Barometers of Faith ...

How great is your imagination?  What kind of pressure does reality put on it?  The two-year-old set is unburdened with the day-to-day pressures of survival / life / death; social loneliness; concerns about their health; and for most, whether they are loved.  They simply do not live under that kind of stress or strain.  Most are able to completely trust that whatever issues may exist out there in the world, mom and dad will handle them.  Thus the toddler is fully capable of enjoying life, all the while, just knowing mom and dad have a handle on the rest of it.  This is so true, that toddlers do not even “think” this way.  They just live in it.  It takes the perspective of an adult, to understand what “reality” is like in the world that surrounds your given toddler child.  It is only the adult that has the wisdom and perspective to really understand what is going on, and what “could” happen.  Most of the admonitions we hand out then to our children are designed to be preventative, to keep the bad stuff from entering their reality.  When the accidents do occur, we are there to demonstrate a love to them, that will comfort in spite of the boo boo that life has somehow introduced.  A model of family, a picture we should be extending in our thoughts and faith towards our God.

But what is the net effect of nearly zero stress, and absolute trust; a mind free to imagine nearly anything.  Toddlers will gladly draw you a picture of nearly anything that enters their own thoughts or ideas.  Objects in the pictures very rarely resemble what they “are” – instead they represent how a child sees that object – and accounts for the lack of Michelangelo prodigies.  They are proud to have their “work of art” displayed on the refrigerator with magnets sold for this purpose.  They take joy in having mom and dad make a great deal production when the art is submitted for its gallery spot on the fridge.  They also take note when mom and dad share the work with grandparents, and highly tolerant friends, who seem to be in on the idea of making a big production of how great it is when the artist is nearby.  While Picasso might be hard pressed to identify any of the objects in the art-work, in the mind of the child, they are as clear as day.  Imagination, can nearly completely take over the point of view of the artist, allowing them to see renaissance paintings, where others only see crayons on construction paper.  It is only age, and the stress it brings, that can cause the artist to lose the memory, of what he/she was trying to convey.  While still young, and unencumbered, the masterpiece is easy to decipher.

Imagination is not just limited to expression, it is boundless in ideas.  Children “invent” new animals, generally by combining characteristics they enjoy from the ones they are familiar with, and coming up with something entirely new.  Who says you cannot put wings on a frog?  Or give him a nice long furry tail.  I don’t hear the frog complaining.  And if you listened closer you might hear the frog tell you what to do next.  The kids hear it.  They hear stuffed animals talk as plain as mom and dad.  They assign life like characteristics to many an inanimate object, and then expect you to join in on the journey of imagination.  When adults refuse, play comes to an abrupt halt.  A piece of plastic molded into the shape of a doll is a lifeless rock, without any imagination to bring it to life.  A $20 waste of money, if you cannot play with your child, in the way your child wants to play.  The fact that the box it came in, cannot be thrown away, as it is serving as a doll castle, is yet another testament to the idea that children can play with trash as quick as they can play with treasure, and find them both equally appealing under the same imagination.

So we understand our kids can make stuff up, and believe it is real.  It is a function of their age, but deeper than that, it is a function of a mind free from the burdens of reality.  Now lets talk about you and I.  Is it possible for you to ditch that adult perspective for a moment, and embrace the boundless creativity of the mind of a child – then take it a step further.  Let your adult mind, truly believe it is possible to make it real.  This is a trick nearly no adult has mastered.  We just do not believe it is possible.  Reality and history argue with that idea quite successfully.  But they are wrong.  Case in point; Matthew recalls in his gospel picking up in chapter 21, an unusual story of things that just do not happen “normally”, but “did” anyway.  This story is not just your typical Jesus miracle.  It begins with a hungry man, or more accurately with Jesus being hungry.

Picking up in verse 18 the story begins by saying … “Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.”  To set the context, this verse refers to Jesus, who is returning to Jerusalem near the time of His pending betrayal, and right after His triumphant ride into the city.  It is the next day.  Jesus has spent the night, likely at the home of Lazarus in Bethany.  Why Mary and Martha did not prepare Him a breakfast banquet we don’t know – maybe they did.  But nonetheless, Jesus got hungry again.  Now keeping in mind, that Jesus did a 40 day fast in the wilderness to start His ministry, the idea that He got that hungry after breakfast, or since dinner the night before seems hardly noticeable.  More likely, Jesus told the disciples about His hunger, because He had a lesson to teach them, and us.

