When the Executive Looks the Other Way ...

We rely on our President to take action, set policy, and improve the state of our country.  But what happens when things go from bad to worse to even worse still?  Most folks in our country think of themselves as either Republicans or Democrats.  Even those who consider themselves Independents usually have a leaning one way or the other with the major two parties (on policy if nothing else).  So it is not surprising that when a Republican President is in office, whatever policies are being followed are considered the “correct” ones by Republican voters.  The same is true of Democrats when a Democratic President is in office.  You could call that bias one way or the other.  The more interesting phenomenon is when one policy is followed and advocated by one side – then carried on or adopted by the other side during a different administration – that both sides switch their perspectives on the same policy.  The former advocates now become the nay-sayers.  And the former nay-sayers now see the light and become advocates.  The policy is the same.  But whether or not you support it, may have more to do with who is in the White House, and what team you align with, than with the policy itself.

Case in point; George W. Bush (Republican) started a policy of using drone strikes internationally to take out “terrorist” targets.  It was a response to 9/11 in our nation.  Americans embraced this policy because it looked like the only way we could reach people that were “guilty” with minimal risk to our own troops.  But therein lies the problem, how do we truly “know” who is “guilty” with so little human intelligence on the ground.  In truth it has to be our best guess, with a best guess level of certainty.  The actions of the drone however are unmistakable.  People die.  Not just the target but anyone in the near vicinity, drones use bombs not bullets.  So then that begs the question, is it “worth” killing the target, even if you have to kill other presumably innocent people to get him?  The decision was yes.  Even at a wedding? Yes.  Anywhere?  Yes.  So while the policy was clearly not a good thing, Americans accepted it as the price of war.  Hoping that one day it would end.

President Obama (Democrat) is elected 8 years later.  Democrats who generally did not favor blatant use (or indiscriminate use) of the drones breathed a sigh of relief, expecting this practice to be reduced or disappear.  It did not.  It got worse.  Much worse.  But Republicans did not champion Obama because of it.  Nor did Democrats criticize Obama because of it.  Both just stayed quiet, and looked the other way.  Enter President Trump (Republican) 8 years later.  Nobody even knows the state of this policy today; but given everything we have seen and heard about Trump’s feelings, you can bet this policy is still alive and well and probably even worse that it has been up to now.  The morality of it is just not examined.  The Christianity of it, by supposedly three Christian President’s on both sides of the aisle is just not examined.  It is just American vengeance we visit on those we presume guilty whether they are or not, and whether we knowingly kill innocents with the “guilty” or not.  A terrible price of war that gets worse no matter who is in charge.

You could argue this is a military decision and bad things happen in war.  Ok, then take a look at deportations of illegals across our southern borders.  George W. Bush did plenty.  Obama did more, way more.  Trump does many, does them with cages and family separations, and reduces the incoming out of fear (which worked, but at a horrible moral cost to families).  Deportations increasing from Bush to Obama did nothing to garner praise from Republicans or criticism from Democrats.  Both just stayed silent and looked the other way.  Because Trump still does them, and added new levels of pain in the mix, it has only been seeing the children in cages that finally stoked criticism; nothing about our broken legal immigration system, insecure borders, and the fact the by far, most illegals come thru visa overstays at US airports and are not Mexicans or South Americans that focuses our attention.  Just two examples of steady policies that survive and thrive across three different administrations (18+ years now) where allegiance to them, is determined at the moment and based on who is President at the time.  Better to have an Executive that “does the right thing” no matter how it has been done in the past.  But what Executive has the courage to do this, and face the criticism of the crowd?

A problem that has existed since the formation of governments themselves, and has a particular example on display in the life of Christ, or rather, the death of Christ.  George W. Bush, Barrack Obama, and Donald Trump could take a lesson from Pontius Pilate.  And the American People (us voters) could take a lesson from the crowd and the religious leadership at the time.  Matthew relays the account of what happens when religious fervor is brought to gain an alliance with the power of the State in chapter 27 of his gospel.  Religion, the common man, governmental leaders, even the military all have different primary motives and desired outcomes. 

If left to the Religious leadership of the day, everyone would have submitted to their authority.  Control was of paramount importance.  But it was under the masquerade of serving the one true God.  The common man had little time for religion (of any kind), they were more interested in eating, living, loving, and repeating these things until a ripe old age.  No gods ever did much to help them with that before.  The leader of the Government wanted peace above all.  Not for the sake of peace, but for the sake of a continual consistent flow of taxes back to Rome.  In this, promotion was to be had, and a much more pleasant venue would be sought.  And the military, they just would have preferred slaughtering everyone of Jewish descent and be done with it.  This way, they could go home, and pursue the life of common men.  While stuck putting down constant insurrections, they would never reach home, and could die in the process.  Stir this mix with demons bent on finally killing Christ, and you get a perfect storm.

