Smack Down [part 3]; The Price of Getting it Wrong ...

How you do something is nearly as important as what you do.  Imagine the chaos that would reign in the ring if there were truly no rules, no holes barred.  If suddenly a tightly choreographed ballet of wrestler-meets-wrestler became a fully unscripted, unrehearsed free-for-all of may the better, stronger, and more determined man win.  Imagine the shock and surprise.  Imagine the real injuries that would come from doing for real, what up till now was only part of that tightly choreographed ballet.  People would get hurt.  Seriously hurt.  And all of the sudden it is not fun anymore.  Not fun to do surely, but also, not fun to watch.  It is easy to watch a melee we know in our hearts is tightly controlled.  But to watch carnage is not what anyone truly tunes in for.  For the audience, no one wants to see real harm, real damage.  It makes it hard to sit still and just watch it.  You want to get up, you want to do something, you want to make it stop.  And as God watches this earth.  He knows it is not choreographed.  The war for mankind is very real.  And the damage is very real, pain is very real.  And He just wants it to stop.  But He cannot make us listen, or instead of humanity, He would have only created biological robots.  Instead man must choose his fate.

But what happens when we choose wrong?  Oh sure, it is easy for the Christian believer to sit back in the easy chair and just think, once you choose Jesus, you’re done.  And frankly that is sort of true.  The problem is that we package Jesus, with a whole list of doctrines that are supposed to be teachings of how to connect with Jesus better.  Sometimes those doctrines do a great and wonderful work.  And sometimes we just get it wrong.  We wind up teaching something that not only does not bring us closer to Jesus, it takes us farther away, pointing us in the wrong direction entirely.  That is not just an oh-well-moment.  That is more like a literal oh-my-God moment.  Turning away from Jesus is a sure-fire way of finding carnage that you are at the center of.  It is removing the rules of protection, and entering the ring outgunned only to find your opponent brought a chain-saw he already has running and completely intends to use … on you.  Doctrines that distract put us in this position.  Fanaticism of nearly every kind can do the same thing too.  And the carnage is not pretty, and it really hurts.

So what does God do?  He tries to warn us.  He sends us His messengers (imperfect as they may be) to warn us, and try to keep us away from the carnage.  And I am not talking about avoiding some after life hell everybody bemoans.  I am talking about avoiding real painful carnage in this life, in the here and now, that any given demon is all to happy to bring your way.  He sends us His people to try to keep us of group mind, and more importantly of a group heart, where love might help us avoid, what otherwise looks attractive.  God has written His love letter in the form of His word (the Bible).  In this book of love, He tries to tell us the story of how we got it wrong to start, and He has been working every day since to help us get back to what “right” looks like.  We can read it.  And through the lens of the life of Christ, where Jesus demonstrates every day what love looks like, we can understand better what His love letter might mean.  But for those of us given to extremes, it is easy to misinterpret that love letter to mean some predefined agenda.  We package up those thoughts and ideas, and brand them a doctrine.  Then we force feed everyone else the doctrine that might save them or get them lost, based on how they respond.  What started as a love letter degenerates into hate mail; all by altering the perspective of the reader to fit their own agenda instead of what He originally meant.

This danger is not new.  It did not start with us.  But it has a horrific tendency to be continued by us, in ways we may have become numb to.  Sometimes when we do become numb, it takes a spiritual smack-down by Jesus to wake us up, and begin to see the error of our ways.  To make us see, we got it wrong.  And ultimately to help us change course before the carnage heads our way (chainsaw rumbling in the distance).  Matthew continues the object lesson of Jesus, of our price for getting it wrong in chapter 23 of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He picks up with Jesus talking in verse 23 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [verse 24] Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”  Yikes.  The first woe issued here is about fanaticism in the church.

Our Pharisee forefathers knew the obligation of paying tithes back to God.  They did not see the love in it, because they did not use love as the lens through which to read God’s love letter.  So lacking love, they read only the obligation of paying tithes.  Apparently God was only another tax master.  And while God did not have a readily apparent tax agent to collect His due.  There was a history of monstrous things happening to Israel when their sins got bad.  So better to avoid captivity by paying God off with what he required.  10% of the increase is tithe.  We generally hold that to be 10% of our incomes from jobs.  So did they.  But they took the matter a step further.  The word “increase” could apply to flocks and sheep.  So why not to spices in the spice rack.  Therefore in an effort to be fully compliant (again note the lack of love), they actually taxed themselves 10% on literally anything that went into the kitchen.  Even the smallest things we would never even consider.  Straining at the gnat.

It is like going to a picnic to eat.  And to avoid eating unclean things, you carefully sift your pepper, to insure not a single gnat has died and fallen into the pile or container.  And while you meticulously sift each grain of pepper with your left hand, you hold a camel burger in your right hand eagerly munching away.  While perhaps the notion of not eating a dead bug accidentally is OK (extreme given the venue, and low likelihood it is even a risk, but OK); eating camel burgers is strictly prohibited, and horrible tasting as well (just a guess, you don’t see many camel-burger stands going up everywhere for 2 thousand years).  Without love as the driving motive, Pharisees had only corrupt and selfish judgments.  They handed out rulings and decisions that favored themselves, no matter who else it cost.  Sound familiar?  We vote for ideas that will benefit us, even if others must pay for what benefits us.  Even if those who pay can least afford to.  And we call this progressive, or disruptive thinking.  Its not.  Its simply walking where our Pharisee forefathers once walked, for the same reasons they did.