Continuing in verse 19 it says … “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.”  OK that qualifies as the weirdest scripture in the book in my opinion.  First of all, Jesus is the creator of ALL life.  If He found a barren tree, He could have just as easily made it fruitful.  That is kind of His thing.  He takes our barrenness and makes us produce worthy fruit as we submit ourselves to Him.  But that is not what happened.  Instead He sees a tree in the distance that looks like it should have lots of good fruit, likely hidden in the bountiful leaves.  But when He gets there, it has only leaves.  A whole lot of camouflage, nothing good to eat.  So instead of a lesson in self-sacrifice, Jesus curses this tree and says in effect, you are not going to fool anyone else, from now on and forever more going forward, no fruit will ever grow on you.  The net effect to the tree, is that is withers up and dies right in front of all the disciples, like if you have a time-lapsed view of a plant dying.  But instead of days or weeks, this entire tree dries up to nothing and falls away within minutes of what He says.

The disciples are freaked out.  Matthew writes in verse 20 saying … “And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!”  Nobody had ever seen a tree wither up and die in minutes instead of months.  No famine.  No chainsaw.  Just one negative pronouncement from the Creator and this tree is history.  Object lesson #1 – you don’t ever want to find yourself on the wrong side of a negative pronouncement of Christ.  Like say … when you have forgotten to visit those who are sick, or in prison.  Or perhaps when you were too worried about safety or inconvenience to invite home a person with no place to live or stay.  Or perhaps when you thought donations could substitute for actually loving someone else.  That kind of thing.  Also coming a time when the pronouncement let he who is unholy be unholy still – that one is particularly ugly.  Makes you think for a minute huh?

Object lesson #2 – destruction is as real as salvation, and as permanent.  Jesus speaks this way to a tree, not a human, because for us there is still hope while we draw breath.  There is a chance we may still submit ourselves to Jesus and find that He recreates who we are from the inside out.  If Jesus had done this to a human, even say Judas, the same level of destruction would have ensued.  The person would likely have died.  So instead, Jesus speaks this way to a tree, to an object of life without a soul.  But the demonstration is breath taking.  And it can illustrate the permanence of destruction, as easily as His miracles of restoration to us, illustrate the permanence of salvation.  It is we alone who can tear ourselves away from the love of Christ, by our choice to do so, and our ultimate rejection of Him.  But even though we may choose to focus on these kinds of object lessons from what took place, they were still not the point Jesus was trying to make.

Fear, was not the object lesson Jesus had in mind.  The story continues in verse 21 saying … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. [verse 22] And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”  Ahh, here is what Jesus was trying to convey.  The impossible is “not” really impossible.  So I ask again, how great is your imagination, how much pressure has reality inflicted upon it?  Trees do not just wither up and die in an instant.  But on the scale of things, that is pretty small next to the idea of speaking to a mountain and telling it, you have a better location for it, out in the sea somewhere.  In our age we would have to enormously careful with that one, as nearly the whole planet has people on it given the explosion of our population across the earth.  But that is not the point.  Reality is not the point.  Faith that truly believes IS the point.  Toddlers have it right.  We are the ones all messed up in our thinking.

We speak to God like we are trying to make Him aware of our problems, you know, just in case He might, maybe, want to do something about them.  We are ALL sure He “can” do something about them.  We are completely UNSURE if He “will” do something about them.  That is not faith that truly believes, that is barely faith at all.  I see a whole lot of leaves, and very little fruit.  No limits; was the message of Jesus.  Do not pray with the idea that there is a limit to how big a thing you can ask, how impossible it looks to you, how ridiculous it sounds to everyone else – be a toddler – show that crappy picture to Jesus anyway cause only He understands the weird shapes and crayons of your life to begin with.  He will take your ridiculous prayer picture and hang it on His refrigerator and hold a parade in heaven so everyone else can come see it.  He longs for us to trust Him just that much.  To be able to bring Him anything, and like a toddler does with earthly mom and dad, just to KNOW, that whatever it is, our heavenly Father has it handled for us.  We need do nothing.  We need not worry about anything.  He has it.  Only He really understands it, we just do not have the perspective.  We are toddlers, He is the only adult in the room.

