New Thoughts (5/15/06-5/19/06)
To begin with, let me suggest a somewhat different blending of these three passages than I offered in paraphrasing. The scribes and the Pharisees, seeing the injured man, see their chance to find cause against Jesus, so they ask Him whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus calls the man forward to stand before them, and then turned to His questioners. “I shall ask you: On the Sabbath, do you deem it lawful to do what will benefit another, or what will bring harm to him? Do you think the Sabbath fit for saving life, or for destroying it?” (I hear those questions with an ‘only’ implied after each ‘or.’ I suspect the Pharisees did, too.) They offered Him no answer to these questions, and their hardness grieved Him, stirred Him to a righteous anger. “Who among you wouldn’t pull his own sheep out of a hole on the Sabbath, were it necessary? Not a one! Yet, here is a man in need, and a man is of far greater worth than any sheep. Of course it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath!” With that, He told the man to stretch out his hand, and that hand was seen to be perfectly healed, not differing in the least from his other hand. The Pharisees, though, were stung to the quick, and in their anger departed to counsel the destruction of this Jesus by whatever means they could.
I offer that view of events because I think it both follows the order of those accounts and makes those events a little more understandable. The questions Jesus asks in response to their probe make clear that what Luke says is true. He knew what they were up to, and the nature of those questions as well as their intonation let the Pharisees know that He knew. If ever there were a direct assault on the righteousness of these pillars, this was it. He was calling their bluff, as it were, and He was declaring that He was not going to be intimidated by them. Here was the example set for His disciples. We will find them in later years making clear that they learned well. “Whether we ought to obey man or God, you be the judge…” Combining those questions with that example Jesus follows up with, the Pharisees had no option but to recognize how far from the mark they were. Of course they would do what was needed to protect their life and property, regardless of the Sabbath. When it came to their own interests, there could be no doubt. I imagine a pause, here, while Jesus allows them to reach that conclusion before springing His point. Here before you is a man, the pinnacle of God’s creative works, and you would not do for him what you would do for a sheep! That response we find in the Pharisees is the response of a rebuke driven home.
However, before I turn my thoughts to the response, I want to make clear the root from which these men and sprung, for the root was a good root, filled with good intent. Consider, for example, what the scribes were about. These men were the guardians of Scriptural integrity. If we have the text of the Old Testament in carefully preserved form, with little to no deviation from the oldest known manuscripts, it is largely the scribes that we can thank. These were the successors to the prophets, men whose reverence for God’s Law and for God’s Word was unparalleled. The scribe wanted nothing more than to know and do what God’s Law required, and to be of service by teaching the rest of Israel how to do the same (Ezra 7:10). So highly did they value the text of Scripture that they rarely if ever recorded their own views in written form. Even when they did so, they took utmost care to ensure that these views were understood to be no more than the opinion of man, never on a par with the declared will of God. Where they offered opinions, their aim was to protect the righteous nation of Israel. If the line between lawful and unlawful was unclear in any situation, they wished to settle a boundary sufficiently far into lawful territory as to ensure no accidental transgressions. These are not bad things. These are the efforts of good and true shepherds.
What of the Pharisees? These men followed in the footsteps of the scribes in many ways. Their greatest desire, at the outset, was to make of Israel a nation of priests unto God. Surely, one can hear Peter’s own words in that desire! “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” (1Pe 2:9). What requirements did the Pharisees place upon their members? The required that one tithe faithfully of everything the land produced. This, and they were obliged to heed the laws regarding purity, particularly as it applied to food and to family. Their respect for God’s tithe was an integral part of their concern for eating in purity. If the tithe was God’s, by extension the rest of the meal from which the tithe was taken was a holy portion, and ought to be treated accordingly. Just like the scribes, the Pharisees were focused on knowing and practicing the Law, and on helping others towards that same goal. Again, this is hardly a bad thing.
Arguably, the goals upon which these groups were founded were no different than the goals of the Church today. What more could we desire than to know what God requires of us and to do it? What greater service can we hope to render our King than to teach the nations of His requirements and His grace? If we share in their goals, it is incumbent upon us to realize that we are quite possibly partakers in their failures as well. God so graciously lays out the history of His people for us, that we might learn not only from their positive example, but also from their mistakes. We dare not read about the response of these men to what God was doing in their midst and not recognize the warning signs if we are becoming rather like them.
