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 …

 

Rebukes to Leadership ...

In a contest, there is usually only one winner.  Where it comes to sports, we are fine with that.  Where it happens inside the church doors, we are divided by it.  On the playing field it is a contest of wills, who wants to win, how far can they push themselves to achieve it.  Inside the church doors, it is also a contest of wills, usually founded in the cement of ego, and rarely in consideration of “who” wins, and how many lose because of it.  Questions over doctrine, or rather over the interpretation of doctrines have divided bodies of Christ for centuries.  This has always been a sad thing, where the enemies of Christ appear the only “winners”.  But when disagreements over style and preference are elevated to questions of faith, because the ego of those in hardened positions will see no other reason; the enemies of Christ not only have the “win”, they have all the trimmings of the parades that go with it.  In these cases, division becomes the doctrine we exemplify, and tolerance and patience are put on the shelf like species of birds long since extinct.

While the membership joins in this phenomenon, and sometimes even form the catalyst for starting it, it is the leadership who bears the responsibility for quelling it and restoring order to the body.  It is our leaders who carry the burden of so patient a love, they are able to reason with members who may have long since abandoned it.  This is no easy feat.  It requires a close connection with our God, a complete trust and reliance upon Him.  And it requires a willingness to let the words of the Holy Spirit proceed from your mouth, even when you had other thoughts and feelings on the matter.  Make no mistake, there is only one entity that sows division, and would prefer a church “split” than come to resolution or tolerance to maintain the body united.  That entity is supernatural but not aligned to God, or His Kingdom, it is Satan.  The devil’s hoard may appear as angels of light, trying to persuade the believer that a certain level of fanaticism is required over some text in order to keep the “world” away from the saints.  These demons-under-mask then proceed to convince the believer that other members of the body, are in fact the “world” and must be cast out.  And before long the body of Christ is at war with itself.  While laughter in Satanic places thunders under our feet.

Division leads to isolation, and isolation of the believer like Eve who wandered from the side of her husband so long ago, leads to a vulnerability against demonic forces who themselves are aligned with a singular purpose – to inflict pain upon the heart of God, by the torture and death of His children on planet earth.  The kingdom of Satan has but one mantra, to cause man to self-destruct, to cause man to reject the love of God, and embrace the ideas of self-reliance, and power, even if the power is only self-control.  While our focus and vision remain inward, or upon ourselves, we look away from Jesus, and in so doing, sink into the sea as Peter did when asked to exit the boat and walk on water like His Lord.  Peter did the impossible while his gaze was fixed on Jesus, the minute he turned to look back at his friends, he sunk like a brick.  So when we look inward to fix ourselves, and improve ourselves, and save ourselves – we look away from Jesus to do it, and follow a plan long conceived in the dark places where only hatred of God exists as the binding agent.

In our previous study, there was a war brewing over “how” the Sabbath must be kept.  Ironically, and perhaps to the greatest Satanic glee, the war would place the leadership of the church of God, against the God they purported to serve.  It would be the grandest of all divisions.  It had already reached the point where the leadership of God’s church met formally to plan how they might destroy, that is kill, Jesus.  They were furious over Jesus choosing to heal a single man’s deformed hand on the Sabbath day, in their mind choosing to work on Sabbath, and declaring it was ok to do good on Sabbath (that is good for others).  The Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Sanhedrin were having no part in this.  This new way to interpret the law was not going to happen on their watch.  The heretic named Jesus must die, before too many of the people adopted His position of love and mercy being the most important thing.  The law was to be the most important thing, not love or mercy, or any kind of squishy stuff like that.

