“4 “I tell you, my
friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no
more. 5 But
I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been
killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke
12)
Hupokrinesthai:
Big fat
greek word which pretty much means to “act a part, to pretend,” in short: to
lie. Lying is a form of
hiding. Ancient Greek actors even
used to wear masks portraying their characters. You’ve seen Comedy and Tragedy? Jesus is telling us in Luke 12 we do the same thing, to each
other and to God. Charles
Zimmerman, the pastor at Calvary Souderton has said, the Christian four letter
word is, “fine.” “How are
you?” “Fine and you?” “Fine.” Pleasantries dispensed. Strangers remain.
Move along citizen, move along.
You don’t care about me. I
don’t want to care about you. Love
complicates my life. Better to be
unknown and unknowable except by a chosen few. To this I say, to live in fear of being hurt is love only one’s
self.
But
justshane, we have to have defenses, don’t we? We shouldn’t cast our pearls before swine, right? Won’t some people use the knowledge and
access we give them to hurt us?
Yes. Yes they will. For proof look no further than Jesus.
When
I look at Jesus, I don’t see him hiding.
I don’t see him limiting access until after a person has chosen to mock
or attack him. Even then he
politely excuses himself only when the stones get picked up.
Haha! Got you now, justshane! Jesus taught in parables! Parables are riddles! Riddles are hiding! Yes, yes they are. Matthew 13 picks up the transition
between Jesus’ plain teaching and the beginning of the parables. When the disciples asked him about the
stylistic changes, “11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be
given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what
they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them
in parables:
“Though
seeing, they do not see;
though
hearing, they do not hear or understand.”
He
had been dispensing secrets in buckets. This is after the Sermon on the Mount,
y’know, where he said, “39 But I say to you, do not resist the
evildoer, but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him
also. 40 And
the one who wants to go to court with you and take your tunic, let him have
your outer garment also. 41 And whoever forces you to go one mile, go with
him two. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the
one who wants to borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it
was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 in order that you may
be sons of your Father who is in heaven…” (Matt 5) He
goes from this to “a farmer walks into a bar…” What changed?
The
reception. Matthew 13 begins with
these words, “That same day…” well,
what day was that? Look in Matthew
12. It was the same day the
Pharisees and Herodians began plotting to kill him. The same day he was accused of casting out demons by demonic
power. The same day him mom and brothers
came to collect him because they thought he’d lost his mind. Jesus never stops revealing the truth,
he never stops putting himself out there but he’s been struck and now he’s
turning the other cheek and that cheek is: he now strategically hides the truth
in a field of a story so only those willing to look for it will find it. Those who “have” the grace to go deeper
will be given more. Those who want
to know and be known by Jesus will meet the real Jesus. Those who choose to squint from behind
eye-slits and filter his voice from beneath the mane of their masks of pride
and self-righteous indignation have the same access, the same information, the
same Jesus. They have only blinded
and deafened themselves.
But
Jesus, he doesn’t stop. He doesn’t
change. He constantly engages
total strangers on personal levels. He continues to speak truth in love to
everyone, even his enemies. He
doesn’t only reveal himself to people like himself. There is no one like him! The men he bares his soul to the
most, Jimmy, Jack and Pete, are so bewildered by him, so star-struck by him,
the best reaction they can come up with when he gets all naked-and-unashamey
with them is to take a nap. They
close their eyes and ears and disengage from him too! “Whoa, Jesus!
TMI, dude! We’re just here
for the free bread and fawning crowds, man. We’re just looking to get an inside track on the future
kingdom. Frankly, we were sick of
fishing. All this mushy,
heart-to-heart, sensitive-male stuff is a bit unnerving and enervating,
y’know? Gonna crash now. Peace out.” How they must have wept later at the missed opportunities. How they must rejoice now in an
eternity of greater opportunities!
Monday
I focused on how we are all now one bread, one body in Christ. How can we be that if we hide from each
other? How can we be that if we
don’t want to know each other? If
the flour and the water and the oil and the herbs all refused to mix, there’s
no bread, just flour, oil, water and herbs burning in a pan. All the law is summed up in love. Did you ever love a liar? Did you ever love someone you found out
had been lying to you all along?
Did you ever love someone who, while they didn’t lie openly, they kept
you at arms’ length? Did you ever
feel like giving up?
So
does Jesus. Be glad he
doesn’t. Did you ever love the
idea of someone without actually taking the time to get to know the real
person? Then you didn’t love
them. “21 “Not everyone who says
to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will
say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in
your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’ 23 And then I will say to
them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness!’” (Matt 7) Four words
I never want to hear, “I never knew you.”
They are the words of a divorce.
They are the declaration of a lover scorned, a lover who was never
loved. “20 If anyone says, “I love
God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his
brother whom he has seen is not able to love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this is the
commandment we have from him: that the one who loves God should love his
brother also.” (1John 4)
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