her because she is a woman, or treat her less because of her sex, we are effectively saying “no” to the Holy Spirit deciding who does what within the body of Christ.  Who are we to make that call, particularly against the wisdom and plan of God?  It holds true to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to young child who we reject because of his/her age.  We reject the word of the Lord, because it comes from a mouth far too young to really understand what they are saying.  And in so doing, we speak more than just a mere word against the Holy Spirit, we are rejecting His gifts, intentions, and plans entirely; based on what, “adult” thinking?

All of these issues boil down to the ego we did not know we held so dearly.  It is the lens of self we apply to things of a spiritual nature, judging what is good and what is not.  But our judgment was never what was needed, our love was.  Leave judging to our God, who alone is qualified.  It becomes then an extremely dangerous thing to offer criticism, which in the end, may well be criticism against the Holy Spirit.  Better we should quell our tongue, and keep our helpful “advice” to ourselves.  Better to uplift, than to offer critical insights.  Better to come from a motivation of pure love, than from a heart who has yet to experience that kind of motivation.  When we seek out the positive, instead of constantly focusing our eyes on the negative, our world suddenly changes around us.  It is this focus on positivity that begins to reflect what Jesus is doing inside of us.  It is a reflection of being someone different than we were before, of allowing the Holy Spirit to decide what we say, and even what we think and believe, and trusting in Him, in God, to not see us follow error to our doom.

Jesus then makes an analogy to help us understand this change phenomenon in our lives picking up in verse 33 saying … “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”  Those Christians you know, who never seem to run out of love, who always have something uplifting to say; they are trees of good fruit.  You can just tell they are connected with Jesus, or how else could they say those things, and be that loving no matter what circumstances they are in. or they encounter personally.  On the other hand, those Christians you know who always seems to have a critical word on their tongue, and who appear to love themselves very much, perhaps their families, and very few others; they are Christians of corrupt fruit, for they have yet to surrender who they are, and let Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit begin to truly transform how their hearts love. 

Jesus gets more to the point picking up in verse 34 saying … “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. [verse 35] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”  This is about words people, your words.  This is not about how well the pastor did last Sabbath, or how well the missionary was able to convey what is going on in the fields.  This is about what you say throughout the week, and how you say it.  Those critiques you have to offer come from a heart that does not yet truly understand love.  Because when it does, it has no time for words that do not bring comfort and joy.  Those words that tear down, are not found in the halls of heaven, for the hearts behind voice never feel that way in the first place.  And so many continue to write this off as unimportant.

Jesus has other views continuing in verse 36 saying … “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. [verse 37] For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”  It is the words we utter when we give our lives to Jesus that see us justified.  It is our words of surrender that see us transformed.  It is the idle words we think are still not important that see us condemned, as they continue to reflect the fact that we have not yet surrendered, and have not yet seen our hearts truly transformed into His image.  Our words then are a reflection of who we are.  Our words, how we say them, what we say, are a reflection of the hearts that lie under them.  And so many of us, spend so much time, in words of critique; fully ignorant of our sins mounting against the Holy Spirit all because we have opinions we equate to doctrine, and certainty that surpasses the will of God.  All of it a venture into the unpardonable.

But love is stronger than that.  At least the love of God is stronger than that.  That love is strong enough, not to leave us as we are, but to transform us to what He intends for us to be.  Not just what Jesus intends, but what the Holy Spirit intends, and what God the Father intends.  There are three parts to our united God, not just one, or two.  The third part, the Holy Spirit, has a work and mission, and a personality as well; independent of the others, as I am independent of my wife, yet bound to her as one flesh.  The Holy Spirit is united in purpose with the Godhead, and gives man gifts, and power that reflect the will of God.  When we argue against that will, we venture in unpardonable zones we dare not go.  For we will not soon forget our own actions that delayed, or dismayed the ministry of God to redeem man, even though we ourselves are safely in the Kingdom of heaven.  That criticism we offered that disheartened the soul of a potential believer who was so close to accepting Jesus, but saw in us a discouragement they could not overcome will weigh on us forever, a judgment we will not escape, the judgment of our memories.  The treasure of souls who would have otherwise come to Jesus, is a treasure we should never risk, by clumsy words, and “helpful” advice.  If it does not reflect the passion of God’s love through a heart that has been transformed, our silence would be better preferred, coupled only with actions of love in demonstration.

 

Reaching Out [part two] ...