Matthew begins the account picking up in verse 11 saying … “And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.”  Pilate gets right the heart of the matter as far as Rome is concerned.  Is this person, going to be another threat, like all the other would-be Messiahs had been, and would be going forward.  Pilate could care less about the question of Jesus being divine, Pilate did not believe that divinity was contained in a single one true God.  It was spread out across the entire pantheon of Greek gods, adopted and renamed into Roman ones.  The concept of a demi-god (half god, half man) was a common idea in Roman culture and so Pilate could have accepted this about Christ without even a second thought.  But man, God, or demi-God, the question Pilate cared about was … are you a threat to the peace, or a threat to Rome.  So he poses the question to Jesus about being a “new” King of the Jews.  The response and manner of Jesus quickly answer this question for him.  He isn’t.

Matthew continues in verse 12 saying … “And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. [verse 13] Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? [verse 14] And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.”  Next, Pilate would care about whether Jesus was actually guilty of some crime that would spark the need to kill Him, and have one less Jew to contend with.  So the Religious leadership present a myriad of accusations and false witnesses and Pilate sees right through their fiasco, identifying it for what it is.  But what is new, is the idea that a man on trial for His own life, would say nothing throughout all the horrible accusations they made about Him.  Most men, would be crying out to be heard, denying everything that was said, whether it was true, and especially if it was false.  But not Jesus.  He stood there already beaten and bound.  But was as quiet as a lamb.  Offering no defense.  Saying nothing.  And Pilate quickly surmised this farse for what it was – this was the problem of Pharisees wanting a popularity that Jesus had, and they did not.  Jesus was only a threat to their control over religion and worship, nothing else.  At this Pilate was stunned and amazed.

So Pilate determined to let Jesus go.  To that end, he needed a mechanism that would justify it to the people so that no one could question it.  Instead of taking the power of the Executive to do it, worry has already caused him to compromise what he knows the right thing to do is.  Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. [verse 16] And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. [verse 17] Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? [verse 18] For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.”  Pilate stacks the deck.  Barabbas was a scumbag, and his victims were not just Roman, he killed, stole, raped, murdered – because he liked it, because it pleased him.  No one was safe with Barabbas out of prison.  Little children would live in fear.  Women would live in fear.  Unarmed men would live in fear.  It was the equivalent of letting Joseph Manson out of jail, loose in a city full of potential victims and no one able to stop him.  This was a choice Pilate gave the crowd of common men, between the worst criminal they would ever fear, and Jesus who presented no threat at all, loving everyone including the Romans who He considered no enemy at all.

Pilate thought for sure this would solve the problem.  This was a clever trick, and surely advanced intellect can solve any problem right?  But things were worse than he had imagined.  Matthew continues in verse 19 saying … “When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.”  The Holy Spirt sent to Pilate, the only real person that could ever influence him, his wife.  If Romans understood superstition, then a message they would understand would be sent.  Dreams, or rather night terrors or nightmares, were the tool of choice to brand it across the mind of Pilate’s wife that Jesus was innocent.  Pilate creating clever situations was not enough.  Looking the other way would NOT be accepted.  For Pilate to keep his hands free from the death of Jesus, he must be proactive.  The wife of Pilate understood this.  She delivered her message to protect her husband and herself.  History would have been different if this Executive had listened.  Jesus would still have died, the Jews would have seen to that.  But Pilate would have remained actually innocent of His blood.   Unfortunately that would not be how it worked out.

Enter the influencers of our lives.  Matthew continues in verse 20 saying … “But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.”  The common man would have normally made a normal choice.  Keep the threat in prison (Barabbas), and let the guy who feeds me out (Jesus).  That is the sensible thing to do.  That is the thing in the interest of the common man.  So Pilate’s idea should have worked.  But the Religious leaders had other ideas.  They were bent on the destruction of Jesus, so they set about to influence the crowd (us) to do the non-sensible claiming it was actually in our better interests.  We are to defy common sense (not for God) but actually against God, as prophecy outlined so long ago.  How often is the common man convinced to do the horrific because we ignore our conscience and listen to our leaders?  God says “thou shalt not kill”.  It is so important it is listed as one of the Ten Commandments.  It is a basic tenant of how to love.  Yet Christians have found a way to create a list of exemptions to that fundamental rule to justify an extraordinary level of killing without the slightest conscience prick at all.

We ignore our common sense about the simplicity of “not killing”, and complicate it with scenarios where killing seems like the best choice to do (usually for the greater good).  But what if we extended love into those very same scenarios?  Instead of killing Hitler when he was a baby, what if we surrounded Hitler with loving parents, loving friends, true Christians, and an environment that would bring out the best in any of us.  Doesn’t that solution stop the holocaust just as effectively as murder, perhaps more so.  And if we injected more love into our world today, would it not improve as well?  Preventing the next Hitler, or Isis, or whatever evil we contend with today because we meet hate with greater hate.  Our Religious leaders do not always advocate love (as they should).  They sometimes advocate expedience, or limited death, to solve bigger death problems.  The chief priests in the time of Christ made just such an argument.  To be fair, they had the assistance of Satan, and his demonic hoard as well.  We fight supernatural influence in these matters today too.  It just seems sad that Satan is found to keep lining up with Religious leadership when hate is advocated, and love ignored.