Consider the roots. As I have shown, both movements came from good stock, from good intentions. Indeed, Jesus commends the Pharisees for their intent. “Unless your righteous surpasses theirs, don’t think to enter the kingdom” (Mt 5:20). It is not their start that is condemned, only what they have become. The scribes began in reverence for the revealed word of God. Over time, though, the reverence moved from the God who spoke to the writing itself. Then, it slipped even further, developing into a reverence for those exalted earlier scribes and their comments upon the text. With the passing of the years, it reached the point that the words of the scribes were exalted above even the word of God. Surely, that can’t happen today, though, right? Well, there are those branches of the Church where such twisting of allegiance is blatant, of course, but there are similar issues elsewhere as well. When we value the interpretation of a particular pillar of the Church more than we value the Word of God, we are in trouble! When we are more concerned with what Billy Graham or John Calvin or Martin Luther or Saint Augustine said about a particular passage of Scripture than we are with what God said in that passage, we are in the very same boat that carried the scribes away.
How about this? Building on the work of their forebears, all manner of attempts were made to codify the teachings. Where the early scribes had sought to define what the Law required, these later scribes sought to define what the definitions of the early scribes required. This, too, devolved with time. Soon, there were scribes gathering to pour over the pages of Scripture. A good thing, right? Sure, except that they were not seeking to know what that Word declared. They were looking for new meanings. They were certain that there must be deep, mystical significations hidden away in these texts, and that certainty led to a religious fantasy life. All manner of meanings were ‘discovered’, even in the particular letters and numbers.
Here is a warning for the teachers of today! Here is a warning for me as I study! Here is a warning for all those who prefer ‘revelation’ knowledge to the plain and obvious meaning of Scripture. Don’t get out of balance! Don’t lose respect for what God has revealed! Don’t get so caught up looking for something new and novel that you wind up rejecting what is established. Truth doesn’t have to be shiny and new to be true. Truth doesn’t change. If anything, we ought to be a bit leery of any suggestion of new meaning in these texts. After all, even the writings of the New Testament have had a few millennia of study given to them. Indeed, it is partly this need to find new things in the old texts that has led to the current state of the seminaries, and the deplorable condition of liberal theology that has plagued the majority of denominations. Even amongst the more fundamentalist portions of the Church there is that thirst for what is fresh and new. I tell you plainly, God’s Word is new every morning. It is always fresh! It needs no rewrite, no restatement to be relevant to us today. Our problem is that we have pretty well traded understanding for PR. We have given up on searching His Word in favor of holy sound bites. We would far rather read the latest thrilling exposition by Famous Author than take a moment or two to really dig into Scripture for ourselves. The same traps await.
In the Pharisees, too, we can see ourselves plainly enough if we will look. Here are the ones determined to look their best, to make certain that everybody knows which church they go to, how faithfully they attend, how very much they do to serve there. But, show us an unbeliever in need. Show us, for that matter, a member of the church down the street who needs more help than they can give. Can we stop preening our righteous feathers long enough to help? The Pharisees, in a sense, stand as representatives for the Church that refuses to go outside. It is the Church of Holy Appearance, ever so careful to remain unsullied by the world, but at the same time utterly powerless to change the world. That desire to see the nations made a priesthood of our God hasn’t faded, but rather than do anything to bring it about, we fall into deploring the stupidity of the lost. We who were the lost not all that many years ago now look upon them and simply can’t imagine how they could miss it. Yet, we can’t see ourselves in them any more. Compassion is lost in our busy devotion to our mirrors.
Here, too, in the example of the Pharisees, is one of the great issues facing the Church in our day. The Pharisees were then, and still are today, the primary bastions of Jewish orthodoxy. Now, what does that word ‘orthodoxy’ mean? It means conforming to established doctrine. It means finding the same meaning in the texts today as we found there in the last century, or even in the first century. It means that Truth doesn’t change! But, look how the Pharisees uphold orthodoxy: By adapting to circumstance! I can attest to the truth of this. The synagogue with whom my church shared space for a time was of a relatively conservative form of Judaism. I recall sitting in on a discussion group they were having, and the rabbi spoke of this very thing very plainly and very proudly as being at the root of why the Pharisees continued while other sects dissolved. It was their ability to change established doctrine and still call it conforming!