Ideology matters; perhaps never more than today.  What you believe will drive what you are willing to sacrifice for it.  And more dangerously, what you believe may strongly influence how much you are willing to make others suffer because they do not share your beliefs.  Belief underlies it all.  And our enemy is quick to introduce fear into that equation.  Combine fear and belief, and it is easy to believe others intend to persecute you for your own beliefs.  When you believe you might be persecuted, you form a defense against this persecution.  And a good offense is always a good defense, so belief and fear combine to drive violence into our world.  Whether threats are real or perceived becomes irrelevant.  The violence that ensues is measurable.  Perhaps this is why whenever our Lord introduced the supernatural of His Kingdom to mankind he always opens the greeting with “Fear Not”.

Where your willingness to inflict violence over your beliefs, becomes more important to you than traditional bonds of friendship and family … belief transcends reasonable boundaries and becomes fanaticism.  A fanatic puts his beliefs so high in importance, that even friendship and family must take a back seat.  Friendships of many years can be dissolved in an instant over a slight change in shared beliefs.  Churches split over them.  Cain kills Able over them.  Differences in our exact interpretation of beliefs cause us to cast aside friendships, a spirit of community, and even the blood bonds of family.  And in the mind of the fanatic, all of these must be sacrificed for the sake of what is more important.  Fanatics point to the words of Jesus on this matter, stating those who love parents or children more than they love Him are not worthy of Him.  But Jesus did not offer the example of committing violence against non-believers.  Rather Jesus offered us an example of redemptive love for ALL those who do not yet believe.  Yet the fanatic ignores anything in the narrative of scripture that countermands his beliefs and violent intentions, and passionately embraces any tittle of scripture that might support them, and so builds his ‘doctrinal epoch of cause’ to inflict violence where he sees fit.

The fundamentalist is a brand that has emerged in the last 50 years.  The fundamentalist is a unique and partial picture of the fanatic.  They wish a “return” to basic doctrines and are extremely passionate about these ideas.  However, their reactions range from pity & condemnation for those who do not share their beliefs; to outright violence against the unbeliever in order to prompt him to see the error of his ways.  If the unbeliever dies in the process, that is left to the will of God.  Islamic extremists tend to fall in the fundamentalist category.  But so do many Christians who are willing to kill over their beliefs, whether to defend themselves, or to “defend the faith”.  What separates the fundamentalist from the full-on-fanatic is the boundary of family-relationships.  When the fundamentalist is willing to discard, or remove, a family member over a dispute about beliefs – they have entered the domain of the fanatic.

You can see ranges of this in your own life, if we begin by talking about politics first.  Most solid friendships can endure a difference over presidential candidates and how they are doing.  Good friends just come to a place where they agree to disagree.  Or perhaps learn to enjoy a good round of debates where no one leaves angry.  Families usually do better at this still … but only because ‘they have to’.  The bonds of blood are way too important to lose over some idiot presidential candidate.  So each family member agrees to “forgive” the one who is “mis-informed” and they either don’t talk about it at all (so as not to get angry), or they reach a maturity level that allows them open discourse without taking it personally.  It is rare where a family is willing to break apart over a disagreement in politics.  Frankly, politics is just not that worth it.

But where it comes to your salvation (in a spiritual context); people do the stupidest things, in the worst ways imaginable – and then claim what they do is the direct will of God, as if God spoke to them and dictated the series of events and actions they must go do.  But God does not.  God does not whisper in the inquisitor’s ear; that in order to change this infidel’s thinking about religion, you need to continue torturing him/her in more and more severe ways.  If there is a voice in that ear, it is NOT the voice of the Lord.  Nor does God whisper in the voice of the ear of a self-described Muslim Martyr; that murdering the innocent will somehow send a “bigger” statement to infidels about how wrong they are.  Neither act accomplishes anything, but the degradation of the perpetrator.  And to ascribe these acts to the will of God is to blaspheme the name of God; yet the crime continues on every day in assorted variations until blasphemy is common place.

Even where minds are so made up; even where opinions rarely change they only harden; the commission of the gospel lives on.  The message of the arrival of the kingdom of God, and the entry through Jesus Christ lives on, remains relevant, and is still good news.  To live a better life in the here-and-now is still an awesome concept no matter how badly I have screwed up doctrines, or how fanatically I am wrong about so so many things.  That good news dwarfs the condemnation of my fundamentalism, and has the potential to restore the relationships with family and friends my craziness has broken apart.  My entire life could be so exponentially better through Jesus Christ, and His gift is so easy to accept.  Even though our internet jungle of ever hardening circles of judgement remain, the gospel is bigger, better, and more powerful than that. 