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. [verse 22] Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. [verse 23] And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.”  Pilate does not just accept their answer.  He makes a last stand for common sense and decency.  Imagine that, it is the Roman fighting for decency.  It is the pagan believer fighting to the life of the only Son of the One True God.  The state wants no part in this murder.  But religion is not leaving it a choice.  In a last gasp of frustration, Pilate asks the cutting question “Why? – what evil has He done?”.    There is no answer given.  Only more screaming for the blood of Jesus.  Again to be fair, it is the sound of demons Pilate hears mixed with those of men in this answer.  But the voices of men are there as well.  

It is now, that Pilate will join the ranks of George W. Bush, Barrack Obama, and Donald Trump – he must make a decision that is right but will be hugely unpopular with his constituents.  If Pilate arbitrarily releases Jesus (no matter what he does with Barabbas), the people may riot, perhaps even revolt – all of it on the watch of Pilate.  All Pilate has to do to appease this crowd is look the other way on what is right, and let the crowd do what they intend to do with or without his blessing.  All leaders face this decision every day on a host of issues you and I may never fully understand.  But to be fair, this quandary is not reserved for Pilate and Presidents alone; it is something you and I face all the time.  You can choose to ignore someone in need.  You can choose to judge someone in need (deciding they earned their misfortune and justifiably walking away).  We have all earned our misfortune.  But love overlooks what we deserve, and grants grace in spite of what we earned.  Or if you lack love – it doesn’t.  It is easy to “keep going” and pass by distress and need.  It is much harder to stop, scrap what you in mind to do today, and do something that is needed instead.  A quandary for us all.  Do we look the other way, or do we look to meet the need?  The measure of love in our hearts will answer that question one way or the other.

Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”  Notice Pilate calls Jesus just, or in other words innocent.  Pilate makes a public symbolic gesture to note this is NOT what he wants to do.  But the executive who has the power to do something else, will not do it, will not do what is right.  He plans to look the other way and allow these murderers to have their vengeance.  Whether Jesus deserves this or not, and plainly He does not.  Matthew records the chilling response in verse 25 saying … “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”  His blood be on us.  As American Christians we like to read this text and attribute it to someone else, frankly anyone else.  Some have speculated this is the reason why people of the Jewish faith have been persecuted world wide for only being a member of a faith and a blood line.  But they are WRONG.

To believe persecution is an act of a vengeful God, is to ignore the entire life and example of Jesus Christ.  Jesus did not come to punish anyone, but to save everyone.  “Sin” is the punishment.  Salvation is the only relief from the punishment.  Jesus came to offer us all that.  The blood line of Abraham was offered it first, but that offer has not expired, nor will it ever.  It was sin that caused the holocaust.  The sin of hate of Hitler, that dragged an entire nation down with it.  Only few survived the disease of hate Hitler caused.  And the world suffered from it.  That was not the will of God, nor was it the punishment of God.  Hate itself was the punishment, and Jesus offers the only escape from hate.  More to the point, His blood be on us, is what we say silently, every time we fail and go back to the cross for forgiveness.  For to save us from the death we have earned, Jesus offered His own blood in our place, and we must take Him up on that offer.  We do not escape our sins, until we embrace His sacrifice in our place.  That is not a Jewish thing, that is a believer thing.  That is a love thing.  He loves us that much.

Pilate has one last trick up his sleeve.  Pilate is a former soldier and has seen blood and suffering up close.  Nobody (outside of sociopaths), enjoys watching humanity suffer.  This is the reasons Romans use crosses in the first place.  Death is prolonged.  Families are tormented by the inevitable, while victims are tormented by pain until it finally overwhelms them (much like what sin does to us).  People are repulsed by this, as they should be.  So Pilate decides to whip Jesus one lash short of death.  The agony, the blood, the horror of this will be done to drive this crowd away, satisfying their blood lust, while perhaps not quite killing an innocent man.  It does not work.  It only adds torment to the process.  The common man watches with demonic glee.  Matthew concludes this section of the story in verse 26 saying … “Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”  Having already compromised doing what is right, Pilate now tries a last desperate attempt to save an innocent man through horror.  But one is not saved by hate or horror, one is only made worse by them.

We cannot change history.  We must instead confront history.  Whether Republican or Democrat or Independent; we must embrace His forgiveness, though it comes at the cost of His blood.  We must humble ourselves and realize that our lives, and our salvation, come because our God decided to take on our punishment, what we had earned, for us, instead of us.  The distinctions of party or alignment with policy tend to dwarf next to that common bond.  If we are Christian (believers/followers of Jesus) then we are bonded together by the blood of our God.  That is humbling.  That humility may allow us to love each other in spite of our politics, or any other supposed difference man can invent to divide us.  His blood covers us all, and it is upon us, and our children.  His blood is also highly infectious.  Turn to Jesus, humble who you are in front of Him, allow Him to remake you, re-create you – and that same blood will produce in you a torrent of love for others you cannot fully imagine.  It will change who you are.  And before you know it, the quandary of passing by need or not, will no longer be any kind of quandary at all – it will become a no-brainer even a 2yr-old could easily understand.  We don’t need to look to our Religious leaders, or to our Executives to see change appear – we need to look into our mirrors and see Jesus shining back.  Then the change that happens will be unstoppable starting here and now, and without end.

