Daily Archives: March 13, 2013

When You Least Expect It

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WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

“‘But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.'” Luke 12:45-46 (The Message).

What is this imagery all about? This story reveals some serious flaws in the manager’s character and thinking.

Flaw number one: He forgot who he was. In a previous meditation we exposed the faulty thinking that puts title above function. This man forgot that, as a manager, he was supposed to do what managers do. Being manager of the household did not give him license to behave as he pleased. It carried with it the responsibility of fulfilling the functions of a manager faithfully.

Believers in Jesus are first of all, sons of God. That is not a title, it’s a function. It’s who we are. We have a privileged position in God’s household but with it comes the function of sonship, representing our Father to the world. We can never abuse that privilege by doing as we please because that would cancel out who we are.

Flaw number two: His position was only a veneer. What do I mean? He functioned according to who was watching him. As long as the master was around he did what he was supposed to do but, when the master left him in charge, he exposed his true nature.

How tragic when God’s people behave like that! This reveals a ‘Pharisee’ mask, playing to the crowd as long as the right people are watching. To be a son of God is to be like Jesus in our inner core, no matter who is watching. It’s to be who we are in private, and to function according to who we are because of our attachment to our Master.

Flaw number three: His old nature was covered, not transformed. His old, selfish nature was masked by his position. He carried out his duties as a manager, caring for the master’s household, but underneath, he was lazy and selfish. As soon as the opportunity presented, he reverted to his old self, dropped his inhibitions, partied and abused alcohol and people, wasted his master’s resources and made a thorough fool of himself.

The true test of sonship is the answer to the question, what do we really want to do? Are we repulsed by the thought of doing the things we used to do in our old way of life or is there a hankering after those things which is masked by our veneer of faith in Jesus? How do we react in a crisis? Does our old nature pop up without our thinking about it or do we respond out of the peace of God which supernaturally rules in our hearts?

Flaw number four: He forgot that the master was coming back and that he was accountable to him. He was only living for the pleasure of the moment and forgetting that every action had a consequence.

This can be a serious flaw in our thinking if we don’t learn to step back and take the long look at life. Jesus is the perfect example of a person who lived with both this life and the life to come in mind. Without this mind-set He would never have gone to the cross. Hebrews 12:3 puts in it a nutshell. “…who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Flaw number five: He did not value his position enough to put it ahead of temporary pleasure. This response to temptation exactly reflects Adam’s choice in the Garden of Eden. He did not value his relationship with God enough to guard it at the expense of selfish desires. What he lost was unspeakably tragic. And the same with the man in the story.

This should be our motivation above everything else, for being faithful to our calling, whatever that is. We are sons and daughters of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. Why would we want to forfeit that for the sake of satisfying our temporary and transient urges?

What’s It Like?

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WHAT’S IT LIKE?

‘Then Jesus asked, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.'” Luke 13:18, 19 (NIV).

The kingdom of God is like a multi-faceted and multi-coloured diamond. It is impossible to describe in it one sentence or with one idea. Jesus was constantly telling stories to illustrate yet another aspect of this amazing dimension of life from which He had come. He wanted His hearers to catch a glimpse of its wonder and its splendour and yet, like the prophets of the Old Testament and John in the book of Revelation, He struggled to communicate other-worldly ideas in human language to human understanding.

The point of Jesus’ story is lost to us if we fail to understand the significance of the mustard seed. The mustard seed of which Jesus spoke was a weed in Palestine, not the seed we use to flavour our food. If it were, for example, it could not accurately be classified as the smallest of garden seeds. The seed He called a mustard seed was as small as a grain of pepper shaken from a pepper pot.

In Jesus’ day, there were two types of gardens, the one around the homeowner’s house in which he planted flowers, or herbs for table use, and his field outside the town which he used to grow crops for commercial purposes. No gardener in his right mind would plant a mustard seed in either, to take up the soil’s nourishment and moisture for no good purpose.

So why did Jesus tell a story about a man who did something out of character by planting a mustard seed in his garden? We find the clue in His comparison between us and the way God acts in His realm, in two words, ‘tree’ and ‘bird’s. Unlike our motives which are usually selfish, God cares about the ‘birds’. Since it is a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, a man plants a mustard seed in his garden to provide shelter for birds. The birds have no value for the gardener, in fact probably the opposite but, because he cares about them anyway, he does it even if it means loss to him.