Look at the Church today! Look, in particular, at those branches were religious liberalism has taken hold. But don’t think that those are the only branches with problems. Look at the mega-church movement. Look at the seeker-friendly movement. Look at the Church as corporation movement. Look around! How many churches today are declaring the same truths that came to these shores a few short centuries ago? How many congregants even know what their denominations theoretically believe, let alone agree? I cannot shake the image of my sister in law reacting in shocked horror upon discovering that the denomination to which she had belonged lo these many years subscribed to the concept of predestination! Oh, the shame! But, she’s hardly alone in this. Nobody cares for history in general anymore, let alone Church history. Nobody cares about doctrine, so long as the worship’s good and the pastor’s entertaining. Oh, were orthodox all right, just so’s we can define orthodoxy to fit today’s crowd and today’s needs.
Let me offer one more warning from the history of the righteous Pharisees. Here was a people convinced that their faithful devotion to God’s Law would give them power to stand against any and every earthly power, for that matter against every spiritual power. Surely, the thinking goes, God will not permit His heritage to be ravaged by any enemy! Now, this in itself was a clear and obvious refusal to learn from history. One had only to consider the exile to recognize that theirs was a false position. Yes, and the combination of this mindset with the blindness that allowed them to see their bending of the Laws to suit their abilities as perfect obedience was a deadly combination indeed! Welcome to Christian America! This is the same mindset that pervades much of our own country today. Because we are a Christian nation, surely God will not bring punishment upon us. We are His particular and chosen heritage, right? So we’ve changed the order of worship a bit, so we’ve modified a few commandments here and there to make the Church more inclusive. He won’t mind. Why should He be offended by the strange fire we offer? It’s offered to Him, isn’t it?
Is it? Can we really be falling into that again? Can we really think that what He has declared repugnant will somehow be pleasing so long as we do it in His name? Can we really think that the God Who speaks in such exclusive terms is pleased by our inclusiveness? How can we think that the God of the Narrow Way is impressed by the Church of the Boulevard? How can we think that the God Who says, “only by Me” is pleased by our modern, ‘all paths lead to God’ viewpoint? How can we fail to see the parallels?
Fences are, in the end, a good thing. They are boundaries set about us that in order that we might be at liberty, odd though that always sounds. To carefully and thoroughly consider how to keep God’s ways is surely a duty for every child of God. There are twin dangers along that path, though, as the example of these forebears of ours show. On the one side there is the danger of exalting our favorite experts as equal or superior to Scripture – idol worship of the worst sort. On the other side there is the danger, as we seek to apply the tenets of righteousness to our daily situation of managing only to adjust those tenets to our daily failures. Study, by all means, to know what is required of you. Confirm your understanding by the words of wiser men who have gone before you. I cannot begin to say what a comfort it is to find that others, well trained and given over to a life of examining the Scriptures, have reached the same understanding, found the same points made. At the same time, I cannot stress strongly enough how great is the risk when our own sense of understanding prevents us from hearing correction.
Therein lies the point of return to the passage at hand, for this is exactly the condition we find these Pharisees and scribes in. They have become so certain of their own interpretation and understanding that they have closed their ears to anything further on the subject. This is rather interesting, when I recall that it was the Pharisees who had brought theological debate to the synagogues. As the article in McClintock & Strong’s noted, they had caused specific facilities to be incorporated into the layout of the synagogue for just such purpose, that Pharisees and scribes of different traditions could lay out their cases and debate the merits of their understanding before the people. They had conditioned the people of Israel to accept that there could be controversy in matters of theology, and trained them to attend upon the debates that they might understand for themselves what the issues and the arguments were. Yet, they themselves had become incapable of hearing any arguments but their own. As much as they thrived on these theological niceties, they were unprepared to accept this One who came teaching something completely at odds with their traditions.
The problem is that Jesus did not come to debate niceties. He wasn’t interested in which forms of public display were most in keeping with the Law. He wasn’t interested in defining the boundaries so that we might know just how far we could go in the approach to sin before we slipped over the line. Jesus did not come to finesse the Law, but to restore the Law. To that end, He was more concerned with applying the principles of that Law to His own life, and the lives of those He came in contact with than with looking good and behaving in accord with accepted norms. He was not interested in adjusting the Law to the times. He had come to adjust the times to the Law.
