Crisis of Conscience ...

Have you ever been guilty of something, and just knew you had done it?  I have two cats and two dogs.  When I walk in the room and find something out of place (cat/dog mischief on display), if I change my tone, and ask “who did this?” – the guilty animal goes running.  The innocent cat or cats hardly take notice of me at all.  The innocent dog or dogs bring me treats (their idea of toys) to see if it will make me happier.  But I can always tell the guilty critter based on how they react, they tend to run, and of course the guilty culprit changes with nearly every incident.  So how about you; no excuses, no blaming others, or circumstances, heredity, or environment – no, what happens when the blame centers squarely on you and you alone. 

In those situations what happens next may say more about you, than what led you to them.  People tend to react in one of two ways, they seek to make it right, or they seek to cover it up.  The story Matthew penned so long ago is not for those who seek to make it right.  Most of us try this in one form or another, sometimes taking great pains to avoid admitting we were wrong, while trying to fix a seriously impaired conscience.  For the rest of us, who look first to see if anyone was watching, and how credible they might be, before even considering whether to make it right.  This story was meant for us.  And like many things that fall into this category, “time”, can begin to alter your perception even about what is right and wrong.  Things done in repetition for example (no matter whether they were questionable at the start or not), over time become “normal”.  Once they are normal to you, the idea that they might also still be “wrong” becomes less and less a consideration.  And before you know it, repeated behavior, that is normal, cannot be wrong … by definition … whether it was or not. 

There is also the influence of others.  When you do something wrong alone, or by yourself, you may be more aware of it.  But if you are in a group at the time, and literally everybody else with you is also doing it, and from your perception, everyone, everywhere is doing it.  Then perhaps that behavior is also not wrong, it is just normal, whether originally thought wrong or not.  Finally, there is the influence of leadership on the topic.  When leaders you trust, or admire, weigh in their opinions on what is right or wrong (particularly in the grey areas), those opinions carry weight into the decision making process you hold.  If it is church leadership; you know, the folks who are “supposed” to be getting the right/wrong thing correctly all the time, it may carry even more weight in what you decide.  Put all these influences together, and you get a perfect storm, not to cause a crisis of conscience, but to eliminate conscience altogether.  Enter Matthew and divinely inspired recollections.

It picks up in chapter twenty-one of his gospel in verse 12 saying … “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”  And right off the bat, we get it wrong.  Artists and the church, for many years paint this scenario with the idea that Jesus was furious, entering that Temple with fire in his eyes, a fierce tone of voice, a whip in one hand, and a carpenter’s fist in the other.  The terror of Him moving through the scene, and the anger He brings with Him, causing the exodus of the merchants who had taken up residence in the Temple.  But this is not how it works.  Frankly, it is not ever how it works.  It does not have to.  Let’s re-examine with a second look, and factor in human nature into the equation.

When mom catches you doing something wrong, it is hard to argue with her, while being caught red-handed.  Now instead of mom, imagine a face-to-face with God, while He catches you doing something wrong.  Forget that the Temple leadership approved of these practices (and the fact, they got a kick back on the horrible profits generated there).  Forget the fact that it was not one merchant, but many engaged in this.  Forget the fact that they had been doing it for years, literally for years.  The practice itself was wrong.  They were taking advantage of penitent people who came to the Temple to sacrifice for their sins.  Honest worshippers were subjected to unscrupulous business men, bent on making a profit off of them, in what should have been a ceremony dedicated to God throughout.  And the church was in on it.  And the people who were doing it, even if they had forgotten it was wrong, were now being reminded.  Not by anger, but by the piercing eyes of Jesus, that seemed to reach right down into the core of who they had become, and shake them from the inside out, acting and speaking about stopping this practice.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Several things to note here, the first is that the main purpose of the Temple, was really “not” for sacrifice.  Jesus says it is for “prayer”.  But instead of reaching out to God, they, like we, go to church for a quicker solution – one that is not so personal.  The worshippers go looking to perform a ritual that will make them right in the eyes of God.  Both then and now.  Instead of just talking with the God of love they purport to serve.  We miss the purpose of the house.  A building setup to avoid the other distractions of the world, in order to focus our minds for prayer.  In our age, we drag in every other worldly element of production value, and produce a show, where prayer is led by someone else (usually making it, its own mini-sermon), and singing and preaching the main ingredients of the show.  Back then, it was a ritual of blood, from which the merchants and church looked to profit immensely, and prayer itself – well there was little time for that between the sales back then or the well-produced show today.

And as to making the house of God a den of thieves.  Think that practice went away with those merchants?  Today, we give our tithes and offerings, and where do they go?  That is to say, how much of them come back to us in the form of services we benefit from, and how much of them actually make use in reaching the un-reached?  Easy way to measure it; how many baptisms did your church do this month, or last?  Not transfers from other churches mind you, but baptisms of new converts.  Not the kids of existing members (though all are important), I am talking about how we use our funds to actually spread the gospel to those who have not heard it, or think God is too angry to ever accept them.  Did it take that level of giving to affect that reach?  Conversely, how much of our money was spent on making the building better, maintaining it, supplying it, keeping the air on, the leaders paid, etc.  And in many denominations, all that is in excess of the need is given to the pastor, until pastors themselves are very rich men.  While churches grow, they tend to do so based on a popularity contest among their peers.  We reach each other.  And our co-workers, and the poor, and those we are reluctant to include, remain outside of our doors, where we prefer them.  And who is robbed in all of this?

