A Vision of His Kingdom ...

Does Jesus lie?  Non-believers may not have a good basis to answer that question.  And even believers sometimes doubt its answer.  But to answer in the affirmative, it would help to have an explicit example of where Jesus did lie.  Otherwise given the vast history of things He predicted that came true, and the personal examples in your own encounters with Jesus, I believe you will find that Jesus does not lie.  So lets give it a stretch and look for an instance that proves this theory wrong.  You might begin with prophecy and its interpretation.  Does being wrong about how you interpret prophecy make Jesus the liar?  To believe that is to state, you are completely right, and if reality deviates with what you believe, it must be Jesus who lied about it.  Given how often you are wrong in life in general about a great many things.  It seems hardly plausible, that in matters of scriptural interpretation, you suddenly became all knowing – and Jesus must have lied, if reality does not work out the way you interpreted it would.

More likely, a second look, a deeper study, will find more meaning in the same texts you studied before.  More likely, the other meanings that may emerge offer you a different way to see things, perhaps a better way, perhaps a way closer to what Jesus originally intended, than what you gathered the first time you read it through.  To trust to the interpretation of the church leaders, and church tradition, is to walk the path of our Pharisee forefathers, and wind up in the same end result – kill Truth, rather than change our minds.  On the other hand, looking to so many of the Biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled, and so accurately, tends to give one confidence that Jesus knows what He is talking about.  His record is very very good.  This inspires confidence that again Jesus does not need to lie.  The Truth is always better for us to know, and always what He reveals to us, even if the revelation is slow – because that is the speed our minds need to receive it without blowing a gasket.

Just a few segments ago, Peter stated that Jesus was the Son of God, a revelation given to him by God the Father.  Jesus called him blessed to receive it.  And immediately Jesus asked His disciples not to tell anyone about it yet.  Instead He began revealing to them that He was to die at the hands of church leadership, be tortured no less, and crucified; but then to rise on the third day.  As for Peter’s revelation, Jesus asked His disciples to keep this from His otherwise would be followers – they were NOT ready to hear it yet.  While it was true, it was a Truth, not everyone was ready to hear.  Then the remainder of what Jesus told His disciples, they DID NOT LIKE hearing.  Peter even tried to rebuke Jesus, and tell Him this would never happen.  Yet again an unpleasant truth, but then a truth so glorious the history of the universe would soon be defined by it.  Even then His disciples could not get over the fact, their own interpretation of the role of the Messiah, like the church leadership of the time, was wrong.  Did it make Jesus a liar?  No.  Things unfurled exactly as Jesus had predicted, including the fantastic parts that could only happen after the horrible parts.

Outside of the miracles (and they were astonishing, perhaps terrifying, and yet so glorious), the disciples looked up to Jesus as one of their own.  Jesus was different to them, but more the same than different.  For the most part Jesus looked like any other man, since Adam, until then.  But to increase their faith yet again, this was about to change.  Matthew picks up the story in the last verse of chapter sixteen, that in context, continues the next thoughts right into the first verses of chapter seventeen.  Perhaps it would have been better if placed there, but no matter, we are capable of continuing a read as needed.  It begins in verse 28 saying … “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”  And so begins our intense analysis; did Jesus lie?

We interpret this text to mean … some of you disciples … not all, but a few … will not die … until you see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom (or in our minds, the second coming of Christ, which the whole world continues to wait for).  Since ALL the disciples died, we know this could not have been true.  In fact, ALL the disciples (short John but not for lack of trying) met martyr’s deaths, ugly, gruesome, torture of extreme bodily pain, which was only relieved by death itself.  That was how reality unfolded, which definitely does not jive with our traditional interpretation of this verse – so again I ask did Jesus lie?  Or perhaps, did Jesus have something else in mind, then what we traditionally think?  The answer is contained in chapter seventeen of Matthew’s gospel, in the very next texts as this story continues.

It picks up in verse 1 saying … “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,”  You will note this is a few of the disciples, or “some” of them.  In reality, these represent three key disciples who will serve in the new Christian church’s leadership.  James will head the new church in Jerusalem (its traditional headquarters, as the impact of the Messiah was first to be felt by the traditional bloodline of Abraham if they but accepted it).  Peter will be the first great evangelist, spreading the gospel far and wide across the then known world.  John would be the chief prophet to not only the Hebrew church, but to the Christian faith all the way from that time to the last remnant to walk the earth before His return.  These three disciples were taken apart from the rest, and up the mountain they hiked, likely to the place where Jesus went to pray at night.  Chances are, none of them thought anything strange about it at first.

Matthew continues in verse 2 saying … “And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”  This is the true form of the Son of Man.  This is Jesus, NOT like one of them, burdened by our world of darkness, but how the Son of Man looks in His kingdom – just as He said only six days earlier at the end of chapter sixteen in the gospel of Matthew.  This is not baby Jesus in a manger.  This is not good-time Jesus at the Wedding in Cana.  This is not tortured Jesus upon a cross, dead.  This is Jesus alive as He was following the resurrection, the same way He will look past His ascension from this world forever more.  This is Jesus at home in His kingdom.  And true to form about the kingdom of Jesus, it was not meant to be alone in.

Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. [verse 4] Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.”  The first thing that appears in the Kingdom of Jesus are the redeemed for which He is destined to die and return again triumphant.  These represent the first fruits of the Kingdom.  Elijah is there never having tasted death, translated while still alive (like Enoch before him).  Moses did die, but was resurrected by Jesus and taken to heaven early (partially because Satan was trying to mess with the body).  Both architypes are representations and reminders that Jesus will go through whatever comes to Him personally because His ability to visit with Elijah, and Moses, and Peter, James, and John depends on it.  His love will motivate Him to face whatever comes, because His Kingdom is not a Kingdom at all without His children in it.  It is not home without you, without me.  He so loves the countless millions He intends to fill His home up with, that association and fellowship have become the treasure He prizes above all else.  The streets of gold are for you to have fun with – your company, is what He is looking forward to with such a passion you can hardly comprehend it.

Peter offers the best his brain can think of.  He immediately assumes the place must be the important thing.  He offers to build three tabernacles, that is, three temples to worship in.  One for Elijah, one for Moses, and one for Jesus.  But Elijah wants no temple, nor does Moses.  The lives of men are not worthy of worship, even those of the great Biblical heroes we admire still today.  It is only Jesus that is worthy of worship.  The cleaned-up versions of Elijah and Moses, depend on Jesus following through with the sacrifice He is still to make.  There is no holiness in Elijah or Moses, that does not first originate in the transformative power of the love of Jesus, which they have fully agreed to accept, even though it will change them completely from who they were, unto who they are at this moment, and every moment going forward.  Peter is too much a baby in the faith to begin to contemplate this yet.  He has not even finished speaking when he is interrupted, by none other, than God the Father who is also present.

Matthew continues in verse 5 saying … “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. [verse 6] And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.”  God stops Peter in his tracks, there is no need for tabernacles that honor men, not even elaborate temples to honor Jesus, there is ONLY need to listen to what Jesus says.  God the Father appears clouded in a brilliant cloud, barely able to contain the majesty and glory of who He is.  He speaks saying … This is my beloved Son.  Any doubts about the identity of Jesus, or the fact, that this is what His kingdom is and will be are shattered into a million pieces.  God the Father proceeds to acknowledge the life of Jesus to this point, in saying that He is well pleased with His Son.  In case you thought Jesus was ever wrong, let it go.  In case you thought Jesus did not have all the facts, well, one of you might, but it is not Jesus.  God the Father wants you to listen to Jesus His Son.

And in this verse crumbles the entire Muslim faith.  An endorsement of Jesus as the Son of God, and the way by which entry to the Kingdom is attained.  The One God is in three parts, and the Father says, to listen to His Son.  Case closed.  Every other supposed claim to deity is shattered in this one verse.  One God who asks you to listen to His Only Son.  This right here is all you need for salvation.  This Jesus will be all you ever need.  And listening is free.  Just like the transformation Jesus longs to bring to your life, to end the pain and death you embrace, and offer you a life beyond imagination that starts in the here and now, not just after the grave.  And what happens when human men encounter the God of the ages.  They fall flat on their faces and become exceedingly afraid.  The fear in them, is a reflection of the sin in them.  Before Adam fell he looked forward to the walks with Jesus in the Garden of Eden.  But after he fell, he immediately feared allowing his sin to come in to contact with the perfect love of God.  And no matter how good you think you are – the mirror of the Father God – will reveal the truth of how much farther you have yet to go.

Matthew completes this vision of the Kingdom in verse 7 saying … “And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. [verse 8] And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. [verse 9] And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.”  And here in this sequence of verses is the direct interpretation to the last verse of chapter sixteen.  Some of the disciples, still alive, saw Jesus in His Kingdom, with the saved, and with His Father.  A vision not the complete reality, because until the final days, we will remain unable to see God the Father until all our evil has finally been washed away.  But this version does not require a second coming, only a vision of what the end result of the second coming will one day look like.  Not only does it prevent Jesus from being a liar, you don’t have to bounce around scripture looking all over the place to find a convoluted meaning for what it means.  You literally only have to keep reading.  Just a few more verses in sequence.

And in case you thought prophecy had only one meaning … hang on to your hat … Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? [verse 11] And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. [verse 12] But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. [verse 13] Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”  Church leadership, and church tradition, and the common people of the church – all believed that the prophecy of the coming of Elijah before the coming of the Messiah was a literal one.  Jesus, here states, no, it was a figurative one.  It was the message of Elijah to restore all things, i.e. for the nation to repent, that was needed to prepare the way of the Lord.  For if we will not repent, we will not submit, we will not allow Jesus to change us, and so keep Jesus at arm’s length (our choice, not His).

In the very next sequence of texts, as if to reinforce the point that we do not always get it right.  Jesus reinterprets what scripture intended to say for the followers willing to listen directly to Jesus, instead of to tradition, or the church leadership to tell them what they should think.  Does Jesus lie?  Only you can answer that for yourself.  But for me, He never has, and I believe He never will.  He simply does not need to lie.  The Truth is who He is.  The Truth is the core of the gospel.  The gospel is not good news based on lies, it is good news founded in a power that can transform you no matter where you are, what you have done, or how you think today.  Submit yourself to Jesus and watch how much better your life gets.  Watch your priorities change.  Watch what you treasure turn to thinks that really matter, and how your treasure keeps growing based in a love you can barely describe.  Watch your interpretation of scripture begin to change, not towards heresy, but towards a fulfillment and proximity to God that only comes from being in harmony with God.  There is no end to the upside, and in all of it, no reason to lie ever again.  No wonder He is called the Truth.  And the Truth had more yet to say …

 

A Human Pillar of Fire ...

