How Lust for Power makes us Deaf to The Truth ...

Have you ever wanted something so bad you could taste it (presuming it wasn’t food of course)?  Perhaps back when you were a child just prior to Christmas, you had your heart set on something you just “had” to have or you would die.  Or maybe it was something in your career; perhaps a new job, or a promotion that comes with a substantial pay raise.  You “need” something like this, as it will benefit you, your family, even the church as offerings will likely go up, now that you could “afford” them.  Or maybe you have an active imagination, and you are the type of person who dreams of finding a genie in a bottle who would grant you three wishes of your heart.  Don’t laugh.  How many of us treat God like that mythical genie, asking Him for something we still just “have” to have, something we desperately “need”, bargaining with Him that if He gives it to us, we will take some action we should have been doing all along, but now, for real, we will do it faithfully.  If only our God ([ahem] genie), gives us the thing our hearts desire the most.

It begs the question; what do you want?  Are you sure what you want is the right thing to want?  And in a perfect world for you, could you get what you want, if you only just a little more power over someone else?  Power is something the President has.  He uses it as he sees fit.  Ideally for what is best for our country.  The President is responsible for protecting the country, and he must from time to time, exercise power over others, particularly those bent on hurting you and I.  Do you suppose then, a President wishes for more power, or less of it?  With more power, would come more control, or at least the illusion of control.  With enough power, others would be afraid to take actions against you, lest you use your power in a response to what they did.  But if behavior is only moderated by fear, it cannot represent real change, or a real difference in motives.  Even when it comes to how we respond to God.  If we only fear His power, we do not really change, we just look to avoid getting caught, or rather, getting punished.

It is Satan who looks to rule his empire by power over others, and fear of reprisal.  What Satan wanted was to be like the Most High.  It was God’s power Satan craved, not His love.  Power is a strong aphrodisiac.  It is intoxicating.  It is corrupting for those who would crave it; or use what they believe they have of it.  And most of all, it can blind you to the truth, particularly to The Truth.  Lest you think otherwise, Matthew records for us a case of blinding truth, followed by a complete deafness to the truth no one wanted to hear.  It picks up in chapter twenty of his gospel to the Hebrews.  Keep in mind the common belief about the Messiah was that He was to overthrow Roman oppression and setup a kingdom that would never end.  This was a doctrine both the Pharisees and the Disciples of Christ shared.  It was so common, it was a “known” truth, something that could not be wrong, or false.  If you spoke against this basic doctrine, you were the heretic, not what everyone else believed.

But Jesus knew a truth we did not.  The kingdom He would begin, begins in the heart.  And it will have no end, as the heart begins to transform here, and continues its journey past perfection in Heaven.  The overthrow of the Roman Oppression would end, as when all evil ends, and how it ends.  Evil ends only when we choose to submit to Jesus and allow Him to transform us, putting an end to the evil within.  So Jesus had a perspective on the common belief of His day, that would never meet the expectations of either His followers, or the Sanhedrin that rules the nation.  It turns out, it is not the exercise of Jesus’ power that ends evil, it is the outpouring of His transformative love that ends it.  Love is the kind of power our God praises.  Love that opens eyes and ears to hear and see The Truth, and learn that what we thought we “knew”, was not so common after all.  Scripture through the lens of Jesus, instead of the certainty of our own hearts and minds about our particular interpretation, is a truth we have been deaf to, for quite some time.

Case in point Matthew picks up in verse 17 saying … “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, [verse 18] Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, [verse 19] And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.”  You and I know that the plain words of Jesus, would come to pass exactly as He said they would.  We have the benefit of hindsight.  At this point in time, the disciples did not.  They were still looking forward to an earthly kingdom with Jesus as King of Kings.  But a kingdom of power that begins in the here and now.  Power that exerts control over others.  Power they believed they would share by reason of their service and closeness to Jesus.  This is what every other kingdom in history had looked like before, why not the one the Messiah was destined to setup?  Yet what Jesus just said, in plain words, without metaphor, or symbolism, just the facts – was that what they expected was not going to come to pass.  Instead something entirely different would take place.  Something that would crush their earthly hopes, and establish their eternal ones forever and ever.  But they refused to hear.  They chose to be deaf to The Truth, because power looked more enticing.