So what can you imagine?  And before you start thinking like an adult with an imagination – gee, could I be rich, and perfectly healthy, and in need of “nothing”.  Scratch that and think like a toddler who does not worry about those things – now exercise your imagination – and what do you come up with.  Giving a frog wings, and a long furry tail, does not seem like something to waste our prayer energy on.  But if we actually believed He would do it – there would be a new species of frog discovered this afternoon that would baffle scientists for years to come.  (though they may believe “they” discovered a missing link in their silly theories of evolution, so perhaps that is a bad example).  The point is not to focus on the limitations, but to live and pray as if there are none.  Because there are none.  Becoming like a little child so you can enter the kingdom of heaven, looks a lot like this. 

We should not just pray for something, cause maybe, if the winds are right, and if we have done enough to “deserve” the answer we want, we may get it.  We should pray for what we truly need, knowing He answers our prayers every time, even when they sound crazy.  We should perhaps start praying in earnest not for what we need, but for what others need.  Remember toddlers already KNOW their parents will meet whatever needs they have.  This would free up Jesus to pour out His love on others, even when they refuse to ask for it themselves, or even recognize He is our God, the only God.  People who do not know Jesus this way are unlikely to ever pray to Him for what they need.  Why not do it ourselves on their behalf.  We may pray someone else to salvation doing this and never even know it.  When Satan yells at Jesus for trying to influence the life of someone who is not asking for it, Jesus can respond that He is simply answering the prayers of someone else who asked Him for that very interference in the life of someone who needs Him.  This kind of prayer frees up and unleashes the power of our God.

If you are too timid to start moving mountains around.  If you are too scared to ask for the cure to cancer.  Then start small, ask for the salvation of Jesus in your own life, and in the life of someone who you know needs Him.  Then sit back and watch what happens.  If you need to pray again because you are not sure if it worked, pray again.  Do what it takes to build trust in your prayers and certainty in the God who really is your Dad.  Before you know it, you will start making crazy prayer paintings that only those in heaven can understand.  You will come to KNOW you are heard.  YOU are HEARD.  And Jesus moves mountains for you anytime you need it.  That is the thought that should scare you.  Unleashing the power of your God should make you a little nervous.  Because His power is truly unlimited.  Not the idea that His power is never poured out on your behalf.  That is a lie Satan tells.  And you need to ditch it, in favor of understanding how powerful your Dad is, what He is longing to do for you.  Know it.  Don’t just have faith, Know it.  And the word impossible will lose all meaning to you.  And winged tailed frogs will appear on mountains on their way to the sea, or perhaps something more meaningful in the topic of salvation, will become evident between you and God.

 

Crisis of Conscience ...

Have you ever been guilty of something, and just knew you had done it?  I have two cats and two dogs.  When I walk in the room and find something out of place (cat/dog mischief on display), if I change my tone, and ask “who did this?” – the guilty animal goes running.  The innocent cat or cats hardly take notice of me at all.  The innocent dog or dogs bring me treats (their idea of toys) to see if it will make me happier.  But I can always tell the guilty critter based on how they react, they tend to run, and of course the guilty culprit changes with nearly every incident.  So how about you; no excuses, no blaming others, or circumstances, heredity, or environment – no, what happens when the blame centers squarely on you and you alone. 

In those situations what happens next may say more about you, than what led you to them.  People tend to react in one of two ways, they seek to make it right, or they seek to cover it up.  The story Matthew penned so long ago is not for those who seek to make it right.  Most of us try this in one form or another, sometimes taking great pains to avoid admitting we were wrong, while trying to fix a seriously impaired conscience.  For the rest of us, who look first to see if anyone was watching, and how credible they might be, before even considering whether to make it right.  This story was meant for us.  And like many things that fall into this category, “time”, can begin to alter your perception even about what is right and wrong.  Things done in repetition for example (no matter whether they were questionable at the start or not), over time become “normal”.  Once they are normal to you, the idea that they might also still be “wrong” becomes less and less a consideration.  And before you know it, repeated behavior, that is normal, cannot be wrong … by definition … whether it was or not. 

