A PhD in Cruelty ...

How hard is it for you to be “nice”?  Does your significant other (or perhaps a close family member) seem to enjoy sharing “painful” truth about you, to you?  Or is it you, who cloaks pain with truth, when you speak to others.  Often folks who do this, are not even aware they do it.  But the ones on the receiving end are acutely aware.  Everyone wants the truth.  And nobody wants pain.  So how you reconcile those two things may be a matter of sensitivity if you care about how someone else feels.  Blatant truth, that is, truth told without the slightest regard for how it will be received, or how much pain it can cause – is the mark of a student aiming for their PhD in Cruelty, whether they know it or not.  And for those who enjoy cruelty; to see tears well up, to see dreams dashed with reality, to break the spirit of the young.  For these folks, cruelty is something beyond the boundaries of education, it is a high art form.  But for Christians, the only blanket for truth is love.  You can share painful truth with me, when I know it breaks your heart harder than it breaks mine.  When your tears flow faster than my own, then whatever pain there is in my truth is couched in a love that cannot be denied.  At that point, painful truth, is constructive at best, and commiserated at least.

Cruelty however, is something that can be taught.  Victims become proficient perpetrators.  And long-time exposure to inflicting cruelty causes dullness in recognizing it, and lack of motivation to treat it.  It is a tool of Satan to stamp out the love-response-mechanism in us all.  And what you do for a living can greatly impact how much cruelty you learn to tolerate, and perhaps inflict.  For example, its harder for a cop.  Imagine how much horror and cruelty a policeman is exposed to over the years of their career.  Their job is to jump right in to man-hurting-man and try to stop it.  They see us at our worst.  Either inflicting great pain on others, or falling victim to the pain another inflicts.  Most of us don’t seek out cops to form friendships, have dinner parties, and generally be a support system for them.  Instead we sit behind our televisions or computer screens quick to judge the failures of a few; attributing those failures to everyone; and all the while decry racisms of all “other” forms as being rampant in those who chose to protect and serve us.  None-the-less they continue to serve.  Everyday a battle to remain human, while exposed to the worst of humanity seen in crisis nearly all the time.  But at least cops understand the hope to make society better.

Try being a front-line soldier for a living.  That career requires you to kill others.  Kill, or be killed.  It is hard to kill others without finding a reason to dislike them, perhaps to hate them.  So we try to walk the tight rope of teaching our soldiers to protect each other, while hating the enemy, enough to kill the enemy, but not enough to become barbarians in the process.  Let’s face it, America rarely enters a war with another nation, unless the deeds of that nation rank in our barbarism scale.  Then we fight back.  But history has a long habit of pointing out that war makes barbarians of us all, blurring the lines between the good side and the bad side if all we do is examine the worst of what each of us has done.  My grandfather was a full-bird colonel coming out of World War Two, I believe he served in the army aircorp at that time.  He is buried in Arlington National cemetery with his wife now.  He saw combat in the Pacific.  Survived an enemy bomb that killed every other officer in the tent, was promoted, and continued to fight.  My grandfather was a gentle man, at least what I knew of him.  But he brought home a visceral hatred for anything Japanese.  And he did not want to talk about it.  He saw something.  Something so horrible, he could not get it out of his mind.  Even decades later it was just as raw as ever.  The cruelty he witnessed was so bad he could never forget it, or ever stop blaming for it.  But he was blessed enough not to let it completely take him over.

The military has always had it hard, trying to walk that balancing act between horrifically efficient killer, and common man able to enter a peace-loving society when hostilities come to a close.  Now we have a myriad of psychological conditions we diagnose our vets with, and think because we have cute names and accurate symptoms, we have solved the problem.  But the problem is a fundamental one.  We train our men to kill, proficiently kill, then at some point, tell them killing is done.  And today’s suicide rates of our vets are way too high.  It is hard to take life, then deal with it.  Some men just never try to come back from it.  Look back through history, this is not a new problem, and its hard to say whether it is better now, or worse now.  We kill from farther away, but we kill many more people with our advanced weapons.  In Roman times, you killed pretty much only people you could reach at arms length.  Archery may give you distance but lowers the body count surety.  A sword in the chest, pretty much guarantees the job is done.  Is it any wonder the soldiers in the days of Christ seem so proficient in cruelty?

