Part II: Why Didn't God Intervene in the Holocaust?

As we near Easter, I have been pondering the nature of evil in our world.  The ultimate symbol of evil is the Holocaust and so I am asking the question in the title as part of this pondering.  The Garden of Eden is my starting point, and the results of our First Parents' choice leads directly to the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Divine Gamble Was Lost

      Adam and Eve chose to do wrong.  They now had to live out the consequences:  death came to their souls and bodies.  This was no doubt the most painful day in the life of His creation:  the day His children hid from Him.

      “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’

      He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’

     And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’

     The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’

    Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’

    The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” (Gen. 3:8-13)

    Notice what our First Parents did, and what we have done ever since:  the evil that we do is ultimately God’s fault. 

     God first inquires after His children’s whereabouts—He knows where they are but He wants to see if they know where they are.  The Garden is no longer a place to walk in the sunshine.  Adam and Eve sought its shadows, the places where God would not be.  Fear is now palpable in the Garden:  Adam fears God’s very presence, and God senses His relationship with His children is altered.  Adam is very literal in his response at first:  I am naked, I am afraid, I have hidden myself from You.

     No longer is Adam at ease with His Creator; no longer is he free to walk alongside God and talk; no longer is he free to simply be.  He now worries about the future and what it holds.

     God then wants to hear an admission from Adam of what he did—God knows, but again wants to know if Adam truly understands what he did.  Adams avoids the first question—he will not admit to God where he learned of his nakedness.  Adam now knows Good from Evil (the apple provided him with that) and he could have said that he followed the Serpent’s lead.  He now sees how truly good God is, and he could have confessed his direct disobedience to God, and how sorry he is.   

     Adam now knows what evil is and how far away he is from God.  He could have confessed how seductive possessing such knowledge was and now he realizes how burdensome it has become.  He could have simply said to God, "You talked with me directly about what I was supposed to do.  Now, I hide from Your sight.  I miss You." 

     Did he?  No.  He says that the woman God provided him is to blame:   "The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'"  The not-so-subtle implication is, if God had not given Adam Eve, then Adam would have been able to remain obedient. 

     So...God, it’s Your fault that I am in this predicament. 

    Then God turns to Eve, and wants to hear her admission of guilt.  She knew the prohibition and still chose to eat the apple.  She could have said that she should have never been near that Tree and listened to the perverse logic of the Serpent.  She should have walked away and warned Adam of the Serpent’s presence.  Perhaps she could have said she did not fully understand the prohibition.    
     Did she?  No.  She says that the Serpent deceived her: "The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”  The not-so-subtle implication is that God created the Serpent and so if God hadn’t done so, she would not have been deceived. 

     So...God, it’s Your fault I am in this predicament.

God’s Response:  The Wages of Sin

     Does God cry?  I am sure that day, standing in the midst of this beautiful Garden, with its dazzling array of singing birds, butterflies and tasty fruit shining from every branch, a tear dropped from God’s eye.

     God explains how dramatically Creation has changed for each of the members in this terrible event.  Their lives are forever altered and so will be their descendants’.

     First, God addresses Satan.  Although Satan may have won this battle, but he will eventually lose the war.  Satan’s days are numbered:   

     “So the Lord God said to the serpent,

‘Because you have done this,

Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.’” (Gen. 3:14-15)

     The snake, inhabited by Satan to tempt Eve, will from now on be a fearful reminder of Satan’s presence in the world.  Snakes are on every continent.  Many are venomous.  One bite will be as deadly to someone as the one bite of that apple was to our First Parents. 

     God then assures Satan there will be a day when One of Eve’s descendants will arrive to take back the planet.  He will bring God’s mightiness back to Creation, recreating a people whose hearts will be obedient once again out of love and gratitude for God.  The whisperings of Satan will be silenced under His crushing heel. Satan’s ultimate weapon, death, will be dismantled in the future when a stone rolls away from a tomb on an early spring morning.   

     Eve is next.  Her pain in childbirth will be a reminder of her disobedience:

     “To the woman he said,

     ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
    Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.’” (Gen. 3:16)

     Our First Parents walked as equals in the Garden.  Eve was taken from Adam’s side, so that was her place in his life.  Now, she is under him—ruled by him.  She will look to him the way she used to look to God: for love, guidance and direction.  She will love Adam the way she used to love God:  with her heart and soul.  She will be disappointed to her very soul:  her husband will be a poor substitute for her Creator.  Her husband will disappoint her time and time again.  