But unbeknownst to them, Jesus read their thoughts and intentions after their last failure to find fault with Him.  Matthew in his gospel to the Hebrews, continues the story in chapter twelve picking up in verse 15 saying … “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; [verse 16] And charged them that they should not make him known:”  Jesus leaves their grasp, but He does not run and hide.  Nor does Jesus change His behavior to accommodate the feelings of the leadership.  For Jesus cannot change who He is, nor will He reveal anything other than the TRUE will of God to us.  And what is that will?  As the great crowds follow Him out of the synagogue, they bring to Him their sick and ill, and “HE HEALED THEM ALL”.  Not only has Jesus healed one man on Sabbath, He has healed hundreds or thousands on this day.  This is not meant to be a poke-in-the-eye of the Pharisees, in fact He tells all those He healed to keep it on the down low.   To have hundreds or thousands of people declaring Jesus to be the Son of God would in fact be a poke-in-the-eye of the Pharisees, and that is not what He wants.

But Jesus heals these people because Jesus MUST heal these people as that kind of love and mercy IS THE WILL of God.  Not just for one man with a withered hand who happened to meet His gaze in the back of a synagogue, but for every single man, woman, or child, who came to Him, turning their eyes upon His, and finding a love of God, that does not ever will us to live like we live.  Jesus is not just interested in healing the physical infirmities that we have, but in taking from us the desire to sin that causes us infinitely more pain.  The reconstruction of who we are from the inside, is equally upon the mind and will of our God.  And our God is bent on performing this action on any who would come to Him to find it.  He does not discriminate in any way.  While the Jews believed this might only happen to them, because of their birthright, and because Jesus was one of them.  Jesus does this for literally everyone.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, [verse 18] Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.  [verse 19] He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.  [verse 20] A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.  [verse 21] And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.”  Consider what Matthew and Isaiah before him say of the judgment of God, of what judgment looks like to God.  Jesus heals and restores, and offers salvation to all.  That is what judgment of Gentiles looks like in real life.  Judgment that leads unto victory is the “judgment” that God reveals even to people who are outside of the deserving Jewish bloodline.  Gentiles, meaning us, will trust in His name, in the name of Jesus.

Notice what Judgment does not look like from Jesus and His Father God, there is not a single reference to “or else”.  There is not a single reference to “fire”, let alone “eternal fire”.  There is not a single reference to the keeping of the law.  This is not because the law is moot.  This is because you can ONLY keep the law through the recreation of how your heart thinks and feels, in essence how you love.  When you love others like Jesus loves others, you become in harmony with the law, such that debating how you keep it is unnecessary.  You keep it, because it is part of who you are.  And the clear will of our God is revealed.  He is not interested in dealing out punishment we deserve, He is interested in dealing out healing from the disease we embrace.  The clear will of God is the redemption of mankind, of all of mankind, to the worst of us.  That is what the judgment of God looks like to the prophet, and through the eyes of Matthew as he bears witness to it in real life.

But where the healing of one inflamed the passion of the Pharisees, the healing of so many, and of Gentiles, is more than their vanity can bear.  Any reason that might have led to tolerance, or unity with Jesus is gone.  They must destroy Him on every level.  So they begin with His credibility.  They introduce the idea that Jesus (who must be evil), is able to heal through the power of Satan rather than through God.  It only takes a quick look to compare the reaction of those who find joy in the relief of suffering, and those who accuse God of being Satan for having relieved that suffering.  Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. [verse 23] And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?”  The people see the miraculous reformation of one gone so far he was possessed of Satan, who has now been freed of Satan.  The people declare Jesus to be “the son of David” which is to say the long-awaited Messiah.

Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”  This is an attempt by the leadership to destroy the credibility of any who would dare to oppose them.  And the technique follows us down through the ages right into the churches of Jesus today.  When Luther dares to oppose Rome, dares to ask the leadership of the church in his day, to reform its practices and realign closer to the ideals of Jesus.  The first attack is to label him a heretic.  When the youth of our day, examine our hypocrisy and rigid expectations, and attempt to call us to realign how we treat those in need, and how we attempt to reach those who today do not hear – what is the first response, to label them as under the influence of Satan, attempting to bring the world into the church.  Division reigns today.  Division that would lead to isolation, and isolation to excommunication of those with different ideas.  What they do to Christ, we do to each other under the same motive and banner as the true leader of darker origins.