Matthew continues the story in verse 20 saying … “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. [verse 21] And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.”  James who would one day become the head of the new church in Jerusalem; and John the beloved, who would one day become the most significant prophet of any age – were looking for a different kind of power from Jesus at this moment.  They had their mom make a request of Jesus, to place one son on the right, and one on the left, the two most powerful positions in any earthly kingdom as they were the two closest to the king.  One would be considered the second most powerful person in the new kingdom.  The other would be considered the third most powerful.  Ages ago, Lucifer saw himself as equal to Christ by sitting on the other side of the Father God.  When He realized Jesus was actually second, and he would never have “that” kind of relationship with the Father, he became jealous, and over time enraged.  Why not him?  He served God since the day of his creation.  But this is what he failed to see, Lucifer despite his age, was in fact a created being.  Jesus was not – He was God – infinite and without end.  And in all likelihood, the creator of Lucifer and all the other angels.  But Lucifer hated this idea, to know that his power was not as great as Jesus, was more than he would ever want to admit.  A lust for power made him blind and deaf to the truth.  And nothing has changed.

Jesus had just told his disciples what was to come to pass.  They ignored it.  They made themselves blind to it, deaf to His words, and chose to pursue a path to power, based on a doctrine they held, that the church affirmed, that was completely wrong.  What we “know” is true, through the lens of Jesus, may not be true at all.  Scriptures were correct.  Isaiah was correct.  It was the interpretation of Isaiah, by the church of His day, that was in error.  This was not a problem in the Word, as there is no problem with the Word today.  The problem is not in Scripture.  It is in our arrogance of what we “know”, of how we interpret the Word, that so often is absent the lens of Jesus, and therefore in error now, as it was in error then.  And just like the first disciples of Christ, we pursue positions of power, even if they are in the church.  We reason that positions of great responsibility come with “power” over the church itself.  We have decision making authority having been put “in charge” of something.  Like James and John, we seek to put ourselves over our brethren, based on our proximity to Jesus.  But Jesus has other ideas about power, service, and authority.

Jesus responds to mom’s request picking back up in verse 22 saying … “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.”  The cup Jesus refers to is not a royal goblet.  It is not a golden chalice filled with the best grape juice (wine) that could be pressed by delicate hands.  Instead it is a cup of woe, of pain, and eventually of death for a mission of redemption.  This would be forever the cause of Christ, to see the world redeemed, and evil ended because we ask Him to end it, in us.  The baptism Jesus refers to is not a simple immersion in the river Jordan as how He once began His own ministry.  It is a baptism in blood, His own.  His entire body would be drenched in His own blood.  Bathed in it from relentless torture, and sadistic cruelty.  The world has no tolerance for the Love of Jesus.  The world run by Satan hates His love.  For His love can redeem, cleanse, and remove evil from the hearts of men.  The disciples having no idea what they are agreeing to, seeing only this question as a stepping stone to the power they seek, agree to it blindly.

Jesus continues in verse 23 saying … “And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”  So Jesus tells them, they are to follow His path, though they have no understanding what that means at the moment.  In reality it is good news.  They are to join His cause, and no matter what it may cost them, or do to their bodies, or end their lives – it is worth it.  But the prize they seek, is not for Jesus to hand out.  It is for His Father to decide who is to sit closest to Jesus in the kingdom to come.  In this, as in ALL things, Jesus submits His will to that of His Father.  Jesus has learned to trust His Father in ALL things.  Even if this is a disappointment to mom and her two sons, it is a truth they must contend with.  And deafness persists, as even still they harbor hope the Father will still pick the two of them.

Now things get tense.  When a co-worker stabs you in the back, you are likely not to take too kindly to it.  The remaining disciples were not too happy either.  Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. [verse 25] But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. [verse 26] But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; [verse 27] And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: [verse 28] Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  The other ten want power too.  Having two brothers try to propel themselves to the front of the line and take power that might otherwise belong to one of them, makes them all mad.  Notice, it was not just Judas who was mad.  Nor was it Judas scheming here to be number one in the new regime.  Scripture never says Judas tries this.  This was James and John scheming.  And ALL the other ten mad about it – Peter as much as Judas.

