Wrapping Up (11/30/02-12/17/02)
It's taken several days now to review what's been uncovered in this study. It will doubtless take several more to put together these final thoughts. In many ways, I've found my reflections turning back to my original considerations. With each reflection, though, those considerations seem to have taken on more shape. And, there have also been new things to contemplate. In this last section, then, I have been reviewing those things that struck me in the course of the last month, collecting what seem to me to be key points, and trying to organize them into some sensible form.
Of my original points to consider, both the topic of idolatry vs. symbology, and the topic of the crossroads have come up repeatedly. One of the two etymology trails I had thought to pursue turned out to be non-existent, and the other (crucial) while interesting, was not as revealing as I had hoped. New topics that I feel deserve further comment at this point include God's purposes, and what we learn about the true Way of the Cross. Finally, there are a series of mental images that have come out during this study that I think deserve at least being collected in one spot, and perhaps deserve further development.
Crisis and Crossroads (12/10/02)
We have a choice to make: do we care enough to bear the persecution? Do we love our Lord enough to carry on His mission in spite of it all? Is it all about Him, or will we still insist on reserving our portion of pride? This is a crisis! Can I accept this? Can I accept that dying in the course of the mission of the Gospel is a good thing for me? Can I die to myself? Can I set this whole earthly life aside? This is the same crisis point that the apostles were brought to when Jesus laid out the requirements of discipleship. "Take up My cross. Submit yourself even unto death. Join Me in My shame and humility." What was their reaction? "Where else can we go? You have the words of life." Knowing that full and eternal life lay upon the path, they declared themselves willing to die in pursuit of that life, in pursuit of bringing word of that life to the dead men around them.
Perhaps there is a key in this. Paul speaks of the cross of Christ as having already crucified him to the world. Elsewhere, he wrote that we should consider ourselves like dead men when it comes to sin. This is a part of what Jesus was accomplishing on the cross; the death of our sins, the death of our flesh to the enticements of sin. This is what we acknowledge in baptism, as Paul explains it for us. We are dead and buried with our Lord and Savior, partaking in the death he died for our sins. Only then can we be raised up into this renewed life of the Spirit.
The key factor, it seems to me, the perspective that will allow us to make the right choice in this crisis, is to recognize that we are already dead. Dead men walking. That's our status before ever we make up our minds to follow Him. What is the threat of death to a dead man? It's lost its sting! How much humiliation can a corpse suffer? You can do your worst to it, and it won't notice, won't take offense. It's dead! Jesus calls us to accept whatever might come in the course of His mission. If we have already found ourselves to be dead men, then the possibility of a martyr's death becomes uninteresting, the possibility of humiliation in the world's eyes is meaningless to us. We're dead. What can you do to us?
But, there's an even greater point in here! The choice presented to us, when viewed by the worldly eye, would tell us that the road to life lies in avoiding the cross of Christ, that death and humiliation lie on that path. If this is our viewpoint, we are indeed standing at the crossroads, but we've entered the intersection from a direction other than we thought. Think of the crossroads as represented by the compass points. The road Jesus calls us to walk runs from south to north through the intersection. The path of the world runs east to west. We have come down this east-west road, but have entered the intersection fully convinced that we are headed north. Perhaps we have lost our moral compass. Perhaps there is simply a heavy deposit of the magnetic material of temptation which pulls our compass out of true, and tells us west is north. Whatever the reason, we enter that intersection deluded as to the true course.
But, for those whom Jesus is calling to be His disciples, One stands at the intersection almost unseen. The Holy Spirit comes to our aid, correcting whatever has happened to that compass we were carrying, removing all deception. We had thought ourselves upon the road of life, but as He gently corrects our poor navigation, we recognize that we have been on the road of death all along; dead men walking. But, here is the road to life before us! Choose your direction! Which way shall we turn?