And if Jesus looked you square in the eyes, could you tell Him, this is OK, because everyone else is in on it.  Or the church leadership sanctioned it.  Or you have been doing it so long, you forgot it was not OK.  I dare say if perfect love looked you square in the face, you would know - what you do that is anything less than ideal, is wrong.  And your first instinct would be to turn away from that blinding love and flee from it.  These men did just that.  They were not ready or inclined to hear The Truth.  They preferred the greed they indulged, and the easiest thing to do was to run.  Don’t resist, just run.  They did not even attempt to take the money off the floor.  They left it.  Now imagine what a crisis of conscience must have been introduced to these men, that they discarded everything to get away from it.  Merchants whose sole purpose at this venue was to make money, left the money, the animals, everything, and just ran.  There was no whip needed for them.  Perhaps Jesus used the sound of the whip to insure the animals moved along as well.  But His eyes would have been enough.  There was no anger needed.  All there was, was a mirror of perfect love, revealing to them, how far they had fallen from it.  That mirror was terrifying to them, as it might also be to us, those that like to call ourselves “saints”.

And this is how we know, that anger was the farthest thing from the mind, hands, and tone of Jesus.  Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Those in need, did not flee, they pressed closer.  Those in need found the grace of God, not from an angry use of a whip, but the tender touching of the hands of Jesus in the parts of them that lived in pain.  And that touch healed them, it did not add further bruising.  But even further proof lies in the nest text as Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,”  Not just those in need stayed in the temple, but so did the children.

Now imagine for a minute, that an angry man with a whip in hand, comes running into your sanctuary one day during services and begins flipping over tables, cracking the whip, screaming at the merchants/leaders, and has the fire of God in His eyes.  Your kids would be the first ones out the windows and doors.  They would be three blocks away before they had the good sense to look for mom and dad.  Mom would likely be right on their heels.  Dad might stay to fight, or he might be running right along with his family to keep them all safe in that city.  But kids, do NOT sit and stay, in scenarios of extreme anger.  However kids DO stay when they see a loving God looking right at them, bidding them come, and be blessed.  Those kids were likely fully unaware of the rest of it.  Tables being turned over so they could be removed only makes more room for them.  Animals being set free is AWESOME, so they will not need to be slain for the removal of sin, they are free to run and be free.  Bad men leaving, good men staying – that is a recipe kids can get behind.  And how do the kids respond?  They begin singing the same songs that were sung to Jesus on His triumphal return to Jerusalem in the first place.  They liked these songs.  They remembered the lyrics and the tune.  And the kids began singing at the top of their lungs.  This was time for praise service, a praise service LED by the kids, orchestrated by the kids, and performed by the kids.  They had the Temple nearly entirely to themselves, WITHOUT fear.

So of course church leadership hated it.  Rug rats do not get to run the show.  And they were singing that kingship song to and about Jesus once again.  The Pharisees could not get it out of their mind, like a tune that just plays in your head over and over and over again, until it is near to making you insane.  They were sore displeased.  They had lost their kickback scheme, and now were forced to see those impaired, restored to fullness, in the miracle that is Jesus Christ.  And to top it all off, the kids were singing so loudly it was echoing down the Jerusalem streets for how happy they were.  Totally without fear, of Jesus, or of them.  They tried to put a stop to it, but Jesus was not having that.  Jesus loves the worship of little children, as He wants so badly for you and I, to become those little toddlers and in so doing, become His church finally and after all.  Jesus responds to the sore displeasure saying in verse 16 … “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” 

Get that people.  It is not your well-orchestrated, well-produced, worship productions that Jesus enjoys.  It is the entirely random, entirely disjointed, entirely awesome praise that comes out of the mouth of “babes” and “sucklings”.  Those are young kids folks, those are too young to be teenagers, even too young to be first graders.  These are the toddler crowd.  These are the diaper preachers.  This is what “perfected” praise looks like, it looks like TOTAL trust in Abba Father, in Daddy, in Jesus.  They sang until their little lungs wore out.  They cuddled with Jesus, hugging Him, sitting on His lap, or holding His hands, or arms, listening to His every word, curling up under His seat to fall asleep while He spoke to the “adults”.  When they were ready to go home again, Jesus took His cue to leave.  Church was over, because the two-year-olds said it was over, not before, and not while “they” still wanted to be close to Him. 

That is how church works, or how real church works.  Money was never even an issue.  Kids did not think about it, neither did Jesus.  Proximity to God is what church is all about.  Those little ones got it up close and personal.  We get it through prayer.  Neither of us were/are perfect.  Perfection is something that can only come through trust in submission to Jesus, it is something He does for us, sometimes in spite of us, as we connect to Him and allow Him to do this work in us.  Children know who is in charge.  They also know they may be less than perfect, but they are drawn to His love, more than they fear their own imperfections or past behavior.  Children let go much faster, trust much quicker, and find themselves loving, nearly all the time.  It can be that way for us.  Jesus came to save.  To save you and I.  Can we not just let Him do it, in us, for us, forever?  To be in a child-like state of trust, free to love others, brings a level of contentment that this world has no alternative for.

Matthew concludes in verse 17 saying … “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”  Jesus went out, likely to spend some more time with Lazarus and his sisters.  But not before the kids had their fill of Him.  And how He SO longs to meet your needs the same way.  That is what reconciliation is all about.  It is bringing you close to Him again.  It is having you able to cuddle with Him again, hold His hand, or touch His arm.  There is no fear in that.  Neither is their guilt.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the love He holds for you, so that both fear, and guilt can be pushed away.  And re-creation is what He has in mind for you, in order to change how you think, and love, to bring you into the toddler set once again.  To bring you into total trust in Him, for everything you need, including your salvation, and your ability to be in harmony with the law.  You cannot do that for yourself.  That takes Dad to do.  You gotta let Him, or you will not see it done.  There is no anger from Jesus for you, or a whip in His hand for you.  There is the love of a Father in His eyes for you.  Come and get it.  Come get all you want.  And Church won’t be over, until you say it is over.

Bad Crap for Christians ...