Jesus responds with the truth of it, for He can offer nothing else picking up in verse 25 saying … “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:”  The destination of division is destruction.  The destination of isolation is destruction.  Our churches cannot withstand the tearing of each other, and call that any kind of success, it is failure nothing more.  Those members who would engage in it, engage in the destroying the very fabric of the body of Christ.  Those leaders who would promote it, no matter what line of reasoning, or perceived fanaticism that is required, do nothing more than the devils bidding.  Division can lead ultimately only to destruction.

Jesus continues in verse 26 saying … “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? [verse 27] And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. [verse 28] But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. [verse 29] Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. [verse 30] He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”  Jesus points out that if Satan loses his unity, his kingdom would fall just like any other.  The leading of people to Jesus therefore cannot be of Satan, and so must be of God.  Otherwise Satan’s kingdom loses the very thing it wants.  The goal of Satan’s kingdom is to lead people away from Jesus not towards Him.

Then comes the most stinging rebuke to church leadership offered down through the ages.  He that is not with Me, is against Me.  The leadership of the church in the days of Christ was not with Him, and therefore decidedly against Him.  Those who value the law over love and mercy that underlie the law have found a way to be against Christ.  The rebuke continues; and he that gathers not with me, scatters abroad.  Those leaders who do not war to maintain unity, war to sow division.  Sabbath observance was never meant to be confined to a list of do’s and don’ts – it was meant to be about a relationship with Jesus, that values our time with Jesus, and puts away anything else we can avoid so as not to be distracted from that time and association for a day.  Every seventh day we are afforded the presence of our God in a special way like no other.  Are we so bent on squandering that because we have “important” things to do like work, or shop, or entertain ourselves with themes the world enjoys?  Are we ready to be so selfish with our time with God, that we would cause others to serve us during this day, and therefore miss what God may have to offer them?

Or for a change, can we rethink about how we spend our time.  Can we enjoy music that calls the mind to Jesus, no matter what that music sounds like.  Can we observe visual stimuli that is rooted in the stories of the Bible or of modern Christianity, that calls the mind to Christ and inspires us to share with others.  Can we relook and open our eyes to those in need, be they in pews next door, or in street corners of need, or in families and missions we have heard need our time as much as our money – and in so doing, go attempt to meet that need.  Can we redirect our conversations to the testimonies of what God does for us, and how, and how often.  And finally, can we change the perception of what the clear will of God is, and begin NOT to accept the condition of how we live; asking God to heal what medicine has long been unable to do, or asking God to heal within us what sins we have long been bound up in a cycle of commit and forgive.  To do well upon the Sabbath, to keep it holy, is not just the absence of work, of the following of lists, it is to reflect such love and such mercy that we become the conduits of our Lord Jesus Christ and reflect His light instead of our own blighted perceptions of a God more interested in punishment than redemption – particularly on the day He set aside for us to demonstrate what being close to God might really look like.

 

The First Revelation of Ministry ...

The first of anything is always unprecedented.  Sounds like common sense, but the idea of “unprecedented” has more of an impact on us, than just the word “first” sometimes.  The term unprecedented by nature then is used rarely, because it is experienced rarely.  The first time a president elect chooses to use Twitter instead of the main stream media has been unprecedented as an example.  The level of crisis in Aleppo Syria is unprecedented to the residents who live there.  And on the plus side, the birth of our Savior was unprecedented as well.  No virgins ever gave birth before that.  Satan may have done his best to counterfeit this characteristic of the Gospel in other pagan religions.  But the real event, the real virgin birth was unprecedented.  It didn’t hurt to have angelic choirs, magi from the East, and a dedicated star leading the way either.  All of these supporting events insured the unprecedented nature of God entering our earth in human form.

