April 10, 2001
If you get email, you probably get junk mail, virus hoaxes and assorted electronic chain letters. Some of them are humorous, others not worth the electricity it took to send them.
Occasionally some of this flotsam looks like hate-mail circulated by disgruntled employees. One arrived last week. It seemed to be copies of an exchange between the sender and a person who worked for a well-known television network. The sender had complained about a particular episode in a show that network carried. He took a biblical perspective on a certain issue and his letters were polite. The person who supposedly answered his complaint did so in a crude manner. He used lines like: “Get your nose out of the Bible . . . . treat people as equals . . . . try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as a lame crutch for your existence.”
Keep in mind that these ‘letters’ may been fabrications. Junk email is often like that; however, it did touch on a topic worthy of consideration. When some Christians speak about their faith as it applies to current controversial issues, we often are told that our religion is a crutch. The implication is that Christians are weak and their faith helps them limp through life.
It is true that crutches support people who are injured or disabled but there seems also to be a suggestion by these accusers that no one needs crutches. They seems to believe that all human beings can think for themselves and that our own ideas are all we need to live and solve every problem. In other words, we can do it without religion, faith or God.
Maybe that is true in limited situations. I get up every morning and brush my own teeth without help — but a quadriplegic cannot. Not everyone is self-sufficient in everything. Besides, the Bible says it is because of God that we “live and move and have our being” so without common grace from God, I could not get up in the morning and brush my teeth.
As I watch the nightly news, I cannot help but conclude that even if we human beings have the capacity to think through our problems, many of us do not. A certain percentage of the population is doing the opposite: thinking up problems.
Add to this the mistake factor. A corporate executive can make incredible and sincere decisions but are all his decisions beneficial? What about leaders of universities? Is every idea sound and positive? If the best leaders and thinkers can make mistakes, what about you or me?
Since lameness is the inability to function correctly, then everyone is lame, at least part of the time. We mess up, no matter how good we are at “thinking for ourselves.” This includes presidents, professors and thinkers as well as you and me. Even by our own standards of measurement, there is no perfect person who is limp-free all of the time.
So how about the standards of a perfect God? How does He measure our lameness? Solomon, a man noted for his wisdom, wrote this: “There is not one person that does good and never sins,” a theme that is repeated throughout Scripture. God can say that because He measures us by the standard of His Son. Jesus was a perfect man. He never did anything that violated the standards of His Father. Oh, on a human level some might find fault. If perfection is monetary, then Jesus failed. If perfection is popularity, then Jesus limped. Yet God says His Son passed all the tests.
People who tell Christians to stop using the Bible as a crutch do not realize that they themselves have crutches. Why else does society gobble up Valium, booze and excess food? What are those cravings but an attempt to hide a limp?
God knows our lameness but rather than ridicule us for it, He offers us His crutches. Anyone who tries them learns that with God, it is far better to be lame than blind.
Showing posts with label why Jesus came. Show all posts
Showing posts with label why Jesus came. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2018
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
War and/or Peace? .......... Parables 496
December 19, 1995
“If those who want peace are just as interested in success, popularity and power as those who want war, what then is the difference between war and peace?” (H. Nouwen)
Good question. It interests me that Jesus Christ offered both war and peace. He said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” but also said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.”
Why the contradiction? Was Jesus interested only in results and not at all concerned with the means used to get them? Did it matter to Him whether He became popular with promises of peace or powerful with promises of a sword? What was He trying to say?
Some think Jesus enjoyed popularity but when it leveled off, He and His disciples concocted a plot — if He “died” and “rose from the dead” no one would ever forget Him. In other words, Jesus was no different than anyone else who seeks personal success, fame and power. Securing a name for Himself and a following was the most important thing.
If Jesus was interested only in success, popularity and power, He had to be mentally warped. Nothing He did secured any of those three. The world, even in His day, measures success by wealth and position. Jesus was a mere carpenter and an itinerant preacher who died without owning any land or houses, only the clothes on His back. He was penniless.
Popularity is measured by the number of people who like you and stick with you. It is not the same as notoriety. If Jesus wanted only to be popular, why then did He make decisions that caused even His closest friends to misunderstand Him and eventually desert Him?