There is also the influence of others.  When you do something wrong alone, or by yourself, you may be more aware of it.  But if you are in a group at the time, and literally everybody else with you is also doing it, and from your perception, everyone, everywhere is doing it.  Then perhaps that behavior is also not wrong, it is just normal, whether originally thought wrong or not.  Finally, there is the influence of leadership on the topic.  When leaders you trust, or admire, weigh in their opinions on what is right or wrong (particularly in the grey areas), those opinions carry weight into the decision making process you hold.  If it is church leadership; you know, the folks who are “supposed” to be getting the right/wrong thing correctly all the time, it may carry even more weight in what you decide.  Put all these influences together, and you get a perfect storm, not to cause a crisis of conscience, but to eliminate conscience altogether.  Enter Matthew and divinely inspired recollections.

It picks up in chapter twenty-one of his gospel in verse 12 saying … “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”  And right off the bat, we get it wrong.  Artists and the church, for many years paint this scenario with the idea that Jesus was furious, entering that Temple with fire in his eyes, a fierce tone of voice, a whip in one hand, and a carpenter’s fist in the other.  The terror of Him moving through the scene, and the anger He brings with Him, causing the exodus of the merchants who had taken up residence in the Temple.  But this is not how it works.  Frankly, it is not ever how it works.  It does not have to.  Let’s re-examine with a second look, and factor in human nature into the equation.

When mom catches you doing something wrong, it is hard to argue with her, while being caught red-handed.  Now instead of mom, imagine a face-to-face with God, while He catches you doing something wrong.  Forget that the Temple leadership approved of these practices (and the fact, they got a kick back on the horrible profits generated there).  Forget the fact that it was not one merchant, but many engaged in this.  Forget the fact that they had been doing it for years, literally for years.  The practice itself was wrong.  They were taking advantage of penitent people who came to the Temple to sacrifice for their sins.  Honest worshippers were subjected to unscrupulous business men, bent on making a profit off of them, in what should have been a ceremony dedicated to God throughout.  And the church was in on it.  And the people who were doing it, even if they had forgotten it was wrong, were now being reminded.  Not by anger, but by the piercing eyes of Jesus, that seemed to reach right down into the core of who they had become, and shake them from the inside out, acting and speaking about stopping this practice.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Several things to note here, the first is that the main purpose of the Temple, was really “not” for sacrifice.  Jesus says it is for “prayer”.  But instead of reaching out to God, they, like we, go to church for a quicker solution – one that is not so personal.  The worshippers go looking to perform a ritual that will make them right in the eyes of God.  Both then and now.  Instead of just talking with the God of love they purport to serve.  We miss the purpose of the house.  A building setup to avoid the other distractions of the world, in order to focus our minds for prayer.  In our age, we drag in every other worldly element of production value, and produce a show, where prayer is led by someone else (usually making it, its own mini-sermon), and singing and preaching the main ingredients of the show.  Back then, it was a ritual of blood, from which the merchants and church looked to profit immensely, and prayer itself – well there was little time for that between the sales back then or the well-produced show today.

And as to making the house of God a den of thieves.  Think that practice went away with those merchants?  Today, we give our tithes and offerings, and where do they go?  That is to say, how much of them come back to us in the form of services we benefit from, and how much of them actually make use in reaching the un-reached?  Easy way to measure it; how many baptisms did your church do this month, or last?  Not transfers from other churches mind you, but baptisms of new converts.  Not the kids of existing members (though all are important), I am talking about how we use our funds to actually spread the gospel to those who have not heard it, or think God is too angry to ever accept them.  Did it take that level of giving to affect that reach?  Conversely, how much of our money was spent on making the building better, maintaining it, supplying it, keeping the air on, the leaders paid, etc.  And in many denominations, all that is in excess of the need is given to the pastor, until pastors themselves are very rich men.  While churches grow, they tend to do so based on a popularity contest among their peers.  We reach each other.  And our co-workers, and the poor, and those we are reluctant to include, remain outside of our doors, where we prefer them.  And who is robbed in all of this?

And if Jesus looked you square in the eyes, could you tell Him, this is OK, because everyone else is in on it.  Or the church leadership sanctioned it.  Or you have been doing it so long, you forgot it was not OK.  I dare say if perfect love looked you square in the face, you would know - what you do that is anything less than ideal, is wrong.  And your first instinct would be to turn away from that blinding love and flee from it.  These men did just that.  They were not ready or inclined to hear The Truth.  They preferred the greed they indulged, and the easiest thing to do was to run.  Don’t resist, just run.  They did not even attempt to take the money off the floor.  They left it.  Now imagine what a crisis of conscience must have been introduced to these men, that they discarded everything to get away from it.  Merchants whose sole purpose at this venue was to make money, left the money, the animals, everything, and just ran.  There was no whip needed for them.  Perhaps Jesus used the sound of the whip to insure the animals moved along as well.  But His eyes would have been enough.  There was no anger needed.  All there was, was a mirror of perfect love, revealing to them, how far they had fallen from it.  That mirror was terrifying to them, as it might also be to us, those that like to call ourselves “saints”.