Then Jesus begins to explain that great positions in His kingdom begin with great service.  The most important position, is a position that is able to “serve” all the others.  Jesus uses His own life, as a key example of this fact.  Nothing in His church will be built on traditional ideas of power, or authority, but on service and dependence upon Him.  That lesson lays in the same plain words Jesus has a habit of using.  And still our modern day lust for power, even in matters of religion and church authority, keeps us deaf to The Truth.  While none of us are the President of the United States, many would be content to be the President of our denomination, or conference, or group of churches, or even our local church.  Sure we may not refer to that role with the term President, instead we call it pastor, or bishop, or priest, or elder.  But at the core of our titles is an assumption of power, not power based in service to all, but power based on the prowess of our spiritual growth.  And it keeps us deaf to His truth, to The Truth.

We lust for power and shun humility and the service that might accompany it.  We find ourselves following the same path as James and John before they really understood the mission of Jesus.  But we still have the benefit of hindsight.  We already know the end of this story, the reasons for the story.  And yet still we seek the aphrodisiac of power, instead of the simple humble service we might perform upon our neighbor, our family, our co-workers, or more profoundly upon the one who would call themselves our enemy.  It begs the question; what do you want?  Do you trust what you want?  Jesus didn’t.  Jesus deferred to the will of His Father in ALL things.  The total absence of self, and the absolute ability to serve everyone else, even if it cost Him His life; in fact, knowing it would.  Let us pray for the transformation of our character’s, of who we are, of what we want, of how we think and what we believe, until we are in full harmony with our God, His laws burned into the fabric of who we are, and His love echoing through us without reservation, or limit, for the world who remain in such desperate need …

 

A Power Move ...

Let’s face it, career advancement is something we all think about from time to time.  Getting that next promotion, that next pay increase, is a cycle we want to establish and repeat as often as possible.  Some of us actually long for the increase in responsibility or perhaps authority; but setting up a career trajectory that is ever moving upwards seems engrained in our culture.  What citizen rooted in American Idealism, will ever be “content” doing only what they do today, getting paid only what they get paid today, and repeating that - until the grave reaches out for them?  We need challenge to some extent.  We need the thrill of doing more, doing something a little different, and moving up because of it.

What may not cross our minds, is that this condition we all share in the commercial world, is also shared with people who work in ministry.  Since this is more of human thing, than an indication of where you might work, it only makes sense.  Even those in the church, who have an understanding of what it means to serve, can sometimes fall right back into the ideas of “ascent”.  Now few churches offer a multi-layered hierarchy upon which to rise.  If you are the Kindergarten class teacher for example, it is not as if they have 3 layers of teacher to aspire to … (associate teacher, established teacher, and senior teacher).  If your church is large enough to warrant this kind of hierarchy, praise the Lord, as you must have many children across many rooms, and that is the rarity, not the norm.  So for many roles in ministry, there is little ascent to be had, and against a small population of believers, few who will ever make the journey.

So whether the competition for the next spot will be fierce in a commercial job, or in a ministerial position, the aspiring candidate often attempts to distinguish themselves by making … a power move.  For the candidate who is corrupt in heart, this move will undoubtedly reflect a corrupt action.  Examples include taking credit for work you did not do, essentially stabbing someone else in the back in any form, or setting up negative circumstances which leave yourself as the only logical alternative to the opening.  If managers were smart they would see through the methods of the power move, discern the heart of the applicant, and refuse to be a part of it.  But alas this has been done often, because it works often.

If however, the heart of the applicant is not corrupt, the power move can take on a far different nature.  For example, the candidate may attempt to distinguish themselves by taking on unpopular work or projects, and completing them with style, financial acuity, and discipline.  They may as an alternative, “invent” new ways to benefit the organization, and do the work, perhaps off-hours, to attempt to “earn” the advancement or open role by demonstrating how they think, and how they deliver, ahead of their competition by deeds and accomplishments.  No matter how it is conducted, the power move is intended to propel one applicant over another.  And that applicant is usually you.

