Somebody Needs Some Killing ...

There are stories that pull at our heart strings.  Stories, that when we hear them we get so riled up, we feel like we need to “get out there and do something”.  When these stories are true, they are all the more effective at inciting us.  But even when they are mere allegory, they can still have a profound effect on us.  When injustice is the theme, something in us cries out for things to be made right.  Perhaps this is part of the image of our Creator that wells up within us.  Perhaps even though we suffer from corruptions we have embraced, there remains an imprint on our soul, that longs for equity over injustice, and that longs for love over isolation.  When King David listened to the Prophet Nathan about the story of the one little sheep that was so beloved, and then taken by the greedy wealthy man, David was indignant.  He believed the story to be real, and determined that somebody needed some killing … until he realized that “he” was that wealthy man who had stolen the sheep.

As stories have always been an effective weapon in the arsenal of persuasion, Jesus had one of His own to tell.  To set the context, Jesus had been teaching in the Temple for 3 days, since His triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt that had never been ridden, and fulfilling another prophecy about the Messiah.  The leaders of the Temple, did not believe the Temple belonged to Christ, that it had been given to “Him”, but rather they believed the Temple was “theirs”, and He was trespassing without their consent.  How much like us, who believe our churches to be “ours”, only allowing believers to enter with our consent, as it is convenient for us.  Those sworn enemies of Christ, the religious leaders of His day, perhaps of ours, had just confronted Him.  And now, Christ had something to teach them as well.  Jesus was looking to reach that divine imprint that still remains upon their souls, the place they could not reach to have it removed.

Peter begins the recollection to John Mark in his gospel in chapter 12 beginning in verse 1 saying … “And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.”  This was to be a parable, a story.  Not all the ideas laid out in the story were concrete facts, but the parallels were easy to draw, and the ideas easy to be understood.  In this story, the certain man was Jesus Christ.  It was He who planted the vineyard, which in this case was to be His church.  It was He who tried to defend it with the hedge, who made the preparations for it to be fruitful with the place for the winefat and tower.  And finally it was He who had chosen the husbandmen, or selected the priesthood, in order to maintain the vineyard, His church, until He could return to do it Himself.

As the context of this story begins with Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, it is easy for our minds to leave the parallels right there, in history.  But consider how closely this story could be told to us, to our religious leaders, to the man in our mirrors.  All the points are the same.  There is no generational difference, in fact, the idea that Jesus had gone away and was hoping to return again, speaks more to us, than it did to the Pharisees.  Mark continues in verse 2 saying … “And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. [verse 3] And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.”  The church was ready to bear fruit.  So Jesus sends a servant with a message and a mission to harvest what was ready to be given.

But the leaders of the church, or the husbandmen in this story, did not allow the harvest.  They prevented it, by catching the servant of the master, of Christ, and not only did they prevent him from doing his appointed work, they beat him, and sent him away.  The religious leaders of their day, and of our day, are very often quick to punish servants of God.  They ostracize them, they despise them, they envy them … and so when they can, they prevent them from their appointed work, and punish them for their willingness to serve.  It is now interesting the reaction of the certain man, of the real owner of the church, of Jesus.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.”  The owner does NOT abandon the vineyard, or His church, or His people.  He does not just give up, or give in.  For Love drives Him to reach out again.  He sends another servant, and the violence against the servant of God escalates.  The religious leadership is not content with just a beating this time, this time they throw rocks at his head, wounding him, and sending him away wounded and shamefully treated.  Servants of God who have a message and a mission are the ones punished by the religious leadership of the church.  And once that leadership rejects the message and the mission, the violence against God’s servants escalates.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.”  Jesus still does NOT abandon His church, or the vineyard.  He sends yet another servant, and this one they kill outright.  The violence has escalated once again.  The husbandmen, or the person appointed originally by Jesus to lead the church, has decided to kill the servants of God rather than relinquish control of the vineyard back to its original owner.  Imagine this in our day.  Are the leaders of today so concerned with control over the message and the mission, that they would kill to keep control over it? 