 

On the Edge of Brokenness ...

How many in a crowd go unnoticed?  Who might you know, that carries the crushing weight of loneliness?  It is our isolation to blame, some we have chosen, some beyond our control.  But when we feel separated, and alone, the weight begins to mount until it is so great it is beyond our words to describe.  TV is only distraction from it.  The internet makes it worse.  Our smart phones do nothing to alleviate it.  People behind electronic screens are the not the same as people who can offer a hug when a you might trade your entire world for a hug.  Tactile contact is so precious infants will die without it, and perhaps this need never goes away.  So it must not surprise you, that your enemy looks to segregate you from all human contact if he can.  And then feed you only poisoned human contact if he must.  To destroy someone, you must begin by isolating them away from any source of love.  Distract them if you can.  Cause them to become someone hard to love if you are able.  Turn our “needs” into expressions of selfishness that make it impossible for others to break through in exactly the right way.  Make us the thorns on the rose bush instead of the flowers.  All a part of an insidious plan to break what was never intended to be broken.  Which begs the question, how do we undo it?

At creation, it was not good for humanity to be alone.  And because of the dangers of Satan, it was not ever good for man to separate and face him alone.  Alone we would be vulnerable, together we could draw some limited strength from each other, perhaps if only, to remind each other to seek the protection of God.  To focus our mind’s eye on the source of love that never runs dry, and shares an intimacy with us on a level so deep we can scarcely fathom it.  Perhaps the greatest reason why “church” should remain important to us, is this one.  In the body collective, we socialize with those who have varying degrees of knowledge of, and experience with, the love of God.  We can through that socialization encourage each other, provide love to each other, and refocus attention back to the source of all love.  We are never too far from Him, who loves us so much.  We are in fact, not alone.  Church provides us a venue to witness this.  Not through what we can gain from the going, but from what we can give in the serving.  It is by reaching out, by serving, that we are reminded of the needs of others – and taught we may be able to reflect His love in tactile form to meet those needs.

But for my conservative friends who believe “church” is the answer, rather than the opportunity to shower love at the church venue, I offer the continuing account of Matthew in his gospel to his contemporaries’ chapter 26.  So many of us lie on the edge of brokenness.  What we need are not just words of love, but deeds and demonstrations of love.  We need to share these with others.  We need to see them shared in our own lives.  Church should be a venue for this.  But if church has become ceremony, then that opportunity goes away.  Worse, if church has become only celebration events, we are distracted to forget the purpose of sharing love altogether.  And worse still, if church has become a mirror to reflect an unforgiving law, largely made up of the interpretations of man, love has left the building entirely.  Jesus found himself alone, in a church of the latter, though this was never his desire or intent.  Jesus created a religion designed to understand the price of forgiveness, to drive our hearts to love and thus the diminishing need for continued forgiveness.  But ceremony had replaced transformation of hearts.  And church had degenerated until the misuse of the Law was now on display for all to see.

This lesson of church evolution in the time of Christ, was meant to help us avoid its reptition in our own day; but that lesson seems to be lost on us.  Judas and Peter, founding members of the next, new church, had found themselves both in isolation by choice.  They needed each other, both for different reasons, but both in need of love and comfort they might have offered each other if they had remained together.  Instead Judas found himself totally alone unable to humble himself to admit his mistakes and seek the comfort of church, the collection of the body.  Peter chose to be alone, hoping to lose the disguise of church, and be only one man in the crowds of the world.  Peter wanted to blend in and be unnoticed.  From this position he could watch, and see what he dreaded to see, but needed to see for the sake of closure if nothing else.  If his faith in the Messiah was misplaced, he needed to know it.  If Jesus was to die like every other would-be Messiah died, he needed to see it.  This way he could look for another.  In his isolation his faith was wounded greatly, and no one was there to offer comfort, or encouragement.  Church we hold at fixed times, in fixed venues, does nothing to solve this problem even today.  We would need to think of church differently and more fluidly today if a solution is to be found that meets needs of the struggling in real time.

Matthew continues with the story, of the results of betrayal – not just of Judas at this point – but of a church that has forgotten its only real purpose; to show the love of God to all.  Matthew now recounts what his church had devolved to in the last days of the ministry of Jesus before He dies.  It begins in verse 57 saying … “And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. [verse 58] But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.”  Jesus is not just being taken to some random local church on a bender from what the establishment dictates.  He is being taken to the home of the establishment, to the pinnacle of church leadership, where only the top people in the nation will decide his fate.  Popes, archbishops, priests, pastors, elders; pick your title of church leadership in today’s vernacular – it is these people that will decide the fate of our God, if he is to live or die.  But ALL of them are already bent on his death.  They are now only looking for an excuse, ahem, that is to say, a legal justification to see that outcome.  Mercy is unknown to them.  Love a mystery they may only claim to shower on their families, but for “heretics”, it is wholly absent.