     But there will be someday One Who will restore that equality:  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)

     Then Adam, the very one God spoke directly with, receives the final words: 

“To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,”

Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.’” (Gen. 3:17-19)

    The disobedience of Adam now has rendered the soil hostile to him.  The ground will still provide food, but no longer will Adam stroll through a welcoming grove, with shiny fruit inviting him to pick it.  He will toil endlessly to feed himself and his family.  He chose to listen to his own logic on how he should live, and now his own logic will have to figure out when and where to plant.  The dust swirling up from the plow and blowing away in the wind will remind him of the nature of his own existence:  he is animated clay, his body destined for the dirt and his spirit for the wind.

Our Future and Our Hope

    Even as the tear dried upon God’s face, He looked sorrowfully to a long future ahead for His children:  the wars, the sins, the cries, the genocides.  He saw abused children, bodies thrown into ditches, women beaten by their husbands, and the endless cries that will rise up to heaven of “Why, God?” 

   Since that day God’s pronouncements resounded throughout creation, Satan has never ceased his endless assassination of God’s character.  The three perpetrators of the Fall—Adam, Eve and Satan—rush off stage and hide behind the curtain.  God stands on stage, facing an accusing humanity, goaded on by the author of sin himself, Satan.  Satan whips up the audience to yell at God, blaming Him for everything that goes wrong:  the abuse of children, the bodies thrown into ditches, the women beaten by their husbands, and the seemingly unanswered question of “Why, God?”

   We stand angrily in the audience and pelt Him with accusations.  We cry and fall to our knees, and with our tear-stained faces, scream, "Why didn't You do something?"  

   Satan would have us believe that God's responsibility for this fallen world renders Him unreliable and suspect as to His goodness.  Satan whispers that God is derelict in His duties and trusting Him is ridiculous.  

  Satan will keep the focus from the Garden of Eden forward on God's failure to be God.  Our Parents, driven from the Garden, entered a world that is as adversely affected by their choice as they and their descendants will be:  "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."  (Romans 8:22-25)
     Creation groans under the burden of our choices:  the very soil that Adam will till is filled with weeds and thorns.  Disease ravishes our bodies, and creation at times, acts very in a very hostile manner to us:  earthquakes, fires, tsunamis plague us.  Animals too, will sicken and die and their diseases plague us as well--avian flu, swine flu.  
  We inherited sin from our Parents. We sadly inherited something else from our First Parents: an unwillingness to look at ourselves and the evil that we do. We seek to blame God for everything that goes wrong. We bask in the glories of our accomplishments, but when we fail, God is responsible.  
   Satan wants us to believe that this world--as it now stands--was God's original design.  Thus, bad world, bad God. 
  We were driven from the Garden, but God did not vacate the universe. In the midst of denial of our responsibility for our choices, Hope is woven into the very fabric of this polluted world: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."  (Romans 8:18-21). 
   God promises a Hope and an ultimate vanquishing of evil by providing a "he":
"And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel."
    God will not only continue to reign over this corrupted planet, but one day, He will leave the beauty of the courts of Heaven and enter in our world, as one of us.  He will be subjected to all the evil this world has to offer.  Then, when we cry, "But You don't understand, God!"  Jesus will lean over and whisper in our ear, "Oh yes I do."

 

Part I: Why Didn't God Intervene in the Holocaust?

Note:  As Easter approaches, I am going to spend some time exploring why evil is allowed in our world.  How did we go from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane?

   “Why Didn’t God Intervene in the Holocaust?” This question initiated my spiritual search as a young person. Upon watching a film about the Holocaust in the 8th grade, I was stunned that something like this had ever happened. I knew that horrible things happen; I lived in LA next door to an LA cop, whose children loved to show me black and white photographs of crime scenes. It was the time of the Zodiac killer and Charles Manson. Clearly bad people existed and did terrible things to good people. 

     But watching that film set the bar higher for what man was capable of in our world.  I will never forget the photographs of the heads in buckets, the bodies laid out like grotesque sardines upon the ground and the skulls staring from amongst the ashes in the crematoria.  I became an atheist.  No god/God in my mind could possibly exist if such evil was allowed to happen.  Done.

     Or so I thought.  I felt for a time quite superior in choosing such a stand:  hideous images and a good God?  No way.  And yet…when I realized that most of the Nazi perpetrators literally got away with murder, I faced another choice:  if man could commit such evil and avoid the courts of human justice, then how can justice as a concept even exist?  If no afterlife exists and no presiding Justice exists, then evil wins.  Pure and simple.  That was unacceptable. 