Are we so ready to do church our way, that we would cast out those who disagree with our style, our preferences, and our methods?  What do we expect to greet those who are cast out of the fellowship, but Satan, the enemy of souls?  Is it worth the eternal loss of our brothers, over matters of taste?  Our arguments conflating our preferences with the only acceptable preference of our God, are mere arrogance on our part, and the excuse we tell ourselves as we cast them out of our fellowship.  But the joke is on us.  For Jesus is no longer in our fellowship, He was cast out a long time ago.  Those we cast out now, only seek Him out away from us.  It is Satan that now resides over our hallowed halls, and weak minds.  It is his Satanic majesty we serve, calling him Messiah, and not even realizing what we do.

Jesus makes it clear in this parable, He would not abandon the vineyard ever.  He continues to send servants of God with message and a mission.  They are met with violence every time, either beatings, or murder, as it is with the sons of Satan who deceive themselves into thinking that since they were originally installed in positions of leadership in His church, it is their positions that save them, not their association with the true owner, with God.  This kind of self-deception was not just meant for the Pharisees in His day, but for those who carry the banner “Christian” today.  The leaders have long been tempted to believe leadership was a position of power over the vineyard.  But God does not send leaders to His church, He keeps sending servants, those who understand that service to the vineyard is more precious than authority over it.

Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. [verse 7] But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. [verse 8] And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.”  This part of the story seems like it was directly aimed at the Pharisees.  The well-beloved and only Son is sent to the original church, to the leadership to redeem the vineyard.  He too has a message and mission.  But alas, even He is killed by the wicked leaders, presuming they will take His “inheritance” and be able to perform salvations on others instead of Christ.  They kill the Son without remorse.  They cast Him out of the vineyard.

Now look in the mirror at yourself.  You may not carry a large wooden cross for Him, or the nails and hammer to insure the job is done right.  But when you decide that “you” can be responsible for your own salvation with God, it is you who attempts to claim His inheritance.  When we, who call ourselves by His name, cast out from our fellowship, those who we are meant to love; when we cast away love itself from our hearts, and in the person of others, we too cast Him out of our vineyards.  And over what?  Because our youth prefer another kind of music?  Because our elders do not?  Because our divorced have clearly made at least one mistake?  Because our widows and orphans, and least among us, need to “man up”, “get a job”, and “take care of themselves”?  Because those caught in public sin, deserve our public ridicule, ever driving them away from forgiveness?  Why do we Christians cast out Christ from our vineyards and call ourselves righteous while we do it.  And yet we believe this parable to be about “them”, not about “us”.

Jesus now poses the most just of all questions in verse 9 saying … “What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.”  The leaders who reject the message and mission, are no longer leaders.  Their position does not protect their souls.  Their position was “given” to them by Jesus.  It is only through continued association with Jesus that they remain in this position, not through anything inherent in themselves.  When the message and mission is rejected, the owner Himself comes back, destroys the husbandmen, and gives the vineyard to others.  Whether in the days of the Messiah, when Judaism loses its prominence to Christianity, or in the last days when Christianity, is returned to Christ; human leaders of the faith do not keep their positions over it by power, but by service.  We do not preside, we support.  We do not have power, we have love.  We do not have control, we have a message and a mission.

As to those who reject Jesus as the Messiah He continues in verse 10 saying … “And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: [verse 11] This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?”  What men cast aside, is the cornerstone of the next faith.  Judaism loses its prominence NOT because God ever rejected them, but because they cast God out of their vineyard.  What they cast away has become the cornerstone of our faith.  But why they cast Him away, what they were tempted to do that led to that, must be the watchword ever in our ears, or we will do exactly the same thing, exactly the same way.  If history is to avoid repetition, let it be with us, in this matter.  Let us hold love close.  Let us serve with a message of our conversion, and of our redemption, and of our perfection, by Jesus Christ alone.  Let us serve with a mission of pointing others to Christ, and loving them every day while they do so, through all of their failings, shortcomings, and negativity; just like Christ does for us.

