New Thoughts (01/02/11)
The verses before us amount, at first glance, to little more than a parenthetical note regarding the typical schedule Jesus pursued in this last period. Nights in Bethany, or on Mount Olivet, days at temple teaching. This was as regular, it seems, as the course of the sun. What is not said, but which might be implied, is that it would have been particularly easy for His enemies to predict where He might be found. There were, in reality, only two or three places that needed to be considered. As such, the fact that they did not do so for so long becomes that much more indicative of their own weakness.
In spite of this parenthetical nature to the text, there are two very clear contrasts presented for our consideration, the one very evident and the other hanging just below the text. Let me consider the first. As Luke provides his part of the itinerary, we meet first the priests and scribes, now joined by the civic leaders. These in combination are pretty much the entire leadership of Jewish society. We must, almost of necessity, leave out the political order, that being wholly under Roman control and therefore, really having little societal impact. Oh, that government must be obeyed, but it wasn’t really shaping anybody’s world view. Those we find gathered together to discuss the untimely demise of Jesus, however, are another story altogether. These are the Jewish elites, the heads of every aspect of society. We have the religious heads represented in the priests, the intellectual heads represented in the scribes, and the financial heads represented in the leading men of the city. And all of these are together opposed to Jesus, not just opposed but so determined in their opposition as to set aside all their own scruples (assuming such exist to be set aside) in pursuit of His destruction.
Let us be clear on this. They are contemplating His murder, pure and simple. They are no longer concerned about niceties of the Law, although they are still concerned for their own hides. But, the means are no longer of interest except in the most mechanical sense. It is the end that matters, and whatever might achieve that end is fine by them. In this, we might see that law and religion have become nothing but a business themselves, but that’s another topic for another time.
So, we have this group representing the leadership of society. It might even be held that they represent the whole of that society in the same way Adam stood as the federal representative of all humanity. There is one group. The other group really is that society. It’s the little people, the common man, the ones with no say, who are led by that first group, at least in principal. And where are they? They are gathered around Jesus, devoted to Him, “hanging upon His every word.”
You can’t miss the contrast there! Those who should have been best situated to recognize, acknowledge and even celebrate the Messiah at His coming are instead conniving to bring about His demise. Those whom these same leaders despised as unintelligent, misguided and really, downright despicable, on the other hand found in Christ somebody worthy of devotion. They heard what He was saying and recognized – deep unto deep, if you will – that here was Truth. What they had been fed previously was nothing but empty calories. The ritual was fine, but it accomplished nothing. The careful parsing of the text was well and good, but left unapplied it had no value. Here was a man, nay, the Man, looking into those same texts and bringing forth a Truth not only explained but also exemplified in His own actions. Here was Truth at its very definition: The outward manifestation of this One’s character wholly conformed to the inward reality He explained. Word and deed were perfectly matched in Him, and this registered with the people as nothing else could. After all, they’d had a lifetime of duplicity to experience.
In light of this contrast, it is certainly worthwhile to consider my own condition, my own example. I know where my heart places me. I count myself not just a man of faith, but a man of true faith. I would number myself amongst that crowd hanging upon His every word. But, the question needs to be asked: does my corpus of word and deed match what my heart wishes to believe? I should have to call myself out as a liar were I to claim they did, at least with great consistency. Indeed, I should have to call God a liar to support such a claim, and that I shall not do.
I am not condemned by this, but I am convicted. I know that the constant renewing of my mind which has come of basking in the Word of God has indeed led to a great change in my character. I know, also, that this change is very far from complete. There are those old habits which die hard. Let us call them what they are: sins. They are opposed to the work God is doing, and therefore must be counted such.
It is an odd place to dwell, this life of the redeemed. It seems I am forever convicted as to those parts of my being that have yet to come into proper alignment with my Father’s purpose. And yet, I am simultaneously at peace in my skin, knowing that I am powerless to bring the change apart from Him. It shall come in His time, and until He is ready to move, I may as well be at peace in the waiting. To be clear: I am not at peace with my sin. I am at peace with my process. I know He is working, and though that which He has repaired longs for the completed work, and even grows impatient with that which remains to be done, yet I am wholly at His mercy, and subject to His timetable, and that’s fine.