The Executive of the state washed his hands and passed the buck as much as he could.  But he still ordered Jesus to be crucified.  Jesus would hardly be unique in that death.  Rows of crosses lined the roads throughout all of Israel.  Where we have light posts, they had crosses.  It was designed as a warning to rebellious thinking people.  Act out, find yourself decorating the highways of Judea in blood, your blood.  It was abomination to have this much death, or partial death, going on all the time, nearly everywhere.  But there were many would-be Messiah’s who promised freedom from Rome, only to find themselves, and their followers, and their follower’s families, up on Roman crosses, marking the roads in and out of every city.  Hatred of Rome was visual, and earned, and mutual.  Soldiers did all the dirty work.  Pilate was not going to do “anything” to Jesus himself, he would order the military to do it.  Men bathed in cruelty, who were taught hatred of the enemy is the only thing that kept them alive.  Doctrines of Satan spread then and now, in furrows of the blood of our enemies, that we feel OK about shedding.

Mercy, while steeped in the heart of Jesus for his Roman military escort, was totally void in their hearts for Him.  Matthew picks up the story in chapter 27 of his gospel to his contemporaries, beginning in verse 27 it says … “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. [verse 28] And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.”  Modesty has left the building.  The circumcision of Jesus is now clearly visible to all.  What is left of his back is bare, but blood falls from its 39 chuncks of missing meat, taken by the shards of glass tied in to the tips of the whip (cat of nine-tails) used in his flogging.  He drops blood fast enough to bleed out, but no one tends to His already horrific wounds.  Jesus was a Jew.  He was bound to die.  The people hated Him (or so it looked).  So anything these Romans did to Jesus, would bring with it, not even a shred of accountability.  The only anger they would inspire in the priests, is from making them wait longer for the inevitable death of Jesus.  And let’s face it, that was part of the Roman “fun” of any crucifixion.

Once naked, they find likely in the dirty clothes hamper of Pilate, a scarlet purple robe of royalty.  How much fun it might be to put this robe on Jesus (dirty as it was) to make fun of Him.  The maids will wash the blood out of it before Pilate gets it back anyway, so why not.  Matthew continues in verse 29 saying … “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”  And Satan grants each of them an honorary PhD in Cruetly for following his lead in this matter.  What is a king without a crown.  So they make one, weaving together a thorn bush with 2 inch long thorns, long enough to push deep into the head of Jesus, causing new rivers of blood to emerge.  At this rate Jesus may not survive even the walk to the cross.  They give him a scepter made of a reed.  Then they mock Him, kneeling and hailing Him as the King of the Jews.  And this is where they believed anyone who dared to take that name belonged.  Here, bleeding out, being mocked.  Hate has no bounds, nor has it a high threshold.  Like love, when you think you have discovered all there is, more will be found in you.  Satan tries through all this cruelty to convince Jesus, that we, humanity, are not worth it.  He is right.  This is the painful truth, though it causes Satan no pain, only glee.

None of us are worth this.  At least none of us, would go through this for each other, yet Jesus is undeterred.  Now it is time to get physical.  Matthew continues in verse 30 saying … “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.”  None of us are too crazy about the idea of having someone else hawk-a-loogie right in our face.  To have the indignity of a spit bukaki in the face of your precious Savior should cause you to cringe in horror.  But it occurred.  Jesus did not react.  Not just because His arms were so tired He would not be able to lift them to wipe away the indignity.  But He just kept looking at these men as if He loved each of them, and knew each of them personally.  This was making it lose the buzz.  So they up’ed the game.  They take back the reed, and begin to beat Him on the head, pushing the crown of thorns even deeper into his flesh every time they made contact.  Producing a new squirt of blood as if from the pump of an artery every time they made contact.  They are laughing at Him.  He is crying for them.  They are why He is here.  To save each of them.

The fun is wearing off.  Cruelty cannot sustain a high, only get one started.  To sustain the high, one must find new ways to raise the game, make it worse.  There is never enough cruelty, to keep a high going.  Besides, Jesus has dumped so much blood on the ground in front of them, they are beginning to slip.  If they stay He will bleed out, avoid a crucifixion, and get them in trouble for not following orders.  Matthew continues in verse 31 saying … “And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.”  They put His own homespun on Him again.  But they leave the crown of thorns on Him, if they pulled it out surely He would have died from blood loss.  The clothing, such as it is, is now holding His back together after the flogging.  Not much skin left, so His clothing acts as a large sack holding His body together soaking with blood throughout.  But in this condition, He is completely unable to carry the cross as was the custom.  You can bet these cruel men had ZERO intentions of helping this Jew out, or any after Him.