     Human beings need to be accountable to someone other than themselves or their fellow human beings.  Why?  We have a vast capacity to delude ourselves that what we are doing is justified.  Listen to Himmler in his 1943 speech to his SS officers:

           Most of you know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand. To have stuck it out, and at the same time — apart from exceptions caused by human weakness — to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history, which has never been written and is never to be written.... We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people [the Jews] which wanted to destroy us.

      Himmler had no moral qualms about genocide and sought to persuade others.  He was very successful in doing so and had no shortage of those willing to act on his words.

     Over time, I made my way slowly back to God.  I sought Him because humans are not trustworthy.  We need to know that a beyond-this-life Judgment exists, and that the cries of victims are not just carried off in an ash-laden wind to a silent sky.  If we cannot extend dignity to our fellow human beings, then our failure becomes Heaven’s cause:  God’s reality reasserts human dignity.  If He is our Father, then all people are our brothers.  No exceptions.

     I never cease to think about the Holocaust.  It is a subject I constantly pursue.  It has and always will send me into a kind of theological dilemma.  How could He allow such evil to even take root, let alone to continue as long and as furiously as it did?

     So, in contemplating this catastrophic period in human history, I revisit the Garden of Eden, to remind myself of the original plan, knowing our heinous history is not His design.  The Garden is a microcosm, a little universe where evil first entered the world.  It will be that very moment, in the Garden, that will eventually  lead to the Cross.   

The Divine Gamble

     God engaged in a Divine Gamble when He created humans.  He created us to respond to Him, but how we respond is our choice. 

     He could have compelled us to love Him, using a kind of natural law to achieve His ends.  Caterpillars would eat leaves, geese would fly to warmer climates and humans would love God.  This is one possible plan. 

     But then love is no more than an instinct.  It carries no sense of awe or wonder for the Object of our affections.  We would simply love the way geese migrate:  an urge, a kind of preprogrammed response to stimuli.  Our love would be expressed mechanically and without an engagement of the heart and mind.

     Or God could have used fear to compel us.  Fear is a remarkably effective way to control behavior.  An abused child will say that she loves her mother, but deeply woven into that love is fear of pain and reprisal.  Her choice is really not to love but to appease.  A love that is compelled and laced with fear is equivalent to spiritual rape. 

     Or God could have been indifferent.  His “love” could have been passive—no involvement with our lives, no concern, just an occasional nod of His head towards the Garden. 

     God’s plan with our First Parents was simple:  He affirmed His love for them by giving them a beautiful environment in which to live.  He anticipated their needs and provided abundantly for them.  He engaged in fellowship with them on a regular basis—He walked with them in the Garden.  He counselled, directed and lovingly warned them of where disobedience would lead.  Knowing how wonderfully He cared for them elicited a response:  our First Parents loved God, and ran to Him in joy with gratitude.  God’s Gamble with choice was paying off.  Their love was unhindered and real.  God enjoyed their company.

     I am sure there were times, however, when they took His bounty and thanked Him, without a surge of love.  They perhaps were growing accustomed to such gifts and were becoming more focused on enjoying creation rather than the Creator.  They would obey only because they saw the logic of it.  Perhaps they thought they were entitled to such goodness—they had been blessed richly and may have thought it was because of something in them.  On some days, did they decline His invitation and walk in the Garden alone?     The power to love is also the power to reject.  The power to be with the Beloved is also the power to draw away. 

     Wanting His children to act wisely, God put our First Parents into the Garden with clear directions on what they could do and what they could not do.  His love for them made it clear.  No surprises were store in that Garden.  God acted with complete transparency. 

The Maturing of Adam and Eve’s Character

     But what about that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?  The whole Garden was theirs to explore and relish, except for that one spot that was clearly designated as off-limits.  Could God have not put that Tree in middle of the Garden, so Adam and Eve could go anywhere, do anything and never experience any consequences?  Yes. 

     But character that is never tested is really not character at all:  “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5)

     Character-building is a process, resulting from encountering difficulty and learning to navigate it: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

     Look at it this way:  a toddler is fine until you take away his toy, his binkie or anything else that child feels is his right to have.  Did Adam and Eve slip into an entitlement mode, thinking that they deserved the Garden because of their own goodness? 