How could you miss that?  The signs were all around you.  Everything was right there in front of your eyes.  And still you missed it.  It would seem humanity has perhaps the unique ability to ignore everything and proceed on a course of doomed destination.  Ask anyone who has ever been in a car accident and they can affirm it for you.  The driver at fault, had to have seen so-and-so pulling out in front, or was making a horrible decision to do something ill-advised.  Trees suddenly appear “out of nowhere”, as do parked cars.  And in general, the first response of the driver at fault in an accident is to attempt to find blame elsewhere.  It is almost like clock-work.  And for all the drivers who were victims, not accomplices, or perpetrators, having to argue blame that is clearly assigned in the wrong direction is never fun.  And in the few instances where the victim becomes the perpetrator through mechanisms of faulty insurance investigation, or lying participants, it can get expensive too.  You are left wondering, how could they have missed all those signs and warnings, and proceeded on a course of doom?

At least in a car accident, if no injuries result, you can get on with your life.  Cars can be fixed or replaced.  License points removed through Drivers-Ed, or new insurance rates paid from an ever-shrinking budget.  But imagine when the problem is not tied to an incident that you may be lucky enough to eventually forget.  Imagine if the incident impacted your spiritual life.  Imagine coming face-to-face with God, and then arguing about His existence.  Or worse, rebelling against His directions WHILE you remain in His presence.  Modern Christians have the “luxury” of not sitting in front of Jesus, while they do the stupid things they do – or at least not in His tangible physical presence anyway.  But this was not always so.  And when the people who preceded us, did the stupid things they did, they did them right in the face of God.  It was like shooting the finger at God, while God is there staring at you to see what you did.

It started back in the days of the Israelites.  When the people of Israel went through the plagues of Egypt, they were untouched.  Now get that idea into your head for a minute.  Imagine any one of them.  Imagine having frogs so thick they were everywhere, in everything.  You could not move without stepping on them, even inside your home.  They were in your water (what was left of it).  They were in your food supplies.  Frogs stacked up feet thick on every surface you encounter.  A plague brought by the God of the Universe on Egyptians, but not a frog to be found on anything where Israelites lived, farmed, or ate.  Israelites were free from work during the plague, because the bricks could not be made, no Egyptian could hardly move during them.  And this did not just happen with frogs, it happened with flies, and locusts too.  But you being Israelite, suffered nothing.  Egypt decimated, you untouched.

Now Moses marches you through a Red Sea with water shooting up on both sides of the pathway hundreds of feet into the air.  But the pathway is dry as the desert normally is.  It is dry enough to move cattle, donkeys, wagons, and the old and young.  No mud at all, dry as if it was always that way.  You can touch the water in the sides, but no water spills into the pathway you walk.  You are walking in the breath of the Lord’s nostrils.  You begin to move through the desert, and here is the piece-de-resistance.  By day a cloud covers Israelites so the desert is cool, mild, and not a single scorpion or snake emerges from its hole.  By night, a pillar of fire stands over the camp providing ample light, and warmth against the cold the desert will naturally offer.  Again no scorpions, spiders, snakes, or other bothersome creatures emerge while Israelite feet are nearby.  God has radically altered the word “desert” where you are walking, camping, and taking meals.  You might dismiss the cloud as something nature provided (through willful ignorance).  But there is no way to write-off the pillar of fire at night as anything other than God.  And even with that pillar in full view, the Israelites found a way to disobey God entirely.

Fast forward 1600 years and Jesus is here.  Now “who” Jesus was might have been up for a measure of debate, but Matthew in his gospel to the Hebrews, was about to put a nail in that coffin so to speak.  Matthew was about to identify a Human form of the pillar of fire that would light the way of Israel forever more.  It begins in his gospel in chapter fourteen picking up in verse 13 saying … “When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. [verse 14] And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”  The news of John the Baptist’s death was spreading far and wide across the nation.  The people were sad.  They needed a beacon of hope.  They needed a light.  They were desperate.  Jesus takes a ship across the Sea of Galilee, a distance away from civilization, and the people don’t care, they follow Him there in great numbers.

The pillar lights up.  Imagine this crowd, it contains 5000 men, PLUS women, and children.  So if the average man over 16 was married, and had 2.5 kids per family (remember no birth control, and marriage happened young).  The math on this works out easily to 15-20k people.  But here is the pillar on fire part – Jesus heals their sick.  Not just some of them.  Not just a few of them.  All of them throughout the entire crowd from babies to old men barely able to move.  From diseases none of us can see, to amputee’s with restored limbs everyone can see now.  The blind see.  The deaf hear.  It is the prophecies fulfilled in their entirety.  A day of preaching and healing such as has never been before.  The words preached on that day were not recorded for us – Oh what a loss!!  We know what He did, but nothing about what He said.  None the less the pillar was lit up.  NO ONE ever healed like He healed, or preached the way He preached, or loved the way He did.  No one, ever. 