But while many miraculous events marked the birth and youth of Jesus, the main event had yet to begin.  The ministry of Jesus was on the doorstep.  John the Baptist had been preaching about it with a fervency that could not be matched.  The Holy Spirit was blessing the ministry of John, convicting his listeners of their need to repent and come to God, symbolically through baptism, and now possibly literally through human contact with Jesus.  As with His birth, the counterfeit events Satan created in other pagan religions were not going to come close to the real thing.  All the deities of Satan demanded things of man for their favor; Jesus would be the only God who offered things to man, even to His enemies.  The real ministry of Jesus was about to be unveiled and it was truly going to be a first.  It was truly going to be unprecedented.

So how does the unveiling take place?  An event this glorious is sure to begin at the Temple in Jerusalem, in front of the High Priest and the assembly of the Sanhedrin.  All of Jerusalem would be called to attend, well at least, anyone who was anyone in polite society, would be called to attend.  Jesus would submit His authority to the Priesthood and the Sanhedrin.  They would give Him His marching orders, and discuss how soon Rome was to be evicted from Israel.  Then the existing leadership would start making plans about which leadership positions they wanted in the new government Jesus was sure to form.  After all, Jesus was going to need good lieutenants and counselors, in order to maintain order in the provinces.  This was certainly the view of those who led the church in the days of Christ.  But it was not the way of Jesus, or of His Father.  They had different ideas.

First must come the ratification of the ministry of John the Baptist.  The same nut, who called the Priests vipers, and had a message of shock and awe for church leadership, was to be validated by Jesus before Jesus did a single thing on His own formally.  That did not make any sense to the Sanhedrin.  But it made perfect sense to those who heard the message of Elijah in the words of John, and the power of the Holy Spirit that Isaiah had predicted.  God was moving near the Jordan river.  Not moving the waters, but stirring the hearts to repentance.  The announcements of the proximity of Jesus that John made every day were not the empty rattling’s of a homeless crazy.  They were a prophecy of the Truth, who was soon to be among them.

So Jesus begins His ministry without pomp or circumstance.  He foregoes the formality of the Temple, and the authority of the Sanhedrin, and looks for a place and a man of abject humility.  And there he finds his cousin, a willing servant of the most high God.  Matthew begins his account in chapter three of his Gospel picking up in verse 13 saying … “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.”  Say What?!  From the point of view of church leadership this move makes zero sense.  And frankly from our perspective some 2000 years later a lot of questions emerge as well.

First, Jesus had no sin to be baptized from.  He had no need of repentance because He lived a perfect life.  So why request this act that would have no real meaning for Himself?  Second, for those who care about perceptions, the audience standing near was sure to interpret this move as Jesus being no different than they were.  But He was different.  He was God.  They were not.  There could not be a bigger difference, yet doing this action would cause them to think, He was just one of them.  It is a bit deceptive if all you judge actions upon is their appearances.  How many of us still judge so?

Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”  Look closely here as John knows Jesus to be the Son of God immediately, without hesitation, and without doubt.  John is not wrestling with the identity of Jesus.  John knows full well that Jesus is the Messiah.  Not because he read about it in a book.  Not because he was related to Jesus by blood.  Not because of the conditions of His unprecedented birth.  John knows Jesus to be God, because the light of divinity shines through the eyes of Jesus as they stare right through John to the depths of his very soul.  John’s response is to further humble himself.  John wants Jesus to baptize him, preferably with Holy Fire, but water will do too.  At a minimum Jesus has this all backwards.

Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”  Interesting the choice of the word suffer.  He might have used the term, humor me.  He might have commanded John, but He did not, instead He pleads with John for patience and acquiescence.  He gives John the reason, that this tradition is part of the fulfillment of all righteousness.  And there it is.  The real motive of Jesus begins to emerge.  Those witnesses on the banks of the Jordan river, were in no less need of baptism after the arrival of Jesus than they were before it.  Our need continues.  Our embrace of the symbolism continues.  Jesus does not eradicate the practice of baptism, He endorses it personally by example.