The disease of extremes must continue to be called out.  Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [verse 26] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”  Apparently a strange custom had developed so long ago, of washing the outsides (or bottoms if you prefer) of plates and cups.  But leaving the insides or tops alone.  I guess the idea would be to let the crumbs of the last meal, help flavor the current one.  While this might work once, or maybe even twice, over time it is not flavor that lasts, but mold that begins to grow.  It is then a “new” flavor that infects the new food you intend to eat from the old that for whatever reason you keep neglecting to clean.  And mold flavor brings with it, you guessed it, carnage.

So with a dishwasher in every home (we call ours “me”).  Perhaps we cannot relate to a dirty plate analogy.  But how about a more personal one.  What is the dress attire requirements at your church for worship services?  It used to be “the best we had to offer”.  Over time that became a three-piece-suit.  That evolved into a jacket, lose the vest, keep the tie.  Then perhaps it was lose the tie.  Then for the bold, it might become lose the jacket.  But wear a pair of cargo shorts and a tommy Bahama look alike short sleaved shirt, with tennis shoes, and see what happens.  I know (it is how I go to services now).  And just so you know, my decision was not one of disrespect.  Rather, I dress like I do, every other day of the week.  I would like to believe that I dress to be able to help those in need when I encounter them.  And as my disabilities make it very hard to dress any more formal than this, this is the least pain in getting presentable.  But does anyone bother to ask me about that?  Does anyone look past the cane with the four feet, and reason perhaps that had something to do with it?  Not where I go.  My church family is surprising accepting of me (that is, no one has had the nerve to say a single negative word).  But I expected it, and still do.  Cause how I package the outside of the plate, is still something most church goers pay more attention to, than what is on the inside.  And forget me, this is a phenomenon that has infected our sanctuaries for years, from our ancient roots right up to this day.  We focus on the packaging, and turn a blind eye to the insides, and how we love.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. [verse 28] Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  It is almost as if Jesus peered into any traditional church body in America.  Or perhaps into any executive office suite where serious money is made.  Looking the part, is a distinct part of our culture, in and out of the church.  We worry about our packaging, believing it says something about who we are.  It does.  It says we worry about our packaging, perhaps more than being fit for practical service.  And perhaps our assemblies are more inwardly facing, where we feed each other, you know, the already fat sheep; instead of assembling out of our normal comforts and going where the need is, to meet it.  Not because we have to, but because we are driven to, because we just cannot sit still and watch others in carnage for one more minute.

Service is rarely “pretty”.  When I do the dishes in my house, I look anything but pretty.  I struggle to stand, to balance, to get the job done right.  I am hunched over leaning on the sink to steady me.  And yes, we have an automatic dishwasher so why do I bother.  (Technically it is full of hoarded containers for some reason I am not allowed to throw out.)  But beyond the technicalities if I am able to do the dishes, my wife who works hard in her hospital trying to help patients facing life and death dilemmas get better or at least feel better, won’t have to come home to a dirty kitchen, and find even more work to do.  I am no saint.  Nor am I clean freak.  I make more than my share of mess as I am sure every husband does, that my wife without a word comes behind me and cleans.  We do what we can for each other, because we are afforded the opportunity to.  It is not a contest, it is a pleasure, the pleasure of trying to ease each other’s burden, even if only a little.  And what it leads to ultimately is time, more time we can spend together, which frankly is worth more than any place where serious money is made, or where euphoria over spiritual repetitions are recited ad nauseum.  We probably don’t look too pretty in our “house clothes”.  But as I said service is rarely ever pretty, at least on the outside.  But what I see when I look at her is a fire inside that is immune to age, health, or inability – and to me that is beautiful no matter whether it comes dressed in scrubs, 15-year-old house shorts, or a negligee from Vickie’s.

It is time for us all to see the beauty of service to others.  Not just to our families, but to any who have need.  Not for brownie points, or to earn heavenly demerits, but because the passion to sit still while carnage is ever present is just something we can no longer abide.  It is this passion that comes from transformation, and it is available without measure to any who seek it, in the form of submission to Jesus Christ.  My Pharisee forefathers refused to submit.  They preferred extremes of law, to extremes of love.  And they like we, cover the ears so as not to hear, even as God sent His messengers (imperfect as all of us are) to invite them back to love.  Jesus continues in verse 29 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, [verse 30] And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. [verse 31] Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. [verse 32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. [verse 33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

Smack down.  To me.  To my generation.  Woe to us.  For we say … “if we had been in the days of Jesus, we would not have been partakers with them in His blood”.  And in our next breath, we deny His love, rely upon ourselves, and fail miserably.  Then we propagate our doctrine of self-reliance to our children, and our sphere of witness, to no effect.  We teach action without motive.  Because self-reliance may control action, but has no effect on motive.  So we try to act our way into heaven, fooling no one.  It will be our own damnation we cannot escape when by grace we walk His golden streets.  To know the time we wasted, and lost.  To see the lives we could have showed just a little more love to, but failed and lost the opportunity, sometimes forever.  It will be our own knowledge of perfect love that will perfectly condemn who we are today in our own eyes then.  That damnation is our inescapable fate, even on golden streets.  Unless we can begin our journey of submission to Jesus now, in the here and the now.  Only then can our feet move from well-trodden paths of failure, into the green grass of His direction.

Jesus calls out to them and us in verse 34 saying … “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: [verse 35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. [verse 36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”  I am confused, is He talking to them, or is He talking to me.  When I ignore the prophets in His word.  When I deny the power of His gospel, by stubbornly holding to the image in the mirror to somehow find perfection when history would demonstrate this is impossible.  When my denial is as great as theirs, do I also share their fate, and the blood of those slain to try to recall me to the Feet of Love itself?