The post mortem on this story was terrifying in verse 12 saying … “And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.”  The husbandmen wanted to kill the only begotten and well-beloved Son of God right there and right then.  They literally wanted to act out the parable Jesus said, as if He prophesied right to them.  They reasoned that somebody needed some killing … not the wicked leaders who had done so many injustices to the servants of God, but instead to His only Son.  If this was the response in their hearts and minds, is it likewise in ours.  Are we ready to kill the one who continues to suggest that we should embrace “all” genres of music in our worship of God?  Are we ready to kill the one who suggests we should reform our church services to be action oriented, instead of only passive?  Are we ready to kill the One who would save us from our sins, and our evil motives, and evil thinking and instead do it ourselves?

It is we who deserve the killing we espouse; that, would be only justice.  Like David, it is we, who are “that man”.  Are we to continue with the arrogance of our forefathers believing that once installed it is our prerogative to remain in power forever over His church?  Or can we submit to Christ, and finally be a servant, with a message and a mission, heading in to support the vineyard, no matter what the consequences to us?

 

Who Do You Hear? ...

When seeking advice we tend to look for perfection, or at least as close to perfection as is possible, before we take the time to listen.  We like to consult “experts” on subject matter to make informed decisions when presented with information we ourselves admit we do not fully comprehend.  We avoid advice from people who say one thing and do another.  Hypocrites do not seem to make the best counselors.  Yet despite our best efforts, at the end of the day, the people we choose to listen to are all imperfect; make mistakes, and if examined closely enough – they disappoint us.  So who should we choose to rely upon for spiritual answers when faced with a world of obvious imperfections?

Would you take drug rehabilitation counseling from a non-reformed crack addict on the side of the street?  Would you take financial investment advice from a broker who just lost everything and is now going through bankruptcy?  Seems silly does it not?  The best these people might offer us is what not to do.  We could learn from their mistakes, but that is not the same as finding how things should be done.  When it comes to spiritual matters the problem is compounded.  Should I listen to a murderer whose uncontrollable temper could never be tamed?  Should I take prophetic advice from a coward?  How about advice on how to love from a ruthless womanizer?  How do I reconcile the counsel of say Paul which points me only to Jesus, when his entire life had been spent killing anyone who dared to claim the name of Jesus as the Messiah?  One could argue that Moses, Jonah, David, and Paul encountered God and were changed from their experiences.  But a careful reading of scripture shows that certain failings plagued them all right up to the grave.

Recently the trial of Casey Anthony, a young mother accused of killing her 3 year old daughter and did not report it for 31 days, was completed in Orlando Florida.  The verdict was not guilty on all murder charges for the state’s inability to prove their case.  She was however convicted of telling lies about her daughter for the 31 days after her daughter was noticed as missing.  Her behavior defies every norm we hold about how a mother reacts to a missing daughter.  Her trial was one of conflicting expert testimony, circumstantial evidence, accusations and denials.  She never spoke in her own defense.  Now that it is over, she could in fact publish a book, or sell movie rights to her story.  She could now decide to tell “the public” what actually happened.  Even if she did kill her daughter, the state is powerless to convict her now due to our double jeopardy laws.  So she is truly free to say anything about the matter.  But will she?  And if she did, would you listen?  Would you believe the word of a convicted liar, no matter what she said?

I would be willing to bet few would be seeking out Casey Anthony for parenting advice.  She might make good fodder for news shows looking to boost ratings, or talk shows looking to exploit pain.  But she will probably never make a name selling books on how to treasure a daughter and what to do if something happens to a daughter you love.  In that category she seems only qualified to tell you what NOT to do.  But what if Casey Anthony showed up in your local Christian church pulpit this weekend to deliver the sermon?  If the topic had nothing to do with her daughter, would you even be inclined to sit and listen while she speaks?  Her words could be the most loving tender picture of Christ there is, but given her recent infamous position in the media, would any congregation even sit still to listen.  Or would they get up and walk out before she could complete her first few thoughts?  How many would believe her efforts to preach a sermon were nothing more than publicity stunt on her part?  How many would accept that her motivation was not self-serving?