There are those modern Christians who believe they need make no public display of the embrace of humility and service to our Lord.  They believe that “what is in their hearts” is enough.  Yet across the New Testament church, baptism becomes the entry, the gateway to the faith.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit happens after baptism.  Though I am certain His ministry occurs across our lifetimes.  Jesus does not get baptized because He needs it.  He does it because we need it.  We will need it later, even after His work for us on this earth reaches its fulfillment.  There is always need for repentance.  There is always need for humility.  There is always need for submission.

And the ministry of John the Baptist is validated and ratified in no higher a way.  God Himself, ratifies John’s message and its continued need.  John does not go home after this encounter with Christ.  He does not resign and go on a tour to Disneyland.  Instead he is even more committed, even more energized.  If Jesus had ignored John, that continuation may have never had its fervor.  But then the unprecedented happens.

Matthew continues in verse 16 saying … “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: [verse 17] And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is the definition of unprecedented.  No other baptism went like this one.  No other baptizee came up out of the water and found the heavens opened up, the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove, and very voice of the Father God saying these words.  God the Father Himself bears witness to the identity of His own very loved Son.  God the Father Himself declares in front of all who are there, who Jesus is.

The ministry of John is ratified.  But even more important, the ministry of Jesus is revealed to begin, by His own Father in heaven.  What John has foretold is reality.  It is their reality.  It is our reality.  This was more than a first.  This was a one time only event.  The coming of the Messiah was now.  The fulfillment of the prophecy given to Adam and Eve, given to Noah, given to Abraham, Moses, David, and countless others has reached its zenith.  For 4000 years humanity has waited for this.  We have waited for an encounter with God.  And sadly, some of us, are still waiting.  Not because our God is unwilling to reach us, but because we have substituted the worship of self in His place.  We preach the gospel of self, of self reliance, instead of submission to Jesus.

There is no need of baptism, when submission has been fully discarded.  The mirror makes no demands on our humility.  It asks us only to serve the image we find in it.  But Jesus offers us so much more.  Jesus offers us an escape from that image, and a journey towards something bigger than we have ever dreamed of.  Our self imposed limitations have kept us enslaved to mediocrity at best, and depravity at worst, when what Jesus offers us is a perfection we have not even imagined.  Perfect health.  Perfect minds.  And a Perfect ability to love unencumbered by slavery to self, and the image in the mirror.

Matthew makes no comparison between Old and New Testaments in this passage, because there was no reference that could have encompassed it.  Unprecedented leaves Matthew only reporting what he has seen.  And this was only the beginning …

 

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 …

 

Recursion Boggles the Brain ...

One of the harder concepts to master in the field of computer programming is the idea of recursion.  What it represents is the ability for a sub-routine (or collection of statements) to call itself during execution until some condition is met.  The easiest non-computer-geek way to illustrate this is to stand in front of a mirror, with another mirror behind you.  All of the sudden the mirror in front reflects your image in the mirror behind you, which in turn reflects the image of you in the front mirror and in the rear mirror, which in turn … you get the idea.  Programmers face the same dilemma you do when standing in between a front and rear mirror; how do I get useful information without the danger of creating an infinite loop. 

Another type of recursive example might involve time travel.  If you could travel back in time to witness an event, but because you did so, you changed that event; then why would you have traveled back in the first place?  The event you went back to witness never existed, so your motivation to see it would never have existed.  Even assuming you could travel through time, you would have likely picked a different event to witness … but then if witnessing changed that event … you begin to get the idea of a recursive sort of outcome.  The only way to avoid it, is to travel through time on a linear basis always moving forward.  But what if your perspective on time (and space) is not linear at all?  Imagine for a brief moment, how our God sees time (and space).  If God is everywhere at once, or omni-present, it stands to reason He sees all of time at once.  The author of space / time is likely not bound by our perspective of space / time.  He transcends it as He wishes, since after all, He is its creator.