The day could have ended right there, and definitive proof of His identity had been offered in what He had just done.  But not yet.  Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.”  And here is where loopy logic sets in.  If it is a desert (check); and there is no food nearby naturally (check); then where will the stores be for this size crowd to shop at, and how will these imaginary stores be stocked or prepared for this size of demand?  There are no stores for this.  Sending the people away, means sending them home hungry.  Now the crowd could have taken it.  They were all just restored to perfect health that day, so a little hunger is not going to kill anyone.  But let’s be honest, there are no stores for food.  The disciples were looking to pass the responsibility for feeding this crowd back to the people themselves.  Jesus sees through that right away.

Jesus responds in verse 16 saying … “But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.”  Hey guys, you can do this.  This is the God of the Universe, stating what is possible, and giving direction to them to get it done.  The pillar is burning brightly, and the chief servants of the pillar say in verse 17 … “And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.”  No can do boss.  Math says 15k to 20k people, our inventory says five loaves and two fishes (which they borrowed from one of the children whose mother packed him a lunch before he went to see Jesus – yay mom!).  But the kicker is not what Jesus does next, it is what the disciples failed to do first.  Jesus was offering to spread out His power through them, and their miniscule faith.  Jesus had said – feed this crowd, do not sent them away.  The pillar is burning as brightly as it can – every single person healed that day.  Their response, was no can do.  This is all we have.  Epic fail – right in the face of the human pillar of fire.  And how many times do we give Jesus the exact same answer to His calls for us to minister – no can do boss, this is all we have and it is not enough – math says no.

Jesus had to have sighed.  I would have given the eye-roll.  But then, He is way more patient than me.  So Jesus answers and says in verse 18 … “He said, Bring them hither to me. [verse 19] And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”  This is a miracle tutorial 101 for those not paying attention.  He told the disciples to get this done.  And He had them serve the entire crowd, from the inventory they offered.  The strength of Christ is not to be underestimated.  The pillar burns brighter still.  And perhaps this provided more tangible proof as to who He was as math and physics could not get this done.  But a crowd of restored 20k fully healed folks should have already known that.  This event is recorded like a big deal, but the big deal were the words we missed out on.

Matthew records the epilogue in verse 20 saying … “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. [verse 21] And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.”  Everyone ate, not just a little, not a ration, but a belly full.  And beyond that, 12 baskets of food left over were collected and likely sent home with the crowd to feed the poor in the cities they came from – evidence of the human pillar of fire in Jesus, who was in fact, the light of all Israel.  I ask you, who in that crowd of attendance that day, who came sick, and left healthy and fully restored; who came depressed of soul, and left restored of soul; who could argue this was not the Christ, long foretold of the prophets?  To argue against this God, was to argue in the time of Moses against the pillar of Christ that stood over them at nightfall.  It was the same God.  Matthew’s crowd saw in human form, what that pillar really looks like.  And Jesus warmed that camp for 40 years plus night after night never missing a night, never taking a vacation, never forgetting His people even when they forgot He was there right in front of them.

And what is it like in your life today?  I know that Jesus has already been a part of it, even when He is uninvited (by you), He is often invited through the prayers of others on your behalf.  Are you seriously able to tell me that you have seen no sign of Jesus in your life?  Or more likely, you have many stories in your testimony you cannot explain.  Things you have witnessed that math and physics could not have gotten done.  The pillar of fire may not hang over your home at night warming the night air for you, but the pillar of fire still looks to enter your heart, and bring you a life you can scarcely imagine.  He is just as real as the God who kept feet-thick frogs from covering your home.  He is just as real as the Jesus who cared too much to see a great crowd go home hungry, after a day of awesome ministry.  He is the Jesus who longs to see your life, become something you would want to live.  Can you ignore the signs?  Can you look away from His flame?  Call it luck, call it coincidence, call it “blessed” without any understanding of that word.  It is more.  It is a Jesus on fire for you, to see you reconciled to Himself.  Never let those signs go unnoticed, or unembraced.  That fire is coming straight for you, and it is going to light up your life in ways beyond all comprehension.  Same Jesus, different “you”.

 

Vain Obedience ...

How can you obey a command you do not understand?  Your boss hands you a stack of papers 18 inches thick, the type font is small, they are single spaced and double-sided type, and they are written in a combination of Cyrillic, Kanji, and ancient Babylonian.  He says simply to you, do what this says and walks away.  You stare blankly at the papers, not even knowing where to begin.  The task is overwhelming.  But it is not just the magnitude of a challenge that can make it difficult.  Different scenario.  Your boss walks up to you and says … be ready for this afternoon’s meeting.  The command is simple.  The expectation at least superficially understood.  But then, what all might that simple command imply?  Is there some material you are supposed to memorize?  Are you supposed to be ready to present?  Are you just supposed to be ready to get there on time, maybe 15 minutes early?  While the command is very simple in language, duration, and seemingly in intent.  It could mean a hundred different things.  How could you possibly be “ready” for every scenario this might imply?  How could anyone?