Matthew continues in verse 32 saying … “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.  [verse 33] And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,  [verse 34] They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.”  They made it to the place designated for this execution.  Lucky them.  Had Jesus died en route there would have been no end to the anger.  The Romans could care less who they made help them out.  When they get there, they offered Jesus a pain-dulling stimulant, to give Him some chance to live longer.  This was not a mercy.  It was a continued act of cruelty.  The point was to see Jesus suffer as long as humanly possible.  If Jesus died right away, it kills the fun of it.  But when Jesus tasted what it was, He refused to drink.  In his depleted condition, you could not force Him, or you may just kill Him on the spot. 

Matthew continues in verse 35 saying … “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. [verse 36] And sitting down they watched him there; [verse 37] And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  The doctors of cruelty who have no idea about ancient Jewish prophecies now fulfill another of them without the slightest knowledge they do so.  They threw dice for the homespun of Jesus.  Once you wash His robes, they might be awefully nice to add to a wardrobe.  Further cruelty, He will die naked and exposed now for all the world to see.  What would be our shame is now His shame.  No modesty, no compassion, only cruelty.  They choose to nail His hands and feet to the cross.  They could have tied Him up there with ropes, but ropes are less painful.  Nails, or rather spikes, will pearce Him clean through and increase the pain by an order of magnitude.

But while the sound of spike through bone is heard by all, what is not heard, is even a whisper of condemnation for those who are in the middle of inflicting all this cruelty upon Him.  Jesus had to die.  But this level of cruelty was our choice, not His will.  Yet still he does not call out any who sin against Him personally, to condemn them for what they do, even though their cruelty would have surely gotten any one of us to hate them in response.  The horror of sledge hammer through bone is heard.  Continual planking and squirting of blood, yet not a word of condemnation.  This was the most evident public sin of all time, yet nothing from Jesus who knew their every thought.  And somehow still, modern Christians believe it is “their job” to point out sin.  Leave the sin diagnosis with Jesus, and frankly focus on getting the repair there as well.    The sign they erect over His head proclaims Him King.  None of these men probably read; they are not even sure what they posted.  But orders from Pilate so, so be it.

It is convenient for us to think we would never stoop to this level of cruelty to anyone, especially to Jesus.  So instead of pounding in a crown of thorns, or planking spikes through bone, we offer death by a thousand cuts instead.  We speak our blatant truth with no regard, and let the chips fall where they may.  But they are not our chips.  They are the pieces of hope and faith we shatter in another because we demonstrate to them that our version of what love means, is devoid of any caring for what another thinks and feels.  We believe it is “our duty” to call sin by its name, and speak the “will of God” as if “we” knew that will.  Our Pharisee forefathers had equal arrogance.  They too recited scripture and clung to their singular interpretations and were now killing Jesus because they too believed they knew the will of God. 

We call ourselves Christian, and then proceed to dismember others with our speech, ironically thinking we do them a favor.  We do not.  If we loved them, so much that it broke our hearts to even consider sharing with them a truth that might hurt them as well, we would find another way to say it.  We might even follow the example of Jesus during this entire event and keep our peace, keep silent.  Or we would stand there with our brothers & sisters sheltering them throughout, so that they knew we were with them forever.  If tears are to flow, let them be our tears first.  Love that cares, cares.  It is not blind to the heart of others, even in matters of truth.  Let us burn our degrees in cruelty, and study love in its place.  Let us wrap truth in a hand-stitched blanket of love, never more in a platted crown-of-thorns, before we even consider delivering it.  Let us elevate love to a high art form, ever pursuing a mastery we may never fully attain.  And in so doing, speak or see cruelty never again.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Ivy League of Illiteracy ...

Imagine what happens to the quality of education at Harvard, if the minimum requirements for entry were reduced to a third-grade literacy standard.  The teachers do not change.  The exorbitant price does not change.  But the quality of the students drops from “the perceived best-of-the-best” to nearly illiterate students.  How could a class progress without at least some semblance of a baseline education?  Imagine Oxford trying this out.  Would parents who fund a “prestigious” education continue to be willing to fund one at Oxford if the caliber of the people went from blue-blood to blue-collar?  If Yale did this, could even the sports or music programs survive?  While there are many talented people who can run or sing without the benefit of “much” education; lowering that bar all the way down to third-grade, are they still teachable or coachable at that level?  The reason why the ivy league remains the ivy league (apart from the small fortune it takes to attend them weeding out those ‘less desirables’) is the purported high academic and social activity bar they all set.  Being exclusive tends to foster exclusivity in us all, and so the economics of exclusivity remain largely untarnished.