How like God to something like that! On more than one occasion Jesus used ‘birds’ to illustrate God’s care for creatures who are fragile, transient, of no commercial value (except for the doves that unscrupulous merchants were selling in the temple), and sometimes even destructive to the farmer’s crops. Two sparrows are sold for the coin of least value in their currency; God cares for birds by providing them with food they didn’t grow.

In a money-driven world, to do something like that is unthinkable. It would take time, effort, and money to do something that brings no return, and yet that is exactly how God cares, not only about His creation but about us who are the crown of His creation. Of what value were we to God before He rescued us from our God-denying and self-destructive ways? Not only of no value but a liability to Him.

He created us to bring glory to Him by being mirrors of His nature. We not only failed to fulfill His purpose, we deliberately rebelled against Him, actively denying His existence, ignoring His overtures of love to us and systematically destroying His world that He so lovingly fashioned for His pleasure and our enjoyment.

And yet, God in His mercy, planted a ‘tree’ outside Jerusalem on which His Son hung naked in the burning sun, bled and died for us so that we can take shelter in His ‘branches’. This is the kingdom, the realm into which God invites all who receive His Son as their Master, to enter and to enjoy that shelter with Him in the eternal ‘now’ in which God lives.

Use Your Common Sense

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USE YOUR COMMON SENSE

“You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge, you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.” Luke 12:57-59 (The Message).

Who would be fool enough to risk going to jail just because you neglected to settle your issue with your accuser out of court? No-one wants a jail sentence as well as the criminal record that goes with it if it can be avoided.

Why is it, then, that people neglect to secure their eternal destiny before the final curtain comes down? How foolish is the idea that we can live as we like and then repent at the last minute before we die? Do we really think that we can trifle with God’s mercy like that? How much common sense do we need to secure our future before we are no longer able to do so?

Of course Jesus was not dealing here with motive but with outcome. It would be bottom of the list to accept His offer of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life just to escape the punishment of hell but, unfortunately, the gospel is often presented as an escape route from hell nowadays. Bumper stickers on cars say it all – “Hell has no fire escape,” to quote just one of them.

This is not the most important reason to return to the most precious and wonderful of relationships that God intended for us – sonship. Imagine dutifully doing everything your earthly father required of you just to escape punishment! What a heartless and loveless experience that would be! Jesus calls us to return to Him because His passion is to take us to the Father who loves us with an everlasting love. “‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.'” John14:6 (NIV).

Why did Jesus encourage His hearers to use their common sense? Was He aware that we are so self-centred that we will do anything to ensure our own comfort and convenience? Returning to the Father to save our own bacon could be the beginning of a walk that would eventually take us deeper into a love relationship with Him.

Perhaps Jesus is not as concerned about how we get started as He is about getting on to the road so that we can learn to walk with Him on this journey toward freedom and wholeness. Perhaps the problem is not so much getting started as it is persuading us that He is the truth and that His way is the only way to experience the fullness of life that God has promised those who put their trust in Jesus.

How difficult it is for people to abandon their false belief system which holds them captive through fear, to embrace the Father’s love and mercy revealed in Jesus, His Son. They would rather hold onto something that has no foundation in fact and no historical or experiential proof of its reality than entrust themselves to one who predicted that He would be crucified and would rise again, and did it just as He said.

Is the fanciful imagination of some human being that creates a religion based on human nature or man’s wisdom more reliable than the infallible word of the eternal God who came in person to tell us the truth? The proof that this life is real is God’s peace in the heart that has no human explanation.

Once again, you choose!

Twisted and Bent Over

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TWISTED AND BENT OVER

“He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her He called her over. ‘Woman, you’re free!’ He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.” Luke 13:10-13 (The Message).

Luke had a special interest in Jesus’ ministry to women in keeping with his purpose of presenting Jesus as the ‘Son of Man’. Women were disrespected in Hebrew culture, treated as inferior to men, and even as a husband’s ‘possession’ to be retained or disposed of at will. By His compassion and care for women which Luke recorded so tenderly, Jesus gave women the dignity and respect accorded them by their Creator.

Knowing full well that healing on the Sabbath would create a furore among the religious leaders, He persistently ignored their scruples and healed whoever was afflicted whenever He had opportunity. This woman was so twisted in body by her disease that she could not even lift her head to look into His face. Perhaps she was not aware of Jesus but He was aware of her, and with His awareness came His spontaneous response to her plight.