The choice has always been the same. "Choose you this day, life or death." Every man comes to that intersection, perhaps several times in the course of this earthly existence. Every man comes, and it seems quite likely that every man departs thinking he is on the road of life. It's a dangerous road without the right compass! It's a dangerous life without our Navigator! Some have even been shown the correct way out of the intersection, but would not believe it. They would rather trust their faulty compass than the Guide who stands before them. They continue on, calling evil good, calling death life.
Having chosen the road of life, the northern route as it were, we will find that the cross of Christ is forever bringing us to yet another crossroads. We cannot consider the work that He accomplished on that cross, nor can we consider the work that He requires of us, without being brought to a point of crisis, a point of crucial decision. We cannot. If we are not sensing that crisis point daily, if we don't see the crucial decisions that need to be made, if we don't see the crossroads at which we stand moment by moment; I can only believe that we have not yet understood our Lord, we have not yet taken up the cross to follow Him.
Every decision bears a moral charge. Every one. How we choose to react to our family members, how we treat our co-workers, what speed we choose to drive on the highway; although some of these crises will seem insignificant, or will not manage to occupy our thoughts long enough to get real consideration, still they are significant choices. They build the pattern of how we will choose in the larger crises. If we cannot be faithful in the small things how can we hope to stand in the face of the storm? The life we are called to live requires that we learn to see even these small things as the crucial matters that they are. Even small rebellions are rebellions, nonetheless.
The road to the north, the road to life is a road traveled only by those who have accepted the life of living sacrifice. None but the righteous can travel that road, none but the living sacrifices of holiness. Dead men living. Paul calls us to that life of living sacrifice, tells us it is the only reasonable reaction to have when God has revealed Himself, tells us it is our reasonable, spiritual act of worship. But, a life of living sacrifice is expensive. It will cost you everything. It will cost you all you have, and yet you will be left richer than the richest king when you have let go of all you possessed, all that possessed you.
In our day and age, it has become perhaps more true than ever that we are owned by the things we think we own. Houses, cars, tools, and instruments, pets and toys; they all require our attention. The computers that we think allow us to work more efficiently in reality require a fair amount of work themselves, work that we never used to have to do. And, if they have increased our efficiency, what have we done with all the time we gained? We have used it to acquire more things to take care of! If we will come to the road of living sacrifice, we will have to let go of all these things, and if we do, what a burden will be lifted from us! Everything that tries to claim our time, that tries to turn our attention from the road before us, everything must go. Count it all as rubbish, for that's what it is in the long run. Every invention, every construction, every art of man will eventually join the rubbish heap. We cannot build eternal things. We are not yet eternal. But we are on the road to eternity, we are making our way to the eternal One who can and did create eternal things! In that timeless age, we will see all our earthly acquisitions as what they truly were, temporary trinkets, dime-store junk. But we'll never reach that perspective if we fail to see the crisis in the crossroads.
When we come to that critical crossroads, it truly is crisis time. A choice is before us, and whatever choice we make, it's going to be a total commitment. We can't choose to travel a northwest path. There is no road that splits the difference. It's life or death, and it's a total commitment to whichever we choose. Nor does the choice allow of any delay. The decision cannot be put off, it cannot be ignored. To remain at the point of decision is to have decided already. To remain is death, chosen and accomplished. The crisis is upon us in that moment, and we must decide to which path we will commit ourselves.
Holy Spirit, if there is anybody out there reading this who is even now standing at the crossroads, I pray that You would faithfully point out the road to life. Make the choice clear, sweet Spirit, and the mind that must choose clear as well. Correct their compass that it may point unerringly to the heavenly kingdom, that at every crossroads, it will declare the correct way home. Jesus, work upon their hearts, reveal to them the work You have done, the forgiveness You have won for them. Bring them to the recognition that they are already dead though they breathe, that the way to life requires that they change the course they've been on, that life is possible. Father God, call them from Your throne. Blind them to the world as Paul was blinded to the world. Remove the scales from their eyes, and let them see the truth clearly revealed. Lead them on the road of redemption that they too may be called the sons of God!