Being able to see everything as it occurs, because you witness it, would allow you to “know” everything from shear witnessing if nothing else.  Being participatory in events however, intending to change their outcome for the better, would provide the best hope to positively affect them as is possible.  This may well be the state that our God exists within (being described from a human perspective).  This may also be but a glimmer of the potential of the state our God exists within.  But why mention it?  If just the examination of recursion, time paradox, and infinite perspective that might boggle the brain of even our best quantum physicists just gives us all a headache; why bring it up?  Because if in our vanity, we ever assume, we “know” more about science than our God, we may want to dial back the arrogance, or find ourselves coming to an all-too-late realization, that our tiny perspective limited God’s potential impact in our own lives.

Jesus, had a test of His own like this.  The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes who made up the Sanhedrin or ruling body of His day, had just been testing Him on 3 different subjects, all designed to trap Him in front of the people.  They had all tried and failed, to embarrass Him, expose His limited knowledge, and get the people to abandon this fraud; but He was not a fraud.  They did not succeed, instead they exposed their own lack of knowledge, and hypocrisy.  They walked away from their encounters with Christ, angrier with Him, because they had tried and failed to prove Him wrong.  Not all did, there were a few, who may have allowed their own minds to be opened by the Truth of the responses of Jesus Christ.  But most, emerged humiliated, angrier, and more determined to expose or kill this upstart from Galilee, for after all, what good had ever come out such a place as Galilee?

But Jesus was not done with them yet.  When an enemy declares their intentions against you and I, we tend to respond in kind.  If our enemy strikes at us, we try to strike back.  We even use scripture to justify our actions declaring the admonitions of Moses and the Law stating … “an eye for an eye”.  We found our quest for revenge, or justice depending on the perspective, based on this idea we believe is deeply rooted in the Old Testament.  Yet for the stories where punishment, or the ends of justice was meted out in the Old Testament, each one was accompanied by repeated attempts at mercy.  We ignore the facts that our God’s first response to our hate, our attempts to strike at Him, our vanity is mercy, forgiveness, and love.  He wants us back, not dead.  He wants us home with Him, not out wandering hurting ourselves and those we claim to love.  But our view of even scripture has been warped to suit our blood lust against those who would dare to declare themselves our enemy, or worse take action to prove it.

But Jesus is not done with us yet.  To the vain leaders of His own day, who were so sure they knew scriptures better than the Author of Scriptures, Jesus had a test for them.  To the vain leaders of our own day, who are so sure they have a full grasp of everything within scripture, Jesus’ test of recursion, still endures.  The point Jesus was trying to make with those who declared themselves to be His enemy, whether then or now, was that there is more in scripture than meets the eye, and more in science than we still can understand fully.  Peter recalled the incident that followed the failed tests of men to John Mark in his gospel in chapter 12.  Perhaps when Peter recalled it, even he did not fully understand it.  Perhaps when John Mark wrote down the words of Peter, perhaps he did not even fully understand the very words he wrote.  But then, this may have been the point of Jesus for them and for us.

Picking up in verse 35 it begins … “And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?”  Jesus begins with the premise.  The view of the Messiah that was to come out of the Sanhedrin would be the point upon which Jesus focused.  Jesus did not wish to focus on some random minority opinion about a characteristic of the Messiah.  Instead Jesus wanted to keep the focus on a main point, something the great majority of scribes would be in agreement with.  Scribes were the transcriptionists of the day.  It was their job to record scriptures over and over each day from old to newer parchments, preserving the accuracy exactly to maintain truth from one generation to the next.  They prided themselves on this feat, and on this responsibility.  And for all their accumulated knowledge that comes from writing and re-writing the words of the Bible, they had yet to absorb the love contained in its pages.  None the less, Jesus would question and thereby draw attention to, a chief characteristic of the Messiah, as agreed upon by the Scribes.