But the economics of brilliance are not truly confined to the halls of ivy league institutions.  Many a man or woman who has yet to step upon an ivy league campus will find themselves having accomplished so much, or innovated so much, or inspired so much; that the first time they step on campus at Harvard will be as a guest lecturer.  And while ivy league engineers (or drops out of) continue to produce technology that enables entire populations to advance, the economics of those made rich by technology advances are not constricted only to the ivy league alumni.  They extend into the populous of “regular” people who come up with “good” ideas.  The good idea that pans out in the realm of technology can produce a level of wealth the inventor hardly imagined.  Is he solely dependent on his own prowess to achieve this, perhaps not.  But if the wealth created is possible without benefit of the ivy league student debt (or absent parents of sufficient means), then is the need for these vaunted institutions still as high?

Yet the common perception remains, the person with the highest formal education is most likely to succeed.  People who have attended an ivy league institution for that education are even more likely to succeed.  Statistics bear that out.  At least the statistics of common intuition, or perception by those who are not as high on the social or educational rung.  And let’s face it, it is hard for someone who did graduate from Harvard not to think of themselves as having achieved something the “common man” will never be able to do.  This self-perception will only be enforced by their peers who are forced to admit it is probably true.  So when you go to the doctor, and you see the certifications from Harvard on his/her wall; don’t you feel just a little bit better?  Oh sure, other doctors can achieve brilliance in any field, and not all of them are ivy leaguer’s – but if you don’t know them that well, an ivy league diploma does inspire a little more confidence than a night-school equivalent.

And where we understand this phenomena in our social world, we seem to have taken it into our spiritual one.  The “masters of divinity” educational title, as taught by institutions of higher learning, that enforce rigorous educational standards like an understanding of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.  Deep intensive studies of the Torah, or prophetic interpretation are standard fare.  The life of Christ is a big topic.  And most institutions that are affiliated with a particular denomination, teach that denomination’s doctrinal interpretations on many matters, expecting a deep level of understanding of these interpretations before graduation is possible.  Ministers, evangelists, or workers in the gospel who have graduated with these types of degrees and diploma’s are thought to be well prepared, and perhaps so they are.  It is as if, our Pharisee and Sadducee forefathers were still writing the scripts and setting the social expectations of our day.  And the same self-perceptions of arrogance that are easily adopted from colleagues in our ivy league institutions in the secular world, give way to our colleagues in the spiritual world who complete their education in this manner.  And in the spiritual realm, there is deference by the “common” man, to the well-educated one.

But is this how it was meant to be?  This is how traditional Jews expected it in the days of Christ, and perhaps how we continue to expect it now.  As Matthew continues to write his gospel to his fellow Hebrews he knows what they will expect.  It has been the societal norm for generations.  And what he is about to recall is going to upend it.  Picking up in his gospel in the last part of chapter eleven, Matthew begins to relay a message to his fellow Jews they may not enjoy, and neither will we by the look of it. Beginning in verse 25 he continues saying … “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”  Yikes!  This is earth shattering.

The most brilliant religious truths that will ever be understood are “hidden” from the wise and prudent.  No amount of preparation will make them ready to receive or understand this Truth.  In fact, it has worked to keep them from understanding.  Think of it.  All that education.  All those hours studying the Torah, and reviewing the scrolls of the minor and major prophets.  All that time debating with peers about the meaning of scripture.  The right scripture by the way, not something from a different god’s agenda.  But it did not matter.  When the time came to see the Truth, the wise and the prudent, the best prepared of Jewish society, the most likely to succeed, saw nothing.  The Truth was hidden from them.  But not as punishment, as cause and effect.  When my education leads me to believe I “know” what is true, instead of forever being dependent upon God to show me what is True; I block myself from the Truth.  This is the danger in thinking that permeates our society and our church to this day.

The people who should know the Truth, do not.  And how do you know?  The measure of the yardstick is love.  How much a person loves, is an indicator of how much they know the Truth.  It is not the depth of the doctrinal understanding, but the depth of the love that bubbles over in them.  For it is the second part of what Jesus says that confirms it.  What was hidden from those who believed they had no need, was revealed unto babes.  Babies have no doubt of their need.  They respond to love and offer love in the only ways they know how to do.  They are not deep in other knowledge, but essentially empty vessels, who know nothing, and are ready to learn everything.  They do not teach anything but learn everything.  They observe everything.  They notice everything.  And they are so dependent, they would die without being taken care of.  This is the state of people God the Father chooses to work with, because this is the only state of people ready to hear what God has to say.  It is as if the “common” illiterate man, is capable of learning more from the mouth of God, than is the doctoral candidate.  Let that sink in for a while.  The Jewish community to which Matthew was writing was sure to have a field day over it.  But these were the words of Jesus, who was in fact the Truth.

