Jesus Had A Living Will

And the LORD said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel. -- Numbers 18:20

This has always been the hardest thing for me.  I am fine with mysticism until breakfast.  Work has to be done.  People have to be fed.  I'll do my praying before I go to bed.  Living "by faith" can look a lot like laziness, indolence, and indifference.  I believe that I have to be responsible, sensible and practical.  I love the word "canny".  I'm going to write up my obituary one of these days, and I'm going to put that in it:  he was a canny old hillbilly.  In fact, that may be my entire obituary right there. 

Most of us, when we get on in years, start thinking about the kind of inheritance we will leave to our children and grandchildren.  I am sorry that my generation has done such a lousy job preserving the culture and liberty that we enjoyed growing up.  There is not much I can do for the nation as a whole, but I will try to pass on the values and the traditions that marked the America I remember.   

Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD (Psalms 102:18).  I want the grandkids to know that our hope and strength is in Christ alone and not in material possessions or government programs, that safety and security and prosperity are never to be bought at the price of liberty, and that, nevertheless, we can live free anywhere under any conditions if we choose to abide in Him.  

I will try to build an inheritance of something other than a few notes drawn on the Federal Reserve.  I hope to leave behind some things of genuine material value,  like a place out of the wind and rain, space to raise a cow or two, some fruit trees and vines, dirt that will grow corn and beans and potatoes, maybe a little silver and gold, and .22 ammunition.  Books.  Lots of knives. 

I have no way of knowing, though, what tomorrow will bring.  I may lose every tangible possession that I have.  The one thing that I can't lose is the Truth.  Far more important than passing on houses or lands, gold or guns to the generations to come is passing on our "portion" in the Lord.  What is our hearts is what we need to make sure is given to those who will follow us, and the best way to do that is to invest it now in those that are around us.  The more of Christ we give away, the more we have to give and the more there will be for those "yet to be created". 

I cannot change my pragmatic nature, but I can take time each day to turn away from the demands of my physical existence, to look to the Lord, and to acknowledge Him as the One to whom I belong and as the Pearl of Great Price -- my only true possession.  All other things will slip from my grasp, will elude me in the end, as sand, as dust, as the wind that blows where it will.  Treasure in heaven is eternal and sure.

What God Knows

And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. – Matthew 7:23

Reading Origen last night put me on this track.  He sees goodness and existence as being essential to one another – two sides of the same coin.  God knows only what is, and what God knows is.  God does not know evil; therefore, evil is equivalent to non-being.  Not too surprisingly, Satan lied when he said to Eve, You shall not surely die.  When Jesus told the rich young ruler that no one is good but God, He was simply saying what had been told to Moses and the prophets.  I AM THAT I AM.  I am, and there is no other. 

Evil does exist.  People do practice lawlessness.  There are tragedies.  Jesus was incarnated in this world and experienced, as man, the tests and fears and losses.  He wept at the tomb of Lazarus.  God sees evil and is aware of it.  We see dead leaves blowing about in the fall.  We see smoke hanging in the air, fog in the morning stillness, dust thrown up by the wind.  What we are seeing is an effect.  We know the wind is blowing or not blowing, that a fire is burning, that there is cold air above warm ground.  God sees the effects of evil, but the evil-doer, the instrument of evil has nothing in common with God.  There is no connection, no intimacy, and no communion. 

We read that the eyes of God are too pure to look upon evil.  This is offensive to the secular mind.  God is so judgmental, so sanctimonious.  Who does He think He is?  Yes, we really can be that stupid.  For God to know sin would be for everything to cease to exist.  It is not possible.  Nonetheless, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us:  He who knew no sin became sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.  When we think about this in terms of existence it quickly becomes mind-boggling.  How could the sinless Son of God experience death at all?  How could He, who is God, be separated from the Holy One?  It’s not hard to see how the staggering incomprehensibility of such thoughts could lead to partial and heretical explanations. 

Somehow the Lord took upon Himself the burden and penalty of our sin, identifying so perfectly and fully with us in the Incarnation that He was able to partake of our death and taste non-being as we know it.  Jesus went all the way down into the lowest depths, the deepest darkness, and from there He rose because He is Good.  No one can ever say that God does not understand or that He does not know what we are going through.  Jesus knows better than you or I know.  It is the one who has fully resisted temptation and gone all the way through the trial that knows how hot it gets at its worst.  We say that we cannot stand anymore and give up.

To live is to be known by God; to be known by God is to live.  Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:9 make a little more sense to me now, … as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live.  In my unrighteousness, I was nothing.  It didn’t matter how successful I might have been.  I might have been acclaimed and celebrated by the world, but I was a non-being because I was unknown to the Lord.  The poorest, most worthless, most insignificant soul, from the world’s point of view, who is known by God is worth all the world. 

I was talking about the Pearl of Great Price a few weeks ago.  It occurs to me that there are two sides to that parable.  Certainly from the human side, what we give up to know God and be known of Him is nothing.  It is smoke, dust, vapor, and swirling leaves.  The other side is that God Himself sought such a Pearl.  He, too, gave up everything that He might know it as His own. 

 

The Exchange

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. – Matthew 13:45-46

Seller:  What do you have to give in exchange for the pearl?

Buyer:  This is all the money that I have with me, but I will empty my accounts and bring it all to you.

Seller:  Good.  Do you have a car?

Buyer:  You want that, too?

Seller:  Of course. 

Buyer:  But how will I get to work, to do my job and make a living?

Seller:  You have a job?  I’ll take that, too.

Buyer:  How will I pay for my house and where will my family live?

Seller:  Don’t worry.  I’ll take your house and your family.  Anything else?

The Buyer looks at the pearl so perfect.  It is the one thing he has always wanted, though he did not always know that he sought it.   The Buyer shakes his head.  Nothing save my life, he whispers. 

The Seller smiles, I will take that as well.  So saying, he places the pearl in the hand of the Buyer. 

The Buyer signs his name as the joy of the pearl that he now possesses fills him with exultation. 

Buyer:  It’s worth it.  Worth it all.

Seller:  Yes.  Your life and all you possess and cherish are mine.  The pearl is yours.  What I want you to do is manage my new acquisitions.  Take care of them as I would.  Manage wisely, as I would.  Someday, I will ask for an accounting, meanwhile, you may take your pearl and go on about my business.