And this is how we know, that anger was the farthest thing from the mind, hands, and tone of Jesus.  Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Those in need, did not flee, they pressed closer.  Those in need found the grace of God, not from an angry use of a whip, but the tender touching of the hands of Jesus in the parts of them that lived in pain.  And that touch healed them, it did not add further bruising.  But even further proof lies in the nest text as Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,”  Not just those in need stayed in the temple, but so did the children.

Now imagine for a minute, that an angry man with a whip in hand, comes running into your sanctuary one day during services and begins flipping over tables, cracking the whip, screaming at the merchants/leaders, and has the fire of God in His eyes.  Your kids would be the first ones out the windows and doors.  They would be three blocks away before they had the good sense to look for mom and dad.  Mom would likely be right on their heels.  Dad might stay to fight, or he might be running right along with his family to keep them all safe in that city.  But kids, do NOT sit and stay, in scenarios of extreme anger.  However kids DO stay when they see a loving God looking right at them, bidding them come, and be blessed.  Those kids were likely fully unaware of the rest of it.  Tables being turned over so they could be removed only makes more room for them.  Animals being set free is AWESOME, so they will not need to be slain for the removal of sin, they are free to run and be free.  Bad men leaving, good men staying – that is a recipe kids can get behind.  And how do the kids respond?  They begin singing the same songs that were sung to Jesus on His triumphal return to Jerusalem in the first place.  They liked these songs.  They remembered the lyrics and the tune.  And the kids began singing at the top of their lungs.  This was time for praise service, a praise service LED by the kids, orchestrated by the kids, and performed by the kids.  They had the Temple nearly entirely to themselves, WITHOUT fear.

So of course church leadership hated it.  Rug rats do not get to run the show.  And they were singing that kingship song to and about Jesus once again.  The Pharisees could not get it out of their mind, like a tune that just plays in your head over and over and over again, until it is near to making you insane.  They were sore displeased.  They had lost their kickback scheme, and now were forced to see those impaired, restored to fullness, in the miracle that is Jesus Christ.  And to top it all off, the kids were singing so loudly it was echoing down the Jerusalem streets for how happy they were.  Totally without fear, of Jesus, or of them.  They tried to put a stop to it, but Jesus was not having that.  Jesus loves the worship of little children, as He wants so badly for you and I, to become those little toddlers and in so doing, become His church finally and after all.  Jesus responds to the sore displeasure saying in verse 16 … “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” 

Get that people.  It is not your well-orchestrated, well-produced, worship productions that Jesus enjoys.  It is the entirely random, entirely disjointed, entirely awesome praise that comes out of the mouth of “babes” and “sucklings”.  Those are young kids folks, those are too young to be teenagers, even too young to be first graders.  These are the toddler crowd.  These are the diaper preachers.  This is what “perfected” praise looks like, it looks like TOTAL trust in Abba Father, in Daddy, in Jesus.  They sang until their little lungs wore out.  They cuddled with Jesus, hugging Him, sitting on His lap, or holding His hands, or arms, listening to His every word, curling up under His seat to fall asleep while He spoke to the “adults”.  When they were ready to go home again, Jesus took His cue to leave.  Church was over, because the two-year-olds said it was over, not before, and not while “they” still wanted to be close to Him. 

That is how church works, or how real church works.  Money was never even an issue.  Kids did not think about it, neither did Jesus.  Proximity to God is what church is all about.  Those little ones got it up close and personal.  We get it through prayer.  Neither of us were/are perfect.  Perfection is something that can only come through trust in submission to Jesus, it is something He does for us, sometimes in spite of us, as we connect to Him and allow Him to do this work in us.  Children know who is in charge.  They also know they may be less than perfect, but they are drawn to His love, more than they fear their own imperfections or past behavior.  Children let go much faster, trust much quicker, and find themselves loving, nearly all the time.  It can be that way for us.  Jesus came to save.  To save you and I.  Can we not just let Him do it, in us, for us, forever?  To be in a child-like state of trust, free to love others, brings a level of contentment that this world has no alternative for.