Why do bad things happen to good people?  So that premise is off right from the start.  There are no “good” people, there are just people.  But surely there is a difference between an old fart who has lived a long life and done many misdeeds; and some innocent child who has yet to explore their potential for good or for evil.  Surely the innocent child deserves better outcomes, less pain, less trauma, less anxiety, and a lot less death.  None of us want the old guy to contract cancer, we sympathize with him.  But compare that feeling of empathy with a picture of a toddler in a pediatric oncology unit at a hospital and I dare you to hold back the tears.  Now compound the feeling by imagining that toddler to be your child.  That kind of pain is likely as bad as it gets.  As a parent you would do everything in your power to prevent that scenario from ever happening.  But how?  That disease does not know who you are.  It does not care who you are, or that it is your child who will contract it.  There is no taking their place, because the disease does not move from one victim to spare another.  It stays there, until it kills its host, and never so much as bats an eyelash.  A fully indiscriminate killer, on a murder/suicide mission, with no conscience, and no empathy with which you could plead your case.

Part of the pain you suffer as a parent is helplessness.  Your total inability to do anything to prevent it.  Your total inability to redirect the outcome.  You can participate in treatment.  You can do everything right, and still suffer that ultimate loss.  Where is God then?  Christians who do not understand the nature of God make a distinction between believers and non-believers in cases like this.  Yes, there are Christians who think the value of a believing child is worth more, or deserves more, than the child who does not believe yet.  The disobedient parents must somehow bare responsibility for the suffering of their child.  As if Christian parents make no mistakes, or worse, make the same mistakes as those who do not believe in Jesus, continually.  But this is all wrong.  Cancer does not care if you are a Christian or not.  It ignores belief systems, and lifestyles.  It may be brought on by certain behaviors.  But it is not prevented by any of them.

The vegetarian may avoid the cancers that lay in the meat the rest of us eat.  But the cancers that come from pollution in soil and water, get right into the same food supply we are all eat anyway.  Radiated stuff gets us all, and no government is truthful about where it is, or how well it is controlled.  Sure, smoking is a veritable death sentence from lung cancer, and nearly as lethal is second hand smoke.  But not all air you breathe is as clean as you would wish.  Healthy lifestyles bring a better life, but do nothing to prevent cancer or many other diseases of a lethal variety.  Genetics trumps nearly everything.  You would think Christians can beat most of this, by the power of prayer if nothing else.  And sometimes this is true.  But not ALL the times, so what then.

But if you think your powerlessness is bad, imagine having all the power in the universe, and then dealing with it.  Imagine being able to fix it, but knowing that fixing it now, breaks it later.  Case in point; Joseph the earthly father of Jesus must have been very loved by our Savior.  It is believed Joseph died at some point in the life of Jesus, before His ministry begins.  Jesus could raise the dead.  Why would He leave Joseph, His own earthly dad, to rot in the earth?  Mary would suffer because of this.  There would be less provisions for her because of this.  Do any of us seriously believe Jesus left Joseph in the ground, because of lack of love?  Why not just pull him out like Lazarus, and just keep on going.  Do it quietly, in secret.  Or at least heal Joseph from whatever disease he had before it got him.  But Jesus does not, despite how much He must have loved Joseph.  He left him in the dirt.  You can bet the heart of Mary broke when Joseph died.  You can bet she wept for the only man who ever believed her and “knew” her story was true.  It appears she never remarried, preferring to wait for reunification in heaven at the end of all things.

We should have thought about this case, and realized the outcomes we would want, are not always the outcomes we get.  What if Jesus raised Joseph, and late in life, Joseph abandons his faith?  You could argue that it is the free-will of Joseph to make that choice.  But the same free-will choice Joseph made at the time of his death, was also his choice, and perhaps then he chose to cling to his faith.  Perhaps if Joseph did not see a decade or two more of Roman horror he remains faithful.  But once raised from the grave the horror of life then changes the mind of Joseph over time.  When is it better for Joseph to die, sooner when he believes, or later when he does not?  Hezekiah begged for more time, and got it.  He did not lose that faith, but his heart was broken by what he saw in the lives of his sons, and his nation.  Was it better for Hezekiah to find a peaceful sleep in the Lord earlier, or cling to life and witness the horror of evil so close to home?

We hate the suffering.  So does God.  God sees how evil is responsible for all the suffering.  For everything from the greed that leads to pollution, to the weakness that embraces self-destructive behavior, to the virus’ and diseases that should have never existed.  God sees how hate leads the powerful to destroy the weak for no reason that could ever matter.  God sees the cycle of sin, that begins so small, and ends so horrifically.  And the mind of God must then be on how best to eradicate sin forever in the universe.  God does not just want to kill the patient, but to kill the sin within the patient, and keep the patient alive.  And God does not just measure life in this world, He measures it in the eternal world as that is the ONLY place that actually matters.  As hard as it is for us to taste death in this world, or see our family taste it, it is a far worse thing to see that become something eternal, instead of something so brief.

So Jesus cannot always do what He wants for us in the here and now.  But He ALWAYS does what we need in the eternal point of view, the one that matters.  And as hard as it is for us to endure the bad crap that comes our way, it is harder for Jesus to see us endure it, and let it happen, in order that it works together for our more important good.  Harder for Him, because He has the power to fix it now.  But must delay, in order to fix it forever, later.  Matthew tells the story of a loss like this.  And it is not just some random friend of Jesus, but His cousin.  This was the first Christian.  This was the first person to carry the gospel to the river Jordan, and cry out to the nation to repent, and make straight the way of the Lord.  John had fire.  John was a prophet.  John was the most effective preacher ever born.  He lived His message.  He was absolutely humble.  He recognized Jesus for who Jesus was.  John believed Mary.  John sent his own disciples to follow Jesus.  John nearly convinced Herod to do the right thing.  But for all his belief, John still died, beheaded as the first Christian martyr.  Sometimes bad crap comes right to your doorstep.

Matthew picks up in chapter fourteen of his gospel beginning in verse 01 saying … “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, [verse 2] And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.”  This begins as a ghost story.  Herod thinks Jesus is actually John the Baptist back from the dead, doing miracles only a supernatural being could ever perform.  And Herod is afraid, perhaps very afraid.  Miracles tend to unnerve the guilty who have no way to explain them, and every reason to fear them, particularly when they have yet to repent, and yet to change what they were doing wrong in the first place.  Who but a ghost could pull off the deeds of Jesus in the mind of Herod?  Herod missed redemption entirely, so fear alone gripped him for the guilty conscience he held to.

