Caring in Whole Not in Part

Matthew 25:40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

          So there is this wonderful little parable that Jesus tells to His disciples at the tail end of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25.  In it He depicts two types of people:  #1 those that feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in a stranger, cloth the naked, comfort the sick and visit those in prison, #2 those who don’t.  Jesus says, on the day of judgment, that #1 will get the ticket to ride on the J-Train (permission not given by Toby Mac to say that but he doesn’t read my blog, YET) and #2 will get thrown into eternal punishment; presumably the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Not sure exactly what that means but whatever it is, it is scary and sounds about as peaceful as being tumble dried with a family of porcupines. 

          If you are like me, you have probably excluded yourself from among those at the porcupine laundromat because we are decent people.  We would certainly not pass over someone who wanted a drink or tell a sick person they should just go find a hospital and stop bothering you.  That being the case, we are good, right?  Well… not so fast.  I am of the opinion, and I think the theology bears out, that there is a much deeper layer that Christ is showing us.  And like me also, we may have neglected a few things.  You see, if this is all about physical things we do for people then doesn’t that mean that Christ and His sacrifice are unnecessary to my salvation?  He says it right in the red letters!! As long as you take care of these people you will be welcomed into the Kingdom with open arms.  Or so it seems.  But to believe that would mean we have to throw out almost the entire New Testament (and Old for that matter) to hold on to our faulty conclusion; including the most known verse from Tim Tebow 3:16….errr… John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  So if Tim Tebow is right, and we get into the Kingdom by repentance and believing on the sacrifice of Christ to pay the penalty of our sins, what the heck is Jesus talking about here?  And what do hungry people have to do with anything?  That is why I believe there is another layer.

          Go back and read Matthew 25:34-46 for a minute……  Seriously……  Dude, go read it!!  I will wait….  You didn’t do it did you?  Sigh.  Ok, now then, as I mentioned, Jesus points out six different categories of people we are to help.  And He addresses the physical need of what should be done to help them.  But in every parable there is always a spiritual meaning underneath; something the disciples generally ask about and Jesus will explain but in this case He did not and we are on our own.  That explains why for so many years I thought I was doing just fine.  I get the physical needs: food and water, place to stay, warm clothes, comfort to the sick, visitation to the prisoners.  But what are the spiritual needs and am I meeting those needs?

          Let’s just roll through them one by one.  First, the hungry.  They need food.  But they need to be fed spiritually.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, Jesus is the Word, therefore meet their spiritual needs by administering the Word of God in their lives.  See how easy that is?  Well they get harder.

          Number two, those who are thirsty.  They need water.  Jesus gives living water and in John 4 says that if you take of His cup you will have a well of water springing up to eternal life.  So what am I supposed to do Jesus?  Dig wells?  No.  I mean you can, but they won’t save anyone.  Well, yes but not spiritually.  Ugh.  I should have thought this through before I typed.  Digging wells and giving people water is awesome, do that.  But it will only have eternal value if it is combined with the giving of living water.  In John 4:37-39 Jesus clarifies that the living water is the Holy Spirit.  But that doesn’t really help me a lot because I can’t tell the Holy Spirit where to go or what to do.  John 3:8 says He goes where He wants to go.  So how do I spiritually give someone something to drink?  How about by offering them eternal life?  Telling others about the sacrifice of Christ, the water of repentance, the washing of the sins, the bathing of the Holy Spirit and receiving of the “sloppy wet” kisses of the Father (don’t worry Matt Redmond also not a fan).  Dig a well, yes.  As deep as the soul and fill the need by inviting the Holy Spirit to take up residence.  Have you ever done that?  A little more than just handing out water bottles after a hurricane, huh?

          Then there is the stranger.  He needs a place to stay; a home.  We may not invite strangers into our home much anymore but certainly you would be available to take someone if given the right circumstances and safety assurances.  But what about spiritually?  What could a stranger need?  Well, pretty much the same thing.  They need a home, some place to belong; a family.  We can accomplish this by inviting someone to be a part of the Church eternally.  That can start by inviting someone to YOUR church, to be a part of YOUR family and to belong as a part of a body of believers where YOU worship.  And if that is too much how about just introducing yourself to someone that seems to have a spiritual need.  It worked well enough for Forest Gump!  Momma said not to be taking rides from strangers but Forest introduced himself to bus driver Dorothy Harris and then said, “Well now we ain’t strangers any more.”  If it was in the movies, then God surely approves of this tactic.  Rolling eyes.  I think however you do it, the emphasis is on being spiritually welcoming and eternally minded.