Peter goes into the palace of the high priest.  Note that even back in the days of Jesus, the church leadership does not seem to want for a place to live, nor for servants, or food.  Being paid to lead the church of God has transcended being sustained, into being well-to-do, and all of it, in the name of a God who desires mercy more than all else.  Still today, so many church leaders, have made this compromise with themselves never remembering for a moment what the privilege and wealth of Caiaphas might have done to influence his thinking in these proceedings.  But Peter has not gone to his house to bring the good news of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of us all.  Instead Peter hopes to slip in un-noticed.  Peter does not want to preach there, he wants to participate through witness of what takes place there.  He will do nothing to call attention to himself as he is “undercover” in the world.  How many of us are no different?  We choose isolation from the church, and then go undercover into the world.  We wish no one to know of our Christianity, because we do not want the burden of having to love others, and treat them kindly.  If no one knows we are a Christian, then how we treat others is up to us, with no stain on religion … only a stain on our hearts and souls.  But as we remain undercover from the source of love, we also embrace isolation from it, and further segregate ourselves from any source of comfort.

Matthew continues the story in verse 59 saying … “Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; [verse 60] But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, [verse 61] And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.”  In Jewish law, it took at least two witnesses to establish the truth of a thing.  So in theory, a person, particularly a preacher, who teaches heresy should easily have had more than two witnesses to their crimes.  But instead of finding actual witnesses.  The church leadership looked for, (and paid) false witnesses, to make stuff up.  This is the prosecution (who also happen to be the judges), paying for purgered testimony to fix the trial.  And STILL it does not work.  Mosty because what one witness lies about, another undoes with his own lies.  And at the end of it all, they have nothing, despite the rather large cash payments lost for another result.  And they are livid.  The church has chosen to kill God, rather than listen, and they are now ready to break the Law to get there to accomplish it.

Any defense attorney could easily have wiped the floor with these witnesses, and consequently with this mock trial.  Any defense attorney could have gotten the whole thing dismissed.  And where was Judas, watching silently from the audience hoping still that Jesus would rise up call down those 12 legions of angels and kill these fools?  And where was Peter, not breaking cover to step forward and offer his services as the defense attorney for Christ.  In fact, none was provided.  Peter could have stepped in, and at least tried to defend Jesus when it counted.  But fear kept Peter silent and alone.  Does fear of rejection still keep you silent and alone?  Does fear of having odds stacked against you, by powerful people, keep you silent when if nothing else you could at least offer words of encouragement to one in need.  It would not have changed the outcome of that trial, but Peter attempting to defend Jesus would have greatly mended the heart of Christ.  But Jesus already knew what Peter was going to do, or rather not do.  Even when Peter had pledged his life in opposition to his real actions, or rather lack of action.  Instead Jesus stood alone without representation.  At last 2 people agreed about the statements of Jesus in regards to the Temple.

Matthew continues the account in verse 62 saying … “And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? [verse 63] But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.”  Throughout this farse of a church trial, conducted by church leadership, and without any notion of what church is about – Jesus remained silent.  Is it still so today?  When our church has become ceremony, or celebration, or an in-depth analysis of the interpretation of the Law, might Jesus still remain silent?  Or are we so noisy with our opinions at our events, we are simply unable to hear Him.  Perhaps so busy “praising” Him in song, we have mezmorized ourselves into such a hypnotic state we have forgotten that trying to hear Him was even an option.  We tell ourselves these are our ideas of church; yet are mystified when Jesus appears silent throughout our farse.  But He was there, waiting and hoping that just one soul might break with tradition and reach out to one other soul in need, offering to be a reflection of His love.  When that occurs, the voice of Jesus can be heard, in the tears of gratitude of one who was being crushed by loneliness, and now can see relief.  Judas could have given this to Jesus, but remained silent in church.  Peter could have done the same, but chose to remain silent as well.

The High priest is desperate.  He knows the words of Jesus regarding the destruction of the Temple, while not popular, are also not a crime.  So he has only one option left, to get Jesus to publicly state His identity.  For a man to claim to be God is blasphemy.  It still is.  The only time this is untrue, is when God claims to be God.  The High Priest knows Jesus is God, but also knows He can use the law to get him stoned or killed for this offense.  Knowing the truth hardly stops a determined church leadership from doing what it wants to do, even if that is killing God.  The silence has been deafening up to now from Jesus.  So the High Priest demands by the living God to answer his question.  There is no choice now.  When compelled under these terms Satan must answer, demons must answer, angels must answer.  It is a way to sort out who is who.  If the desperation of your loneliness has driven you to seek out souls who have departed from this world for comfort, ask them using these same words who they truly are – but be prepared for an answer you will not enjoy.  Yet it is not God’s intent for you to find comfort from demons in masquerade, but from imperfect living humans who are willing to share His heart and reflect His love.