Jesus, as Luke tells it, had come to the synagogue in order to teach. In this, He was assuredly following in the footsteps of the scribes and the Pharisees, pursuing the very same passions upon which those movements were founded. He understood the Law, and He wished for all God’s people to understand it as well. Not only did He understand it, He lived it. Likewise, He sought to make of God’s people a nation of priests, those who do the Law. This was the dream of the Pharisees, the whole point of the scribes. Yet, they were unable to accept it when it came, because they had become to adept at adapting.
As a bit of an aside, I would like to note the following clarification that came from Zhodiates’ entry on that word ‘teaching.’ There is a great difference between teaching and preaching, and in considering the difference he brings out, I notice that one finds both happening in the ministry of Jesus. Preaching, according to this author, is akin to functioning as a herald. To preach is to proclaim the King and His kingdom. When first we find Jesus entering into His ministry, what do we hear from Him? “The kingdom is at hand.” This is preaching! “Repent, for your King cometh.” This is ever and always the message of the kingdom. This is the seed of revival, and when it takes root, watch for the King to make Himself known!
In contrast to this simple and heart-felt proclaiming of the Kingdom, there is teaching. Teaching, Zhodiates notes, aims to shape the will. It aims to accomplish this shaping by the tool of knowledge. Teaching targets the mind, for that is the seat of knowledge. The will is not inclined to follow blindly along. Desire does not form in a vacuum. The heart is involved, one can be sure, for the will never desires what is not in the heart, but the heart can only desire what the mind already knows. Once again the balance of wisdom is maintained. Indeed, this balance is the reason we have both preaching and teaching in the Church. The former reaches for the heart, it addresses the emotions and seeks to awake a new and better desire. The latter reaches for the mind, giving the will reason to choose a better course.
In this case, Jesus has come to teach, to shape the will by imparting knowledge. Notice that He is not off in private imparting this knowledge to His select few. He is in the public place, seeking to explain to any who care to listen. “I have spoken openly to the world. Whatever I have taught, I have taught in synagogue and temple, before the congregation of the Jews. I have not spoken any secret teaching” (Jn 18:20). Here is proof of that very thing. Indeed, when He told Caiaphas to question those who had heard what He taught, He was essentially referring Caiaphas to his own people. Ask the Pharisees. They heard what I was teaching. Ask the scribes. Indeed, ask them if they have been able to find any fault in anything I have taught, for they have been right there listening.
Jesus had come to the synagogue with the intent of shaping the will of a nation by the knowledge He imparted to them. That knowledge was very simply a real understanding of the Law that nation had been entrusted with, and the role that nation had been entrusted with. They had been given the Law that they might walk humbly before God. They had been given the Law that they might live in a fashion that would encourage those nations around them to likewise walk before God. They had been entrusted with the express word of God that they might be His spokesmen to all the world, but they opted for keeping it to themselves. But, that is another message for another time.
Into this circumstance, into this place for debate, He comes. He does not come blindly or foolishly. He knows full well the nature of these men who watch Him so carefully. Would that they would listen as carefully as they watched. But, they have no desire to hear what He might say, only to find something wrong with Him, something to be offended at. This, they will surely find.
As I look at this episode, I am put in mind of that favorite passage from Ephesians. We are His workmanship, Paul writes there, created for the purpose of doing those good works which God prepared for the express purpose that we might do what we were created for (Eph 2:10). Here before the debaters is exactly such a prepared opportunity. In the person of the injured man, they were being presented with an occasion to do what they were supposed to do. Instead, they make of this opportunity an occasion to do what they ought never to do. These seekers after Truth have become men who lay in wait against the righteous (Pr 24:15), seeking to ambush the innocent without cause (Pr 1:11), and even as the Teacher wrote, in doing so they ambush their own lives (Pr 1:18). Here before them is one who was made in the image of the God they claim to serve, and this one is in need. But, rather than meet his need, they make of him the bait in a trap. They know the character of this Jesus. They know He cannot bear to see His fellow man continue in such misery. They know He will do something about it, and rather than rejoice that He is fulfilling His purpose, they look for something in His purpose by which they might declare Him less holy than they.
