I Don't Care 'Cause I'm All Right

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. – Matthew 23:2-3

A preacher told the story that it was Homecoming Week for a Christian College.  The local tavern put up a sign out front that said, “Bring your parents here for lunch.  We’ll pretend we don’t know you.”  In response, the college chapel put on their sign, “Bring your parents to service here.  We’ll pretend we do know you.” 

Jesus, in Matthew 23, tears into the religious leadership, but He starts out by instructing people to listen to what the scribes and Pharisees taught.  They were in a position of authority, sitting, as it were, in the place of Moses, as intermediaries between the revelation of the Law and the people of God.  These leaders were supposed to -- as Ezekiel says, help people distinguish between the holy and the profane.  By following what these experts in the Law said, a person should be able to live a life of righteousness pleasing to the Lord. 

The scribes and Pharisees, however, did not follow their own teaching.  Like our lawmakers today who are careful to exempt themselves from the restraints and restrictions of their legislative efforts, those Jewish leaders disingenuously found loopholes, excuses, and exemptions for their own unrighteous behavior.  One of the reasons James suggests that we should be careful about wanting to be teachers is that those who try to instruct others will be judged more severely (James 3:1).  Thus it is a bad idea to stand anywhere near most politicians.  Most of us couldn't hold the light for the elitists in Washington and Hollywood to hypocritize by.  

Nobody wants to be a hypocrite, but we should know what a hypocrite really is.  What it is not is someone who is not sure they are able or willing to follow Christ.  A hypocrite is not someone who attends church on Sunday after they have had a few drinks on Saturday.  A man only becomes a hypocrite when he tries to cover up or excuse his own actions while condemning others for the same thing.  A hypocrite is not a person who, having severely damaged his or her life through disobedience, speaks from experience and denounces those bad choices.  A hypocrite is not a person who fails and falls, who struggles, seemingly in vain, to conquer some habit or overcome some obstacle. 

I see hypocrisy as being nearly impossible for the truly humble, the meek, the contrite, and the broken.  Hypocrisy is an especially odious kind of arrogance.  If we see that God has been merciful and forgiving toward us, we are probably inoculated against hypocrisy, for we will want to be forgiving and merciful to others.  None of us are perfect, and the closer a saint gets to God and to perfection, the less inclined such a one is to brag about it.  The worst thing about certain ministers who have been guilty of egregious iniquity is not that they are sinners – who isn’t?  Rather, it was that they, like those to whom Jesus spoke, felt they had a special indulgence because of their knowledge and position. 

He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).  The righteousness of the saint is never his own.  It is possible that, in the sight of God, self-righteousness is the most repulsive thing there is.   

In the Garden, after Adam and Eve fell, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves.  God demanded that they drop those leaves and clothe themselves in the skins of innocent animals, which God Himself slew.  This is the picture that condemns the one who is proud of and trusting in his own righteousness -- a fine fig-leaf suit he has sewn.  Only when we understand that Jesus was slain on our behalf, and we are, by grace, clothed in Christ can we be presentable to God and accepted by Him.  


(This is the Three Dog Night cover of a song written by Randy Newman and really has nothing to do with my post, except it is where I got my title.)
 

Altered Ego

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. -- Matthew 23:27

The word hypocrite comes to us from ancient Greece.  Hypocrites were people who wore masks to portray characters in a Greek play.  In Latin, the word for mask is persona.   The development of a human personality is the development of a mask.  We simply cannot “be” without some channel for interacting and relating to others.  When I ask someone how he is doing, I generally do not want a brain dump.  I am expecting something like, “Not bad.  How about yourself?” 

I wondered as I was thinking about this if Jesus had a mask.  He did.  John 2:24-25 says, “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”  The Lord, of course, did not deceive anyone, but He did not fully reveal Himself to everyone, either.  He allowed people to believe about Him according to their own hearts.  No one had to tell Jesus that the world is full of people who are not what they seem. 

In a fallen world, a persona is a survival mechanism.  There are places where we can – or should be able to drop all masks.  Family is one of those places.  It isn’t always the case.  A lot of us experience stress and pain because of the necessity of always being on the defensive.  We can find no one with whom we can drop the mask and be only what we are.  This is why betrayal is such a horrible sin.  When I drop my mask, the other person is supposed to drop his or hers as well.  Betrayal says that didn’t happen, that the pretense was maintained. 