Jesus is compelled to answer picking up in verse 64 saying … “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  Jesus is God.  He sits at the right hand of the Father.  And when He returns it will be in power, coming in the clouds of heaven for the entire world to see.  But in this case, Jesus tells the High Priest he will see Him come in this way.  Now we have the benefit of hindsight.  We know that the persecution of Jesus did not end at the cross by the Jewish leadership.  They sought to detroy the faith after Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven.  They killed believers, chased them, followed them, and attempted to kill any who would not conform.  Jews killing Jews.  So modern Christians interpret this promise as a threat by Jesus.  We believe it will require a “special resurrection” of this High Priest and perhaps those at that trial, in order to see Jesus second coming – even though none of them will be going to heaven with Jesus at that time.  This is certainly one possibility.

But I would offer for consideration one other possibility with even more hope in it.  Murders do go to heaven (forgiven ones that is).  Betrayers of our Lord go to heaven (witness Peter who we all believe fell into this category).  And yes, the only requirement is a change of heart to seek the forgiveness of our Lord to see this happen.  It can even happen in the last moments of a criminal’s life (like the theif Jesus will be meeting and dieing next to in only a little while).  While the life of this High Priest and the Jewish church leadership in this time is horrific, it is not beyond redemption.  It is possible that forgiveness could have been sought without the pages of scripture to document it, perhaps even to know of it.  If that forgiveness was finally sought, then this High Priest would be joining the resurrection of the righteous like any other forgiven murderer and betrayer of our Lord.  In this scenario Caiaphas could be your next-door neighbor in heaven, having both of you witness the second coming of Jesus in power and glory.  For Caiaphas sake, I hope this is what Jesus meant.  What I have come to know, is that it is not my place to judge, or to invent interpretations of scripture to fit what is commonly believed.  Instead it is to long for the soul of Caiaphas as I would long for the soul of my own son; to love this criminal of history as much as I would love my only son.  For that is the love of Jesus for Caiaphas, for me, and for my son.

But at this time in his life Caiaphas was not of a forgiving or merciful spirit, he was running the footsteps of Satan and fully doing Satanic will.  All it takes for any of us to be found this way, is to abandon mercy and love, and pick up the banner of a demand for justice against those in the wrong.  Satan does that every day.  Matthew continues in verse 65 saying … “Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. [verse 66] What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.  [verse 67] Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, [verse 68] Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?”  Caiaphas is more alone now than perhaps he will ever be, even if he is in church, and surrounded by those of like belief.  But absent service, absent mercy, and absent love – this church is nothing but the playyard of Satan himself.

But Caiaphas is not the only one there is who is totally alone regardless of the crowd size.  Judas hears this verdict and finally realizes there will be no coming back from this.  Peter hears it outside, but it is during the proceedings that Peter chooses to embrace isolation through denial.  Of him Matthew tells the story picking up in verse 69 saying … “Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. [verse 70] But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest.”  Peter has been recognized as a companion of Jesus by the damsel.  Having been caught, he could have now gone inside and tried to be the defense attorney of Jesus, or at least stood by Him during this trial.  He does not.  He lies in order to stay isolated (and safe).  Peter walks down the razor’s edge of brokenness, and instead of giving up isolation and running to Jesus; he lies and embraces further solitude.

Matthew continues in verse 71 saying … “And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. [verse 72] And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man.”  Peter is recognized again by another maid (no shortage of servants in the home of High Priest, wealth buys many of them).  Peter had changed location in the mansion, but still with no luck.  He is found out again.  There is still time to comfort Jesus is His isolation.  But rather than accept the inevitable and offer service to Someone else in the greatest of need, Peter doubles down on the lie, this time making a solemn oath of his denial.  Vows like this were said to be irrevocable and unbreakable to the point of death.  Essentially the man who said he was willing to die to remain by Jesus only a few hundred feet away, was now pledging to die rather than ever having known Jesus at all.   Both were the promises of men.  Both were lies under pressure.  Both should tell us what our promises are worth today.

Matthew continues in verse 73 saying … “And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. [verse 74] Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. [verse 75] And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.”  Now to further affirm his isolation, Peter adds swearing to his list of crimes to prove he is not a Christian.  The sons of thunder earned their name from language like this.  When the rooster begins to crow, the words of prophecy of Jesus have been fulfilled.  The rooster affirms the isolation Peter has chosen for himself, cutting himself off from the source of all love. 

And are we any different?  We walk on a path at the edge of brokenness, and when confronted we deny any connection to Jesus, and further deepen our isolation.  For we have developed a great need to be served and abandoned all ideas of service ourselves.  We wish church to be a “place” where we go to fill our needs; not a concept of brotherhood that never turns off, demanding mercy and love from us even for those that are hard to love.  We look to end our isolation in front of screens that put no real demands upon us, and are surprised when this is not enough.  The weight of loneliness is real.  Its ability to crush our spirit is real.  The remedy is real as well.  But is not found in what we discover that meets our needs, but in the discovery when we meet the needs of others. 