Jesus then continues in verse 26 saying … “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. [verse 27] All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”  This was even more mind boggling.  The Jews had made a lifetime of knowing the Father God through the scriptures.  They simply presumed that is who scripture revealed.  The Messiah was somewhat of a mystery to them.  They had little expectations of really getting to know the Messiah, He was simply supposed to come in and overthrow the Romans, and usher in an era of Jewish supremacy for all time.  This Jesus was clearly NOT doing that.  Ep-so-facto this Jesus could not be the waited for Messiah.  But in addition, the Jews felt like they knew God the Father already, Jesus had nothing to teach them on that score.  They simply did not need Jesus, they already had a direct connection to the Father by birthright and by study.

What they missed in their “infinite wisdom”, was that scripture revealed Jesus, was inspired by Jesus, and it was Jesus who had the direct connection to mankind all throughout scripture.  Jesus in the Garden of Eden walking with Adam and Eve in the evenings.  Jesus walking to Sodom before it would be judged, sitting with Abraham and having a meal, telling Sarah she would give birth at 90+ years old even while she giggled at the thought of the shear mechanics.  Jesus wrestling with Jacob at night.  Jesus revealing his back to Moses on Mt Sinai, and His finger writing out the Ten Commandments.  Jesus in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrews who would not bow.  Jesus throughout all the stories, and now here in the flesh.  Jesus the embodiment of God’s love for His people.  Later Jesus who stopped Saul and made him Paul.  And Jesus who would be revealed in prophecy through the remainder of time by John at Patmos.  Scripture does offer us insight as to who God the Father is, but only through the lens of Jesus Christ. 

The learned Jews felt no need of Jesus to see God, so they did not see Him.  And the learned Christians in our day seldom recognize how much baby they are, and so see the Truth very little.  We have supplanted birth right with self-awareness.  We are now self-sufficient in our salvation, and therefore have little need of Jesus to save us, trusting to our knowledge to take care of that.  And so we see little of the Truth.  We have replaced the Truth with our collective wisdom.  And what happens in the modern secular economy of brilliance happens in the sacred one as well.  Men and women arise, who have very little formal education, and wind up accomplishing so much, inspiring so much, innovating so much – that we admire them long after they leave the world stage.  The 12 disciples carried with them the Holy Spirit, their lack of education was no impediment to creating the first church.  Obscure heroes since like a teenage girl who carried the gift of prophecy and penned so many books and testimonies they can hardly be counted.  The babes see, where the prepared of us, do not.

Then as if with laser vision, Jesus looks right at the Pharisee and Sadducee who can hear Him speak.  He speaks to their greatest need, and to ours.  He continues in verse 28 saying … “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [verse 29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. [verse 30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  This message may apply to the common man, but the common man Jesus was just speaking about is already being given the revelation of who Jesus really is.  The message is spoken to the church leadership who needs it the most.  Stop trying.  Stop taking the burden of your salvation and your education upon yourself.  Bring it to Me instead.  The greatest promise in nearly all of scripture was not meant in a physical context, but in a spiritual growth one instead.  See the baby you are, and find rest letting Jesus be the Parent He is.  Letting Jesus teach you is easy, and light.  Letting Jesus be your tutor will bring rest unto your soul.

It does not take your self-dependence and self-reliance to achieve greatness and see truth in the spiritual context.  It takes your recognition of your complete baby-hood.  No matter how far you think you have come.  No matter what you think you have learned or wisdom you have amassed.  You know nothing.  You have no wisdom.  You have only the loving eyes of a very small child that Jesus longs to pick up, cradle, hold, feed, and protect from the world around you.  Your every care is in the hands of an unfailing parent who loves you more than His own life, something He proved.  Think not to teach, but to learn.  Think not to speak but to listen to the still small voice yearning to share with you Truth beyond your wildest imagination.  The vehicle for learning is not an institution of higher learning, governed by a bunch of other babies.  It is the source of education in the Truth, who alone can reveal what you need to know, in the only way you would understand it.

There is rest in this approach.  There is peace in this approach.  It is promised by Jesus Himself.  And it is waiting for you, in the dependence you have only to recognize, discover, and embrace …

 

Matthew (The Gospel of the Hebrews) ...

Prologue ...