Jesus continues in verse 36 saying … “For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.”  Jesus now outlines the scripture to sustain His point made above.  A few things are worth note.  Notice that Jesus quotes David directly about this assertion.  Jesus says that “David himself” said these following things.  This was not written by a scribe in David’s day about David.  This was written by a scribe in David’s day quoting David.  Then notice that Jesus immediately follows that David did not write these words of his own volition.  David was being prompted and guided by the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.  It would appear from this citation of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit has been in charge of our scriptures since way before Pentecost occurred.  The Holy Spirit has been with us much longer.  It may be we were not looking for Him until Pentecost, but He was indeed here.  Lastly then, Jesus lays out the recursion with “the LORD said to my Lord”.

Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.”  Jesus explains the dilemma for the all-knowing Scribes of His day; how can David call himself Lord, and also be His son?  We examine this scripture with hindsight, answering that since Jesus created the world, David is His son.  And since Jesus had established David as the King of Israel, David was also Lord.  And since Jesus was to descend from the lineage of David, Jesus was also the son of David.  So looking back at history, the answer comes by broadening the perspective of this textual question, to include the passage of time that our God would not be subject to, even if David was.  In short, our God is immune to the passage of time, He is not bound to its linear perspective.  Sounds easy for us right?

But take a deeper look at what Jesus was saying.  If our God is not bound by the same perspective we are as it comes to time / space.  Then when it comes to our salvation, does it not stand to reason, every attempt that could be made to save us, would be made to save us?  Our God is not just silently witnessing time beyond the bounds of linear passage, He is actively engaged with each of us, attempting to change the outcomes from bad to good.  But He cannot force us to love Him or accept His love, and still call it love.  Love must be a choice, or it is not love at all.  The only thing then that matters to a God of infinite love, is that He proves to us He loves us, and hopefully receives our love in return.  Going back only a few verses earlier, Jesus declares the most important summation of the entire Old Testament, is to love God.  Here, He reveals wisdom beyond the normal, a glimpse into capabilities of our God we seldom consider, to show us that loving God because He loves us, is the ONLY thing that matters.  This is told to us by a God who sees time differently than we do.  This is told to us by a God who participates in events, who does not just witness them.

It is we who attempt to put God in our own box.  We try to constrain what cannot be constrained into thinking and ideas that make us happy, but are not true.  Since our perspective on time is only linear, we believe that God’s must be too.  If we die, we meet our end, any future beyond the grave is in jeopardy due to a vengeful God who we believe has a history of striking down His enemies with fire and justice.  Yet it is our God who uses time and our passage through it; to perfect in us what we could not perfect.  He uses our passage through time to give us better perspective on Himself, but also as a teaser that infinity will never be dull, we will ever be learning more about love and its power.  Our God uses our time to offer us His love, His redemption, and His forgiveness.  He does not just post a sign, or billboard, or document on Facebook.  He gets active with us, involved in our lives, in our needs, and in the messes we make, that He alone can clean up.  Our God is interactive, in real life, with a passionate love for us that not even time / space can restrain.

Our danger is only our arrogance, a trait we inherit, but nurture from our spiritual forefathers.  Jesus continues in verse 38 outlining the dangers saying … “And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, [verse 39] And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:”  The list Jesus describes here reflect character.  They reflect the lack of a transformation of the heart.  Even in spiritual matters.  This list is not about being wealthy, or even famous per se, it is about loving how we look to others.  The danger of the Scribes of His day, were that they enjoyed their position in the church, and wanted others to recognize them for it.  They wanted respect in spiritual matters.  Sound familiar?  How many of us also want to be recognized and respected as leaders in the faith?  How many of us simply want deference?  We long to be sought out as the resource to answer a question, and it is our longing, that is our downfall.  Only Christ has the wisdom to answer any question.  If He does not provide us the answer, we have NONE of our own worth dust.