Matthew enumerates further in verse 3 saying … “For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. [verse 4] For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. [verse 5] And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.”  Herod did not enjoy being called out publicly as an adulterer.  At first he was mad and would have killed John to shut him up.  But having John in prison allowed Herod to come visit him, and the more Herod listened to John, the more he became convinced John was right, and he needed to do something to fix the situation.  While the crowds delayed the hand of Herod at first, a growing conscience within him delayed it later.  And that became a situation considered way too dangerous by the adulterous woman to be tolerated.  Herod may no longer have wanted to kill John, in fact he refused to.  But Herodias wanted him dead on a silver platter.

Matthew continues the story in verse 6 saying … “But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. [verse 7] Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. [verse 8] And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.”  Salome asks her mom what to ask for, likely interested in jewels or land.  But evil mom knows the truth, if John lives, and Herod repents, they will be sent back to Phillip with nothing, likely ostracized, perhaps stoned.  So if Salone wants to live to spend the wealth Herod may still bestow on her later, they need John dead now.  And a young girl asks for the most horrific thing sin always results in, death.

Matthew continues in verse 9 saying … “ And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. [verse 10] And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. [verse 11] And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.”  Herod was sorry.  The king was sorry.  This was not a gleeful Herod bathing himself in the blood of the man who called him out for his sin.  This was a king worried too much about going back on his word, to do what he knew was right.  So for sake of ego and reputation, Herod did the unthinkable to Herod.  And John was beheaded alone in prison.  Bad crap coming the way of John through no fault of his own.  Unless shutting up is considered the alternative by modern Christians.  Better to shut up than lose life, or jobs, or promotions, or friends, or position in society.  Better to keep your Christianity on the down low than lose what you have through the loss of favor with the world.  But when a Christian loves the non-believer, they are compelled to love them.  How can you keep your mouth shut then?

John had a higher mission of conversion and ironically he was right on the doorstep of success with Herod.  It was the wicked women who had no use for God that wanted him killed.  Imagine if this story went differently.  Imagine if Herod had the strength to throw those witches out on their butts, and truly repent of what he was doing.  Herod would have become the first Christian King.  And perhaps the sequence that ended the life of Jesus would have had to leave Herod out of the whole thing, lest Herod protect the Jesus, cousin of John, who John introduces Herod to.  Instead of being part of the bad crap that came to Christ, Herod might have had no part in it at all.  But Herod succumbs to his carnal urges, all too easily satisfied by women seeking to protect wealth and standing.  And John dies now, Jesus later.  And faith altogether is lost.

Matthew concludes in verse 12 saying … “And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”  And here begins the worst kick in the faith His disciples will ever suffer.  Dude!  Dude this is your cousin, the greatest preacher this nation has ever seen, until You that is.  Just go put his head back on his body, and breathe life back into him, and let’s get going again.  We know You can do it, we have seen You do it for other folks.  Over time the disciples will do it too.  So why not just resurrect John the Baptist and show the nation how great You truly are.  We know You care about him.  We know You love him.  He is Your cousin for goodness sake.  And while we are at it, let’s go raise up Joseph too, and make a real showing of how great Your power is.  How can You just sit there?  How can You do nothing for one of Your own?  How could You let this bad crap happen to John, and Joseph, and have the ability to fix it, but do nothing … at least now.

But this is where the lens of the vision of God is so much wider and farther than our own.  Jesus knows He will see Joseph again because He intends to raise him up Himself, in just a little while (from His perspective).  Jesus knows He will raise John again, because He intends to do it Himself, in just a little while.  Both of them raised to perfection to a home in heaven, that will forever allow them to be close to Himself.  He will shower them with love.  And no one will ever be able to stop that shower again.  No more bad crap ever.  Raising them up to a world steeped in Roman horror would not be a favor.  Having them face the decades that follow would not be a benefit to them, only a selfish act to Himself so that He could reduce the pain of their loss in the short term.  It was not best for John, or Joseph.  They would sleep and in the blink of an eye find the glory of His second appearing.  They had no concept of the passage of time.  It would be immediate for them, as it is for every believer who has ever died in the 6000 years of our history.  Dying sucks.  But being dead, is like having fallen asleep at night, in the blink of an eye the morning is here, and you wake up.

Cancer sucks.  The suffering it brings sucks.  Cancer was never supposed to exist, and it is decidedly not the will of God, but the invention of His enemy.  As is all disease and suffering and decay and death.  The pain sin has brought to this world, and to us, is the natural result of turning away from the perfect happiness of God to find “another way”.  Here is where “other” ways end up.  And while bad crap does happen to Christians.  There is something Christians have that is an advantage our non-believing friends so desperately need.  While we may sit in the same oncology units, and even mortuaries, we have a hope and a view of the final state of things not everyone else understands.  We know we are loved, even in our pain, by a God who feels every tear ten times more than we ever will.  Our true “Dad” longs to see our pain gone forever, and He is working to see that occur for us, and in us, and in the patient beside us who may have never heard that hope that way before.  Whether He heals us or them now, or drives all the pain away when we wake up in that resurrection morning, there will come a time of no more pain, no more death, and no more bad crap ever again for anyone.  Perhaps our hope is the testimony the patient beside us needs more than anything else in their world, and we have it to offer today.  Can we shut up, and still say we love them?

 

Rebukes to Leadership ...