To begin to know what to do, could start with a knowledge of your boss.  If your boss is a mystery to you, and does things nearly always in a random manner, you are up a creek.  But if your boss is fairly consistent, and has given you similar guidance in the past, with perhaps more context in those times.  Maybe you could extrapolate your history of life with your boss, to this particular event.  At least your odds of pleasing your boss go up, based on following the pattern your boss may have laid out up to now.  Even then, sometimes it is not just the “what” that we do, it is the “how” that we do it.  When my boss gives me a command it is “understood” by him (and should be by me), that whatever he asks me to do, he intends for me to accomplish it in an ethical and legal manner.  Meeting a sales quota by sniping customers from a team mate is unacceptable.  Goal achieved, but method of achievement negates the accomplishment.  It gets even worse if you resort to fraud, or theft, or some other nefarious means to attempt to meet the assigned objective.

So when God tells us to do something, do we find ourselves in the same boat as when the boss gives us a simple edict without nearly enough context to know what we are supposed to do?  Take the Sabbath as an example.  We are supposed to “remember it”.  Easy enough.  We are not likely to “forget” a day of the week.  But then the remembering was in the context of “to keep it Holy”.  Ut-oh.  Here is where we rapidly go downhill.  Humans are really bad at understanding anything about Holiness.  We are sort of the living embodiment of the opposite of Holiness.  So how do we keep something Holy when we do not understand almost anything about Holy in the first place?  More context is offered.  We are advised not to work on this day.  But not just us.  Not our servants either.  In fact, no one who is within our gates, will be required to work on this day.  This is great context.  It helps us get a better idea of what is being requested here.  But is that it?  Then comes the inevitable question, how exactly do you define “work”? 

Is work something I do for money, perhaps only what I do for money?  Then the husband puts his feet up, and the wife continues to “work” all throughout the day?  That does not seem like the ask.  So then the definition of work must extend past just activities I do for money.  How do I know?  Well, the example of manna that fell in the wilderness over 40 years to feed the Israelites gives us a good indication.  Manna was only good for a single day, until Friday when a double portion fell, and it did not spoil over Sabbath.  That meant on Sabbath no gathering, and no prep.  You could simply enjoy the food made the day before.  Presumably this means mom gets a break too.  Presumably this means the servants can take the day off.  Presumably God wants to relate to everyone on Sabbath, not just those of advantage.  And it would appear God defines work with a broader brush than just what I do for money.  And of course, God defined His own rest, as being a rest from the work of creation He had done the previous six days.  His creation looks more like art to me, though perhaps it is science, or perhaps just genius – but He rested from it and the universe kept spinning.

Enter the Pharisees and Sadducees, both had a keen interest in “keeping” the law.  Israel had suffered war, famine, and slavery for ignoring the law over their history.  Though a closer examination of God’s patience running out usually corresponded to Israel worshipping other gods that required them to throw babies (mostly male) into the fires, while preserving female babies to become temple prostitutes.  The ruining of young lives just seemed to be the straw that broke the back of God’s patience with the people who claim His name.  Consider that as you examine the state of how we treat young lives in our own country and churches.  So the modern church leadership in the days of Christ, had a very keen intent to keep the law so as never to see the wars and slavery they had experienced in the past.  They developed then, an extensive additional set of context around what it means to “keep” the Sabbath.  Their list of rules, eventually devolved into walking only a certain number of steps.  Food preparation must be done the day before, or you went hungry.  And yet despite all these precautions, Rome was still in power, and Jews were still slaves.  However since the Sanhedrin still existed, they reasoned, they had to be doing something right.

Then along comes Jesus.  Matthew begins chapter twelve of his gospel touching on the most important commandment, the primary one that sets the people of God apart from every other religion on planet earth.  Outside of circumcision, and kosher diets, what makes a Jew a Jew is the keeping of the Sabbath.  The Sanhedrin had become confident in “how” they did what they did.  They became confident that they were “obeying” the law, to the extent that the law required, and a good measure further just in case.  So does the modern Christian.  While not obsessed with the law, we are equally as certain, that we obey our Lord, to the extent that He has asked, and a little extra just in case.  But perhaps in our certainty of obedience is nothing more than vanity.

Matthew begins in verse 1 saying … “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. [verse 2] But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.”  A lot to unpack here.  First, Jesus and crew were walking through a corn field, this act by itself would negate the idea of how many steps one could take before it crossed the line into work which was precluded to do on the Sabbath.  Strike One.  Then, his disciples get hungry, likely from seeing and smelling all the ripe corn right in front of their faces.  It is kind of like sitting in front of the TV watching your favorite show, and after a few advertisements for pizza, you begin to crave pizza.  But no matter, the disciples begin to pick and shuck the corn in preparation of eating it.  This was food preparation, for which there were specific examples in earlier scripture of why this should be prohibited.  Also note, Jesus Himself, was not actually doing this, He elected to go hungry.  But for His disciples, Strike Two.  Then the disciples proceeded to eat the corn (apparently none of them offered ears to Jesus, their Master, clearly an oversight driven by bodily needs).  But legally, eating fruit of the poisoned preparation tree results in, you guessed it, Strike Three.

The Sanhedrin knew the law on this matter.  So the leadership brings this horrible infraction of the law to Jesus’ attention, giving Jesus no credit for refraining from it Himself.  The disciples (people who they did not appreciate) were breaking it.  The patriarchs of the faith however, were people the leadership venerated.  Long dead, Moses, Joshua, Samson, and David, could do no wrong.  They had become Jewish saints if there could ever be such a thing.  So Jesus chooses to use that in His response to them.  Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; [verse 4] How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?”