A lack of real transformation leaves us loving only ourselves.  Jesus concludes in verse 40 saying … “Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.”  Ouch!  The Scribes of His day, the religious leaders, were willing to devour the home of widow.  They were willing to take the money from the poor, to destroy what little they had, to swindle them.  To maintain their own lifestyle, the Scribes or leaders of the church, would happily accept offerings and tithes from those who could scarcely afford to give them.  We who offer ministry to the church, or to the world, do we do the same?  Do we take our gifts of preaching, teaching, healing, singing, or just caring … and make them trades in exchange for wealth our audience is ill able to provide?  Taking from those who cannot afford to give, to sustain more than we need, is to follow in the footsteps of the Scribes of old.

But the Scribes of His day were not content to steal and remain quiet.  They had to cover up their deeds, draw attention away from what they did.  So they made long prayers in the Temple.  Or rather, they pretended to pray.  Observing the posture of prayer, the stance of prayer, is not the same as engaging the mind and heart in prayer.  Casually saying we will pray for someone, usually only when asked to do so, is not the same thing as praying with our hearts near breaking for their pain.  We do not feel their affliction, because we do not feel any affliction but our own.  The heart of stone feels nothing but for itself, and so feels nothing at all.  But a pretend religion, a pretend relationship, is worse than none at all.  Spending all the time pretending to love God, prevents us from actually loving God.  Avoiding His transformation of our hearts, leaves us offering weak prayers, selfishly focused, and looking for credit from other believers every chance we get.

The greater damnation is not greater flames in hell.  It goes back to our linear view of time.  Each moment that passes for us is gone, and gone for good.  We will not relive it, ever.  Our salvation is not up to us, it is God’s work in us, as we submit to Him.  But the time we waste delaying Him, putting Him off, asking to be transformed, but later … these are the moments we will never get back.  The time we could have used for something other than me loving me, is a resource that will not return.  I will damn myself for my selfishness.  My transformed heart will break at my own stubbornness and refusal to let go to God sooner.  The greater damnation will be a self-examination of my life and its potential, through transformed eyes.  So much time to lose.  So many opportunities squandered.  So many souls who needed love from me, who had to endure without it.  Oh the pain, of love lost, of love hidden.  This is the greater damnation, that surely comes from a pretend religion, and a pretend relationship with Christ.

I will love you in heaven, but your need of that love will not be same.  It is here at our worst, where His love is needed the most, His love reflected through me.  Delaying that, is losing the opportunity for that, and I will never get it back.  It is lost forever.  The punishment is not meted out by God in flame and fire, it is realized by me through the lens of linear time I will not recover.  To end it, submit.  To end it, no matter how long it has taken you, how many years or moments you have wasted thus far, submit to Christ now.  Let Him make an end to it now.  Let Him change in you what could not be changed.  Let Him transform the heart from stone to flesh, from apathy to passion.  Let not the greater damnation continue to accrue, for the curse of it will only get heavier. 

One day, when your heart has finally been transformed by the power of His Love, you will feel this weight for what it is, an irreversible damnation of your own regret.  It is not a question of your salvation, or “if” it will occur.  Believing in Jesus assures that.  His great love assures that.  It is a question of “when” that salvation will occur within you, whether sooner or later.  It is a question of self-examination through more perfected eyes, and more perfected heart, that will feel the weight of moments forever lost to delay.  When through perfected eyes we really see the value of treasure only found in others, how we treated them in this life, when they were in the most pain and needed us the most, will forever weigh on our minds. 

I believe it will require our God to remove these tears from our eyes lest we never cease from weeping, even in the heaven He prepared for us.  The contrast though is striking.  By submission to Christ now, every moment spent from now till we are home with Him again, can be spent in the service of loving others.  Perhaps that love will be just the thing they needed to look for Christ.  Perhaps eternity will be enhanced by only one soul who sees His love reflected through you, because your heart was transformed.  And your greater damnation will cease from expanding, and by His mercy, become something He helps you someday forget.