In meeting the needs of others, we lose the needs we thought we had for ourselves.  Other priorities combined with the love of God, begin to open up the very words of Jesus in our ears, and make them real as if spoken in audible form.  The selfish heart is not too keen on this answer.  The untransformed heart will find it does not have the strength to grasp it.  But the heart that is willing to submit itself before Jesus to be remade, and re-created, will find it comes naturally.  And loneliness will become a thing of the past, and a burden no more.  Many solutions to loneliness present themselves, but only one is permanent.  Because only one changes who you are, puts you in harmony with God, and teaches you to see the infinite value of God’s treasure – namely others - for what and who they are. 

 

 

Helping God [part 2 of 2] ...

In our previous study, we examined how we might have been a positive part of helping God in the form of providing Him comfort when He needed it most.  All we needed to do was to pray to avoid temptation.  But instead we slept.  By contrast Judas may demonstrate what it looks like when man helps God accomplish what man thinks needs to be done.  For not all the disciples were sleeping that fateful night.  None were aware of the stakes for mankind.  But one would play his role in the story.  For motives we may never fully understand.  Greed (i.e. pieces of silver) may look like motive, and certainly it plays a part in it, but simple greed may be too simplistic an answer as to why.  Think of it, Judas healed the sick, cast out demons, and testified as to the divinity of the Messiah in his own commission while partnered with another disciple.  Judas in fact was most admired by the other disciples (not Peter, he was the loudmouth).  Judas may have been the best student or perhaps most educated.  He was less common, and more like the one we would all aspire to be.  The disciples did.  But appearances are unimportant.

Judas may have developed his own ideas about how to help God.  The Messiah was supposed to be throwing off Roman oppression and bringing about a kingdom that would have no end.  Jesus had all the tools needed to do this, but was not getting it done.  Judas may have reasoned, that if Christ were in real jeopardy of losing His life, He would do what all humans do to survive, but He would do it in divine fashion with power and glory.  Judas would see himself has being the catalyst to bring all this about, even if this plan needed deceit and betrayal to get it going.  And if you could take money from priests who stole it from the poor themselves, why not add that into the mix.  Judas had it all reasoned out.  His plan made sense.  It would help God do, what God promised to do.  All God needed was a little properly placed motivation (like survival) and a little push.  If nothing else Jesus might be forced into defending his disciples and become the King He was destined to be.

Now keep in mind, everyone shared these beliefs about the role of the Messiah in the time of Christ.  It was not just Judas.  Matthew, Peter, pick your disciple, they all hoped for this.  They were even making plans about who would sit where when the Jesus administration took over.  Judas might have thought that doing this would make himself the right choice for the number two position – or at least head of the intelligence agencies.  After all there was a war coming with the Romans in this scenario.  A war long over due and easily winnable, but a war none the less.  And then what?  Perhaps a war with Egypt?  A war with Ethiopia? Or Greece? Or India or England at the far stretches of the world.  The Jesus administration was to be a worldwide power with no end in land or time, and Judas perhaps thought to be a key part of it.  The only thing that needed to be done was to get Jesus up and going, finally.

Of course Matthew did not care for the “why” Judas would betray Jesus.  Only that He did.  Picking up in His gospel in chapter 26 and verse 46 he continues with the words of Jesus saying … “Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.  [verse 47] And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.”  Jesus had hardly finished waking up his sleeping disciples than the one who had no sleep enters the scene.  Not fresh from prayer, but fresh in his own ideas about how to help God fulfill the promises God has made to us, according to the vision of Judas.  And he brought with him a sizeable crowd of armed men in order to insure Jesus takes the threat as real.  The fact that his disciples were just waking up, unprepared to mount a defense was just perfect.  Judas could present Jesus with a threat to Himself and to the others in order that Jesus might have to defend them as well.  No better way to kick off a kingship that was long overdue.

Matthew continues in verse 48 saying … “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. [verse 49] And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.”  It was dark out.  Hard to see who-was-who in the darkness, even with torches.  Judas knew the logistics needed to be insured, thus he set up a sign for his soldier to take note of.  After all they did not want Jesus to just disappear like He had done before, and wind up grabbing the wrong disciple thinking it was Jesus.  So Judas decides to betray Jesus with a kiss.  This should help Jesus see that Judas still loved Him, and was only doing this for Jesus’ best interests.  Jesus responds in verse 50 saying … “And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.”  Jesus greets Judas (despite knowing all of this) with the term “friend”.  He does not condemn Judas even now.

And here is where comparison is worth making.  How often do we “the church called by His name” treat others even in the act of public sin with greetings of love and brotherhood?  More often, we are like Matthew, obsessed with calling out Judas as the betrayer in chief, wanting to make sure everyone knows what evil he has done, and seeming far less forgiving in the process.  Judas’ ideas of helping God were completely wrong and misplaced, but Judas the person was still precious to Jesus even then, even in the act of betraying Him.  Jesus still reaches out with a term of reconciliation (not in ignorance) but by intent.  For Jesus still wants Judas in His kingdom.  But do we?  Matthew didn’t.  We are all too content to leave the public sinner on display for all to ridicule and condemn – none to love or reach out despite what they do.  Jesus does not stop for a minute and call out Judas for all the wrong he is in the middle of doing, instead He reaches out to try once more to reclaim Judas with a term of friendship and love.  Judas thinks he is helping God.  Jesus knows better.  Judas needs to stop helping, and get help, and so do we all.