     God wanted mature creatures occupying His Garden, and so He placed one restriction on His children.  Just one.  The rest of the Garden was at their disposal.  Yet it is that one tree, that one fruit that Eve was drawn to.  Maturity is knowing what the options are and choosing wisely.  Adam and Eve could have either complete confidence in God Himself and thus act loyally to His loving words or they could entertain doubts and explore other ways of occupying the Garden.

     Thus, the Divine Gamble played out:  God allowed His children to not only choose to love Him but to act in accordance with that love, and do what He demanded.  He wanted their obedience not based on instinct or on fear, but based on which voice they would listen to:  their own or God’s. 

Why Didn’t God Grab That Apple?

     Why did God not intervene as Eve reached out to pluck down the fruit?  He could have easily slapped her hand and it would have hit the ground.  Why didn’t He have Adam trip and fall over a rock to prevent him from listening to Eve?  Why did God stand idly by while these two chose to do wrong?

     Did they not know what would happen?  Yes: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (Gen. 2:15-17)

     Obviously, Eve was in the vicinity of that Tree that day.  She had the whole Garden to wander in.  Why was she wandering near that Tree?

      “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?
     The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’
     ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Gen. 3:1-5)

     Eve’s response shows she added to what God had said:  He had made no specific prohibition about touching it.  Satan, slithering along the ground as an innocuous snake, was able to maneuver Eve’s thoughts away from God’s words and encourage her to interpret them.  We can choose to listen to God’s voice and trust what He says, or we can listen to our own logic. The whole Garden was theirs, except the one Tree, but that is not how Satan spun it.  If Satan had really shown himself as Satan, Eve would have tucked tail and run.  But who can be afraid of a talking snake, gently coiled around a branch, the soft sunlight dappling his skin? 

     Remember:  we can be deceived by appearances.  We must test the words we hear in order to know the truth.  Eve failed the test.  She didn’t focus on God’s words but allowed them to marinate in her own logic. 

     She then reinterpreted the words for Adam.  Adam had heard the words from God Himself, and yet he chose to listen to Eve and not grab her and run:  “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (Gen. 3:6-7)

     Why didn’t God step in?  He was watching no doubt—the universe is always under His gaze.  He is not an absentee Landlord.

     Yet, the power to love is the power to reject.  God watched as His children rejected His words, which were predicated on love.  Satan twisted God’s words and insinuated that God’s motive was denial—denying Adam and Eve knowledge that was rightfully theirs.  Satan hisses into her ear:

     God is a control freak—He thinks that only He deserves knowledge!  Take that bite and look at all you will know!  Your ignorance is God’s purpose and my job, Eve, is to enlighten you.  God keeps you in the dark with His autocratic rules, but my way is the high way:  freedom to be like God.  The world you are in is so limited—I promise you freedom!  God is not the benevolent Creator you take Him for—He’s a despot, eager to control you and hold you back from reaching your full potential!  Good, Eve, good…bite that apple and Adam, now it’s your turn.  Good. 

     If God had stopped this, would Satan have slithered away, never to seek to tempt them again?  Satan would have bided his time, and waited again for another opportunity.  Satan cannot destroy God, but he can infiltrate God’s creation and destroy the ones nearest and dearest to God’s heart:  His children.  Satan would have relentlessly gone after them until he accomplished his mission:  estrange Adam and Eve from their Creator by appealing to their logic, and with them then acting on it, be disobedient.  Satan’s machinations brought about the ultimate weapon against God’s own:  death. 

Next Time:  Losing the Divine Gamble

Winter Storms, Spring Sun

     In the mountains, winter never leaves without a fight.  We have had some beautiful sunny days, with lovely cumulus clouds and warm breezes.  We sigh in relief and say, "Spring is finally here."  The hills have the green tint of grass and an occasional flower has poked up its little face to the sun.  Yet, today, BOOM!  Snow and wind and rain and more snow.  Winter has adamantly reasserted itself.  The clouds are veiled in shimmering dove grays and white and the snow line has dropped down as if December is back.
    I look anxiously at the primroses I planted in pots last week, hoping the very cold temperatures do not doom them to an early demise.  The bulbs I planted last spring are just poking up their thin green stalks, and I worry that winter may slap them silly and they won't make it.
    Yet, God's creation tells of His character: 
The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19)
    God's creation speaks of Who He is, and how much He is involved with His world.  So, what is this season saying to us of His character?