Yet the authors of our cornerstone of faith were a veritable parade of Casey Anthony’s of their own day.  None were perfect.  Many had direct contradictions between what they advocated and what they did.  Moses was an admitted murderer, and he wrote the first five books of the Old Testament.  The Ten Commandments include the edict … “thou shalt not murder”.  So … Moses did one thing and wrote another?  We could argue that he killed the Egyptian and then spent 40 years tending sheep (perhaps for penance, or to learn patience perhaps), and so maybe he changed in that time.  But the same temper that led him to slay the Egyptian, led him to strike the rock when he lost his patience with the constantly complaining children of Israel AFTER nearly 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Nearly 80 years had passed between his first temper incident with the Egyptian and the time he struck the rock in defiance of what God instructed.  One wonders how many times in between the struggle against his temper may have gotten the better of him.  But in any case, how do I take advice on murder from a guy who cannot control his temper?

Paul persecuted Christians.  He killed them.  He hunted them down using any deceitful method required turned their names over to local temple authorities and had them killed.  He was a zealous religious pious warrior for God – who killed every servant of the God he claimed to serve.  Ironic.  After his conversion, do you think he was well attended in his first few sermons on the love of Christ?  Do you think early Christians were willing to forgive the fact that Paul had only last week put their friends and families to death?  How could such a religious zealot who used any method of trickery required to seek out Christians and put them to death now be preaching about the tender love of Christ the true Messiah?  Who would listen? 

Our tendency is to associate the message with the messenger.  We link them such that if the source is not trusted, the content is disregarded.  But we live in an imperfect world.  Every one of us flawed at birth, inheriting generations of genetic decay, and environmental corruption.  For God to reach us, He is forced to use imperfect delivery vehicles.  The perfect truth must pass the lips of the imperfect vessel.  The heavenly communication must come from the pen of the author still struggling against his own very nature.  With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what is otherwise filthy can produce what is pure – whether in word, deed, or publication.  It is the quickening of the Holy Spirit that can transform, even if only for the moment of inspiration, that which is far from perfect, to deliver that which is perfection completed.  This is another gift of God to His erring creation.  It is yet another testament to the tender mercy of our God, to utilize those who are willing to be the delivery mechanism of His truth to all those in need.

Therefore it is the content alone that matters, the delivery vehicle is incidental.  Can truthful words come from a sinner still steeped in sin?  Yes.  The condition of the sinner matters little next to the power of truth that God may elect to send through them.  Consider for a minute God’s revelation of the future through the Pharaoh of Egypt in the days of Joseph.  If God only desired to save those who claimed His name, He could well have spoken directly with Jacob as He had done in the past.  He could have merely warned only the clan of Jacob to move eastward and avoid the coming famine, or to prepare for it as Egypt would eventually do.  But the love of God extends beyond just those who claim His name and worship Him in gratitude.  His love extends to the whole of the world, and so God revealed His purposes not to Jacob, or even to Joseph, His faithful servants.  Instead He reveals His mysteries to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh was no servant of the most High God.  Instead He blasphemed God by claiming that he was divinity on earth.  All men were to bow to the Pharaoh and recognize his earthly divine manifestation.  He did not keep the laws of God, rather he instituted his own.  He was what the Jewish nations would call pagan, or heathen.  He was unclean, unbaptized, unrepentant, ego-maniacal, and had quite literally a God complex.  Yet our God spoke to Pharaoh in a dream.  Our God revealed the future, and His own mercy, to the earthly king that denied His very existence.  Pharaoh did not seek the Holy Spirit.  Pharaoh did not renounce his own divine claims even after having Joseph interpret the meaning of his dreams.  Pharaoh did act in his own interests and in those of his nation.  Thus our God saved multitudes of people who would refuse to call on His name.  Only Joseph stood as an example of the salvation of the Lord through His truth.  Remember Pharaoh might have chosen to disregard the truth shown to him, but he did not.  Truth and mercy were sent to the world in the most unlikely vessel, the king of Egypt and the hand of a slave.