In our day we call this “what-about-ism”.  Jesus does not actually say that what the disciples did is OK against the letter of the law.  But He does make a comparison of people the Pharisees besmirch with the honorable can-do-no-wrong, compared-with-the-heart-of-God David and his crew.  The Jewish saint they venerate, and his men (who in actuality, were all incredibly efficient killers on the battlefield, none other of their skills preserved in Jewish scrolls), went into the Temple.  This was a huge no-no, only the priests are even allowed in there.  Then they ate the shewbread, which is an offering to God, that ONLY the priests were allowed to eat under specific conditions.  Another huge no-no.  Those infractions are also clearly a part of the known Jewish law, at the time of David, until this time.  And scripture records no prayer of David begging forgiveness for what he and his men did.  They just did it.  Net result.  How can the leadership there in attendance criticize the disciples of Jesus for doing something far less an infraction, than the historical leader David did (who they publicly venerate as some sort of saint)?  It would be hypocritical, or rather, it would point out the hypocrisy of valuing people in any sort of caste system, putting them on a level playing field with the very men they “knew” they were above.

Next Jesus really twists their thinking as He continues in verse 5 saying … “Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?”  This one is a true mindbender.  On Sabbath, priests (and in our day preachers) “work”.  They do the “work” of the Lord, but it is still “work”.  Back then, that “work” involved killing innocent lambs as a symbolism foretelling the killing of Jesus Himself.  It was and is shedding innocent blood, for the remission of sins.  Killing too, was prohibited in the law.  The shedding of blood in the Temple was highly controlled, and on Sabbath, would have been considered work.  They “profane” the Temple by continuing a practice driven by the evil in men’s hearts.  But the priests are held blameless.  Working to bring men to God is not considered “work” by the God on the end of that equation.  Even though we pay preachers and priests to do it, and even though “most” of their work is conducted on the very day we are commanded to rest.

Now Jesus has pointed out publicly that the priests who are so critical, have a profession where they work on the Sabbath with regularity despite the incongruence with the law.  The anger brews in the mind of the rebuked Pharisee, for they remain certain in their vain obedience, that correction even from the mouth of God is not met with acceptance, but with hatred.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”  Now Jesus has gone too far, now He has crossed a line He will never be able to uncross.  The Temple was “the” place where God Himself sat upon the Mercy seat.  It was His holy presence behind that curtain that made all of Israel fear and tremble daring not to peek behind it even for a second, lest the contrast between true Holiness and our state, cause us to die.  Only once a year did the High Priest, after much consecration and prayer, dare to go behind the curtain for a prescribed practice.  Even then, he wore bells on the hems of his garment and a rope around his ankle, so that if the bells went silent, the attendants could pull him out knowing he was dead, and being unable to retrieve his body any other way lest they themselves die in the process.

That was the definition of Holiness to a Jew, it is irony we have so casual a view of it.  And here stood Jesus, claiming to be One greater than the Temple (upon whose seat it was He who sat).  Jesus was now making a clear statement that the buildings dedicated to His service, are NOT as important as the God they purport to serve.  Jesus was saying He can be found outside of Temple walls.  Jesus was saying that being close to His people was and is the most important thing to Him, even when that is in the middle of a corn field on some random Sabbath.  Proximity to Jesus is not about buildings, it is about a desire to be close.  Here was the God they worshipped standing right in front of them, but they failed to see, all the while believing they were in perfect obedience to the law.  And their certainty resulted in the idea that God Himself did not understand or obey His own law.  Literally the definition of error, or hypocrisy, or vanity, all stemming from the certainty of human “wisdom”.

When met with correction, they responded in hatred, for vanity has no room for correction.  And are we even the slightest tittle different than they?  We create “standards” of Sabbath keeping in our minds, and then judge all others by them, while refusing to see the God who so longs to stand right in front of us.  Because we believe in the sanctity of the law of God, and in the continuing proscriptions of Sabbath keeping that started in the Garden of Eden, was given to Moses in the law, and is prophesied to continue in Heaven after this world has passed – we translate our “belief” into our obedience to keep this day.  Yet we know nothing of “how” to truly obey, we have only lists we construct of do’s and don’ts ignoring the God who could put us in harmony with His law.  We take our eyes off of God and put them on what we do against His request.  And irony of ironies, we are rather loose with His direct context of the cessation of work, either working ourselves “for the benefit of our families”, or causing others to serve us “because they were going to be at work anyway”.

But Jesus then cuts to the heart of the matter as He continues in verse 7 (no pun intended) saying … “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. [verse 8] For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”  The Sabbath is not about what, it is about Who.  The Sabbath is not even about how, it is about Who.  It was Jesus who “made” a block of time Holy.  Only His proximity to it could accomplish that, the same way His proximity to our earth on Mt. Sinai made a block of ground Holy, that Moses was asked to remove his shoes before he walked on it.  Without Jesus involved, the day is just time, and the earth is just earth.  It was about Jesus who “hallowed” it.  He set aside His time to be with us, in a special way, for an entire day, at the end of every week.  He asked us to put aside our other distractions in order to have time to be with Him.  He asked us to be unselfish and not keep others from having time to be with Him as well.  Being close to Jesus, putting away other priorities is what Sabbath is all about.  Hanging out with Dad.  Playtime with Dad.  That is what the Sabbath is all about.  And because the disciples with Him are doing just that, they were in fact guiltless.  It is up to Jesus to decide what is “keeping” the Sabbath with Him, it is not up to us.  Our ideas do not count, only His.