Jesus knew the weird beliefs systems we would face.  Jesus knew how beliefs devolve into fanaticism.  Jesus knew even His own religion would fall victim to this horror.  But the gospel had to go out still.  Matthew continues the counsel of Christ resuming in chapter ten of his gospel picking up in verse 16 saying … “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”  No matter what the level of violence raised against the follower of Christ, violence in return, is not the response.  This text is very specific that the gospel is not spread on the point of sword.  Inflicting violence does nothing to change hearts, only love does that.  Responding to threats is not couched in excellent defensive postures and weapons of self-defense, it is couched only in love for the enemy who means us harm.  Wisdom is a better method of avoiding problems, than violence.  Being harmless makes us less of a threat than a posture of strength.  Let the Lord be our strength instead.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; [verse 18] And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.”  Jesus predicts the fury of organized religion against the pure message of saving grace.  He does not assure us deliverance against these heinous crimes, rather that we will surely endure them for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the redemption of the man carrying the whip.  His own religion, that is, the religion Jesus setup with Moses in the desert will be the first to unleash the satanic fury of fanaticism against the simple saving message of Jesus as the Messiah.  But religious persecution is not the only brand His followers would suffer.  Religion would unite with the power of the State to continue and expand persecution of the followers of Jesus.  In the years to come, the corruption within the legacy Jewish religion would find its way into the Roman Catholic halls and extend the reach of persecution against groups like the Waldensians, and other smaller segments of people who believed in the saving message of Jesus Christ, not the absolute control of the organized church.  “Who” saves you has always been the ultimate question, whether singularly Jesus Christ, or some version of people claiming to be His sole church.

Jesus then provides His followers with the ultimate defense attorney for the upcoming “trials” in which they will be accused falsely, picking up in verse 19 saying … “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. [verse 20] For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”  We are nothing better than a conduit for the Spirit of God.  And to be that, we must get out of the way.  Preparation, is NOT required.  In fact, it should be purposely avoided.  That takes trust.  That takes confidence that we will not be making a fool of ourselves when the time comes.  But the fool in us will remain silent, while the Spirit that enters us will speak with a clarity, and emotional pull, that ONLY the Spirit of God can accomplish.  It is the well prepared of us, that provides no outlet for His Spirit.  We are too busy talking ourselves to let Him get a word in edgewise.  And while we speak our own well prepared words, it is evident we are truly fools.  For Satan can out debate us any day of the week, but against His Spirit, Satan is moot, and irrelevant.

The core of this counsel relies on a faith in Jesus Christ to save us.  To save us from ourselves.  To save us from situations well beyond our control.  And in the process, to reach out to others, and point them to the salvation of Jesus Christ.  The goal is not to be saved in a vacuum, but to spread out the witness of salvation, of what it means to be saved, in a community that is so desperate to see those effects in themselves.  And we do it so poorly.  So perhaps it is time now, to be still, to remain unprepared, and let our words become His words.  And there is no audience who we would wish to reach more intensely than the members of our own families.  Sadly, they will not always be willing to hear.  And worse we may discover fanaticism in our own ranks against the concept of Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation.

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. [verse 22] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”  Family will rise against family from the inside.  The blood bonds that should bind us in tolerance and love, prove brittle in the face of salvation and the name of Jesus Christ.  Our own families prefer agnosticism, they prefer methods of self-salvation, they prefer a nebulous god who can be reached through a variety of methods certainly not only through the Jesus Christ our silly scriptures describe.  Sad to think, that one sect of purported Christians, would turn in another, over doctrinal disputes of the how the remainder of scripture (outside of Jesus) is interpreted.  But that is our history, and will remain our future.  Power carries great allure, and once intoxicated with it, fanaticism is easy to achieve, even if at the death of a family member.  Keep in mind, the true followers of Jesus Christ are the victims our Lord describes … not the perpetrators.  If “Christians” turn anyone over to be killed, they blaspheme the name they carry.  Also keep in mind, our Lord does not promise us deliverance against the deaths our own families and the state and the corrupted churches would visit upon us.  Not everyone will get away, or find escape.  Some will die, perhaps many.  But to endure until the end is to keep our faith grounded in Jesus for our salvation, if not in this world, then in the far more important next one.