Listen to the ache in the voice of Jesus who so longs to love us, when still we reject Him.  Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”  He is not just speaking to those long gone from the earth.  He is still speaking straight to me, and to you.  How He longs to gather us under His wings.  But we are too evolved for that.  We are modern, and educated, and well to do.  We have no need of a protector, let alone of a savior.  We intend to do that work ourselves, strengthened by our doctrines, and certain in their interpretation, with no room for error or mistake.  And still Jerusalem would not.  Not the city.  But us the group of believers who claim His name, yet know not His real power to change.  And so it comes, the price of getting it wrong.  The price of our arrogance, and pride.  The price of our hypocrisy and refusal to submit.  The self-imposed hell of separation from His Love He so longs to give.

Jesus writes the epitaph picking up in verse 38 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [verse 39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  The smack down ends.  There is no point to more, if the message will never penetrate the person’s ear, because they refuse to let it.  Is this where our lineage to our Pharisee forefathers makes a break from their path of self-reliance?  Or do we too follow along blindly clinging to our doctrines, our hypocrisy, and our complete lack of passion for others on any level.  This is where I must rage against my heritage.  I wish to hear His words, open my ears, and my heart, and become someone other than who I would make of me.  There comes a point where forgiveness is just not enough.  Where a real change in behavior from a real change in motive is the goal we live for.  Forgiveness gets us started but it is not the end of the road, it is only the beginning.  A life past His transformation is the only thing we should seek with singular purpose.  To let Him remake how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  And Jesus will.  He does this to every willing seeker.  No matter your past, or your present, your future can still be something so much better.  It is worth more than anything.  Don’t ever let it go.  Let this smack-down be the last one we ever need …

 

Smack Down [part 1]; The Price of Pride ...

Maybe it is cathartic to sit back in the big easy chair and tune in to one of the various professional wrestling groups present a good old fashioned “smack down”.  The villain gets the applause, but ideally the hero comes back in the end to win it.  While it looks so real, everyone understands that no one is actually supposed to get hurt during the fiasco.  Just a lot of melee, chairs getting thrown, people tossed outside the ropes, and a conclusion that seems to leave the audience coming back for more.  I cannot honestly say I am a fan (at least not since Tojo Yamamoto ruled the ring some 40 years ago); but sometimes I sure see the appeal of the villain getting what is coming to him.  And the more trash-talk the villain does before his demise, the sweeter the victory when he is defeated.  That idea the villain seems to nurture about himself, that he is “the greatest”, and “he cannot be defeated” – yup, it is that kind of pride that when it goes before his fall, makes the fall just feel awesome (at least for me, and the audience anyway).

And it is easy to carry that feeling into many other areas of life.  The know-it-all kid who is just so certain of everything they say; sometimes it is just a little bit satisfying when life proves they didn’t after all.  Or that boss who is just so sure they are right about pretty much everything; when the facts reveal they weren’t, I get the wrestling flashbacks in the back of my head.  The hardest part about most of these situations is that argument, and debate, are pretty much useless with these folks.  They get an idea in their heads, and they sink their teeth in like a pitbull on a fresh cow bone – hmmm good.  Nothing seems to shake their self-confidence until life hands them a literal “smack down”.  Only then do they realize their certainty was misplaced, and in truth they were wrong.  Whether they can admit they were wrong tells us a bit more about who they are.  But they know it themselves in their hearts no matter what the public persona is willing to admit.

Enter the church elder.  When you practice religion long enough, you begin to sometimes think of yourself as a “church elder”.  It may or may not be a professional part of who you are, but inside, where only you can see, it takes over how you see yourself.  On matters of doctrine, you are the fountain of learning.  Others should come to you for answers, you don’t go anywhere else to get them.  On matters of counseling, or advice, you think your own words at the top of the heap.  From a priority standpoint you see God first, angels second, and then you – in that order.  Now chances are, you either know folks like this, or if you can’t think of anyone like it; it is probably you.  But these people have existed in every faith, since faith started out.  Lucifer was the first one.  He knew the pecking order in his church.  God first, Jesus second, and then him; the chief of all angels.  But pride got him wondering why Jesus was second, instead of him.  And once he started his Pitbull-on-a-cow-bone ideology, nothing could shake him from it.  He reasoned his logic was as good as anyone else’s, maybe even just a good alternative to what God thinks.  Not bad you see, just different.  And why shouldn’t you control your own thinking, and your own destiny?  6000+ years of pain and death have answered that, including killing God.  So for us the verdict is in on Satan.  But we still seem to follow the same line of prideful thinking he did so so many eons ago, even in our own churches.

I find the term “Pharisee forefather” quite useful.  It reminds me, that all the things I read about them going down the wrong path apply just as much to me today.  While I cannot imagine myself plotting to kill Jesus; I do find myself believing I don’t need anyone other than my choices to save myself.  Sound familiar?  How much are “you” the answer in your own salvation; as opposed to Jesus doing it all.  When you don’t see your need, you stop asking for help.  And before you know it, you are cruising down ACDC’s Highway to Hell, the tune still echoing in your ears.  My Pharisee forefathers did not perceive their own needs either.  They reasoned they were “good” people.  They did perform many good deeds (most of them publicly, you know, for witnesses). 

They followed all the rules, that is to say, they invented rules that were even more detailed to insure they followed them.  They knew scripture better than anyone else (even the author).  Just ask them, they would tell you.  They spent hours reading, studying, debating, and learning.  Not so much loving.  But all that other more meaty stuff anyway.  So why on earth would any elder this prepared and this educated, submit themselves to an upstart Hippy with no formal education, who constantly keeps blathering on about love.  Love, Love, Love; He just won’t shut up about it.  Its like wandering through the hills at Woodstock at one of His rallies, instead of a well-controlled, well-planned, formal study presentation with PowerPoint slides and a multimedia setup.  “Get a job and a haircut”.  “Grow up”; life is more than love.  It has to be right?  Right?