In a contest, there is usually only one winner.  Where it comes to sports, we are fine with that.  Where it happens inside the church doors, we are divided by it.  On the playing field it is a contest of wills, who wants to win, how far can they push themselves to achieve it.  Inside the church doors, it is also a contest of wills, usually founded in the cement of ego, and rarely in consideration of “who” wins, and how many lose because of it.  Questions over doctrine, or rather over the interpretation of doctrines have divided bodies of Christ for centuries.  This has always been a sad thing, where the enemies of Christ appear the only “winners”.  But when disagreements over style and preference are elevated to questions of faith, because the ego of those in hardened positions will see no other reason; the enemies of Christ not only have the “win”, they have all the trimmings of the parades that go with it.  In these cases, division becomes the doctrine we exemplify, and tolerance and patience are put on the shelf like species of birds long since extinct.

While the membership joins in this phenomenon, and sometimes even form the catalyst for starting it, it is the leadership who bears the responsibility for quelling it and restoring order to the body.  It is our leaders who carry the burden of so patient a love, they are able to reason with members who may have long since abandoned it.  This is no easy feat.  It requires a close connection with our God, a complete trust and reliance upon Him.  And it requires a willingness to let the words of the Holy Spirit proceed from your mouth, even when you had other thoughts and feelings on the matter.  Make no mistake, there is only one entity that sows division, and would prefer a church “split” than come to resolution or tolerance to maintain the body united.  That entity is supernatural but not aligned to God, or His Kingdom, it is Satan.  The devil’s hoard may appear as angels of light, trying to persuade the believer that a certain level of fanaticism is required over some text in order to keep the “world” away from the saints.  These demons-under-mask then proceed to convince the believer that other members of the body, are in fact the “world” and must be cast out.  And before long the body of Christ is at war with itself.  While laughter in Satanic places thunders under our feet.

Division leads to isolation, and isolation of the believer like Eve who wandered from the side of her husband so long ago, leads to a vulnerability against demonic forces who themselves are aligned with a singular purpose – to inflict pain upon the heart of God, by the torture and death of His children on planet earth.  The kingdom of Satan has but one mantra, to cause man to self-destruct, to cause man to reject the love of God, and embrace the ideas of self-reliance, and power, even if the power is only self-control.  While our focus and vision remain inward, or upon ourselves, we look away from Jesus, and in so doing, sink into the sea as Peter did when asked to exit the boat and walk on water like His Lord.  Peter did the impossible while his gaze was fixed on Jesus, the minute he turned to look back at his friends, he sunk like a brick.  So when we look inward to fix ourselves, and improve ourselves, and save ourselves – we look away from Jesus to do it, and follow a plan long conceived in the dark places where only hatred of God exists as the binding agent.

In our previous study, there was a war brewing over “how” the Sabbath must be kept.  Ironically, and perhaps to the greatest Satanic glee, the war would place the leadership of the church of God, against the God they purported to serve.  It would be the grandest of all divisions.  It had already reached the point where the leadership of God’s church met formally to plan how they might destroy, that is kill, Jesus.  They were furious over Jesus choosing to heal a single man’s deformed hand on the Sabbath day, in their mind choosing to work on Sabbath, and declaring it was ok to do good on Sabbath (that is good for others).  The Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Sanhedrin were having no part in this.  This new way to interpret the law was not going to happen on their watch.  The heretic named Jesus must die, before too many of the people adopted His position of love and mercy being the most important thing.  The law was to be the most important thing, not love or mercy, or any kind of squishy stuff like that.

But unbeknownst to them, Jesus read their thoughts and intentions after their last failure to find fault with Him.  Matthew in his gospel to the Hebrews, continues the story in chapter twelve picking up in verse 15 saying … “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; [verse 16] And charged them that they should not make him known:”  Jesus leaves their grasp, but He does not run and hide.  Nor does Jesus change His behavior to accommodate the feelings of the leadership.  For Jesus cannot change who He is, nor will He reveal anything other than the TRUE will of God to us.  And what is that will?  As the great crowds follow Him out of the synagogue, they bring to Him their sick and ill, and “HE HEALED THEM ALL”.  Not only has Jesus healed one man on Sabbath, He has healed hundreds or thousands on this day.  This is not meant to be a poke-in-the-eye of the Pharisees, in fact He tells all those He healed to keep it on the down low.   To have hundreds or thousands of people declaring Jesus to be the Son of God would in fact be a poke-in-the-eye of the Pharisees, and that is not what He wants.

But Jesus heals these people because Jesus MUST heal these people as that kind of love and mercy IS THE WILL of God.  Not just for one man with a withered hand who happened to meet His gaze in the back of a synagogue, but for every single man, woman, or child, who came to Him, turning their eyes upon His, and finding a love of God, that does not ever will us to live like we live.  Jesus is not just interested in healing the physical infirmities that we have, but in taking from us the desire to sin that causes us infinitely more pain.  The reconstruction of who we are from the inside, is equally upon the mind and will of our God.  And our God is bent on performing this action on any who would come to Him to find it.  He does not discriminate in any way.  While the Jews believed this might only happen to them, because of their birthright, and because Jesus was one of them.  Jesus does this for literally everyone.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, [verse 18] Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.  [verse 19] He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.  [verse 20] A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.  [verse 21] And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.”  Consider what Matthew and Isaiah before him say of the judgment of God, of what judgment looks like to God.  Jesus heals and restores, and offers salvation to all.  That is what judgment of Gentiles looks like in real life.  Judgment that leads unto victory is the “judgment” that God reveals even to people who are outside of the deserving Jewish bloodline.  Gentiles, meaning us, will trust in His name, in the name of Jesus.

Notice what Judgment does not look like from Jesus and His Father God, there is not a single reference to “or else”.  There is not a single reference to “fire”, let alone “eternal fire”.  There is not a single reference to the keeping of the law.  This is not because the law is moot.  This is because you can ONLY keep the law through the recreation of how your heart thinks and feels, in essence how you love.  When you love others like Jesus loves others, you become in harmony with the law, such that debating how you keep it is unnecessary.  You keep it, because it is part of who you are.  And the clear will of our God is revealed.  He is not interested in dealing out punishment we deserve, He is interested in dealing out healing from the disease we embrace.  The clear will of God is the redemption of mankind, of all of mankind, to the worst of us.  That is what the judgment of God looks like to the prophet, and through the eyes of Matthew as he bears witness to it in real life.