The disciple Matthew was called by Jesus from his job of collecting taxes for the Roman empire.  Most tax collectors of that day were crooked.  They asked for more than Rome demanded and pocketed the difference themselves.  The people were unable to refuse, for to refuse to pay the Roman tax was an invitation for a death sentence, and for slavery for the remainder of the family.  So the people could not argue, they could only pay whatever was asked.  As a tax collector Matthew was a record keeper.  He had to be fluent in more than just the local language.  He had to both read and write.  Within the Jewish faith, where he was hated, his job would make these skills of no effect.  But within the Christian faith, these skills could be employed to great effect. 
 

As with any book contained in our scripture, there are always plenty of theories about when it was written, additions placed in it over the years, and doubts as to the original author.  If faith were based entirely upon human efforts, human science, and human history; this book might be considered nothing more than a collection of “sayings” and stories about the life of Christ.  But those who believe that our God would not allow it to survive if it were nothing more than a collection of lies to base His church upon; for those believers, Matthew offers so much more.  Matthew was a Jew, who appears to offer a Jewish traditional perspective on the Messiah.  This is not in opposition to the Gospel of Jesus, it is in full support of it.  Matthew shows Jesus as the fulfillment of every hope, of every prophecy regarding the Messiah that the Jewish people had so longed for.  His Gospel was written from this perspective.  The Old scriptures that foretold the Messiah were not in error, they were correctly fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The body of our church is stronger because each of us have a different perspective on Jesus Christ.  No single perspective is correct or rather complete.  Each perspective builds upon the other, until a fuller picture begins to emerge.  The Gospel of Mark, recalled to him by his friend Peter, was sufficient in telling the story of Jesus.  But the Gospel of John offered it from a Greek perspective, and used methods and comparisons they would understand better.  Here the Gospel of Matthew looks to reach a Jewish audience and explain how the Old Testament scriptures remain in harmony with the reality of Jesus Christ.  Something our present-day churches would do well to remember.  All scripture should be examined through the prism of Jesus Christ.  Without the lens of His life, and His love, we lose the truth of what has been written.

So let us give Matthew’s Gospel a second look and add to the fullness of our picture of Jesus Christ …

To Stain Reputation ...

There is a reason why a lie is an abomination.  A lie is the tool to slander, and malign truth, especially The Truth.  Innocence had been convicted in the courts of pride, by men, by religious leaders who would not cede control to it.  For 2000 years the tactics have not changed.  Threats to power, threats to those who believe themselves to be in control, must first be destroyed in reputation, before in body.  The Sanhedrin in the days of Christ, is little different than the halls of power that exist today.  The pretenses may be different, but the tactics employed, and the results to the innocent are identical.  The Sanhedrin wanted more than the blood of Christ at His death, they wanted Him to be seen as guilty.  They wanted the common people to look upon innocence and call it guilt.  Yet another abomination to add to the rap sheet of religious men and their satanic master.

What would begin, was a long and calculated effort to make the name of Jesus of none effect.  Emmanuel, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Christ; all titles associated with Jesus from Nazareth must be taken from Him, or dragged through so much mud, no one could recognize them again.  The Truth was convicted of blasphemy against God; or in other words, God was convicted of speaking against God.  There was no sense in it.  There was no logic in it.  There was only an abundance of hate in it.  Love was nowhere to be found; hate was dripping in the air itself.  First, Jesus would be taken to the place where the lowest of criminals were taken.  This would be no place of honor, but instead to a place of ignominy, reserved for the scum of the earth.  Jesus would not meet His final hours in apathy, but in a rage against His name, against who He was, calculated to make Him guilty, by the association of guilty things all around Him.

Peter recalls the horror of how men would treat His Lord to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen and picking up in verse 22 saying … “And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.”  Death was to be by intent.  Torture to precede death was to be by intent.  This place was the place dedicated to just such a thing, to just such a mission.  No one landed here who had any hope of living or lasting.  They bring Jesus nowhere near the Temple, or any place of mercy, they bring Him to the place of a skull.  This act alone could help them heap insult upon the reputation of Jesus.  They could not understand how Jesus could see this place as a place of redemption.  For in their eyes, this place was only a place of death, of horrific death.

Mark continues in verse 23 saying … “And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”  Grape juice mingled with myrrh to dull pain, prolong torture, and make the horror of His death last longer.  But Jesus would not take it.  With a back and body still bleeding like a civ, from a lashing one lash short of death itself.  The whip laced with shards of glass, and the crown of thorns pressed deep in His head from the blows by the reed doled out by the Romans while they mocked Him.  The pain to the body and heart of Jesus had to be as extreme as it gets.  But He refuses the drink designed to dull that very pain.  He prefers to keep His mind sharp, even though it keeps the pain at its level.