But Jesus just had other ideas.  And Jesus could see right through us.  He knew what we thought about ourselves back then, and right now.  And for my Pharisee forefathers, and maybe for me, it had reached a point where perhaps only a good old fashioned “smack down” was going to get through to either of us.  Our pride had gotten so thick, our eyes were crusted over, and we did not see.  Our ears were crusted over so we barely heard.  And the mind was just full of gook.  We needed then, and sometimes today we still need, an OUTSIDE accurate assessment of where we really are; and where our words lead.  Jesus was here to reconcile, reclaim, and re-create us all.  That is to say, ALL of us, are in need of this.  Perhaps it had come time to tell us more directly.  To get us to stop, and roll back our words, and our thinking.  Maybe the hair isn’t important at all.  Maybe the job of redemption should be the only job we care about.  Maybe the Author of our scriptures will always know them better than us, and it is time we seek His wisdom instead of constantly offering our own.

Matthew starts the story of this in his gospel to the Hebrews in chapter twenty-three picking up in verse 1 saying … “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, [verse 2] Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: [verse 3] All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.”  Many things to unpack here.  First, Jesus recognizes that organized churches do have a need for servant leaders, who are willing to carry that responsibility.  In days of old the phrase sitting in the seat of Moses, meant carrying the weight of decisions and leadership within the church.  Jesus does not complain about this.  Nor does he say, throw the bums out.  Instead, He offers support to them, by asking His followers to listen to what they say.  To pull the truth from the words is paramount.  To attempt to use humans as role models does not work out so good.  While our Pharisee forefathers were well equipped at speaking; they did not seem to have a clue how to go about living it.  Sound familiar?  Pride does that.  Pride keeps us from submitting, and causes us to think we already know it all – even though our lives clearly show we don’t.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”  The Pharisee and the modern-day legalist share a common phenomenon.  When in doubt, create more rules.  Expand the list.  Make the do’s and don’ts clearer and easier to understand.  This will address action.  But it does not touch motives that drive behavior in the first place.  And so it is flawed.  But as it usually goes, the modern-day legalist, and our Pharisee forefathers get tired of trying to follow so many other rules.  And they give up on all of them.  Hoping God will just forgive them, because it is just too hard to be saved.  A lie the devil longs to enforce for each of us.  This is the problem with these burdens; they never came from God.  They exist because we do not understand harmony with God, because we continue to refuse to submit to Jesus, and let Him re-create us in that image of harmony.  Pride keeps us from allowing Jesus to save us, making us believe it is all up to us to do it.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, [verse 6] And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, [verse 7] And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.”  Earning that “good” person title is exhausting, especially when your heart was never in it.  Our modern-day saints who do good works, in order to be known as saints, who do good works, are modeling very old, failed, behavior.  And “titles”, don’t get me started on “titles”.  I am the chief sinner in this regard; always insuring my career path had ever escalating titles that sound important.  The work was the same, whether you lead, manage, or innovate.  But the escalating titles were always meant to show progression and greater responsibilities.  So how could this defective trait of my pride not follow me into the hallowed halls of the church.  Where once I craved the title “elder”, I have learned it is now something I want nothing to do with.  The more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.  But the more I have come to see the wisdom of Jesus knows everything, and truly is The Truth.  So I understand and can equate with my Pharisee forefather, looking to be seen as a “master” of the word.  When in truth, there is but one Master, and it is not us.

Jesus then lays out what He wants His new church to look like picking up in verse 8 saying … “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. [verse 9] And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. [verse 10] Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”  So long to “titles”.  Easy to pick on the Catholics for their use of the title “father”, as this is specifically ruled out by Jesus in plain English.  But the word “master” is equally thrown out.  And do we in our modern lexicon of terminology in the faith exclude specifically these two words, but instead employ a thesaurus of other titles that come to mean the same thing?  The point Jesus was trying to make is that HE alone is in charge.  If you have a question, going to Jesus is the right place to see it answered.  Getting human advice is a horribly risky thing to do.  Prayer yes.  Humanity no so much.  Better to get your potential advisors to join you in prayer to Jesus to ask what the answer is.  Our only Master, and our only Father, are within the God head, nowhere else.  Church leaders are in fact church servants.

Jesus continues in verse 11 saying … “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. [verse 12] And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”  You cannot truly serve without humility.  To see others as equal, or rather, perhaps even more worthy and more important than yourself.  To value the opinions and diversity of others appreciating how it may enrich the body of Christ, rather than attempting to pigeon hole it into the cookie cutter images you prefer.  The body of Jesus is greater than any single part of it, or perspective of any single member.  To discover the journey of getting to know Jesus, is to let go the idea that He fits in a box of your own design.  He does not.  You must admit that God is greater than yourself.  Without humility, your “service” will emanate from motives of deep-rooted selfishness you may not even consciously perceive.  You will walk comfortably with the Pharisees, and hardly ever with the poor, and those is so great need.  Pride finds friends of the proud, and rarely looks for friends in the lower class.  It is pride that creates “class” to begin with.