Matthew concludes in verse 17 saying … “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”  Jesus went out, likely to spend some more time with Lazarus and his sisters.  But not before the kids had their fill of Him.  And how He SO longs to meet your needs the same way.  That is what reconciliation is all about.  It is bringing you close to Him again.  It is having you able to cuddle with Him again, hold His hand, or touch His arm.  There is no fear in that.  Neither is their guilt.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the love He holds for you, so that both fear, and guilt can be pushed away.  And re-creation is what He has in mind for you, in order to change how you think, and love, to bring you into the toddler set once again.  To bring you into total trust in Him, for everything you need, including your salvation, and your ability to be in harmony with the law.  You cannot do that for yourself.  That takes Dad to do.  You gotta let Him, or you will not see it done.  There is no anger from Jesus for you, or a whip in His hand for you.  There is the love of a Father in His eyes for you.  Come and get it.  Come get all you want.  And Church won’t be over, until you say it is over.

Fanfare that precedes Disappointment ...

Anticipation will rot your brain.  Anticipating something is rarely ever a reflection of the reality of something.  Perhaps this is because our imaginations are greater than our capabilities.  Think back to your wedding day as an example.  How much time goes into making preparations for that day?  The food, the music, the paper invitations, the clothing, the guests, the reception … this list is as long as your arm.  It often takes more than 2 people to get it done.  There is an entire cottage industry of wedding planning, justifiably so, to deal the immensity of having a single spectacular day.  And the expense that goes with having “the” perfect day is sizeable as well.  You can worry yourself sick about your wedding day, right up until it happens, and then in hindsight remember it only as perfect.  Or perhaps ever watch a child anticipate going to Disney World?  It is nearly the same thing reduced into an age-appropriate comparison.  The anticipation of Disney World, or Christmas, can make your kid nearly nuts.  Rare that anything can ever live up to the hype we can assign to it while in anticipation mode.  And vacations; don’t even get me started.

So you would think that kind of thing doesn’t happen in scripture right?  At least not in the time of Christ.  But, … wait for it 😊, … it does happen.  And like most things, the reason why the anticipation does not match the reality, is because what we “believe” about what will or should happen, is mistaken.  Sometimes horribly mistaken.  Other gospel authors address the “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem from a number of different perspectives.  The central theme in all of them, is great excitement about Jesus coming “home” to the capital city of the nation.  There is just a huge feeling in the air itself, that Jesus is finally going home to become King of Israel, and begin the work of pushing the Romans out of Dodge.  Honestly this idea terrified the Pharisees and Sadducees.  If Jesus did this, they lose all leverage in opposing Him.  Jesus would be King of the land, and He had already shown Himself to be king of the church, or the faith.  Arguing with Jesus about anything after that would be pointless, and likely wind you up on the point of an Israelite spear, or under a ton of nearby Israelite stones.  This lack of pushing out the Romans, was “the” only thing the Sanhedrin had to cling to, to verify that Jesus was a false Messiah.  Ironic, how a leadership united by hatred of Rome, still preferred Rome to The Truth.  Are our modern denominations too far from this today?  Are we?

But enough Debbie-downer, this story is about anticipation, and it is going to begin with a bang!  Matthew writes his gospel to his Hebrew contemporaries.  In doing so, Matthew wants to correlate the Old and New Testaments where Jesus is concerned.  Matthew wants to show the fulfillment of prophecy of Isaiah and OT prophets through what Jesus actually did.  And frankly what no other human before or since has ever even come close to.  In addition to the mistaken point of view of what the mission of the Messiah was, there were also a number of other prophecies that were fulfilled exactly as specified.  One need not throw out the Word, because something they believed in, was in error.  No, a great many other things happen exactly as outlined.  And the things we were wrong about, with perhaps a second look, and through the lens of Jesus, can find a better interpretation of, than first imagined.  Matthew is attempting to encourage his contemporaries, not to discard the Old Testament, or discard Christ, but to find the true harmony in both.