But where the healing of one inflamed the passion of the Pharisees, the healing of so many, and of Gentiles, is more than their vanity can bear.  Any reason that might have led to tolerance, or unity with Jesus is gone.  They must destroy Him on every level.  So they begin with His credibility.  They introduce the idea that Jesus (who must be evil), is able to heal through the power of Satan rather than through God.  It only takes a quick look to compare the reaction of those who find joy in the relief of suffering, and those who accuse God of being Satan for having relieved that suffering.  Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. [verse 23] And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?”  The people see the miraculous reformation of one gone so far he was possessed of Satan, who has now been freed of Satan.  The people declare Jesus to be “the son of David” which is to say the long-awaited Messiah.

Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”  This is an attempt by the leadership to destroy the credibility of any who would dare to oppose them.  And the technique follows us down through the ages right into the churches of Jesus today.  When Luther dares to oppose Rome, dares to ask the leadership of the church in his day, to reform its practices and realign closer to the ideals of Jesus.  The first attack is to label him a heretic.  When the youth of our day, examine our hypocrisy and rigid expectations, and attempt to call us to realign how we treat those in need, and how we attempt to reach those who today do not hear – what is the first response, to label them as under the influence of Satan, attempting to bring the world into the church.  Division reigns today.  Division that would lead to isolation, and isolation to excommunication of those with different ideas.  What they do to Christ, we do to each other under the same motive and banner as the true leader of darker origins.

Jesus responds with the truth of it, for He can offer nothing else picking up in verse 25 saying … “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:”  The destination of division is destruction.  The destination of isolation is destruction.  Our churches cannot withstand the tearing of each other, and call that any kind of success, it is failure nothing more.  Those members who would engage in it, engage in the destroying the very fabric of the body of Christ.  Those leaders who would promote it, no matter what line of reasoning, or perceived fanaticism that is required, do nothing more than the devils bidding.  Division can lead ultimately only to destruction.

Jesus continues in verse 26 saying … “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? [verse 27] And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. [verse 28] But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. [verse 29] Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. [verse 30] He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”  Jesus points out that if Satan loses his unity, his kingdom would fall just like any other.  The leading of people to Jesus therefore cannot be of Satan, and so must be of God.  Otherwise Satan’s kingdom loses the very thing it wants.  The goal of Satan’s kingdom is to lead people away from Jesus not towards Him.

Then comes the most stinging rebuke to church leadership offered down through the ages.  He that is not with Me, is against Me.  The leadership of the church in the days of Christ was not with Him, and therefore decidedly against Him.  Those who value the law over love and mercy that underlie the law have found a way to be against Christ.  The rebuke continues; and he that gathers not with me, scatters abroad.  Those leaders who do not war to maintain unity, war to sow division.  Sabbath observance was never meant to be confined to a list of do’s and don’ts – it was meant to be about a relationship with Jesus, that values our time with Jesus, and puts away anything else we can avoid so as not to be distracted from that time and association for a day.  Every seventh day we are afforded the presence of our God in a special way like no other.  Are we so bent on squandering that because we have “important” things to do like work, or shop, or entertain ourselves with themes the world enjoys?  Are we ready to be so selfish with our time with God, that we would cause others to serve us during this day, and therefore miss what God may have to offer them?

Or for a change, can we rethink about how we spend our time.  Can we enjoy music that calls the mind to Jesus, no matter what that music sounds like.  Can we observe visual stimuli that is rooted in the stories of the Bible or of modern Christianity, that calls the mind to Christ and inspires us to share with others.  Can we relook and open our eyes to those in need, be they in pews next door, or in street corners of need, or in families and missions we have heard need our time as much as our money – and in so doing, go attempt to meet that need.  Can we redirect our conversations to the testimonies of what God does for us, and how, and how often.  And finally, can we change the perception of what the clear will of God is, and begin NOT to accept the condition of how we live; asking God to heal what medicine has long been unable to do, or asking God to heal within us what sins we have long been bound up in a cycle of commit and forgive.  To do well upon the Sabbath, to keep it holy, is not just the absence of work, of the following of lists, it is to reflect such love and such mercy that we become the conduits of our Lord Jesus Christ and reflect His light instead of our own blighted perceptions of a God more interested in punishment than redemption – particularly on the day He set aside for us to demonstrate what being close to God might really look like.

 

The Death of Kindness ...

When the heart hardens, it is immune to the needs of others.  When it persists in this condition long enough, kindness dies, and only self-interest remains.  To challenge it then, is to invite a wrath that is content to kill to avoid having to listen.  A simple test for you, when the advertisements for St. Jude’s, Shriners, or the one with abused animals comes on the TV, do you watch?  Those ads are relentless.  They do not just appear once, they are recast over and over and over again.  They nag at the part of you that still has conscience.  Maybe you already donate.  Maybe you have donated for a long time.  But even then, are you able to watch?  Can you stomach watching them every time they come on TV?  Or, perhaps, have they become “white noise” to you now, just another advertisement you are fully able to ignore, like the one for milk before it, and the one for Toyota’s after it?  Do you find the ones with healthy puppies and kittens more “entertaining”?  Sure beats watching one with trembling kitties, or broken spirited puppies, or children missing limbs.  There is only so much the heart can take right?

So lucky for us the heart is not complete stone yet.  But is it on its way there?  One small change the introduction of Jesus into the heart has, is a resetting of the need to arrive.  It is a small thing, but I find a more common thing.  Changed hearts (those that surrender to Jesus and are in the process of transformation from Him), often lose the desire to rush everywhere.  They are able to slow down, because they worry less, and trust more, and realize that unplanned delays may actually be part of a bigger plan that is more important than to-the-second arrival accuracy.  It’s not about being late, or being irresponsible to the needs of others, but it is about trust in the journey itself.  Someone about the relinquishing of control, comes with it a relinquishing of worry and stress, and in its place, the noticing of others who we had become blind by choice to before.