One of the first power moves recorded, occurred in the Gospel of Mark in chapter ten.  It makes no sense to us, because we know the story from beginning to end.  But for the applicants in question, it seemed like the only way they were ever going to get the roles they wanted.  It seems inconceivable that this story would involve disciples of Christ, but it did.  When our ideas of ministry and career begin to blend, our concepts of service diminish.  Peter transcribes this story to John Mark, picking up in verse 35 saying … “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.”

There it is, the power move.  James and John (the sons of thunder) have decided to wait no longer.  They intend to ask for the premier positions of power directly from Christ before any of the others get around to it.  They hope their boldness will get them what they want.  If this has been a game of chicken, the other disciples have blinked and it is too late for them.  John Mark continues in verse 36 saying … “And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?” 

This response warrants a little of our attention.  Keep in mind, Christ already knows their hearts, He knew before they formed the thought what they wanted, and what they would ask.  He could have immediately condemned them before they opened their mouths.  If condemnation was ever a part of the ministry of Christ, here would have been a perfect place to role it out.  He does not.  Instead, He utters what should be heart-breaking words to them and more importantly to us. 

We come to Christ, like those disciples, intent on getting what we want.  We ask, or demand, or plead, that Christ should grant us, some selfish desire of our hearts.  But His piercing question is … “what do you want me to do for you”.  To this question they could have stepped back, rethought about what having God give them a gift could mean.  They could have like Solomon asked for wisdom.  Like Samson they could have asked for strength.  Like Abraham they could have asked for faith.  Or perhaps most valuable of all, they could have asked to be saved, to be purified from their sins, that they might be as Enoch, ready for translation in the here and now.  But they did not.  Nor do we.

Instead, we present God with a list of our desires (or demands).  We want temporal healing, when our spiritual suffering is so near death.  We want employment, and riches, when our poverty might drive us to a dependence on Christ, and money will only drive us away from it.  We want love from a girlfriend or boyfriend, when their hearts know not our Lord, nor care to, and will ever pull us away from Him, the source of all love.  God asks us what we want.  And we want the wrong things.  Like James and John, we squander an opportunity of a lifetime, because we hear not His words, bent on presenting a list we already made up.  So like us, James and John respond in verse 37 saying … “They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.”

To understand what they asked, James and John were following the traditions of the day for the courts of power.  The positions nearest the king were the most honored, and the most powerful.  To sit at his right hand, was to be second only to the king in power.  To sit at his left hand was to be most loved by the King, and third most powerful in the kingdom itself.  James and John, had just heard a play-by-play prophecy told by Christ Himself of His coming death and resurrection.  They ignored it.  They pursued their plans of power and ascendency from inside the Kingdom of God.  They abandoned childhood trust, and asked to be adult rulers over all the other children.  They lost insight on what it means to be free to be a child at all.  So do we.

Jesus responds in verse 38 saying … “But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”  In this question James and John naturally assumed Jesus meant a cup of grape juice, or the “wine” of the day.  They may have thought He meant for them to be wine tasters in order to assure He would not be poisoned as was the tradition of many earthly kings.  He did not.  As for baptism, that was done by water, immersed in the rivers of the Jordan.  James and John were ready for these things and thought them relatively easy to complete.  But Jesus was referring to the cup of sorrows foretold by Isaiah.  He was referring to the baptism of fire that would purify His sacrifice.  They had no concept of what that would mean to them.

So the story continues in verse 39 saying … “And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: [verse 40] But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.”  Jesus says to them, very well, you will drink from my cup, and be baptized like I am.  Neither of them understood this, but they would learn.  But as for the original request, Jesus defers to His Father to decide who would sit next to Him, on His left, and on His right.  These positions of honor are left to His Father to determine, not because Jesus was without ideas or preferences perhaps, but because He trusts His Father to make a better decision.  He allows His Father to decide what He wants, just like we should.