He picks up in chapter twenty-one in verse 1 saying … “And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, [verse 2] Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. [verse 3] And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.”  Here Jesus begins with direction, with purpose, and with prophecy.  The great multitude is still in tow.  And the direction leads towards Jerusalem.  Nearly everybody is just seething with anticipation.  They all know where this trip will end, and they are all eager to get there.  But Jesus takes a pause.  Near one of His favorite places of prayer (the mount of Olives), Jesus pauses and asks His 2 disciples (in order that there may be 2 witnesses to what will occur), to go and fetch a colt in a particular place.  If they are questioned about it, by the owner, they are to say a particular thing.  And all will be well.  This is straight up prophecy.  And as you might imagine, it happens exactly as He has just specified, including the challenge, and response by the owner.

Matthew continues in verse 4 saying … “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, [verse 5] Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”  Keep in mind Jesus did not own an ass, or a colt.  He owned nothing.  And He did not purchase one for this occasion.  For those that would argue (as the Pharisees were quick to point out), that Jesus was “making” the prophecy of Isaiah come true – they have a point.  But to extend that argument, you would have to say that Jesus also “made” an owner of an ass, who happened to have a colt recently; appear at a particular place and time, and then respond in a particular way to these events.  It would have been easier to simply buy the needed animals in advance.  But this is not what took place.  And anticipation continued to rise.  The people were not completely ignorant of the prophecies of Isaiah and the other prophets, and they began to sense their fulfillment.

Matthew continues in verse 6 saying …” And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, [verse 7] And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. [verse 8] And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. [verse 9] And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”  At this point, the crowd begins to take action as well.  Common people begin to lay down palm frawns, and spread out their over coats, and tunics, across the dirt road.  In effect the worlds’ first protracted red carpet.  The idea was to make the road smooth, and give it a royal feel.  They did this without the slightest hesitation, and with no prompting, and with no concern with whether or not the donkey, or colt, might leave behind a few “treasures” on their particular coat which might require extensive cleaning afterwards.  No one cared about that.  Everyone just wanted in on making this road look more elegant for the King of Kings to travel upon.

Then came the music.  You cannot have a processional without awesome music, well you cannot have a “good” processional without awesome music.  And so began spontaneous praise singing from the entire crowd.  Old men, women, little children, of one accord singing in one voice, in multiple part harmony saying HOSANNA.  “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord”.  HOSANNA in the Highest.  HOSANNA to the Son of David.  The entire crowd recognizes the lineage of Joseph, and Mary, and Jesus as direct descendants of the house of David himself.  They then sing praises to the Father God in the highest.  And then sing praises to Jesus their soon to be crowned King.  And with these anthems began to shake the entire Roman empire.  But beyond that, with these anthems began to shake the entire Satanic empire, and evil itself.  These musical anthems foretell the end of evil, the end of death itself.  They foretell a time beyond all of this when life is restored to what it should have been all along.  No one coerced the praise and worship, it was natural, spontaneous, and could not be contained.

Matthew omits the naysayers who attempted to stop it along the way.  The Pharisees who came and demanded that Isaiah’s prophecy dare not be fulfilled in this way.  But Jesus instructed these Pharisees, that if the people were made to be silent, the very stones would cry out in praise.  The appointed time was at hand.  The appointed activity was in full swing.  And no matter what Satan wanted, this was happening, which made all of demon empire tremble even more at the echoes of the refrains blasting above them.  I am sure the courts of heaven echoed these anthem refrains with a more elegant, and boisterous noise than what was taking place on earth.  The angels sing their praises for the same reasons we do.  Because they want to.  Because they love it.  And because they mean every word of it.  This day, the music, the self-sacrifice, and the naked anticipation of what was coming was at its zenith.  It would never get any higher than it was now.  The worship service was in full swing.

But something goes sideways.  Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? [verse 11] And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”  His entry into Jerusalem moves the entire population to take notice.  Excitement bursts from everyone.  And then … we get it wrong.  Like all good modern worship services it only takes one false idea to burst an emotional bubble and leave you with nothing more than a memory of something you no longer understand.  The people ask who this is?  Instead of saying this is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  They answer, this is Jesus, the prophet, of Nazareth, of Galilee.  Not God on earth.  Not part of three in One.  Not the savior of our sins, but instead, just Jesus.  A normal guy like you and me, who happens to have some supernatural abilities.  Let’s force Him to be our King over the Romans.  Good idea.  But wait, where is He?  Where did He go?