You sit in a food court having lunch.  But because of Jesus’ work in your heart, your food is not the most important thing in front of you.  Now, the teenager on the verge of tears a few tables away, staring blankly into her cell phone that appears intent on publishing only news that brings her dismay, becomes more important to you than the food you went there to eat.  Grabbing a “quick lunch” is now lost, in trying to figure out, “how do I help a stranger, a teenager?”  How do I tell her, that whatever this is, it will pass, and that life is so much bigger than this, and over time will become so much better than whatever thing her phone has just informed her of?  The mystery of now wanting to help, completely overrides, the previous intent to eat.  You do not even miss the food.  And you cannot keep eating, only wondering, how could I help?

The person who stands in the street at a red light, trolling from window to window.  Do you see him as a panhandler, a sophisticated beggar who probably makes more money doing this job than you do?  Or is he one of the less fortunate, that “there by the grace of God” would be you, instead of him?  Or worse, do you not see him at all, choosing to focus on the light turning green, and your need to speed away to get wherever you are going obsessed with not being late?  All three perspectives have merit, and are true.  But in two of them, kindness dies.  You will surely be late to wherever you are going if you stop for every beggar in the street.  If you really make time to help one of them, or more of them, you might miss your appointment altogether.  And what will happen then?  What will you lose, or those who requested your presence lose?  Would they understand if they knew you were really trying to change the path of a person’s life?  Would they want to help you, to join your cause, or not?  If not, I hope you were not heading to church.

Panhandlers are real.  They are sophisticated.  They know how to play the game of sympathy for dolts who give money every time they see them.  That perspective is true and real and cannot be argued for facts.  Though the math is a little shaky.  Average 5 cars at a stop light, one gives a dollar.  Average stoplights per hour is 15, average hourly income $15 per hour, average annual income $30k cash.  Except, in-climate weather slows down both the willingness to roll down the window, as well as the stamina to stand there in either scorching heat, freezing cold, or pouring rain, or high winds, or thunderstorm.  $30k now gets reduced by the number of bad days due to weather, perhaps 30% average, taking the annual pay down to ~$20K.  The point is simply that working at McDonalds would likely offer a higher and more steady income than standing at a street corner.  If this is about easy money, the panhandler has picked one of the hardest physical professions to achieve it.

But whether you see the one who asks - as a panhandler, or as an unfortunate (that could have easily been you, without the mercy of God), is about perspective of how your heart reacts to the pain of others.  And church folk, are no different than regular folk.  Not in any time, not in any age.  Matthew writes of a man who had a withered hand.  This kind of debility made it especially hard to work in the days of Christ.  There were no ADA laws at that time.  There was no ADA equipment unless perhaps you were friends with a blacksmith, or artisan, who took pity upon your cause.  In a time, when your income depended upon your health, and even that was no guarantee; having a disability and more specifically a withered hand made you a liability to your family and a pariah to the society of which you were a member.  But this man, went to church, or rather to synagogue, every Sabbath. 

The membership knew who he was.  They felt sorry for him, but outside of perhaps throwing a few coins his way every so often there was “nothing” they could do for him … right?  I mean, what can a group of believers do for someone who has a deformity?  God allowed it right?  God must have some purpose for it, there is nothing we can do.  And with that, white noise begins to develop around the eyes and ears.  The man with the withered hand does not even have a name in scripture, he is only known by his deformity.  The membership have come to know him that way, and the most they can muster, is pity, at least from time to time.  And where the membership has become content to fail this man, the leadership has set an even worse example.  The leadership does not know his name either.  The leadership has not taken up his cause to God, rallying the entire church, perhaps the entire region to fast and pray for the healing of this man.  Because after all, God allowed it.  It must be part of some bigger plan God has in mind, what can we do, but accept it, and move on.  And this situation were it not written about by Matthew in the days of Christ, could be written about by any Christian church in modern America today, down to the motives of those involved.

But things were in motion.  Christ was in motion.  He had just exited a corn field where He rebuked the Pharisees over their notions of Sabbath keeping.  And He went straight into their local synagogue where it was only going to get more interesting.  Matthew picks up in his twelfth chapter in verse 9 saying … “And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: [verse 10] And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.”  So as Jesus enters the Synagogue, He first encounters the man with the withered hand sitting in the back, hoping to remain in obscurity.  The seats of honor in the front of the gathering were not reserved for one such as himself.  The eyes of Jesus meet his, and he is captivated by the love he sees in them for one like him.  Never a man loved such as this Man loved.  Something was about to be different.  His picture of who God is was about to be different.  His understanding of what God allows, and what God wills are about to be different.

But not the heart of the Pharisees, for vain obedience to the law, has driven kindness out completely.  Instead of forming a cheering section to applaud when Jesus is done healing this man, instead of at least being silently happy the man will be healed.  They are not.  They are actually planning to use this man’s pain as a way to accuse the Son of God of loving too much.  They know Jesus heals.  There is too much evidence not to believe that.  And they know the healings come from a heart that loves, arguably too much love.  So they intend to trap Jesus in one of His usual healings, because it is the Sabbath day, where “work” is not allowed to be performed.  In their mind, in their version of obedience, even if this man could be healed on Sabbath, he must wait until sundown in order for it to be lawful.  That is the God they serve, or rather the extent to which vanity drives their version of obedience.  That is the picture of God they share in their minds, that God would prefer we suffer from pain and disease during Sabbath, so that the law can be maintained.  They value the law over the people, over the love, over the pain of this man, and kindness is dead and gone within them, only a reflection of who they are remains.