The time had come for a spiritual “smack down”.  We are not masters.  We are not “father” to anyone else on earth.  Jesus alone is in charge.  Humility matters.  Motives matter.  Being a “good” person is not something you do, it is only something Jesus can create of you.  And service, that comes from a passionate love of others, is where all the goodies are found.  When you get tired of living the way you do, submission to Jesus, is the easy way out.  He does not leave you the way you are; He re-creates you into what He intends you to be, and puts you in harmony with the law, with Love, and with God the Father.  Only then, can true obedience be found, free from lists, and steeped in passion.  No title can sum that up.  Time to think differently, and as a result, to live differently.  This is the gift Jesus was offering and He was not content to leave my Pharisee forefathers or myself, complacent with where we had evolved.  The Truth had started, but it was not to be over yet.

The Smack-Down was to continue …

 

Trapping Jesus ...

If you accept that there is a lesser of two evils; you have already lost the war.  Throughout our lives, we are from time-to-time presented with a choice, where both outcomes are bad.  We are asked to pick the one that is the least bad, and then expected to make that choice.  To refuse to choose is often an outcome by itself that may be worse than actually doing anything.  It is called a no-win situation.  And so often it is presented, with us falling into the trap of trying to decide how to do the least damage with what we pick.  This trap is not new.  But it represents a lie told by Satan whose premise is quite insidious.  He tells us through these situations, that “you” must control your fate by making a choice where all the options are bad.  The reality is, that while every option “we” could pick is bad, “we” still have another choice … take it to God in prayer, sit back, and watch the power of God at work.  For while humans truly are limited in their choices, God is not, and what God can do can truly amaze.

None-the-less the Pharisees had been very angered by the 3 stories Jesus had told regarding the state of church leadership, and how they might still be redeemed.  The Pharisees believed they were already good enough and had no need of redemption, especially by this upstart with no formal acknowledgement by the system of religion they managed.  This message of light from the outside was not welcome in their tightly concocted inner sanctum.  So they responded by creating three traps of their own, one by each of the main groups or sects of their religion.  This would insure fairness among them, as well as diversity of thought, so that even if one line of thinking failed there would still be another to attempt to catch Jesus up in what He said.  But underlying all their attempts would be the common premise of presenting two choices where no matter what He picked, He could be embarrassed in front of the people.  Their problem was they reasoned as men, and forgot, or refused to admit, Jesus reasoned like our God does.

The first trap would come from the Pharisees who considered themselves preeminent among their peers.  These masters of the Tora would seek to catch Jesus up in a popularity dilemma.  The topic was taxes, just bringing up the very word “tax” to an Israelite at that time, was to kindle anger of the deepest variety.  They may have picked this particular topic, because Matthew, the author of this very gospel to his Hebrew contemporaries, was a former agent of Rome collecting taxes from his brethren.  Tax collectors had earned a reputation lower than harlots or sodomites in this day and age.  They were in effect traitors to their people, doing Rome’s work, and then profiting off of it besides.  If Caesar demanded a single penny from a farmer, the tax collector may very well take two, and keep one himself.  This made the process even more onerous, and the tax collector more hated, perhaps rightly so.  So the Pharisees figured there would be no way to discuss taxes with an honest Jesus and not embarrass Him immensely.

Matthew begins in chapter twenty-two picking up in verse 15 saying … “Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. [verse 16] And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. [verse 17] Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?”  Nothing was left to chance in setting this trap.  The Pharisees sent Herodians with their disciples to act as witnesses for the state, in the event that an otherwise honest Jesus decides to get hinky with an unpopular topic like this one.  The Pharisees feared Jesus may just bow to the will of the people on this, so they actually sent government spies to watch in case He did.  They also used a proxy, that is, they sent their disciples to execute the trap so no one could ever directly accuse them of any impropriety in trying to spring a trap like this one.  Perhaps they used disciples Jesus had never met, so He would not see any connection back to themselves.

Then to disguise the trap, the disciples use the highest form of false flattery upon Jesus, first calling Him Master.  Then proceeding to compliment Jesus again on how He ALWAYS teaches the truth.  If they really believed this, they would not be there trying to spring a trap on Him.  They would have joined His ranks and become true disciples of the Most High God.  But they did not believe this, so their words were lies as they crossed the lips of those who did not mean a word of it.  I wonder, do we do the same?  Do we compliment our God in our prayers, bragging about how good He is, and how He is good all the time; yet the minute adversity blows our way, we crumble and blame God for it.  Then our true beliefs emerge as we blame God for every horror that happens on earth, casting Him as an angry God, who is looking to punish us for our deeds, instead of redeem our hearts from them. 

Or worse, we cast Him as a God who just does not care enough to save us from the horror that has come our way.  Never once acknowledging what we do, or sin, or a devil bent on our misfortune as the cause of what we stumble into.  Cancer was not put here by God, it exists because evil exists.  No disease was ever intended to exist.  It is the very presence of evil in our world that permits diseases to become part of our knowledge of good and of evil.  We were intended to be ignorant of them.  But instead we chose to become familiar with them.  This is the knowledge our God thought it best we never understood let alone encountered.  Breaking trust with God resulted in all of this.  But this was not God’s idea, and His number one job is to redeem us from evil, and extinguish the effects of evil on a permanent basis.  Not as a punishment for those who embrace it, but as salvation for those who want no more to ever be a part of it.

Beyond the lies they believe about what Jesus’ preaching includes, the disciples also compliment Jesus on being no respecter of persons – essentially that Jesus would talk to Caesar the same way He talks to a beggar in the street.  This further false flattery is not something they believe, but they are taunting Him into staying true to this course in order for Him to answer the trap badly.  And so after meticulously laying the trap, they spring it – asking Jesus if it is lawful to pay taxes.  Notice they do not make reference to which law.  They could have been talking about the law of Moses, or of Herod, or of Rome, or of God.  They leave this reference unclear so they can combat Him no matter how He answers.  This was the best minds in the country, coming up with the best test, they could imagine.  All to trap Jesus in front of the people.