The good-guy-prophet, just vanished in front of them.  The crowd once again was unable to force Jesus to become the earthly King they wanted Him to be.  The crowd was unable to force a false interpretation of the prophets no matter how much they wanted it.  No matter how high their emotions were.  No matter how strongly they held their belief, it was wrong, and it was not to come to pass, and they could not make it happen.  Huge disappointment.  And just like that, the entire thing fell apart.  And we think this is merely history?  How many of us crave the emotional high that comes from inspiring music, massive production value, lights, instrumentation, talent, comfort.  Our churches are designed for the ease of attending a show once a week, that lasts a few hours.  It is like going to a movie, only with live players in 3D in front of us.  And we get to join the festivities.  In offering calls, in study, in prayer, in song.  Our worship of God, that begins to swell in us an emotional high of this event.  Follow this with a sermon, that too might be inspiring, elevating, thought provoking.  And how could it get any better?  But just wait, next week is coming and we can do it all over again.  A new Sabbath to anticipate coming once again.

But there in is the rub.  Church is not something you attend.  Church is not something you participate in.  Church is a not a place where you go.  The church of Christ, is something that becomes – who you are.  The Kingdom of Heaven is something that “lives” inside of your heart and mind.  How you love.  Who you love.  Why you love.  Questions that have different answers when you are truly transformed by your surrender to Jesus who can re-create you into what He intended you to be.  “That” is church.  Things I hear.  Things I do.  That do not change me, that do not reach the part of me that would cast aside the old, and embrace the new – are nothing more than entertainment.  I could be watching Pureflix, and get as much out of it. 

When I place the concept of His church as something outside of myself, I am left empty.  When I look at the poor, and the needy, and the ones in open sin; and believe the “church”, that is the organization of the church, should do something about that.  I am left empty.  When I make excuse, by making donation, instead of making surrender – I am left empty.  Something has gone sideways in modern Christianity.  We have trained ourselves to treat church as something we are barely a part of.  We refer to church like we refer to any corporate entity.  It could just as easily be called Exxon.  Sure we identify with the church corporate body, but we miss the entirety of the personal power of change – because we refuse to accept the method from where change springs.  We make Jesus, that good-guy God who died for our sins and will one day take us to heaven.  But we refuse to acknowledge Him as our personal Creator, capable of remaking us, if we would only but personally allow Him to do so.  No corporate body can make that happen, but it sure can distract from it. 

Corporate church tells you not to worry about your sins, because there is always forgiveness for them.  In so doing they make grace cheap, of little worth.  Or they take the other extreme where they tell you to do nothing but focus on your sins, and make a “choice” to simply stop sinning, leaving the power of perfection in your hands, and tacitly telling you, it is your fault you continue to sin – and you will never make it to heaven until you stop doing it.  But I say, your sin is an addiction to self-love, that is more powerful than any cocaine habit ever dreamed of being.  You do not control it.  You were not meant to.  You were also not meant to keep living in the pain your sin causes, both you and everyone else.  You were meant to give it to Jesus, and let Him take them from you.  Not just forgive, but reform.  To truly change how you live, because you surrender any notions of control over to Jesus, giving Him full control of how you think, of what you want, of who you love, and of how you love.  That kind of full surrender changes you, and YOU become church.  Not a church of self-worship.  But a church fully surrendered to Christ, who then becomes in harmony with His laws, because His laws of love are etched into your heart.

All that anticipation wasted, because the doctrines of man, cause you to look at Jesus for what He could do for you in this world.  Instead of looking at our God for what He could work within you, and transform you to be.  Trusting in Jesus to save you.  To do what He promised.  If you will but get out of the way.  Only after you do this, will doctrine begin to make sense to you.  Only after you do this, can obedience become something not just possible within you, but natural within you.  That is change.  That is church.  Not something outside, but something deeply personal.  No one else has a say about that.  But once it infects you, you will hardly be able to stop talking about it.  You will not understand how it happens, but you will see with your own eyes, what it does to you.  And how you begin to truly love others, and love yourself less.  This is His love you were meant to reflect.  This is living where anticipation meets reality, instead of being a shallow shadow of what was possible.  Let us not be a repeat of the history of these events, but rather let them guide us to a surrender to God we trust completely to make us His church, how He wants it to be.  His reality will always outshine our anticipation.

 

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 …