The analogies of Judas and Abraham’s attempts to help God are stunningly close to what we do with respect to our own salvation.  We too attempt to help God, by doing what we think He wants us to do, and has promised to do for us.  We too break trust in God, because God does not do things in our timeline, or how we think they need to be done – so we take action instead to help.  And our “helping” only makes a mess of things with lasting consequences that might otherwise have been avoided if only we had trusted in God, instead of trying to take over ourselves.  There would be no salvation for us at all, if Jesus had not submitted His own will to that of His Father, trusting His Father instead of trusting Himself.  Yet we take all these examples of man’s intervention, discard them, and then instead try to find things in them we can use as an example of what to do, instead of what to avoid doing.  We follow the footprints of Judas with our own salvation, and think this is what scripture demands.  Just as he thought when all this was occurring.

The analogies continue in verse 51 saying … “And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. [verse 52] Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”  Peter decides to defend Christianity with his sword.  How often this path has been repeated over the last 2000+ years, with nothing but death and woe as its legacy.  Christ and Christianity do NOT need a sword to defend it, or to push it forward.  Only love can do either.  Only God can truly defend it.  Yet American Christians are as married to their guns, and their ideas of self-defense, and self-reliance as they have ever been.  How few would put down both, and trust in God no matter what the outcome.  And ALL ignoring the second half of the cause and effect of swords, that to live by them, is to die by them (regardless if there is another opponent in the equation).  To extend that just a little; to kill anyone else, is to die inside – and to repeat this is only to make it worse everytime, until there is nothing left of you inside anymore.  Helping God, by drawing the sword, is only helping Satan instead.

But then things take a remarkable left turn.  Jesus continues answering in verse 53 saying … “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? [verse 54] But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? [verse 55] In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. [verse 56] But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.”  The plans of Judas to “help” Jesus become the King He is destined to be have been completely on track right up until this.  Jesus plainly states He is ABLE to call down from heaven more than 12 legions of angels (an army no man could even contemplate defeating).  But He does not call it down.  Instead He heals the wounded servant’s ear (continue to show love).  He asks them the cutting question of why now, why in the dark, and in secret?  He reminds them that ALL of this was prophesied in scripture and is now being fulfilled.  And when the disciples see first hand that Jesus has no intentions of avoiding death, they ALL flee, including Judas.

Plans to help God do what we think He should, end as they always do, with us making a huge mess of things, and God not performing as we expected.  This has never been more true than with our own salvation.  Our role, is NOT to save ourselves, that is the work of Jesus alone, and we must trust Him to do it.  We must submit our will to His, despite what we want to do.  Just like He did in the garden.  Or we wind up looking back on a series of unfortunate events no different than Judas did all those years ago.  Membership in the church is no defense, Judas was a founding member.  Spiritual gifts are no defense, Judas had a full measure of the Holy Spirit when he followed the directions of his Lord.  Faith in scripture is no defense, as Judas was well read, well educated, and following devoutly a set of beliefs everyone shared (even though they were mistaken about them).  Only submission of your will works, as it did for Jesus.

The plans of Judas would read soundly to any military general in our intelligence agency in today’s world.  Humanity would see them as completely viable.  It is only that divinity has different ideas, much greater ideas, ideas beyond our limited imaginations that keep us from seeing what God sees.  God does not fault us our limitations, instead He asks us to trust Him to know better, to do better, and to make things so, which we could never make so.  It is NOT the plan of God to leave you in your sins, or struggling with your sins, but to releieve you from your sins entirely.  You cannot do this.  But God can and will as quickly as you submit your will to Him.  Learning that submission should be your life’s goals.  Learning how to get better at it, your greatest ambition.  Because trying to do it yourself, is like becoming Judas, and picking up a pencil to sketch out “how to betray a God and create a King”.  Only to find the execution resulting in how to break a man, and lose all hope, to the point of death.

While we may glorify the mistakes of Abraham, or Jacob, or David – those mistakes were not written for this purpose.  They were stories to teach us not to break trust with God, and do what we think should be done.  At least Judas gives us pause.  But does it take this much to get it right?  Can’t we learn from Jesus Himself, in the garden, submitting what He wanted, in favor of the will of the Father.  It is that submission we are looking for.  It is that submission we need.  It is that submission that will save us.  By contrast our ideas of helping God, could put everything at risk as it did for Judas, and create consequences we will live with forever.  Let us hold firm our trust in the divine to accomplish what God promises, having no need to help Him, only to be grateful that He does what He promises.  As it turns out, human ideas about helping are just not all we thought they might be.

 

Conspiracies Uncovered ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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