Do I make of this an excuse to continue as I please? At times, yes. Yes, I do. I say that to my shame. And, I will add to that shame that there are times when I have a truly adverse reaction to attempts by others to spend even more of my time on the things of God. How the flesh rises up! And, it makes no sense to me. How can it be that I am offended by requests for prayer? What is up with that? How can it be that it bothers me to be requested to read Scripture to somebody who’s hurting? Where’s the compassion? Instead, it seems to be all about my time. It’s all about me. Now, I know there are other things that play into this. I know that there is a certain history, a certain sense of a struggle that’s gone on too long, a sense of not wanting to feed into a mindset that seems determined to pursue a somewhat different faith than mine. But, frankly, none of that is enough to make the reaction acceptable, let alone right.
God, we’ve got some work to do here, and well do I know it. Yet, I again recognize that I am powerless. I see my reaction and even seeing it, I cannot bring the change, at least not swiftly enough. Oh, if I stop and breath for a moment, I may by force of will (really by Your blessed intervention) get it under control, but the resentment is there none the less, and this ought not to be. I know You’ll get to it in Your time, but please, Lord, make it soon. And, Father, if there is a correcting effort that I need to make as Your proxy agent in this household, grant me the strength of will and the sensitivity of word to bring that correction in accord with Your own character.
Well, then, let me note that other contrast which I have suggested is lying just below the words. It again involves that group of elites that Luke notes, and let me draw particular attention, in this case, to the term he uses to bring in the secular side of that group: The leading men. Going to the definition, it comes out as ‘the first’, or perhaps, ‘the foremost’. These are the prime movers.
But, there is also this in the definition of the term used to describe them: It also applies to God. Indeed, it chiefly applies to God. He is the First as no other can ever claim to be. Being eternal, He certainly precedes all else in order of time. Before there was anything He Is. As Creator of all things (including time), He also stands as the First in rank and authority. He alone has no higher authority to which His decisions might be appealed. He is the Supreme of the supreme, the Chief of chiefs. It is to this end that He is spoken of as King of kings and Lord of lords. There is none higher. He has primacy over every other thing in all of Creation.
Now, then: Consider the contrast. On the one hand, we have a group of men, important men, men important particularly in their own opinions. They have place and power as such things are measured on this mortal plane. But, they have set themselves against the Important One, the Power. As such, their opposition is sheerest folly. They have no chance of shifting His plan or His schedule by the slightest degree. Theirs is the ultimate futile gesture.
That point gets made repeatedly as we are given this window into the final week of our Lord’s brief time in Israel. Indeed, it has been shown throughout His life from the outset. Consider the ways of man that led to His being born in Bethlehem, yet known as a Nazarene. Consider the machinations of Herod in seeking to kill Him off before He could even get started. Consider the response to His first message preached. They wanted to throw Him off the cliff at the edge of town! But, they could not. Over and over again, as opposition comes to God’s Man, that message resounds: But, they could not. Even as He faces the judge who will authorize His execution by most gruesome means, Jesus makes that very point. “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (Jn 19:11). In other words, it is not the conniving machinations of mankind that has caused Jesus to face death. It is the outworking of God’s own plan and purpose, right on schedule.
I recognize that for many, this idea of God’s absolute control over His Creation leads to complaints of refusing to be reduced to automatons. But, nobody’s suggesting such a reduction. Look at any one of those who have been involved in the grand arc of Redemption’s story, whether as hero, as villain or simply as a bit player. Every last one of them was operating as he or she decided to operate. Every last one of them did exactly as he or she chose, as he or she pleased.
Choose your example. Think about Jonah, for instance. He acted according to his own choices, choosing first and foremost to directly oppose what God had instructed him to do. He did not want Ninevah saved. He wanted Ninevah punished for all it had done to the people of God. So, off he goes in the opposite direction. Didn’t do him much good, did it? You must note, as well, that it was by his own choice that he was thrown overboard, and it was by his own choice that, tangled in the seaweed, he prayed for rescue to the very God he had been opposing.