That is how the incongruent actions of priests back then and preachers in our day on Sabbath still make sense.  They are about bringing people to the Lord of the Sabbath.  That is why the disciples choosing to eat with Jesus on their way to demonstrate the gospel to people in need make sense.  They were already with the Lord of the Sabbath, escorting Him to people in such desperate need of hearing a word from Jesus, the Son of God.  It was more important for them to be with Jesus, than to be in the Temple on this day.  That is why we put away our amusements that take us away from Christ, why we cease working, but also cease thinking about working, it is all to have unrestricted playtime with the same Jesus.  You cannot contain that in a list of do’s and don’ts, no matter how long or how thorough you think it is.  You can only begin to see that in a set of principles.  Where I bring others to God, it is a good thing.  Where I do good unto them, it is a good thing.  Where I ask others to serve me, I cause them to lose time with God on my behalf.  It is mercy, I am to be showing.  It is mercy for others, love for others, that if it was my first motivation, would bring me in better harmony with the entirety of the law, not only the Sabbath, but not forgetting it either.

When Jesus saves us, from us, from our self-love and addiction of the same; He creates in us a love for others, that changes the nature of how we think about Sabbath.  The context changes.  The requirement does not, but the vanity begins to slip away.  A knowledge or belief that we are supposed to keep Sabbath is not the same thing as actually doing it.  Repeating the traditions of our forefathers; going to church, singing, praying and coming home again does not equal Sabbath observance as God defines it in a field of corn on a mission to actually spread His word to those who have never heard it.  The gospel does not only look inward, it looks outward where its mercy is so desperately needed.  

Only the unchanged heart is content to experience the praise of God, holding those good feelings inward, and sharing them only with those who also already understand them.  The changed heart is driven to the dirty, to the sick, to the hungry, to the least of these – because they have the greatest need.  Until we are led to discover what keeping anything Holy really means, we do not understand what was asked of us.  And we must be led to discover it, for Holiness does not originate in us.  Following God, leads us there.  Attempting to blaze the trail based on our accumulated wisdom leads to the path of the Pharisee, to the path of vain obedience based upon certainty and trust in “our wisdom”, that when confronted with what God thinks, responds in hatred and desire to kill God and anyone who truly follows His lead …

And the dispute over this was not over yet …

 

Stupid Faith [part 1 of 3]...

Does what you believe in make sense?  Does it make sense to you?  Why?  History sometimes acts as a razor against our beliefs.  History demonstrates to us what is possible, from what is impossible.  When we examine our lives through the lens of History, what do we find?  Are our beliefs supported by the facts of History, or by tales we have told so long they have reached mythic proportions but have yet to include any certain demonstrable facts.  This is not a 20^th century problem or dilemma, this is a phenomenon that has gripped mankind since the fall in the Garden of Eden until now.  You only needed to live 1100 years or so after the fall, to have lost the first-person account of what happened there in form of Adam and Eve.  By then, only Seth could recount the stories his parents had told him, even though he himself had never been in that famous Garden.

But then, no one had.  An angel stood at its entrance, armed with a flaming sword, intent on keeping all interested parties out, so man could not again eat from the Tree of Life and find himself immortal.  As a side note, what is the point of guarding this entrance if the soul of man is immortal anyway?  It was guarded because upon death we sleep, knowing nothing, until our Lord returns to us and pulls us out of our rotten slumber and in to a life only He could create, re-create, or restore.  In this context, an angelic guard is needed, and was present.  Mankind could see this angel all the way up until the flood (when it is likely the Garden was relocated to heaven, until it could be returned to a New Earth after the end of all evil).  What you believed was not important.  Go to the entrance of the Garden and what you found was an armed angel to keep you out.  Nearly 4,000 years pass by this way.

But a demonstration of the divine does not repel evil.  During the 4,000 years man became so evil, it made God sorry He made us; excepting for Noah, and Noah far from perfect.  Pass by another few centuries after the flood to the time of Moses.  The children of Israel witness miracles beyond what History could have ever dictated.  They pass through the Red Sea, and have a cloud of perfect temperature in a desert of normally scorching heat.  The snakes and creatures of the desert remain hidden in their dens while Israelite feet are nearby.  At night, the cloud turns into a pillar of fire, providing light, and heat in a desert that is otherwise very cold and dark.  And nocturnal wildlife stay home while Israelite feet are nearby.  Forty years of these conditions, but evil arises from time to time, sometimes in nearly absolute rebellion.  What you believed did not matter, over your head was a cloud, or a pillar of fire, depending on the time of day.  But pass by only a century later, and all that remains are the written accounts of Moses.  A century more, and writings are everything.