          As for the naked, this could get interesting.  Not so sure I would recommend welcoming a naked stranger into your home but luckily Jesus separates the two so we don’t get into trouble.  First you have to clothe them.  And spiritually?  Well this is up for interpretation but God not only clothes us in Christ but He clothed us another time too, remember it’s parallel in Scripture?  It was in the garden of Eden and He did so because Adam and his wife were naked and ashamed.  Contrary to a sometimes popular opinion, church is not the place for fancy dressed parishioners.  It is the place for those who need to be clothed in Christ and a place where the shamed should be able to come in naked and find refuge.  Not a place for judgmental stares but a place for warm blankets of love and compassion for those in need of spiritual balm.  Back to the answer we have to give the King, you may drop off used clothes at the Goodwill but do you sit next to the new visitor who wore shorts because he doesn’t usually go to church and wasn’t aware of your dress code?  Do you pray with him?  Did you invite him to lunch?  Me either.

          As for the sick and those in prison, I want to address them together.  Physically they both need comfort and visitors, but why did Jesus separate them out into two groups?  Well, once again it is open for opinion but as always I have one.  These are the people who can’t leave and we have to go to them.  In both cases they are people who we don’t just come across in daily life but we have to be intentional about going out to them.  Maybe this is just your neighbor or maybe this is foreign missions, but either way they need you to go to them and bring them comfort and healing.  Who is the Healer?  Who is the Comforter?  Okay, so you know what they need spiritually but again, why did Jesus separate them?  You see I think there are two types of people who need us to go to them.  There are the sick:  those who are ignorant of their sin and ignorant of the love of Christ.  Then there are those in prison: those who are shackled in sin, desperate for a Deliverer but set against Him.  We are called to both.  It is a little easier to go to those who are unaware than it is to go to those who are belligerently against the message of Christ.  It sure would be nice if I could just tell Jesus to send someone else who has the particular gift go to all the annoying and arrogant but He called all His disciples to go to them.  Even to the difficult ones.  Do you approach them with the message of salvation or do you turn your eyes to the left and act like you don’t see them?  Me too.

          Upon further review.  I don’t have it all together.  Maybe you are feeling the same.  Good.  I don’t want to be alone with the porcupines.  No, that isn’t what would happen.  This does not mean, Christian, that you would lose your salvation for pinching your nose rather than giving a Bible to a homeless man.  But what it does mean is that if I am not meeting the spiritual needs of those in the world than I am not yet arrived in my relationship with Christ and need to go deeper.  Don’t rest on your laurels in your relationship with Christ.  Go on foreign missions, visit the darkest penitentiary, hand out encouraging letters in the hospital….but don’t forget WHY you are there.  To expose them to the Bread of Life, pour out to them living water, give them a home of belonging, cover their guilt and shame, disciple their ignorance and undo their shackles in the name of Christ.  Yes the porcupines await some but the love of God awaits you and that is your inspiration to go.  So go!

Seeking Safety

When a brook finds a home in halting

Its upstream is sure to pool.

With last corona of waning sun

The earth, it is known, must cool.

And so when wind blows great trees to

They always return by fro,

And since clouds whose changing azure shapes

Are relentless in their flow.

Our lives too have certain certainties

Although some seem all but safe.

Nature’s Master scribes our destiny,

And protection comes from faith.

Still the occasional sparrow falls,

The abstruse is in His plans,

But if that sparrow flails in Heaven

It’s brought rest in gentle hands.

Our Lord is our hope, lacking languish.

He so gives without receive.

Since peace and rest and joy He does will,

We have only to believe.

Choosing Between Religion and Grace

Matthew 15: 3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

Matthew 15:6 “And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”

            So what exactly is going on that Jesus is being so particular about?  Well let me get into a little history for a second and then bring us all back to earth by describing how we are still guilty of doing this same thing today.  Fair enough?

            Many, many years ago in a land far, far away, God gave unto Moses what has been calculated at about 613 Laws contained in the first five books of the Bible.  Now not to be too presumptuous but one of the purposes, so says the New Testament, of giving all of these laws was to be a tutor which would lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).  In other words, the Law is so extensive and our human nature is so flawed, our inability to successfully complete such a monumental task as perfectly observing all the Law was to bring us to utter dependence on Christ; i.e. faith.  The Law was to lead us to repentance and the dependence on the grace of God and His strength to perfectly fulfill this Law on our behalf. 

            In comes the problem.  Problems such as basic humanism and pride began to beset those Jewish adherents to the Law and they developed the arrogant opinion that 613 was too easy.  As a result they began to write down oral traditions that were accessories to, or additions to, the current 613.  Because God’s requirements were so easily met among the truly righteous, so they reasoned, they could begin to add more weight to the Law and separate the super righteous from those who are only modestly righteous.  In comes the Mishnah.  The Mishnah was a written record of these additions which accounted for somewhere near 4200 new “laws” that the super righteous were to implement into their daily lives.  Now these were not inherently bad things.  They were intended to be reverent and help people focus on God and His holiness, etc.  The problem is that God didn’t write them.  They were entirely man made and therefore many of them actually contradicted the ACTUAL word of God in lieu of trying to honor Him.  That accounts for why Jesus, in this exchange, snapped at the Pharisees quoting Isaiah and exclaiming, “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” (Matthew 15:9)  You see they did not see through to the true heart of the message contained within the Law and so thought they were adhering to it when in fact they were failing in most every respect.