Then, look at the outcome. Was all of this some shock to God that He then had to rearrange His plans to account for? Clearly not. Clearly, all of this was in perfect alignment with the way He had originally determined to have things unfold. Why do I say that? Quite simply, because He had need of this event by which to foreshadow the culmination of His Son’s work. The sign of Jonah: that three days in the belly of the fish, which by any account should have equated to three days dead and buried, even if it be at sea. That was intentional, even necessary by God’s measure. It was part of the plan, in order that Jesus, looking forward to His own victory over death, could point backward to the sign that God had planted firmly in the Scriptural record.
Let’s also consider the example of the devil, as we see his limits exposed in the book of Job. There, we are shown quite explicitly that this devil we fear so much is only allowed to operate within the limits God, the Supreme One, the Power, allows him. Satan is no more his own man than Michael, than you or I. That same thing becomes evident as the Gospel unfolds. Even in the final hour, as his machinations amongst the elites we have met in these verses, in the Roman leadership we shall encounter soon enough, and even in inciting the very same crowd that loves Him so dearly today to turn on Him tomorrow; even then, he is for all intents and purposes on script, on God’s script.
I’m going to interject something here which will rather disrupt the flow of thought, but so be it. I was reading, over the holiday, of the more accurate history of our arrival at December 25th as the date of our Savior’s birth (or January 6th as some hold it to be). Far from being the pagan accommodation that so many insist it is (and I have been in that crowd in my day), it turns out that the dating is arrived at by a much more wonderful calculation. It may be no more accurate, but it relays a sense of God’s Primacy as opposed to man’s craven capacity for accommodation. You see, the date – whichever it may be – was arrived at on the basis of supposing that great men are often born on the very same day they die, albeit in different years. In the case of the Christ, if this is true at all, it must most assuredly be true, for who among men is greater? So, having a very clear indication of the date of His death, and a reasonable sense of the duration of His life, they arrived at a date of conception aligned to the Passover as was His death. From there, they counted backwards the nine months of standard gestation, and arrived at the date we know and love as Christmas.
Makes you feel rather better about things to recognize that Christmas was not trying to steal the thunder of some set of pagan beliefs, but rather, those pagan beliefs, in spite of great darkness, still managed to discern a glimmer of Truth! And isn’t that rather more consistent with what one finds going on? Honestly, if you will but listen with ears open and watch with eyes wide, you will discover that even the most benighted of programming may occasionally have something to say which is True. What’s the old saying? “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” The same can be said of the unredeemed. After all, we are taught by Scripture itself that the invisible attributes of God are undeniably evident in the Creation He has fashioned. Even the most ignorant of men must see something of the true nature of things. He cannot help but see it! It is thus that we find in Plato’s writings some sentiments that are fully in accord with Christian thought even though there is much there that stands opposed. Any earnest pursuit of Truth must, if it has any success whatsoever, stumble upon the Truth.
I allowed that discursion on the basis that it sheds further light on the Primacy of God, on His standing as the Power, the Truth, the Final Authority. Returning to my main line of thought, though, as I said, there are those who are bothered by the idea that God is so fully in control. They don’t like the feeling that in some way their actions and decisions are futile, everything having already been set in order by God and not really subject to change. I can understand that discomfort, but at the same time I must recognize that it is a discomfort caused not by some lessened sense of Who God Is, but rather the discomfort of having to relinquish the throne to Him.
You see, in that we operate of our own will, we see ourselves as the final authority over our actions. We like to feel that we are the captains of our own ships. There may be any number of things in life over which we have no control, but surely we have control over our own decisions! If I choose to have seven cups of coffee this morning, who’s going to stop me? If I choose to have none, will somebody seek to force it past my lips? No! I am lord here in this body. So goes our thinking. But, even here, it holds: “You would have no authority, except it came from above.”
Well, then, before we take offense at the idea that God has us sussed, consider the corollary point I brought out from Job. He also has the devil sussed, and that’s to your very great advantage, isn’t it? It’s very comforting to realize that our worst enemy can only act against us as our greatest Friend allows. It’s very comforting that the Accuser, when he drags us to court, sets us before our own Brother as judge and jury over the decision of our case, and indeed, sets us before the very One Who already paid in full for the penalty of our every sin. And, were that not reason enough for that one to toss up his hands in defeat, the price our Brother the Judge paid, He paid largely at the hands of this same Accuser. Impartial Judge He may be, but really, this can’t help the case for the prosecution, can it?