And now Jesus has reached the scene.  He is preaching and teaching.  He is healing, loving, and restoring us.  And the leadership of His church rejects Him for want of power over the people.  Was it stupid to believe in a still coming Messiah that Jesus now embodies?  Was it stupid to believe in Adam and Eve, and a talking snake?  Was it stupid to believe in Moses, and the miracles of the sky that happened every day while in the deserts of the Middle East?  Crowds of Israelites now wrestle with these beliefs because once again there is a material witness to the facts of History, instead of just the stories of History.  The leadership tell the people that Jesus is a blasphemer.  They tell the people that Jesus is a false prophet, possessed of the Devil himself.  To listen to Jesus is to be expelled from the Temple, cast away from the sacrificial system whereby salvation can be achieved.  To be expelled is to cut one’s self off from the forgiveness of sins.  Or is it?

Matthew now recounts in his gospel a story in three parts.  In act one, the context is set.  It picks up in chapter nine beginning in verse 18 it says … “While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. [verse 19] And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.”  So many things to unpack in only two verses.  First, at the beginning of this chapter, Jesus told a man his sins were forgiven him, then proved it by healing him from a lifelong debilitating disease.  This meant, that being cut off from the Temple was no longer a death sentence of retaining one’s sins.  Being attached to Jesus was to find the only real outlet for the forgiveness of one’s sins.  The threat of the Temple leadership is no longer what it once might have been.  But this is what happens when God replaces men at the center of our religion.

Next, understand the position this supplicant maintains before this encounter.  He is a ruler.  This would mean that up until this request of Jesus he was in the Sanhedrin or ruling class.  He did not suffer from poverty, or even oppression by the Romans.  He was respected.  He likely had servants, nearly all rulers did.  In worshipping Jesus publicly, he would be putting everything he had at risk.  The Romans were not certain of Jesus yet, but He was being watched.  Anyone associated with Jesus would join that watch list, but anyone rich doing it would draw intense scrutiny.  The Romans did not need a worshipper capable of funding a war against them.  Poor folks were only desperate.  The rich could accomplish quite a bit more.  Worshipping Jesus publicly declared to his family and friends where his allegiances would lie.  He was out.  He was public.  He would be immediately cast aside by the Temple leadership, and you can believe, lies would be crafted about him right away to make this “sin” worse.

And finally, he was stupid.  What else do you call it, when someone believes something that History has never demonstrated is possible?  What else do you call it, when you search for life from a condition beyond the grave where death has already set in?  Is that resurrection, or is it salvation?  Do you see the condition of death you abide in today?  Your heart beats, your lungs move, but your “life” is one of pain, death, and mediocrity.  You “live” only a tenth of what you could.  Not because of poor health, or poor means, but because of poor thinking.  You trust to the habit of trying to save yourself from your sins, trying to gut-it-out and not commit certain things you know are wrong.  But all the while the desire to do those things is as strong as it ever was.  Failure heaped upon failure.  And History acts as a razor against your beliefs.  But it is not Jesus that is wrong about what you believe, it is what you think the role of Jesus is.  Jesus is the source of whatever new life you are bound to have.  Jesus cleans you up.  Jesus takes away the desires you cannot remove.  And salvation from the “death” you abide in, begins to take place.  Now who is the stupid one?

And note the response of Jesus to this request to breathe life back into what is now dead.  Jesus does not ponder the idea.  Jesus does not send it out to committee to insure there is a consensus before He takes action.  Jesus drops what He is doing and immediately leaves to find the home of this little girl, because of the request of her father.  It is not the faith of the dead one that will be tested here.  It is only her father that through his humility and submission to Jesus has sparked what will happen next.  Let the world think of him what they will, this father has a plan to see love restored.  This father has a plan to see the love of his little girl burn bright in her eyes once again.  This father has buried his hope and his faith in the person of Jesus Christ.  Whether we think that stupid or not.  And Jesus is moving, moving right away.  Those who will follow Jesus are indeed following after Him.  For Jesus always moves decisively towards seeing life return to the dead, even when that condition is only spiritual.

What this ruler did, is what you and I do, asking for life in the context of our death, each and every day.  If we have never witnessed salvation against death, it is because we have never really allowed Jesus to fix what is dead within us.  This was not a story of a father raising his daughter from the grave.  This was a request by a father for Jesus to do, what only Jesus can do, bring life.  This father makes that request, no matter how stupid it sounds to those around him.  No matter what history has demonstrated, History is about to be up-ended.  There will be a new History after this.  There will be a new set of facts from which we can derive a belief.  There will be a new set of eye-witnesses.  But then over time, all that will remain again is the written word of this account.  And centuries past that, the written word will be everything.  The story will not prevent all evil, but it will demonstrate the power of Jesus against evil and the death it brings.

Is it stupid to believe what you have not seen yourself?  Is it stupid to rely upon the witnesses of others?  What about believing something you do not at heart think is possible.  The power of Jesus is beyond what you could ever imagine.  No matter what others believed, there was an Angel in front of the Garden for 4,000 years.  There was a cloud over the desert, and a pillar of fire at night for 40 years.  There was our God on earth in the form of Jesus Christ for 33.5 years.  And now, there is a tried and true way, for you to see the death of your life ended, and a real “life” beyond the imagination of this existence waiting for you in the here and now, not just in some far removed afterwards.  Find Jesus, give to him what you call your life, and watch what He does with it.

And this was only the first act of three in this story …

 

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.