Now, this conversation may have been semi-private, in order to keep the power move secret, and perhaps successful.  But since they did not achieve their goals, perhaps they began to speak about it to the others, (you know as a warning, so they did not try the same thing).  And this did not go over well as you can imagine.  The story continues in verse 41 saying … “And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John.”  Perhaps this a polite understatement.  Can you imagine the reaction of Peter alone, Peter the one who is the most bold, the most boisterous, to have heard that these other 2 sneaks, have tried to jump the line and get in front of him.  No, I can imagine the fur was about to fly at this gathering.

Jesus responds in verse 42 saying … “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. [verse 43] But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: [verse 44] And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.”  Jesus begins to explain (again) that the work of ministry is different.  There are no positions of authority in the church.  Perhaps that bears repeating.  There are NO positions of authority in the church.  The goal is not power, it is service.  To have honor in the Kingdom of God is to serve others.  Doing simple things like loving someone, accepting someone despite how hard they make it, pointing someone to Christ by revealing what He has done for you without ever mentioning what “they” need Him to do.  To be a minister in the Kingdom of Christ, is to be a servant, who loves.

Even God Himself performs this role.  He is not telling us to do anything He is not doing Himself.  The story concludes in verse 45 saying … “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  Jesus lays down His very life in service to us.  This is how glory is established in heaven, this is how honor is calculated.  He does not force us, He loves us.  He does not take, He offers.  He gives us our salvation, He does not attempt to sell it to us, or trade it to us.  He just gives it away.  The most precious thing He has to offer, His life, and our salvation, are just given away for free to any who will take it.

The extent to which you obtain honor, is correlated exactly with how many people you serve, and how many services you do for them.  So if you want to make a power move, you should start by loving the unloved.  If you want to make your move effective, then be there for someone in pain, without ever opening your mouth to condemn the sins that brought them to this condition.  Only reveal to them how your own sins brought you there many times, and only Jesus ever made it better.  If this is not true for you, then keep your mouth closed and look for Jesus yourself until it is.  Jesus had ample opportunity to criticize and condemn the disciples throughout this entire story if that is what He wanted to do, or wanted you to do.  Notice, He does NOT. 

Throughout this entire story, where the disciples are motivated by greed, and power, Jesus NEVER condemns.  Instead He teaches about what it really means to have honor.  He offers an alternative without ever saying a word about them, how bad they are, how stupid they are, or how sinful they are.  He offers hope without ever focusing on their sins.  He offers love without ever mentioning how bad they are right now, or how difficult they are to love.  These greedy, stubborn, power hungry disciples, refuse to hear Him about His death.  They are ready to fight over who gets to be most in charge of the Romans, when that role does not even exist.  They are doing everything wrong.  And they like us continue to want the wrong things.  Yet He never offers a condemning word, not one.

Instead, His version of love, is to teach the truth about what honor really means.   He keeps speaking words of love that focus on what is possible, NOT, on what is going on in their heads and hearts.  To focus on sin, is to make sin the winner.  To focus on what Christ says, is to look away from sin, and towards the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is not spanking the 2-year-olds for being crying, nasty, grumpy children who are disrupting the peace of His Kingdom.  He is instead tenderly holding them in His arms, and distracting them with the bright shiny Kingdom of Heaven.  And we babies stop being so nasty, and are awestruck by the shiny purity He is dangling in front of us, offering us, and letting us play with.

This story is not unique.  It may be one of the few focused on power moves by a disciple, but there are many where man comes to God with mistaken, if not downright sinful requests or ideas.  God does not condemn them for their chosen ignorance and sin.  He leads them away from it.  He leads them to truth without saying how bad they are, or reminding them how bad they were.  The point is redemption, not guilt.  The point is freedom to play like children, without the burden of judgment and condemnation that only adults must bear.  We are being made free to love others, free to play like kids with our God.  The methods of how He frees us are important to witness, so that as we try to share what we learn, we do it in similar ways.  Ignore the sin, and lead the person to the alternative, in Jesus Christ.  He will free them from the things they want today, which are not the right things to want.  Just like He does it for you and me.  Jesus will reset the improper thinking in them … and in you.