Is it lawful, they ask, to heal on the Sabbath? Quite frankly, they do not care in the least what the answer to that question might be. In fact, I think that somewhere inside they knew the answer, in spite of their stance on the issue. They are not interested in hearing Jesus’ opinion. They are not going to hear whatever reasons He may put forth one way or the other. They are only interested in goading Him into action that they might then see Him working and say, “Aha!” But, Jesus knows them well.
Rather than answer them directly, He turns the question back on them, and in that question He forces them to look upon themselves as they are right there in the moment. The question Jesus presents to them is designed to draw the distinct contrast between what He is doing and what they are doing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is morally right or to do what is morally evil. Would you say that God wants His people to seek to do for each other what will be to their eternal benefit, or to seek ways to bring them to harm? What sort of character do you suppose He would prefer? In that question, He has brought into stark contrast the motivation behind the act they question and the motivation that has brought the question. To heal a man is surely to do what will benefit him, for it empowers him to provide for himself on days when work is expected of a man. The clear intention of their question, though, is to do mischief to Jesus, to trap Him in an answer by which they can justify His destruction to themselves. They are looking only for something to denounce, and their objective reveals their character in spite of all their pretenses.
Is the Law of God interested in saving or destroying mankind? There is the greater question that follows upon the first. In His choice of words, Jesus is emphasizing the nature of what is Lawful. What is Lawful, in the sense of being in accord with the will of God, is clearly and obviously right. Given a choice between seeking a man’s benefit and seeking his harm, the Lawful choice, God’s choice, is clear and obvious. Given the choice between saving life and destroying life, the Lawful choice, God’s choice is obvious. Lest they miss it, though, He gives them an example of just how obvious it is. If it were a matter of personal loss to you, if it were your sheep that had fallen into a pit and would die without immediate rescue, you wouldn’t spare a thought for the fact that it was the Sabbath. You wouldn’t give it a second thought. You’d just get in there and save your sheep.
Now, behold this man. Your sheep is but a commodity, a means of provision. Here before you is a creature made to bear God’s image, yet in his case you would scruple over the nature of the day. Yet, the moral choice, the Lawful choice, is as clear and as obvious here as it was with your precious lamb.
You can’t tell me these guys missed the point. It doesn’t matter how little they were listening. They heard it, and it was indeed clearly and obviously right. All that effort they put into tithing and purification, and yet their hearts and minds were far from God. “Which of us is doing what pleases God, and which the very things He condemns?” They had not missed the answer to that question. In fact, their response makes it very clear to me that they had not missed the answer. Luke says that they were filled with rage. They were hit so hard by the answer that they were pushed into a madness of stupidity by it. What should have been a call to repentance was made in them a further hardening. They had become one with Pharaoh. Given every cause to have a change of heart, they chose instead to hold to their course, and so God left them to it.
These men would not answer Jesus’ question for the simple reason that they could not do so without acknowledging the guilt of their intentions. To accept what He said as truth meant repenting. To repent must surely require that one admit to having done something unrighteous. How can one repent if one has done no wrong? What is there to repent of? No, these pillars of righteousness, especially here in this place where their reputation was most respected, were not willing to allow the suggestion of iniquity in themselves. They could not even admit it to themselves, let alone confess it before the other men of the synagogue. Remember that hierarchy the Pharisees had established. The touch of a lesser man was sufficient to make the greater unclean in their view. What, then, was to be the outcome if it were found that they who thought themselves the greater were found to be the unclean ones? It was unfathomable. It would turn their whole system of thought on its head. Is it any wonder they felt threatened by this Teacher?
So a blinding, mindless rage takes hold of them, for they cannot evade the Truth and neither can they admit to it. When that rage is defined as madness and stupidity, it is very clearly on the mark. Look at the reaction of these men. Rather than hear the correction and repent of their ways, they choose to provide by their actions the very answer they would not give in word. Is it legal to destroy a man on the Sabbath? By their response, they shout a very loud, ‘yes.’ Well, surely it must have constituted work for them to have departed the synagogue to seek out the Herodians! The Herodians, of all people! If the touch of a lower rank Pharisee was defiling, then surely the company of these Hellenized sycophants was defiling to the extreme! Yet, it is these very men that the Pharisees sought out. From what follows, it is clear that this was no one time visit, either. It was an extended contact.