Matthew continues the story in verse 18 saying … “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?”  Yikes!  It is as if a bright light is turned on in a dirty kitchen late at night, and the cockroaches who were all to happy to feast in the darkness are now revealed by the brilliant light, their antennae darting back and forth as they scream to each other “we must hide, we must hide”.  They run for the corners looking to be rehidden by the darkness, but it will not come.  Jesus perceived their wickedness.  He knows in an instant who did this, who was responsible for this, and what they are trying to do.  He calls out their hypocrisy as He knows they do not believe a word they say to Him, about Him at least.  He knows it is false flattery.  And then in bone chilling words He once used with Satan himself, He asks these wicked men, why they are tempting Him.

And do our prayers that say one thing, and our lives that witness another, earn us a similar response?  When we treat sin like gold, and freedom from sin, like a pain we want to avoid – do we not behave the same way as our Pharisee forefathers?  We have countless requests of our God, for the millions of things we think we need.  But only routine prayers to say thank you for food, and even less so when our other requests are granted.  Our prayer life resembles a child on Santa’s lap at the mall.  Our hearts are revealed to the same God who walked among us, as He walked among these Pharisees.  They did not believe they needed to change; how many of us believe exactly the same thing.  We count ourselves “good” enough already, just like they did.

Jesus responds picking up in verse 19 saying … “Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. [verse 20] And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? [verse 21] They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”  Hold the phone!!  There is not supposed to be any “good” option in this response.  There is not supposed to be a “good” answer.  This was a trap of bad vs worse, no good option allowed or anticipated.  And this is why you lose.  You, me, the Pharisees back then, all keep looking at situations with human eyes, limited by human thinking, and ideas about what is possible and not possible.  Instead, we could be turning over our “impossible” situations and decisions to God and watch what He can do, instead of trying to dictate to Him what we want Him to do.  Our prayers “telling” God what to do, are as worthless as our trying to take things into our own hands in the first place.  We are in effect, trying to lead God.  When we should be surrendering to God and following whatever He decides – expecting what He does, to not look like anything we would have thought of, and to be a million times better than anything we could have imagined.

The conclusion of this story occurs in verse 22 saying … “When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.”  This response is so strikingly sad.  They heard Him.  They were blown away that He had figured a way out of their trap.  And then they left Him and went their way.  Notice nowhere in that response was any sort of change on their part.  They did not become disciples after that.  They did not repent of their intentions.  They scurried back like the cockroach, to plan another attack in the darkness, for darkness is what they craved.  Make no mistake, when you walk away from the light, you are headed for no other destination than the darkness. 

People who treat Jesus as some kind of option, or some kind of alternative – believing that spirituality is all that counts, and doing good all that matters – walk away from His light, into the darkness of deceit.  Jesus offers you a real change in who you are, how you think, and how you love.  You cannot fix that.  You, on your own, may not even believe that needs fixing.  But it does.  It is the self-love that cripples you, and damages others.  And because self is at the center of it, you are powerless to fix it.  But Jesus is a master at re-creating you from who you are now, into what He knows you are capable of being.  He is not looking to leave you in your misery, making excuses for your pain.  He is looking to lift you out of your misery, freeing you from your pain forever.  That is the kind of change we can all embrace.  The free kind.  The kind that comes from submission, instead of control.  Walk away from your own ideas about bad and good, possible and impossible, and turn it over to Jesus, who can do things, and show you things, and make you into something you could never have imagined.  And the word regret will have meaning to you no more.

But the traps for Jesus were not to be ended just yet …

 

Using Cash as Kindling ...

Building a fire has always been a bit of an art.  Before the invention of accelerants like gasoline (highly dangerous), and even when you have matches to get it started; you still need to use something to allow the fire to catch.  Small sticks, or dried out shrubbery, or paper – the stuff commonly referred to as kindling.  The idea is that once enough of the kindling catches fire, it will begin to catch the bigger stuff on fire, and so on, until it is burning the big logs in your fire place.  The goal is not to make a “huge” fire, but a controlled fire.  You want something that will safely burn for hours without too much tending to.  And most of the time, if you do it right, you only need the use of matches, and kindling, once; at the beginning of the fire when you are just trying to get it started – not constantly while you are trying to keep it going.

For those that prefer paper as their kindling, magazines, or old news papers work just fine.  But could you ever imagine using cash money instead?  Besides being illegal to destroy US currency (through any means), it would represent the epitome of waste, to literally burn money, for no other reason than to attempt to get a fire going.  A billionaire may not feel the loss as much, but it is a loss none-the-less.  And for most of us, who are far from being billionaires, we would feel the loss quite keenly.  Ask the person you just happen to be close to any moment in time if they have “enough” money, and the answer is nearly always a resounding “no”.  No matter how much money we have, we could always benefit from more.  If we had more, we could give more to the church (a common refrain).  If we had more, we could get out of the debt we are in (though there is even less evidence to support this; the same financial decisions that got us in debt, are the same ones we make when presented with more opportunity to do so).  And for the slightly more honest among us, more money would allow us to get that “thing” we reason we cannot do without.  Few people would refuse more money.  And only a crazy person would burn it, for the sake of starting a fire.