     The cold may test us, but the sun always breaks through:  Yes, the snow and rain is unpleasant, especially if you have already felt the warmth of the sun, but the sun will eventually stay.  Time captures us and we chafe under its yoke, wanting winter to pass quickly and spring to stay.  It's easy to believe in Him when the sun is shining warmly on your face.  Yet, look at His creation:  the plants start to come up from their winter sleep because just enough sun has warmed the soil.  They rise in expectation of warmer days to come.  They rise because God keeps His promises:  the sun will break through, and the cold grip of winter will loosen.  Spring is a promise He keeps year after year.
     If you are in the winter of your life, He keeps His promises to stand by you in the storm, and to part the clouds.  The Son will break through and will rewarm your spirit.  Winter does pass:  

"See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
¹² Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land" (Song of Solomon).

     Hard, cold and blustery rain is necessary for growth.  I just visited some friends in Nevada where the rainfall is so minimal that even though a lot of soil is present, very little in the way of plant life is evident.  I saw hardly any green because the Washoe Basin is in the "rain shadow" of the Sierras.  Rain does fall--the huge amount of snow in the Sierras attests to that--but the storms cannot surmount the high summits of the peaks and the rain stays on the California side of the mountains, and barely makes it over to the Nevada side.   So, while I look outside my window at the blustery day we are having, with its cold wind and snowy rain, it is this very water that will supply the soil with moisture that will bring forth wildflowers and grass.  Growth requires rain and warmth.
     It is never easy to stand in a storm.  But that same rain that falls on your face is also falling on your faith:  it will bring growth.  He reminds us:  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6).

     Finally, keep singing.  The meadow larks are in full song right now.  The air is cold, the mountains are gray and the ground is cold and wet, and yet, listen...a meadow lark sings a praise chorus over the land.  The birds do not cease singing when the sun ceases shining.  If anything, the song adds a sweetness to the day.  The larks sing, knowing deep in their hearts that the sunny days are coming.  The goldfinches outside my window are a mottled yellow, gray and white, but they bounce around the feeders.  They know that their beauty is coming and in a few weeks, they will be golden jewels.  God put the song in their hearts for us to hear and be reminded of His work in us.  We may be mottled in plumage but we can still sing. 
     Watch and see what the Lord will do.   Meanwhile, here's what you can do:

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
⁵ Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4).

Do the Math! The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

    In studying the parables, I like to look at what Jesus is teaching before the story.  In Matthew 18, Jesus calls a little child whose humility demonstrates what is essential for greatness in heaven.  He denounces those who would cause these "little ones" to sin  and how if any part of you causes you to sin, get rid of it.  He continues with "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones," and how their angels in heaven are always watchful.  He tells a parable about a man who diligently searches for one sheep who has wandered off from the flock, and how His Father is "not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."
     Wow.  Children, who are the weakest members of any society, have a special place in Jesus' heart.  Their love and faith brings a smile to the Father's heart, and they become a model for us.  Jesus then starts to teach about if a brother sins against you, what are you to do?  Most people do not have that child-like humility, and if we want to serve Him, forgiveness must be part of our daily lives.  Listen to Jesus' plan of restoration:  “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector."
     We are obligated to tell our brother or sister about their sin--not an easy task, but essential for the Kingdom of God to function on a sin-corrupted planet.  In fact, before Jesus goes on to talk of the power we have to loosen or to bind, we have to be forgiving.  
     We have to see sin for what it is:  it binds people, it blinds people, and it confines people.  We have to handle the sinner with wisdom and compassion, knowing their soul is in danger. Why?  We have the power of God, but it is to be used for the Kingdom, not pridefully, but to warn, love and forgive:  "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.   Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
     Another wow. We have His presence, His power and His prerogative. I am sure that the disciples are feeling quite empowered at this point... Look at what we can do! We have this amazing power, brought to us by the Son of God! We are humbled and yet, look at what we can do!      Stop. Peter, whose sensitivity to Jesus is quite profound, realizes that with all this power comes responsibility. He suddenly feels some urging by the Spirit. He is probably harboring some anger or hurt at a fellow believer, and senses the incompatibility between his sin and Jesus' words: "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'"  
    You have the power to bind and to loosen, but the greatest power you can unlease on behalf of the Kingdom is forgiveness.   
     Then Jesus tells this parable: 