Look at the way this plays out as things unfold. They had this plot going, one that continued for years, by which they hoped to catch Jesus saying something that would get Him in trouble (Lk 11:54). What were they hoping for? They had already decided that He was not a proper Pharisee in His habits, but this was insufficient cause to destroy Him. In plain point of fact, there was no religious cause that would suffice to bring the Pharisees to destroy the Man. This was no longer in their power. Such actions would require the intervention of the Roman overlords. To attempt to take such matters into their own hands would be to put themselves at risk of Roman retribution were they found out. So, they turn to the hated Herodians, even as they considered these ‘allies’ to be turncoats against the people of God. Blind!
They walked side by side with the Herodians, using these fellows as spies, so that when they had managed to get some politically condemning statement from Jesus, these men could bring it straight to Herod’s court (Lk 20:20, Mt 22:16, Mk 12:13). They figured that they could frame the questions in such a way as to make Jesus’ answers not only controversial, but subversive. Oh, they were so very clever, and they understood this Man and the Law well enough to perceive how He would respond to certain suggestions. Had they not just shown this in asking Him about that wounded man? They knew He could not resist healing the man if once he were brought to His attention. Yes, they could instigate words from Him that Herod would not find pleasing in the least. Had they been able to see what they were doing, they must surely have seen that by their own definitions they were walking in a state of continual impurity by this choice. Yet, rage had made them blind to their own foolishness, and consequences accrue unseen.
In contrast to this blinding rage stands the reaction of Jesus. He sees that they will not acknowledge their own sin, and He becomes angry, wrathful. We find it somewhat offensive when we discover that the God Who is Love gets wrathful. We cannot comprehend this God who can be angry and yet sinless. Here’s the thing, though: Jesus, we are told, was grieved by the state of the Pharisees. He was distressed by their stubbornness, but not because of any danger to Himself. He was distressed because He understood the eternal consequences of that stubbornness. He knew what had become of Pharaoh, and He knew that the outcome for these men from God’s chosen nation could be no different. He was sorrowful on their account, and the situation made Him angry. See, it was a justifiable abhorrence which was turned not against the men themselves, for they were blinded and made stupid by something beyond themselves. That anger did not burn against the Pharisees, but against the powers and principalities that had corrupted the Pharisees. That burning anger that Jesus experienced was aimed fully at the sins which so warped and twisted the men He had Himself created to bear God’s image in the world.
Remember that He is the same One who reminds the Pharisees of the great worth of man. Even in His anger, He has not forgotten that these who have provoked the anger are every bit as much men as is the one who will be healed. His anger is at that which prevents the Pharisees from experiencing the healing that is in Him. It is not that Jesus is incapable of overwhelming the blinding spirits that so provoke and mislead these adversaries. It is not that Jesus could not, were He so inclined, heal the most belligerently uncooperative of patients. It is that He will not. As great as His love is, He will not allow His desire for mercy to utterly dispose His commitment to Justice. He is God, even as He stands in the flesh, and He must uphold all His attributes in perfection and in perfect balance.
If we accept that there are those who are predestined for destruction and those who are chosen from the beginning for salvation – and it seems we must either accept this Truth or reject Scripture as Truth – imagine the anguish of soul Jesus experiences in this moment. His deepest desire is to see all men saved and restored to Life. Yet, He is Himself the Creator of these ones heading inexorably for destruction. He created them knowing this would be their end, yet He is moved by great sorrows and abhorrence as He sees them on their way. God is not ever pleased to inflict the punishments that sin demands. But, He is Just, and Justice requires that He do so even when His Compassion would choose otherwise. It is part and parcel of defining Character, that He will do what is Right even when what is Right is not the most emotionally rewarding choice.