But there are more gifts we are given, some of them directly from God, that we treat like burning cash in response.  It is easy to say our health falls into this category.  We are given health, then we eat things that over time will ruin it.  We take drugs (prescribed or not) that over time do us harm we cannot predict.  We have to breathe the air we have, and drink the water we have; but our choices to protect these resources are less than our greed very often, so our environment becomes toxic, while our wallets get a little fatter.  We are slow to exercise, and quick to sit around.  And then to top it all off, we still do the crazy things from time-to-time that risk our life and limb.  No, I am not talking about rollercoasters, or theme park rides that make you think you are near death.  I am talking more about the stupid decisions one makes when driving their cars, because they “have” to turn left or right, even though they are three lanes away from their destination.  Going another block or two just seems intolerable.  So the crazy driver decides to make that turn, or run that light, or speed up to 20 mph past the speed limit, for whatever reason, and they in turn risk their own lives, as well as yours and mine.  Though most of us are guilty of this at some point or another in our own driving histories.  Causing angels to work overtime.

There is something else our God has given us besides our health.  A gift beyond salvation, and even our health, and ironically just as precious.  He has given us His church.  To be a part of His body, is meant to be a gift to be treasured.  To serve that church, to uphold that body, is akin to a sacred trust.  Yes it is serving others, but what that services does to you, when you love, like He loves, is life transforming.  It brings you a joy, that words are hardly adequate to enumerate.  To be blessed enough, to be able to participate in the redemption of another, has eternal consequences.  Imagine being the little light (where Jesus shines His love through your demonstration), enough to spark an interest in one who knows not the love of Jesus, but because of what they see in you, determine themselves to know more.  Pointing a person to the transforming powerful love of Jesus that changes lives, is the highest pinnacle of service you can perform.  When that person walks the golden streets of our Lord’s city called Heaven with you, they may realize their journey all started because you were able to demonstrate real love, in the face of their real rebellion of it.  And for an infinite number of years, you will both be able to glorify God, for He led you both because you let love flow through you.

That is worth more than cash.  That is the most precious treasure our God has to offer, the lives of you, and those you love, even of those you dislike and the ones that hate you completely.  It is human treasure our God measures, counts, and gave His life for.  It is human treasure that matters most in His kingdom.  His church then, is the place where the human treasure is cultivated.  His church is the organization where the body chooses to cling together, to uphold each other, to share love where it is easiest.  His church is meant to be the place where those with little knowledge can be brought to learn more.  We are to experience more of His love within His church.  Turning that institution, into a weigh station on the highway to hell, is more than burning cash, it is burning lives; God’s treasures.  And it only takes the lack of love to see it done.  When gossip is juicier than consolation, when back-biting more natural than tolerance, and accusation a normal part of combating sin – we make His house a place of burning treasures instead of polishing them.

This is not new to us.  It is one of the devil’s oldest tricks.  But he has not let up on it, since the days of the first church, until the days of our own.  Tempting us, with feelings of righteousness, that we are “better” than our brothers, or even our leaders, and therefore entitled to call a spade a spade, sin by its right name, and take over as judge, instead of allowing God to keep His role.  In our arrogance we take over the mantle of Pharisee and increase the destruction tenfold; for we have both the Old and New Testaments and still we misuse what scripture we have to judge and destroy the treasures of God, instead of loving them out of their current conditions (without judgment ever falling from our lips or eyes).  And in our destructive course, we burn the cash of heaven itself, and position ourselves for an even greater burning realization – instead of a little light of Jesus shining through us – we have become the stumbling block that keeps people from seeing the love of God.  We claim the name, and have no concept of who He is, or what love means.  And this did not start with us, but could it finally end here?

Jesus longs for us still.  He told the first story to us and our Pharisee forefathers in our previous study.  But in case one story was not enough, He will offer another.  In case we could not discern His clear truth to the leadership of His church (and any of us who know Him, and wish to work in His vineyard, are leaders by default), He will tell another of redemption and possibility.  So Matthew in his gospel in chapter twenty-one picks up again with the words of Jesus Himself in verse 33 saying … “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:”  Here Jesus tells us in story form, in parable that is, of how we are where we are.  It is God (the householder) who plants the vineyard (His church) and puts up a protective hedge of love around it so nothing from the world can get in.  He puts a winepress in it, so what grows inside the church, can continue to grow and serve an even greater purpose.  And finally, He puts a watch tower in it, so we can see beyond our walls, and provide a beacon of example for those looking who may have lost their way.  This is how His church begins.  The vineyard (or church) is then let-out, or entrusted with, a husbandman, or set of church leaders.  Then our God focuses His attention far away, perhaps looking to build other such vineyards across the world, like ours.

He continues in verse 34 saying … “And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. [verse 35] And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.”  Here is where we go so horribly wrong.  It is time for the harvest.  The grapes can be pressed into wine, growing in their usefulness, their experience, and perhaps ready to travel to where the owner of this vineyard is now.  So servants of our God are sent back to His vineyard (His church), to gather up the fruit (us, the ones ready from the harvest), to be sent back to our God.  But the husbandmen (or group of church leaders) do not readily receive the servants of our God.  Instead they beat one of them, kill another, and stone another.  This is what happens when power, does not like the truth told to it.  The husbandmen is more interested in keeping absolute control over what happens in the vineyard, than to part with any of the fruit that should have been made ready within it.  Control does not breed growth, it inhibits it.

So to keep control, the servants of God who bring news of the harvest, and of the work beyond the walls we erect, are beaten for their truth.  Killed when they will not shut up.  And finally stoned or killed as heretics to the faith.  The husbandmen proclaim to what they believe is “their” church, that “outside” influences must be kept out of the church to keep it pure.  In so doing they reject the servants of God, and the truth those servants are sent to proclaim, to the church which God established.  This was the history of the Israelites to the prophets sent by God to the Kings and church of older days.  And it is the history of the Catholic church to the reformers sent by God to the leadership of that church.  And it is the present-day message of current church leaders to their flocks to avoid the lies of “other” denominations even today.  Death, and hate, espoused to heretics, even till today.  That response so categorically different than love which would rather die in the effort to redeem and reconcile.