His words to her are also surprising. ‘Woman, you are free!’ not ‘Woman, you are healed!’ Was Jesus aware of a deeper reason for her affliction? Of course, all human imperfections are the result of Adam’s original sin, behind which lay the deceiver’s subtle enticement to disobedience, but in this woman’s case, was there something in her life that directly resulted in her enslavement to the physical condition that held her bound for eighteen years?

It is medically attested that 95% of physical conditions are the outcome of stress which is the body’s response to sustained high levels of adrenaline, the ‘fright, flight, fight’ hormone which prepares our bodies in time of crisis. There is one condition that plays havoc and does untold damage to our physical systems, unforgiveness. Every prolonged emotion that flows from our refusal to let go of a real or perceived offense does damage to us and not to the person against whom we hold our grievances.

Jesus often warned of the consequences of unforgiveness, the most drastic and unthinkable being cut off from the Father’s forgiveness. Is this not one of the main reasons why doctors wrestle with physical problems that defy diagnosis, why hospitals and psychiatric facilities are filled with sick people and why our world is overrun with cruelty and violence? The world is full of angry people who do not realise that forgiving those who have hurt them would set them free.

There is powerful symbolic significance in Luke’s descriptive words of her condition – she was twisted and bent over and could not look up. This is what happens to us inside when we refuse to forgive. We cannot look up and see the face of God when we are twisted and bent over by bitterness and hate. Only the presence and words of Jesus can set us free so that we can stand up and look up.
Jesus changed this woman’s life with a few words. ‘Woman, you are free!’ In them she found forgiveness for her own sin and release from the anger and bitterness with which unforgiveness had poisoned her body and her life. She stood upright and gave glory to God. What a moment!

Is it possible that you can also experience spiritual and physical healing when you become aware of His presence, hear the words of Jesus in your heart, feel His touch and receive the forgiveness which will free you to forgive others? This is the key to your healing.

Turn to God or Die

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TURN TO GOD OR DIE

“About that time some people came up and told Him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, ‘Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans. Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you too will die.” Luke 13:1-3 (The Message).

Can you catch the atmosphere of this conversation? Perhaps those who were reporting the incident were expecting an outburst of outrage from Jesus against Pilate’s bloodthirsty cruelty. They would have revelled in seeing His reaction and felt justified for bringing Him the news. They thought that He would have joined with them in condemning Pilate’s action.

What they did not expect was Jesus’ sober and non-theatrical response, turning the tables on them by putting them right in the picture. It was not about Pilate, or those he had murdered, but it was about them. They were in no position to condemn Pilate when they were equally guilty of a life of sin that would kill them if they did not repent.

Jesus made it clear that God does not grade sin when it comes to our eternal destiny. There are no such things as big sins and small sins. Everything that falls short of God’s perfection is sin. God even sees the imperfections of our physical bodies as ‘sin’ because that is not what He created in the beginning – hence the laws in the Old Testament that made provision for diseases, deformities and the shedding of blood. Anything imperfect was called ‘unclean’ – tamai – and required a sacrifice once cleansing had been established.

The fact that people died an unnatural death at the hands of a tyrant was no proof that they were worse sinners than anyone else. It only revealed the decision of an evil person in an evil world. God is so often blamed for the bad things that happen to us as though He were responsible for the choices we make and the consequences of those choices.

“The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to man.” Psalm 115:16 (NIV). God gave us human beings the task of governing the earth from the beginning, with the understanding that He would set the standards by which to rule since it is His world. Adam chose to reject God’s authority and set up his own standards under the devil’s influence. God did not withdraw His mandate but He does hold us responsible for what we do with it. Hence responsibility brings with it accountability to our Creator and irresponsibility, punishment.

There are no degrees of falling short; we can miss God’s perfection by an inch or a mile; it’s all the same. Missing the mark will bring retribution – that’s what Jesus was getting at. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, the Galileans who died at the hands of Pilate, they were all guilty. They all fell short and did not avail themselves of the mercy God invited them to receive through the death of His Son.

Comparing ourselves with those we consider worse than us does not absolve us of our guilt. It only reveals our foolishness in believing that we can somehow get past God’s perfect justice. God does not act arbitrarily. His justice is perfectly just because He leaves us to choose.

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11, 12 (NIV). God has extended an unconditional invitation to everyone to choose life based on His mercy. If we receive it, we have eternal life. If we reject it, we will experience the eternal hell He warned us about.

The choice is ours.