Unlike the Pharisees, the anger which Jesus experiences does not blind Him, does not make Him irrational. It is interesting that the word used to describe His answer is orgee, the root from which we derive orgy. Yet, He does not abandon Himself to this emotion, as powerful as it is. Rather, His Goodness asserts itself all the more, and He only responds to the situation by making the godly course manifest. “Of course it is legal to do good, and therefore I will.” There is an anger that sins not. It seeks not retribution. It seeks not vengeance. It faces the evil that has caused anger to arise and counters it with deliberate good. Never repay evil with evil, but respect what is right (Ro 12:17), always seek the good of each other, the good of all men (1Th 5:15), and give blessing instead; for you were called for that very purpose so that you might inherit a blessing (1Pe 3:9).
Having seen the example set before me, it is time to consider the moral applications. There are two that strike me. The first lies in that mindless rage with which the Pharisees reacted. This is not an uncommon response to rebuke. Indeed, it seems to be a fairly common reaction when the Truth hits home. I know with certainty that my experience has been thus. It is human nature to dislike being found in the wrong, especially when we make the finding on our own behalf! Oh! How the flesh rises up against that assault! We don’t want to see it. We want to be right, whatever the cost. It takes time under the ministrations of the Holy Spirit for us to return to our senses. It takes time for Him to speak sense to our insanity, to feed wisdom into the vacuum of our stupidity until we can recognize the Truth from our fiction.
I say that this is the way things are with us, but I do not say that is as it should be. In the extreme, what should be is that we ought not need such rebukes. However, as we walk this walk towards righteousness we need to learn how to accept and acknowledge rebuke more readily. We need to recognize that the rage that wells up inside of us in response to Truth is a warning sign. It is a warning that our hearts are growing hard and cold. It is a warning sign that our prayer life is not as it ought to be, that we have lost somewhat of our intimacy with the Creator. If our response is so much as a momentary rage, it ought to drive us to our knees that we might seek out our Counselor and hear His wisdom on the matter. It is time to hear the cry of David on our own lips, ‘renew a steadfast spirit in me, oh God, cast me not away from Your presence.’
Somehow, I ought to hold before my eyes the picture of these Pharisees throwing aside everything they stood for in the stupidity of blinding rage. Somehow, when the word of correction comes, I need to see their reaction and make sure it is not my reaction. Godly rebuke is to be accepted, for it is a discipline by which I am being trained up to maturity in Him. To reject that discipline is to reject Him and my place in His kingdom, which would be truly a fate worse than death.
Having read in Table Talk this morning of the way Jesus expounded the Law, I am put in mind of what His teaching here tells us about the Law regarding the Sabbath. There is that whole series of ‘you have heard it said, but I say’ messages in the Sermon on the Mount. Here, as Jesus continues to show us what is not only acceptable, but right to do on the Sabbath, I must recognize that in this regard the Law of the Sabbath is to apply to every day. The perpetual Sabbath day of God’s kingdom should be a perpetual reminder to us to be about His work, that work we can rest in doing. “Of course it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath,” Jesus says. Yes, and every day is a Sabbath day for the one who walks with God. Every day is holy because every day belongs to Him. Therefore, we must recognize that every day is a day on which it is lawful to do good. Every day is a day on which we ought to be seeking out opportunities to do good.
Here, I am seeing the counter to that mindset the world tries to impose upon us. They would be perfectly happy with our religion if we would only keep it to ourselves, if we would just confine it to its proper time and place. If we want to praise this God in church, they’re fine with that. Just don’t praise Him at work. Just, don’t bring Him up in public. It might offend somebody. You have heard it said that religion has its place, but I say to you that every time and place is right for the worship and honor of God. The creator of a thing has the right of disposition over that thing. He is lord of what he made and has the clear right of rule over it. Well, then, it should be obvious that the Creator of all things has the right of rule over all things. If He is determined to be praised by all that He has created, then all that He has created is obliged to praise Him. We are obliged to praise Him not only with vocal adorations, but to praise Him by living as He intended, by heeding His Law for us.
So, then, every day is an opportunity to reflect God. Every day is the right day to reflect God. Every day and every moment of that day is the right time to see the great worth of my fellow man in God’s eyes, and to consider them of great worth in my own. The most heinous of sinners, the most corrupt of politicians, the most annoying of coworkers; all of these are still precious in His sight because of His purpose in creating man. All of these continue to bear the image of God, however poorly it is displayed. All of these continue to be objects of His love, and just as capable of loving Him as ever I was.