Communion is another place where we should be able to lower our shields.  We often learn the hard way that our “brothers and sisters in Christ” are as duplicitous and conniving as some of our brothers and sisters in the flesh.  The lesson can be costly on many levels.  The religious hypocrites whom Jesus addressed were like many professors of Christianity today.  Externally their lives present a beautiful and seamless façade while inwardly they are broken, disintegrated, and dead. 

We can fall into the trap of maintaining appearances even as we suffer and agonize over how to bridge the yawning gulf between who we are and who we appear to be, who we want to be.  I think we are safe so long as we recognize that masks must be discarded.  Is hell a place where our shields are stripped away?  Or is the place where those must go who have nothing to shield, who are nothing except a mask? 

The persona is something we create in order to function effectively in a world of concepts.  The mask is not needed, nor can it survive, in pure existence.  As long as we are in contact and communion with God, we will see our shell for what it is – an interface for the world.  But, if we disconnect from the Source, we risk becoming nothing except a pretty tomb. 

Though the Fig Tree Should Not Blossom

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.  And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.  – Mark 11:12-14

This event occurred at the time of Passover.  In fact, the day before was marked by Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we commemorate as Palm Sunday.  Therefore we would say that Jesus cursed the fig tree on Monday of Holy Week leading up to His Crucifixion. 

The fig tree produces two crops per year – one in the spring and a main crop in the fall.  The fruit of the main crop is preferable, but in spring, the fruit begins to grow before the leaves emerge.  Though it was not the “season for figs”, a fig tree in full leaf promised the presence of fruit.  When Jesus saw the tree, He was drawn to it that He might satisfy His hunger.  Upon finding it barren, and even deceptively so, He cursed it. 

Bible expositors often tell us that the fig tree is symbolic of the nation of Israel.  In fact, Matthew 24:32-34 is a frequently quoted passage among students of Bible prophecy, especially those advocating a pre-millennial, pre-tribulation rapture.  Here is what it says, “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”  This is believed by many to be a prophecy of Israel’s restoration to the land and the return of Jerusalem to the Jewish people as it took place in 1948 (or possibly 1967).

Jesus was not cursing a mere plant when He caused that fig tree to wither.  The curse of Mark 11, as well as much (if not all) the prophecy of Matthew 24, was fulfilled with precision in 70 AD when the Roman forces under Titus destroyed Jerusalem, leveled the Temple, and drove the Jews into exile.  Assuming that Christ was crucified somewhere around 30 to 33 AD, the Jews would exist as a nation in their homeland for a “generation” of about 40 years (or perhaps exactly 40 since resistance remained at Masada until the year 73).

This curse, however, did not fall upon the fig tree because it failed to bear fruit out of season.  It was cursed for its deceptiveness, for the appearance that it would provide nourishment for the hungry and weary when it fact, it offered nothing.  The religion of the Pharisees and Sadducees in the First Century was a religion of appearances.  They liked to look good, to receive the praises of the crowd, to be noticed, but they had nothing to offer those whose souls were famished and desperate.  Lacking the courage to acknowledge their own emptiness, they had nothing more than a dead letter to offer the sinners and seekers.     

The Messiah came to His people, and they, for the most part, rejected Him because He upset their notions; He was not what they expected.  He did not concern Himself with their shallow rules or adhere to their misguided standards.  He shattered appearances and struck at the heart. 

As He approached Jerusalem amid the shouts of a fickle mob, He paused:  And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

The season had come, the time of visitation, the time to turn from illusions to reality.  God does not blame us or expect fruitfulness out of season.  But if we practice hypocrisy and pretend to be something we are not, we will find ourselves withering and suffering under the curse that falls relentlessly upon the deceptive. 

My friend Eddie used to speak often of Nicodemus who came to Jesus “in secret”.  He said that Christ does not want any “secret disciples”.  And he was right.  In the end, Nicodemus had to come forward along with others who perhaps feared for their social standing and acceptance to express his devotion to the Lord by helping to provide for embalming and burial.  Nicodemus did not fail to bear fruit in his season.  