Were we to examine Pharaoh using today’s standards as Christians we would simply ignore the dreams of a raving heathen who claimed to be God as any messages to him from the great beyond, must only come from Satan.  Pharaoh could not be trusted to have received truth from God.  Like Casey Anthony, the stain on the vessel is too great for us to find truth in it.  But at least Pharaoh was sane right?  Nebuchadnezzar would follow many generations later in Babylon.  His sexual exploits would be far from monogamous, and the kind of palace parties (‘orgies’) done in Babylonian times were likely not completely heterosexual in nature.  Anything goes, when morality does not exist.  This king had blood on his hands, he ruled the then known world with a sword drenched in the blood of his enemies.  On top of that he went literally mad for seven years, living in the backyard of his palace feeding on grass.  Not exactly the picture of sanity, yet through him, God chose to reveal His plans for the world right up to the end of time itself.  NOT through his own prophet Daniel who only interpreted the truth God gave to Nebuchadnezzar.  No, like Joseph before him, Daniel was merely the interpretation of truth.  The message itself came to the most unlikely of vessels.

So is it possible that genuine truth could come from the lips of the convicted liar Casey Anthony?  Yes, it actually could.  It is the content that must be examined.  It is the content of the message that must be evaluated independently of the delivery vehicle.  Whatever I think of Casey, I must put my feelings aside, and examine only what she says.  If God chooses to speak through her, I am obliged to listen.  God does not tell us to emulate the vehicles of His truth.  He tells us to hear His words.  He tells us to listen.  He does not want us to be listening to the murderer Moses, or the murderer Paul.  He asks us to look beyond the murderer and see the truth He wishes to communicate to the world through these broken vessels.  His truth lives on.  And His truth is only ever delivered to us in this way throughout all of Scripture.  Christ Himself wrote no books of the New Testament.  Books were written by His far from perfect followers.  The truth lives on delivered by hands inspired of the Holy Spirit though not permanently perfected by Him.  Broken vessels can still deliver perfect truth, when it is God behind the inspiration.  It is why we MUST separate the content from the delivery system.

Jim Baker, a televangelist with an extensive ministry, who was caught with a hooker in a hotel room.  Or was that Jimmy Swaggart who confessed he had sinned.  TV ministers who frequently get caught in sexual indiscretions, some of a homosexual nature, shamed into disgrace leaving behind their ministries.  Does this negate everything they ever said in the uplifting of the name of God?  Does being caught in human weakness reduce the truth of what may have been said before, or after that time?  If it does do we abandon the words of Peter before or after his second conversion when he realized the gospel was not just intended for the Jews but for all people.  People are not perfect, but truth can be.  No one aspires to be Jim Baker, or Jimmy Swaggart, or the countless others who have been publicly humiliated in sins we all too often indulge in ourselves.  But then I do not remember such fallen ministers asking us to be “like them”, instead they asked us to “follow Christ”.  Not every word they uttered was divinely inspired, but not every word they uttered should be disregarded merely because the perfection we all seek had not been found in them yet.

A fundamental problem of our culture is that we idolize celebrity.  We seek the famous, and wish to carry fame of our own.  Thus we spend too much time trying to emulate those we admire rather than model ourselves after the ideals we know to be better.  This tendency leads us to fuse the message with the messenger and when the messenger disappoints we disregard the message as well.  But Christians should intrinsically know that only Christ is our role model.  We should seek only to emulate our Lord, not the imperfect souls who try to share His truth.  We should free ourselves to find the truth in the inspiration behind the vessel, than to believe the inspiration comes from the vessel itself.  It is the God of the truth we seek, not the vessel by which truth comes.

If we could do this, then we could find the beauty of a forgiving and loving God, and could discern His truth, even if it comes from Casey Anthony, or the pastor who already occupies our pulpits, or the family member who does not even embrace the name of God.  If we could ignore the failings of the vessel and focus on the purity of the truth that may come through them, we could finally learn to hear the voice of God.  God reveals His love in the most unlikely places.  But we are so picky about who we hear, and where we choose to listen, we ignore His constant foray into our lives.  We lose so much truth and love from our inability to segregate truth from weakness.  It is time for us to hear His voice wherever it comes.  It is time for us to aspire to truth, not to those who deliver it.  It is time for Christians to see God, even if God chooses to reveal Himself through Casey, or Moses, or Paul.