One of the big problems with the piety of the Pharisees was the way it trained them to look down on everybody that wasn’t living by their standards. When they looked upon a sinner, they did not see in that one a desperate need for the understanding they could impart, they saw only the risk of being defiled if they got too close. How little they understood righteousness! How little they comprehended the Light! When we start taking our church commitments as reason to neglect another’s need, we have joined them in their blindness. When we are so committed to pursuing our achievable righteousness that we neglect doing what righteousness demands, we are as dead inside as the worst hypocrite amongst them.
If all I can see in my fellow man is the aggravation he causes me, how am I reflecting my Father? How am I reflecting the patience He has shown toward me if I fly off the handle at the ignorance of another? How am I reflecting His care for me if I see somebody’s desperation and do nothing to help? What sort of love can speak useless platitudes into such misery, and walk away without doing what was in love’s power to do?
Is it a day for doing good, or behaving maliciously? Is it the right day to save somebody’s life or to destroy it? That is a question to be dealt with every day, because the answer is always the same. Of course it’s a proper day to do good. How can it ever be right to act with malice? Of course it’s a proper day to save a life. How can it ever be right to seek the destruction of a bearer of God’s image? So, on what day is it right to deride another? There is no right day for it.
Oh, critical spirit, your end is found in knowing this, in living this! Here is another battle, Caleb. Rise up, for this giant, too, will fall. Resist him and he will flee in terror before the power of the Almighty. It is time for compassion. It is time for compassion at work, at home, on the road. In every situation, it is time that I can no longer see any real need as an imposition. It is time that I can no longer see any character flaw in another. It is time that I can no longer see any man as beyond hope of redemption. After all, it was not that long ago that I was that man. In the eyes of many, I probably still am. My character is surely still flawed, else God would have no further cause to work on me, and that is patently not the case. I have plenty of distance yet to travel before I am the pure spotless bride my Lord seeks and deserves. Part of that purification is in this very battle.
Last night, discussing Caleb and the long Exodus of Israel, one question that came up was whether that Exodus was somehow representative of deliverance. I do not see it as such, but I can surely see it as representative of that purification process that the bride of Christ is undergoing throughout life. It took forty five years for Israel to be cleaned out of that impurity of unbelief and rebellion which had kept them out of the land. Was sin gone from the people? Hardly. It was no more gone from that nation in that time than it is from ours in our time, than it is from my life. Sin remained, but sufficient progress had been made to go the next step.
We hear a lot about going to the next level. It used to be something for video games, but now it seems to have become part of the language of the Church as well. In that language, it is often said that new levels require a greater degree of purity. God won’t draw us closer until we are sufficiently prepared to be closer. There is, I think, some truth to that. If purity didn’t matter, then there was no reason for Israel to have been sent into the desert for forty five years. If perfection of purity was the minimum requirement, then there was no reason for them to have gone into the land at the end of that time. The whole of this Christian life is a process of purification. It is a process that won’t end in this lifetime, but will only be completed in that moment when we come before Him and see Him as He truly IS. That is both the great promise and the great trial of this life: we know where we wind up, but like the kid in the back seat we can’t help asking, “Are we there yet?” Inevitably, the answer is, “No.”
So, when I see something like this reminder – How do I see the unbeliever next to me? – I see an opportunity to answer that question for myself. In the way I respond to the needy and the lost that I encounter every day I can answer for myself whether I am there yet. If I have means and see a brother in need, yet close off my heart and refuse to help, how can I think God’s love abides in me (1Jn 3:17)? And who shall I exclude from being considered my brother? Does idolatry make the man not my brother? Does poverty? Does disease and immorality? Not if I understand my Jesus. All of these things are just evidence of desperation. All of these things are indicators of a need and inasmuch as the need is spiritual at its root, I surely have the means to help. If Jesus is the Answer, how can I refuse to offer Him to a world of questions? Then, let me see what else I can do as the vessel of His Providence.
God, that’s my prayer today. Show me that need that You have provided for in me, and allow me the wisdom to recognize what I am seeing. Let this be a day of compassion, a day when no man or woman is the target of dark words, when this tongue refuses to offer a negative comment in regards to another. Let this be a day when I meet the need that comes before my eyes. Then, Lord, let it be the first of many.