Power was measured in His day by the size of a man’s army and the number of His weapons. Jesus had no army. His power was kindness and forgiveness, with which He gathered a following of fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, and other “low life” of society who hardly fit anyone’s idea of an army.
Even the “power” He had had no influence on Jewish leaders, except a few who were too afraid to let anyone know they followed Him. He also had no influence over political leaders. Herod tried to kill Him as a baby, and subsequent Roman leaders willingly allowed the Jews to crucify Him. Even on the cross, Jesus did not choose power. The crowds mocked Him saying, “You saved others... come down... save yourself” but He refused to call out for help, either to His Father or to “legions of angels.”
Was Jesus’ idea of success twisted? No, but His concept was different. He knew the Scripture said, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” To Him, success was obeying everything God said. He was successful at doing that.
Jesus did not have a twisted idea of popularity either. He simply was not as concerned with the applause of men as He was with pleasing God. The Apostle Paul later wrote, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God....” Of Him, God said, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was popular — with the One Person who counts.
As for power, the Bible says Jesus had no human armies and even though He could have called on angels to deliver Him from death, He instead affirmed that spiritual might is not in swords and spears. The Bible says the “weakness of God (in becoming a vulnerable man and dying) is stronger than men.” His death accomplished the purpose of God in providing redemption for sinful man. However, His “weakness was not permanent. Jesus also has the “power of an endless life” — and He lives and reigns forever at the right hand of His Father.
Rather than challenge the difference between those who want war and those who want peace, Nouwen would be wise to inquire about different views of success, popularity and power. He might discover it is possible, even in the midst of conflict, to have peace.
“If those who want peace are just as interested in success, popularity and power as those who want war, what then is the difference between war and peace?” (H. Nouwen)
Good question. It interests me that Jesus Christ offered both war and peace. He said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” but also said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.”
Why the contradiction? Was Jesus interested only in results and not at all concerned with the means used to get them? Did it matter to Him whether He became popular with promises of peace or powerful with promises of a sword? What was He trying to say?
Some think Jesus enjoyed popularity but when it leveled off, He and His disciples concocted a plot — if He “died” and “rose from the dead” no one would ever forget Him. In other words, Jesus was no different than anyone else who seeks personal success, fame and power. Securing a name for Himself and a following was the most important thing.
If Jesus was interested only in success, popularity and power, He had to be mentally warped. Nothing He did secured any of those three. The world, even in His day, measures success by wealth and position. Jesus was a mere carpenter and an itinerant preacher who died without owning any land or houses, only the clothes on His back. He was penniless.
Popularity is measured by the number of people who like you and stick with you. It is not the same as notoriety. If Jesus wanted only to be popular, why then did He make decisions that caused even His closest friends to misunderstand Him and eventually desert Him?
Power was measured in His day by the size of a man’s army and the number of His weapons. Jesus had no army. His power was kindness and forgiveness, with which He gathered a following of fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, and other “low life” of society who hardly fit anyone’s idea of an army.
Even the “power” He had had no influence on Jewish leaders, except a few who were too afraid to let anyone know they followed Him. He also had no influence over political leaders. Herod tried to kill Him as a baby, and subsequent Roman leaders willingly allowed the Jews to crucify Him. Even on the cross, Jesus did not choose power. The crowds mocked Him saying, “You saved others... come down... save yourself” but He refused to call out for help, either to His Father or to “legions of angels.”
Was Jesus’ idea of success twisted? No, but His concept was different. He knew the Scripture said, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” To Him, success was obeying everything God said. He was successful at doing that.
Jesus did not have a twisted idea of popularity either. He simply was not as concerned with the applause of men as He was with pleasing God. The Apostle Paul later wrote, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God....” Of Him, God said, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was popular — with the One Person who counts.
As for power, the Bible says Jesus had no human armies and even though He could have called on angels to deliver Him from death, He instead affirmed that spiritual might is not in swords and spears. The Bible says the “weakness of God (in becoming a vulnerable man and dying) is stronger than men.” His death accomplished the purpose of God in providing redemption for sinful man. However, His “weakness was not permanent. Jesus also has the “power of an endless life” — and He lives and reigns forever at the right hand of His Father.
Rather than challenge the difference between those who want war and those who want peace, Nouwen would be wise to inquire about different views of success, popularity and power. He might discover it is possible, even in the midst of conflict, to have peace.
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