We must not hide our light under a bucket or refuse to be salt in a decaying world.  But above all, we must be as honest about where we are as we can be.  There are going to be times in our lives when we are barren and unfruitful, when we seem dead to the world.  At those times, it will be easy for our enemies, our friends of Job's Friends, the world, and especially our own carnal minds to mock us and call us failures, to ask where God is in our lives, to ask why He has forsaken us.  We will be tempted, at times, to cover ourselves in fig leaves, to appear to have something we do not have.  Yet if we are willing to stand naked in our barrenness, stripped and silent before ridicule, the season of figs will come around again.

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
-- Habakkuk 3:17-19

Shell Games

”But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’

“He answered, ‘I don’t want to!’ Yet later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered. But he didn’t go. Which of these two did his father’s will?”

“The first,” they said.

Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” --Matthew 21:28-31

Those who attend churches and call themselves Christians today seem to be deeply concerned about immorality – especially the specific immorality of others. The adulterer wants to help the drunk out of his pit, and the drunk looks down on the drug user, who, in turn, is repulsed by the homosexual. We can always find someone more disgustingly immoral than ourselves. It’s a fact of human nature. You can have a prison full of rapists, murderers, thieves, and pushers, but you cannot turn a child molester loose in general population. They won’t last fifteen minutes because even the most hardened criminal hates that particular kind of perversion.

Jesus, on the other hand, never freaked out about basic immorality. He certainly did not approve of it, but it was not His focus. After all, we all know that lying, cheating, stealing, murder, etc. are wrong. Jesus did not lay aside His glory, empty Himself of all His rights, and walk a pain-filled path to the Cross in order to point out that we should be “better” people. He made His point with His own life, laying it down, denying Himself.

What did get the Lord stirred up was the idea that we could serve God on our own terms, in our own way – which really amounts to serving our own god. A group of idiots like the Westboro Baptist Church illustrates this point in hundred-foot high pink and green neon, but a lot of Christians -- including me -- are guilty in less egregious ways. I want to hold onto self and figure out some way to get God to go along. Jesus said, “Deny yourself.” That’s the only way to truly serve the Lord.

Christians like to talk about doing God’s will. We have sermons and seminars, classes, conventions, and conferences. I am reminded of the philosopher, Tuco, who said, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”

My friend, Eddie, used to tell his own, updated version of the Good Samaritan. A man had run off the road into a big ditch, was hurt and could not get out. Member of various Christian denominations and movements came by and turned away with condemnation, offered no help, or, at best, shouted a comically inappropriate platitude or two toward the broken man in the hole. The Samaritan in Eddie’s story was a cigarette-smoking redneck with empty beer bottles in the floorboard of a dirty old truck. It was done so well that Eddie was almost never invited back to speak at a church after he told that story.

Kind of like Jesus.

Pointing out the essence of sin is what makes me uncomfortable. As long as I can keep it categorized into good and bad behavior, while avoiding the more notorious categories – prostitution, homosexuality, accounting, and politics, I am good. Jesus won’t let me off that easily. He says it’s not about how big and graphic and perverse my failure is, but it is about my simple refusal to deny myself, take up my cross and follow Him. Nothing more is required, and nothing less will do.

Malignant Comfort

And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who settle down comfortably, who say to themselves: The LORD will not do good or evil.

Their wealth will become plunder and their houses a ruin. They will build houses but never live in them, plant vineyards but never drink their wine. – Zephaniah 1:12,13

The well-known quote from Psalm 119:105 says that God’s word is a lamp. Psalm 105:19 tells us that the word he had received tested Joseph. When Jerusalem was in apostasy, the prophetic word came through men like Zephaniah, Isaiah, and Micah.

I am sometimes like those comfortable men. I hear the word and I know God is speaking, but I settle back. I talk about grace, faith, and mercy, forgiveness and love. The prophetic word does not sting or stir but sounds, instead, like a pleasant song lulling me to passivity and ease.

So My people come to you in crowds, sit in front of you, and hear your words, but they don’t obey them. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue unjust gain. Yes, to them you are like a singer of love songs who has a beautiful voice and plays skillfully on an instrument. They hear your words, but they don’t obey them. Yet when it comes – and it will definitely come – then they will know that a prophet has been among them. -- Ezekiel 33:31-33

I gather with my friends and I sing along about loving God, being humble, and exalting Him. I listen to the word and admire the speaker’s eloquence and erudition. I put some money in the plate, walk out of the building, and say I have been to church and done my Christian duty.