Mark continues in verse 24 saying … “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. [verse 25] And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. [verse 26] And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Peter was not there.  He knows what happened but at best he was far away when he witnessed it.  So Peter omits the nails pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus.  But Peter knows about the removal of the clothing of Jesus, the humiliation of hanging naked for all to see.  In front of the tortured Lord, they part the homespun cloth as a dead Man will have no need of this anymore.  But Romans enjoy irony.  So above the head of this Jew lies the inscription THE KING OF THE JEWS.  This is meant as a testament to all other Jews who would rise up against Rome, that this was their fate.

Mark continues in verse 27 saying … “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. [verse 28] And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.”  Criminals die together.  Jesus would not die alone, but would die with others who were clearly guilty of their crimes.  Guilt by association.  Guilt by proximity.  Jesus does not see these men as criminals doomed to a fate they well deserve.  He sees men who have endured and inflicted such pain by their choices to embrace sin.  This is a pain Jesus would take from them, and free them from.  While their fate on the cross will not change, their fate beyond it could be made free, and eternal, no longer bound to the desire to serve self.  To be no longer destined to repeat a life of similar choices was why Jesus was hanging in between them in the first place.  Jesus must pay their ultimate cost, so He can free them and restore them to a life without such pain ever again.  But what the world sees, what men see, what too often you and I see; is only three criminals.

Mark continues in verse 29 saying … “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, [verse 30] Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”  And the plan works.  Passers-by, travelers on the way to Jerusalem, remember the words and teachings of Jesus.  But now, given where He is, given who He is with, use these words as a taunt to prove to themselves, that Jesus must really not be the Messiah after all.  Had Jesus come down from the cross, these men would not have been converted, only surprised.  Faith does not originate from fear.  Faith does not originate from insult and challenge.  Faith originates in a love that recognizes what Jesus does to transform who we are.  It comes from submission, not control.  These men had no intentions to believe no matter what the challenge.  They were already convicted of the Savior’s guilt, by where He was, who He was with, and what was happening to Him.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. [verse 32] Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”  Let there be no doubt as to where the religious leaders stand on the issue of Jesus, and His innocence or guilt.  The Sanhedrin joins in the mocking, and challenges.  They ask Jesus to do, what Satan desperately wants Jesus to do.  Satan wants Jesus to take the easy way out.  To stop all this redemptive work and decide very logically that “we” are simply not worth it.  “We” have earned the destruction we face, if Jesus does not pay this penalty for us.  So stop.  Just stop dying.  Go back to your Father, and leave these pathetic creatures to me.  Satan’s thoughts, his temptation, comes to voice in the taunts of the religious leadership of the true church of God.

At this point, even the criminals beside Jesus join in, in taunting Him.  But worse than this.  The plan is succeeding wonderfully, as scripture reads, they “reviled” Him.  This means they looked upon Jesus as having a reputation lower than their own.  Both of them did this.  Peter does not hear the repentance of one of them before it is too late.  Peter is too far away.  He only hears the jeering, the taunting, the mockery.  Peter misses the redemption and sees only the guilt.  How often do we too, continue to see only three criminals?  We miss repentance because it is quiet.  We are ashamed of our misdeeds, and so are not inclined to shout about them while repenting of them.  Instead we whisper our sorrow over what we have done, and beg in humility to be forgiven which we do not deserve.  How often are accusations hurled loudly against our brothers in church, but apologies said only quietly and in private later on.  Crowds seldom see an apology.  Reputations are damaged in public, and never repaired in quiet lonely places of humility.  There only guilt is assuaged.

Peter is suddenly cognizant of the time.  The crucifixion began in the third hour of the day.  Mark continues in verse 33 saying … “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [verse 34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Three hours into the crucifixion, a strange darkness covers the entire land.  The plague that hit Egypt before seems to hit Israel now.  Everyone knows it is daytime.  This is the reason Peter is reciting the time precisely for us.  But the sun refuses to shine, the stars will not yield their light, nor the moon.  There is nothing but fire to provide light as torches must be lit.  On the day of atonement in the year of Jubilee this miracle begins to happen.  The priests and Sanhedrin have left the scene to attend to their duties in the ceremonies at the Temple.  But they know the reason for the darkness.  The darkness is within them.  And fire may be its only cure.  It is a harbinger of where refusal leads.