Oh if it were only different today.  While there are no official Pharisees anymore in our churches, there are spiritual Pharisees among us all.  We value arriving at church on time now, and have no time therefore to help the homeless that clutter our roads along the way.  We value our clothing we don on Sabbaths to go to church and therefore do not wish to risk getting them dirty with the dirt of those we find in need.  If perchance a homeless person makes it through the doors of our services, we reserve for them seats in the back, as far from the rest of us with seats of honor as we can get.  The smell of those who have not bathed, is too offensive in the nostrils of those with soap, deodorant, make-up, and the pretentions of knowing Jesus.  Should those homeless be diseased in either body or mind, we offer them sympathy, not the power of God to heal what Jesus ALWAYS longs to heal.  We accept their debilitations as we accept our own, failing to see or to employ the power of a God who wishes for none of us to live the way we do.  But it is Sabbath after all, we have a schedule to meet, and a sequence of activities to observe; there can be no time for the disruptions of those in greater need.  And we read the scriptures with disdain for those in them, while never examining the mirrors into our own hearts.

Matthew records the answer of Jesus to His accusers in verse 11 saying … “And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? [verse 12] How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”  Jesus calls out to them, their hypocrisy once again.  If they owned but one sheep and it fell in a pit, they would lift it out and save it.  Why?  Not just because they felt sympathy for an animal in pain, but because it is the “one” sheep they owned.  Without it, there will be no more wool, or wool to trade.  Without what the sheep can do for them, they themselves will suffer.  So the sheep must be saved.  Jesus however, sees the man with the withered hand as the “one” sheep of His, who is suffering in the pit of this synagogue.  The man suffers because the other sheep do not pray for his healing, they accept his infirmities as some sort of twisted plan of God’s.  They accept this man’s pain as they accept their own.  When Jesus is publicly stating this is NOT THE WILL OF GOD.  God wants to end the pain of each of us, and of all of us.  That is what redemption and salvation are all about.

Doing well on Sabbath days, is not just about applying the medical remedies our science has come to create or discover.  It is about employing the power of our God to undo the damage of sin, whether that is secret sin, or public.  It is about employing the power of our God to undo the infirmities for which there is no scientific remedy, to demonstrate to all around that only God can do what God has done.  And it is God’s will to do it, not our blighted perception of God that would allow us to accept it.  Doing well on Sabbath days is showing mercy, and showing love to those who need it, to the dirty ones, to the ones trapped in the sins we would like to forget we ever shared.  Sin is a dirty business.  The salvation of mankind will not be done in pristine places where filth no longer exists.  It will be love extended to those like the man with the withered hand to offer hope and healing to those who long abandoned the idea of seeing either.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.”  Jesus employs the power of God to heal what otherwise cannot be healed.  Jesus demonstrates for that man, for that membership, and for us, what the will of God truly is.  Not to accept the pain we have become complacent with, but to know there is something much much better.  To have mercy, to show love, to do well unto others is lawful, is within the spirit of the law and even within the day of Sabbath observance. 

And what do we do with these texts?  We translate them into medical careers to avoid the “conflict” of working on Sabbath.  We become doctors, and medical practitioners of all varieties, so that we “can” work on Sabbath without violating the law.  We treat the day as no different than any other.  Our time is spent how it always is.  Until we request weekend shifts because the pay differentials are better than working “regular” days.  Sabbath becomes something of no special regard, and the only good we do for others is in the application of what medicine can provide.  Thus we lose all faith in something more than medicine can provide, again trusting to the wisdom of our sciences, and not in the power of the God we might otherwise employ.  Treating the sick is not about ignoring medicine, it is about offering help beyond what medicine can do, and hope that it is the clear will of God to do so.

What we offer the homeless is a statement about us, not about them.  The changed heart burns so intensely with love for others, it just cannot sit down and stay still, while need exists in the pews next to us, or in the streets on the ways to the churches we are supposed to worship in.  Worship itself becomes the act of bringing people to Jesus, of introducing them to the source of power that changes hearts and makes lives worth living in the here and the now.  Who cares what songs we sing, and what genre’s they come from, while only the “saved” can hear the melodies?  If you want to re-charge your spiritual batteries, introduce someone new to Jesus, and watch the meter on your heart go bing, bing, bing.  No sermon will ever equal that, no praise and worship session will ever even get close to it.  We praise and sing because of actions like the introduction of a new soul to Jesus, not for routine, or empty emotional highs.

But to challenge the unchanged heart with a comparison of what it might be, results in only two responses.  The heart who will surrender to Jesus will find what that experience is like.  The heart who has decided to reject Jesus does not want to ever see that comparison.  It wants to be left alone.  It wants silence.  It wants to be able to do what it sees fit, how it sees fit.  No Jesus, should ever offer any alternative to how “I” want to do something.  The Pharisees did not want these words.  They did not want the council of God, to be told they were incorrect, to be shown what love really looks like.  They did not rejoice at the healing of this man.  It did not inspire faith in them.  It inspired anger.  It was a clear demonstration of what the heart of God looks like, and what was in their own, an in ours perhaps.  They did, what all sin will someday lead us to do, if we are not saved from ourselves by Jesus.

Matthew records in verse 14 saying … “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.”  The Pharisees began formal planning on how they might kill Jesus.  We read this, and think it is only them, never us.  We would never do such a thing.  But really?  What happens to our hearts as we continually shut them off from the transformation Jesus offers.  We become cold, and calloused.  We begin to present an image of our God, as being the same as we are, cold and apathetic.  We kill our God, by showing Him to the world, as blank reflections of who we are.  Unchanged.  Unreformed.  Not in harmony with His law, because there is little mercy or love in us.  What is there is focused only on our families and ourselves.  This is NOT the picture of Jesus, that the world so longs to see.  It is our enemies who need to see Jesus the most in who we are.  It is the destitute who need Jesus, the ones trapped in sins they cannot ever break free from (just like you and I).  It is the people dealing with deformity who have no hope to ever see it gone, that in fact could see it gone, if “we” but had the faith to employ the power of our God.

Where kindness may have died in past and prologue, it did NOT die in Jesus.  There would be more to come on His ideas of Sabbath observance …