Matthew continues in verse 23 saying … “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”  Our response to persecution is to flee, not to confront it violently.  But the second half of this verse always stirs up controversy in its interpretation.  On the surface, it looks as though once the gospel is spread to all the cities of Israel (in the time of Christ), that the Son of Man will return in His second coming.  But it does not say that.  It says that He will “be come”.  Keeping in the mind the timing of this commission, and the quickly spreading fame of Jesus Christ at the time.  What may have been meant, is that the Son of Man will complete His mission for our salvation, and “be come” back to the throne of His Father.  It is natural for us to read this from our own perspective, and want so bad for the words “be come” to mean “returned to take us home”.  But the facts on the ground obviously dispute that, and we know Jesus is not a liar.  Therefore our understanding must be off, and another meaning must have been intended.

Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. [verse 25] It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?”  Look at the history of reformation within the church, any church.  When Jesus entered the house and religion of Israel, they called our God, Satan.  When Luther stood up in the Catholic church, his reputation was the first thing to suffer.  When the youth of our own churches rise, to embrace the homeless, or meet their peers where they are with the things they may be used to.  We, the organized body, the elders, the established and traditional members of the church, ALWAYS shun what is new, or what is different, of what looks “unholy” to us.  Just as the Pharisees of old did to Jesus.  Just as the Catholic leadership did to Luther.  Just as you and I do to our youth, fearing they bring the world into the church.  Odd that the results of the Spirit of God are always condemned as the workings of Satan, by those who profess to follow Jesus, but seem to have no real idea who Jesus is.

But conspiracy is no match for the Holy Spirit.  Matthew continues in verse 26 saying … “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. [verse 27] What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”  The quiet conspiracies to put Jesus to death are now revealed as part of our scriptures for all to see.  The quiet betrayal of Judas revealed to everyone.  The denials of Peter reprinted in the light of day.  The hypocrisies of the Catholic church over the centuries, obsessed more with the power of popes, than the saving power of Jesus Christ.  And in our day, the quiet conspiracies that take place in government halls, or church board meetings, where the interests of power or financial gains are the number one priority; they will again be revealed for all to see, in the failures that are sure to accompany them.  Jesus is not interested in maintaining our earthly wealth, and even less in granting us power.  Jesus is interested in developing our sense of humble service, and our hearts to be willing to part with everything we own, for the sake of another’s benefit.  The former only distracts from the latter, and so it will be revealed for the folly it is.

Matthew continues in verse 28 saying … “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. [verse 29] Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. [verse 30] But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. [verse 31] Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”  The message of the gospel is at war with the natural inclinations of the human heart.  Our embrace of sin made this so, and continues to make this so.  It is the power of Jesus, that can override what we would naturally want, and what we would naturally do.  That is the power of salvation.  What our opposition is prepared to do, the level of fundamentalism they will claim as justification for what violence they wish to inflict, is not a matter for us to fear.  The tragedy that fanaticism is willing to impose is not a matter for us to fear.  For our Lord sees all.  He knows us so intimately that He knows how many hairs sit upon our heads (even when that number is in constant decline 😊).  Our salvation rests in His hands not our own.  It is that message that Satan wishes to cover up.  He does not want the name of Jesus Christ spread he wants it silenced.  Killing a messenger does not accomplish that.  But altering a follower’s philosophy to be one of self does do the trick.

Satan has no need to silence a follower of Jesus who has no personal testimony to share.  Satan has no need to torture a “Christian” who is already very busy attempting to drive the sin from themselves, and from their desires.  They are already torturing themselves with their own failure.  And one day, they will reach of point of repeated failures until they give up, and advise others to do the same.  Satan could care less about the body, it is the permanence of the soul he is after.  Directing us away from Jesus Christ gives him a chance at getting that ultimate prize.  This is how the soul is destroyed.  It is not the ultimate fires that will do the work of destruction.  The destruction will happen long before, at the tips of our own fingers as we refuse to give Jesus our salvation, and hold on to it instead ourselves.  It was always the introduction of self into Christianity that Satan has long sought.  Do some amount of good deeds.  Give away some amount of money.  In effect, buy your salvation by the strength of your own hands and intentions.  He sold the lie to Cain, and continues to sell it to us.  And too many, who do not know Jesus personally yet, are avid consumers of this lie, to the destruction of their own souls.  That is worth fearing.

But even then Jesus says we need not fear, for our salvation is based in Jesus Christ, and not ourselves.  And the counsel for outreach was not concluded yet …