But then, a language of heaven is revealed to us.  Peter remembers the story of the bloodless hand that wrote on the walls of Babylon in a language no one could interpret but Daniel.  It foretold of death and doom nearly upon them all for the blasphemy they had engaged in.  Now while on the cross, the language again appears to us.  This time spoken by Jesus, and interpreted by Peter to Mark.  Jesus cries out in agony as to why He must be alone to face this punishment.  But then hell, is the absence of God.  So Jesus must endure a separation He has never known in His life, across space and time.  It is the thing that will kill Him.  It is not all the physical pain, as that has become nothing to Him.  His mind can only focus and detect and absence of His Father’s presence.  He is truly alone.  He is more alone that we will ever be.  For this is the real punishment He is living on our behalf.  And we see with only base eyes, not comprehending what He did then, nor 2000+ years later.

Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. [verse 36] And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.”  Those still standing around hear this outcry, but do not understand.  They know the darkness.  The Romans know it too.  Everyone is nervous, nothing like this has ever happened before.  The Jews believe Jesus must be calling to Elisha or Elijah to come and rescue Him.  They offer Jesus vinegar as a stimulant to make sure He is awake for whatever, or whoever, comes next. 

Mark continues in verse 37 saying … “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. [verse 38] And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [verse 39] And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Many things to unpack in this scripture.  First, it is the separation from God, the unanswered prayer, that kills Jesus.  In effect, Jesus gives up the ghost.  It was not the pain that did it.  It was not the spear that would do it.  It was the keen effect of losing contact with His Father God.  The torture of separation from God preempts the Roman plans for days and hours in agony.  If only we too would feel that deeply about keeping distant from God, instead of treating it so casually.  The earth is shaken when Jesus dies.  I imagine the energy wave is sent into space into the farthest corner of the universe.  Satan thinks briefly perhaps he has won.  But a risen crop of first fruit quickly shatter that idea.

Darkness still covers the earth.  For the first time, the day of atonement ceremonies feel as though they are being done at night, instead of in daylight as tradition and the law demand.  As the blade is raised above the sheep, Jesus dies instead.  It is Abraham’s experience in reverse.  And simultaneously the Temple curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom, rent in two.  Common worshippers and Temple servants stand awestruck staring into the Most Holy Place directly at the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy seat is empty.  There is no presence of God there any longer.  There is no more reason to wear bells on the hem of the robe and a rope around the ankle to drag out a high priest unworthy of this sacrificial presentation.  It is finished.  It is history.  What will come now, is something new.  The sacrificial lamb slips away amid the chaos and the fulfillment of scripture.

The Romans fear for their lives.  They have their own worship system, consisting of many gods.  They actually think it superior to the Jewish idea of one supreme, all powerful God.  They laugh at that idea; until today.  When the darkness appears, when the death of Jesus occurs, when the earth is shaken, the Roman guard there is left with only one conclusion.  Surely and truly this man was the Son of God.  Notice he does NOT say the King of the Jews.  This is a divine event, not a manmade one.  This is creation weeping at the loss of its maker.  The Roman feels it, as much as he knows it.  He is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit even while standing here at the foot of the cross, at the moment of the death of Jesus Christ.  The Roman’s words echo.  This is not some quarrel between warring factions of gods with limited power; this is a tangible demonstration in the nature of the universe of a singular power, and its depth of sorrow over the death of Jesus Christ.

And so the remorse must begin.  Did I nail Him down to this cross?  Did I lash His body with the whip of leather and glass?  Did I push the crown of thorns upon His head deeper while hitting it with a reed?  Did I spit on Him, in His face?  What sins have I done to this Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  What sins have we done to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  Every time we choose to embrace sin knowing this cost, are we not Romans of old?  Our sin guides our hands to pick up the hammer and spikes.  Our sin guides our mouth to spit in the face of God.  Our sin guides our greedy hearts to leave the Lord naked, and part His clothing for a greed that can never be satisfied.  We looked and saw only three criminals.  But now we see two men, and the Savior of all mankind.  But we treated them all the same, all ruthlessly, all without mercy.  This is the cost of our self-love.

Only when it is too late does a reputation reveal itself.  Only after we have tried to kill it, do we recognize what we do.  When we see each other through the eye-glasses of hate, we do the bidding of Satan himself.  When instead of three criminals, we see instead three family members where the loss of them would break our hearts, we begin to understand how God sees us, and how we should see each other.  There is not judgment in that kind of love, there is only redemption in it.  If there is judgment to come upon us, it will be brought by us, as we gaze awestruck at how far love would go to save us, while we refused it.  We should guard the reputations of those we love.  We should love even those the world sees as just another three criminals …