But I never believe that God will really intervene or that He will call in the markers -- let alone kick the door in.

I’m not talking about politics or nations. This is Jerusalem, the City of God. These are God’s people laid back in the shade, counting their money, and idly watching American Idol.

He called to the man clothed in linen with writing equipment at his side. “Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the LORD said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations committed in it.”

To the others He said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not show pity or spare them. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women and little children, but do not come near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple. -- Ezekiel 9:3-6

The Apostle Peter put it this way, “For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)

Inevitably, complacency will bring judgment. It will fall first upon the Church which should of all people be the least apathetic and the least comfortable. As a sort of professional outsider, I see congregation after congregation where the talk is about “winning souls” and “bringing in the harvest”. Sometimes the Church seems more like a multi-level marketing scheme than the Body of Christ. If we have superfluous cells in the human body that are multiplying, we consider it a pathological condition and call it cancer. “Winning souls” to what? -- to help fund a bigger building?

If I am not fully integrated into Christ, if I am not fully drawing my life from Him, then I am merely making myself more subject to judgment on a personal level. I am being blessed, as we said about Jacob yesterday, but to whom much is given of him much is required. Those unbelievers who serve God’s purposes in ignorance will be judged less harshly than the informed rebels, and we will, like the one-talent servant, think the Lord a hard Master.

Peter understood because he had asked Jesus the ultimately stupid Christian question, as the King James translates John 21:21, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Peter had just been told -- not only his mission -- “Feed My sheep”, but his destiny and death as well, “Follow Me.”

Peter turns, sees John, and says, “What about him?”

Jesus replied to all of us who think it’s about somebody else, or think it’s about what we do instead of who we are: “What is that to you? As for you, follow Me.”

Revelation -- Surprise, Reveals

Without revelation people run wild, but one who keeps the law will be happy. -- Proverbs 29:18

Man can discover many things. After all Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I would have thought we could discover the law. Isn’t that what law is all about, right and wrong? Isn’t it, as the materialist says, simply a matter of how to get along well in community?

The law, which is a foundational revelation, serves two purposes. The first and obvious purpose is to restrain the natural man, the flesh.

They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. Now we know the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and the sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God that was entrusted to me. -- 1 Timothy 1:7-11

Paul gives us a scary recital of wickedness. People are not intrinsically moral; we need the law to rein in the impulses that would rip civilization apart. We also know that under the best of conditions those impulses, though restrained, are lurking just below the surface. We have been "enlightened" relative to many who, at the beginning of the 20th Century, thought the world could be free of war and conflict. Utopian schemes have failed from the Kibbutz to hippie communes to Communism. It might be reassuring to speak of the inherent goodness of man but you will lose the farm betting on it.

Those who define evil in terms of behavior seem to miss this point. Hatred is evil even if it is never expressed in action. Jesus equated hatred with murder and lust with adultery. The materialist dismisses this idea, arguing, perhaps, that it is only dangerous to hate because one might act on it, or that it is bad for digestion. I'll stick with Jesus on this one. I may be from down on the farm but I know how the cows come home.

After corralling the flesh, the second purpose of revelation is to nourish the spirit. Logos is the interface for knowing God and having His strength enter our spirit. (The written word is sort of like a UNIX command line. The Word, Jesus, is more like a GUI.)

For a long time I was what you might call an influential person in whatever local church I attended. I was willing to work, I could speak effectively, I gave money, and I was a legalist. I thought that restraining the flesh was the primary thing. I wanted better sinners -- as silly as that sounds. When I did wrong, I repented, but I remained, even by my own standards, basically unchanged. Despite the fact that I was going to church every time the doors were opened, I was no closer to God than I had been sitting on my deck twenty years earlier when I had realized He was real and I needed to live differently.

Of course I was living differently on the outside. The law had done its work. The wickedness was under control most of the time. What wasn’t different was my heart. Jesus said that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So what if, under a little pressure, the mouth speaks vicious hatred and vileness? I concluded that I had a heart problem. I needed to take the next step, to move from being a man of the flesh with reasonably good behavior to being a man of the spirit, really alive and happy.

It hasn’t been easy and I’m not too sure I’m making much progress. I do know, at least, that revelation does not end with merely being good, that transformation is possible, and even to be expected. Perhaps I am finally on the right road.