Jesus continues in verse 36 saying … “Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.”  This was not just a single occurrence that happens only once in the life of God’s church.  It happens over and over again.  Because the mission of our God is to redeem, even the misguided, or wicked church leaders that have arisen in His body; He longs to restore them still.  But the response continues to be the same; a message of hate and death to those outside of the click, to those beyond the walls.  Control over what is inside must be maintained by those who believe they have it.  And messages beyond the borders of what we believe must be kept outside so they never permeate the thinking of the members within.  And history repeats itself, again, and again, until blood is more our record, than love could ever be.

Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. [verse 38] But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. [verse 39] And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.”  This is of course a direct reference to Jesus Christ Himself.  God sent His only Son to us.  And we cast Him out of our church, and slew Him, thinking to take all that was His.  And before you cast the blame of this backwards to those Pharisees who accomplished these feats, take a hard look in the mirror of our modern Christian churches today, who would rather legislate their own ideas of morality than to love like He loves.  Still we seek our power, only now we cloak it in political aspirations, and disguise the message as having the church under attack.  In our defensive postures we take up arms.  We “fight” back, not in submissive messages of Christ like love, but in messages of strength bathed in political affirmation, just like our Pharisee forefathers, and our Catholic forefathers after them.  We seek to unite church with state to take on the power of the state, when power is not what we need, or should want. 

It is only His love than can transform our hearts, but that message is beyond the walls of separation we have erected.  We praise doctrine over tolerance (sound familiar), and we tread the same roads the Pharisees paved, and the Catholics walked for nearly 1200 years.  And somehow we think the current course is different?  It is not.  The true Church of Jesus understands that His church belongs only to Him, not to us.  It is for Him to defend.  It is for Him to judge or not judge.  Our work is one thing alone, to love each other as He loves.  In that we would be known as His.  Not in the vastness of our structures, or collections of our art.  Not in our gospels of wealth and ease, but in our gospels of absolute love, even for those who are still trapped in their sins with no desire to get out.  It is in our embrace of sinners, our love of sinners, that may ever cause in them the notion of escaping their sins.  We need not join them in their behaviors to reach them.  But in loving them, while living in the way Jesus teaches us to live, that His love might one day reach them.  Pursuing a course of political power, so that we might instead legislate what we think He wants, is not a pathway to redemption, it is a cement highway of rebellion away from Christ.  It slays Him once again, this time in reputation, name, and purpose, thinking to take what is His.

Jesus continues in verse 40 saying … “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? [verse 41] They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”  Jesus asks what is to be done with His church leadership.  And while Jesus would still redeem us.  We in our human response, in our response that has no thought of redemption, turn our hate upon ourselves, answering we should be destroyed, slain, killed.  And the vineyard handed over to other more worthy husbandmen who would be obedient to their Lord.  The Pharisees are quick to answer this, taking no thought they condemn themselves.  We are no less judgmental even today.  But death is not the way of redemption, it is the result of refusing it, time after time after time.  The mission of Jesus was not to come and kill us all for what we deserved, but instead to redeem us all from what we deserved, and transform us from the slavery-of-self, to the freedom-of-serving-others.

Jesus then recites scripture to these leaders to bring home His point saying in verse 42 … “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?  [verse 43] Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. [verse 44] And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”  The church must be taken away from the Pharisees.  The leadership must be taken away from those who prefer power and control over absolute love.  It was taken from the Catholics and spread throughout Protestantism.  And it will be taken from us once again, if we cannot let go of our desires of power in any form, and instead seek love above all.  The cycle of repetition can end here in the last times, if we but heed the call of His redemption.  We must fall upon this rock, and be broken by it.  It is Ok to be broken.  It is OK to become someone else, to let His salvation remake us from who we are today, into who He intends us to be.  We will not be the same.  And this is OK,  It is more than OK, it is what it is needed

But to reject that process, to cling to pride, to the notions that we are already “good” enough.  Will find the weight of perfection grinding us into power.  There can be no true obedience outside of “being” in harmony with the laws and character of God.  That harmony is not self-made.  It is created only by the power of the Creator.  We cannot and will not achieve it, yet it can be achieved by Jesus within you, re-creating how you think, how you love, and what you decide.  The response of willingness to allow it, is perhaps humiliating, but also perfect in its wisdom and love.  The response to reject it leads to the only place it can inevitably wind up leading.  To death.  The desired death of the Creator, and the actual death of ourselves.  The final escape, and the solution least desired by our God.

Matthew concludes this story by recording the responses picking up in verse 45 saying … “And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. [verse 46] But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.”  The church leaders sought to kill Jesus in response to His Truth.  Are you certain we are not doing the same?  Ask yourself how passionate you are to see Christian politicians in power and Christian judges on the Supreme Court.  To what end?  To have living witnesses of the love of Jesus by example to all the nation and the world.  Or to have legal protections enacted that further the Christian ideals, and protect His church, making your particular ideas of morality become the law of the land; instead of the law of our hearts.  When transformation is our goal, we will be broken, but we will be remade.  When we believe we need the power of the state to protect us, we have already lost the battle.  For the power of the state has never been able to change the hearts of men, or improve their motivations of anything other than fear.

But the efforts of Jesus to redeem us in story were not over yet …