Now, I don’t know about you, but that marvelous reality of knowing our enemy is kept within strict limits is a great comfort to me. Here is this one we are warned roves about like a raving lion, looking to tear the faithful to shreds at first opportunity, and yet, he is unable except God first grants permission. And this God who would have to grant permission? He’s the same God Who gives only good and perfect gifts to His children! Honestly, why do we concern ourselves? Yes, we are to be aware, not to take for granted in the least the reality of our status as children of the Most High God. Absolutely! But, it’s one thing to be aware and quite another to be obsessed with concern lest we fall into that one’s clutches. Really, which of these is the greater power?
So, yes, I take great comfort in knowing my God is in charge of these powers that are greater than me. Yet, this must lead me to accept that He Who has charge over the greater powers has charge also over such a weak thing as myself. The one follows the other as evening follows day. Put in the negative light of free will: If I am free to do as I please in spite of what God may have to say on the subject, then so, too, is this terrible enemy of mine, and I must surely live in constant fear that he shall decide to destroy me, and nothing God might do could stop him. Where, friend, is the assurance in that? There is none. If I must choose the primacy of my will or God’s will, frankly, I’ll choose His every time. I say that recognizing full well that as often as not, I give Him far less thought than I should when I make my decisions. Yet, I can decide in confidence knowing He has my back, my front, my path.
Let me just offer you a few passages to support the position I take. There is this – one of the first verses ever I found myself willing to highlight in my Bible: “The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Pr 16:9). Ho! That’s pretty much the story of my salvation! I was planning a weekend away from this new family of mine, but the Lord was directing me into a situation uniquely suited to prove Himself real to the likes of me. How can I not recognize how certainly He has charge over me?
Then, of course, there is a passage which Satan attempted to use in order to provoke Jesus into an act of treason against God. Of course, however carefully he quoted the text, he completely missed the point, but let us not do the same. For one thing, that crafty old fox spoke only one half of the couplet. But, look at it in full. “The steps of a man are established by the Lord; and He delights in his way. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong; for the Lord is the One who holds his hand” (Ps 37:23-24). The key factor in this couplet is as it is for the verse from Proverbs. God directs man’s steps, establishes the path he will take, and furthermore, He holds that man’s hand. He is, after all, a Shepherd, is He not? He watches over His sheep. He leads them forth, but not in such fashion as loses sight of them.
Some time ago, I recall being so impressed by the image of my Lord as my Shepherd that I had printed out a sign which read, “God does not lose sheep.” I had given that to my lovely Jan, who is ever concerned for the status of her children in the kingdom, that she might place her confidence in the Christ of their salvation. It disappeared for quite some time, but she recently came across it once more, and it spoke to her as it had not, I suspect, at the time I first printed it out. It now hangs on the mirror in our bathroom, that both we and our youngest lamb might be reminded that however rebellious we might choose to be, He remains in control. And therein lies all my confidence!
Oh! How marvelously liberating to lay hold of this wonderful truth. My God reigns! He reigns when I adore Him and He reigns when I ignore Him. He has charge over me, and He is perfectly aware of my every thought, my every move, my every success and my every failure. All has been accounted for. He fashioned the clay from which He fashioned me, and He has known from before the constituent atoms of that clay were brought into being exactly the vessel He had in mind in me!
How often I find myself brought back to that marvelous shout of faith that Paul penned. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:38-39). Listen! There’s only one way that confidence holds. Either He is in control – perfect and absolute control – and we have every reason to stand convinced as Paul was convinced, or He is not in control and we are but deluding ourselves to suppose we shall ever attain to heaven. It really is that simple.
For my part, I really want to be found like one of those common folk. However much I may be learning in these times of study, whatever marvelous insights I may be gleaning, let me ever be on guard against becoming more impressed with my own thoughts than with His! No! Let it be, rather, that I am there at His feet listening, “not wanting to miss a single word.” I take that quote from the Good News Translation, which has truly captured the mood of devotion in this case.
Lord, let this be me. Let me be found one whose great desire was not to miss a single word from Your lips, to never miss a single beat of the message the Holy Spirit imparts. And, let it be found that, by Your power and will working in me, I am made one who is not a hearer only, but one who implements in my life that which You are speaking.