            One of these Mishnah laws was detailing the very specific procedures necessary to wash before you ate anything.  Now this is not to speak poorly of our Purel generation, but quite frankly, Jesus is letting them know that washing your hands before you eat is not going to somehow make you super righteous; sorry moms.  And not washing your hands before you eat is not going to somehow disqualify you from church membership.  You would think that was pretty straightforward, however, because the Mishnah laws had become so ingrained within this society post-Babylonian exile, they believed that Jesus was breaking the Law of God.  As a result they pressed on Him and wanted to tear down any clout Jesus may have been building among the Jewish cohort of disciples.  Primarily because Jesus didn’t do things the way they did things.  Jesus made them feel uncomfortable because His devotion did not look or feel like theirs did.  His ways were not their ways.  And furthermore, He was not educated or formally trained, so how would He know anyway?!

            Not moved by the Pharisee’s and their interpretation of piety, Jesus helped them to understand that not only could they not meet the 4200 laws, they also could not meet the 613, they couldn't meet even the great 10 and so teaches them to follow only the 2 (to love God with your all and to love your neighbor as yourself).  So this is where we jump ship from the history lesson and start looking for practical application today.  I am sure it is quite easy to look at their Pharisees and scribes and think, “They were so stupid.  How could they miss something so obvious?”  But do you realize that in saying that you have become one of them?  Here is the deal, we do the same thing all the time and do so MOSTLY within the church!  Not sure what I mean?  Let’s think about it for a second.

            How many Christians do you know that in arrogance state they will never see an R-rated movie because they want to be sure to keep anything impure from before their eyes?  Noble, yet are not The Passion of the Christ and Hacksaw Ridge two of the most spiritually exhilarating movies ever made?  Mishnah.  How many Christians do you know that say they don’t listen to anything but praise and worship music?  Disciplined, yet do not Jonny Lang and Lifehouse sing some of the most powerful worship music available even though in the secular market?  Mishnah.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            Greater still, should a good Christian condemn another Christian for missing church?  What if that church missing sinner was absent due to the fact that they had recently discovered their mother had contracted cancer and couldn’t face people that day?  Mishnah.  When a teen girl becomes pregnant due to making a poorly thought through decision, should a good Christian be sure she understands that she needs to be repentant for her sins?  What if she is already self-condemning and really just needs a friend?  Is it not more important that among the children of God she recognizes that she is special and truly loved?  Mishnah.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            What if a pastor does not deliver an alter call at the end of every service?  What if there is not a particular scripture reading at your men’s Bible study and instead you just fellowship?  What if your devoted prayers are spoken with your eyes open and while driving your car instead of kneeling in your prayer closest?  What if your unbelieving neighbor asks you to come over for a beer because he has some life questions to ask you?  What if you have to mow your yard on Sunday to avoid a HOA violation ticket that would inhibit your ability to get groceries for your kids this week?  On and on and on.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            God’s word is clear and succinct.  He doesn’t beat around the bush and makes His commandments pretty clear.  But there is always a reason that He says the things He says.  And the reason always defaults to one thing:  He loves you.  Or better said, He loves His children.  Do you first and foremost respond to situations with this in mind?  Or do you first and foremost respond based on what you have interpreted from a passage of Scripture that may or may not be speaking into the context with which you are currently presented?  Do not take wrong what I am trying to say.  Should the Sabbath be observed?  Of course.  Is it good to protect your eyes from viewing unclean things?  Beyond the shadow of a doubt.  Should a pregnant teen be aware of God’s will for her life?  You bet she should.  But do we default to condemnation and judgment or do we love.  Jesus says in Matthew 11:30 that His burden is light.  The church and its people should not then be going around and adding burden in response but rather directing people to Him to let Him take the burden for Himself. 

            Have a beer with your neighbor and talk to Him about why you love the Lord.  Hug the neck of the pregnant teen and tell her that you will always be available to her if she needs to talk.  Mow your yard and feed the little blessings that God has put under your care.  Watch Hacksaw Ridge and take the whole family.  Listen to Jonny Lang's “That Great Day” even if you have to go to the House of Blues to hear it.  Matthew 22:38 “This is the foremost and greatest commandment.”  Throw down the Mishnah in your heart and love the Lord and His people.  Extend a little grace on the front end and see what happens to the sin on the backside.  There is always time for judgment but the Holy Spirit does a pretty good job of that on His timing and in His great ways; not mine.