     “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.  As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.  Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
     At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
     But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
    His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
     But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.  When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
     Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 
     In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.  This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
     Jesus is saying that forgiveness is not based on the level of the offense itself, how much it has hurt you or how much remorse (or lack thereof) has been shown by the one who has transgressed.  The standard of forgiveness is Who is offended:  God Himself.  
     The king takes what people owe him very seriously.  One of his servants owes him a lot and Levitical law allows for such a person to be sold off for seven years, to pay the debt.  It is the modern equivalent to the bank repossessing your house or car due to non-payment.   
    The next servant sees the king's righteous judgment against the first servant.  He senses the king's judicious ruling and begs for mercy.  He wants to pay the debt but needs more time.   The king goes even further than that: He cancels the debt altogether.  The servant walks out a free man.  It is the king to whom he owed and it is the king that forgives the debt.  The king is satisfied and so should the servant be as well.
     But nooooo.  The servant goes out and finds another servant who owes him a far lesser amount.  He chokes the guy, aggressively demanding money.   This guy also begs for time.  If the forgiven servant is debt-free, then why is he so aggressive?  The money owed to him is his own; he need not use it to pay the king.  He has the guy thrown into jail--no mercy, no time extension, no willingness to extend any grace.  The parable could have ended there.
     The king reenters the scene, due to the other servants telling him of this servant's aggressive action.  The king quickly hunts this servant down, for the servant's meanness is a transgression ultimately against the king.  The king's mercy is to be evinced in how this servant treats others.  The servant's unmerciful attitude is thwarting the values of the king.  The king is angry and reminds him of just how large the debt was and how much mercy this servant thus received.
     When we forgive, we must keep our debt in mind as we examine the debt owed to us by someone else.  We have been forgiven much...our King paid the debt we owe with His life.  Yes, we have been hurt, wronged, violated...but when we compare the enormity of the mercy He gives us, what others owe us is rather small. 
    Jesus cried out to forgive the very ones who had nailed Him to the cross.  He forgave the Romans, the Jews and, you and me. 
   We have every right to demand payment from the ones who hurt us. But as we look into the face of the King upon the cross, we need to hear the words:  "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
    We have been forgiven much.  Now, go out and bring the Kingdom of God's mercy to others.

 
 

The Holy Spirit as "Round-Up"--The Parable of the Weeds

     In Matthew, Chapter 13, look how the disciples question Jesus' teaching method: 

10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
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.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

      Can you hear their longing to understand?  Yes, the disciples are concerned about the people who gather, but perhaps the question really is, Why do You teach in such a roundabout way?  Can't You just tell us, straight up, what the truth is? Look at Moses, Jesus...he told the people exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it.  Simple and direct.  If You are the One that the prophets spoke of, why must You speak in stories? 
     Fair enough.  But Jesus didn't answer them from the His own position:  yes, He is like Moses, in that He is giving a "new" law--He is refocusing the attention away from doing the Law to having it "written on their hearts" as Jeremiah foretold.  He uses Isaiah as His base of teaching operations:  how the people respond is a sign of the state of their hearts.  "Calloused hearts" are impervious to the truth.  Just being a member of the Chosen People is not enough--this is not a club. 
     Why "calloused?"  Sin.  Pure and simple.
    The disciples are being trained to walk with God, not just do the Law and assume He is satisfied.  Jesus is trying to recreate, in the hearts of His disciples, a new law of Love--for God and for one another.  So, the disciples are given the interpretation from the Author Himself.  Jesus will quote Isaiah again in Matthew 15 when He says:  "The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught"  (Isaiah 29:13).  In other words, intimacy with the Father has been smothered under rules made up by sinful men and Jesus is reclaiming the people's hearts with His words.  Sadly, the calloused condition of them is reaffirming their need for the truth. Not "a truth" from the lips of men, the The Truth"--from God's very own Son.
     So, after the Parable of the Sower, (which I explore in an earlier blog) Jesus launches into another harvest parable.  Harvests don't just happen...they take a lot of work and diligence on the part of the farmers.  The time the seed goes into the ground, how much sun and rain will come and how well the field is maintained all contribute to the final goal:  to reap bountifully.  A careful dutiful farmer will have abundance and a lazy farmer will have scarcity.  In an age where the harvests' outcome meant the difference between literal feast and famine, irresponsible farmers were a liability and the people would pay dearly.  So, farms were at the community's center.  The food grown there would affect everyone.  Not everyone was a farmer, but the farmer affected everyone.  So, let's see where Jesus goes with this:

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

     This spiritual farm is at the center of the community's heart.  The farmer here is responsible:  he choose "good seed."  He put it in the ground at the right time, confident in the sun and rain to bring it to fruition.  Note that the danger comes while "everyone is sleeping."  Hmmm....sleeping on the job?  Lulled into a false slumber of righteousness?  Thinking that doing the Law was enough? 
    The enemy never sleeps...he is always on the lookout to cause havoc.  Who is the enemy?  Well, ultimately it is Satan, of course, whose very name means "adversary" and his other name, Devil, means "the accuser."  Those names covers his operations well.  But people can also, in the hardness of sin, perpetuate Satan's agenda, by leading them away from God's truth.
     Notice the sowing by the enemy isn't noticed until the wheat springs up.  Evil starts as an idea...something that is contrary to God, unnoticed on the outside, but slowly growing and germinating in the soil of the heart.  It soon springs up and may not be as obvious in the life of an individual at first.  The NIV comments that the weeds are probably darnel, which looks like wheat when it is immature.  It is only when the darnel sprouts its kernels that you know it is not wheat.

      So, notice in order to know what is truly sown by the good Farmer and what is sown by the Evil One, look at the fruit!  Jesus is compassionate enough to know that the people listening to Him are not entirely responsible for their callousness...they have teachers who have furthered Satan's agenda by destroying  intimacy with God with rules and regulations and their own willingness to chase after sin.  Ultimately, though, Satan is behind it. 
     With this, Jesus is reminding the disciples that God never intended for His planet to be a polluted field.  The enemy gained a foothold here because Adam and Eve choose to act on an alternative plan:  making their own decisions and leading lives out of step with God.  So, Jesus, in effect, has come to reclaim His Father's fields.
     Now, let's consider what the disciples are thinking:  Oh, boy!  WE get to get out the scythes and start whacking that wheat!  Take that, Satan!  Take that, Pharisees!  Take that, you sinners!
    NO.  Jesus is not creating a new set of Pharisees.  The disciples would fall prey to the same temptation to tell others how to live for God, instead of gently pointing them to the One Who will guide and strengthen their souls.  The servants must serve and the angels, under the direction of the Father, will harvest. 
    So, our job?  Teach the Word in its fullness:  no cherry-picking comforting verses and excluding the uncomfortable ones.  Serve and love:  let the Spirit convict of sin--let Him apply Round-Up to the sinner's heart.  Know that God is faithful:  He will accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven.  Rest in the knowledge that He will return: sin and suffering, praise God, have an expiration date.

The Parable of Watchful Servants: Where is Your Heart?

     As Jesus finishes the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 (my previous blog), He then goes on to teach about God's provision:  "Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes" (12:22).  He then reminds His disciples of how God clothes the grass and feeds the birds, and that worry over such matters will not "add a single hour" to their lives.  He lovingly enjoins them to "seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you."
     He then says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (12:32-4). 
     The young man wanting to have Jesus settle a dispute over his inheritance, the Pharisees whose hearts had been captured by the world, and the disciples, who are learning from Jesus just how challenging the future will be and yet how God will provide for them, now hear this parable of the watchful servants.  The question here is, where is your heart?
    The crowds that follow Jesus are starving for some spiritual morsels:  their hearts are searching for some revelation of Who God really is.  Some in the crowd are no doubt curious to see what Jesus was all about:  their hearts for searching for some novelty, a distraction from the boredom of everyday life.
    The young man is looking for justice:  his heart longs for the security that the inheritance money will  provide him.  His heart is also scarred by distrust--obviously he asks Jesus for help because he really didn't trust his own brother to settle accounts fairly.
     The disciples' hearts are calmed by Jesus emphasizing His Father's superintendence of His creation:  He provides food for the birds who are far less valuable to Him than His own children.  Jesus wants their hearts to be set on higher things, not beset by worry over the workings of everyday life.  A heart can be so burdened that God's voice is silenced.
     The Pharisees' hearts are so imbued with pride that it is all about them.  God's voice has been silenced by the sin of pride, of self-sufficiency and of desiring the approval of men.  Not just any men:  the crowds were useless sinners who needed to get right with God, and the Pharisees, of course, would determine just what that "right" meant.  The Pharisees' hearts craved approval from each other and the powerful ruling elites in their own circle and with the Romans.
     Why all of this emphasis on the heart?  What we love, we worship--plain and simple.  What we worship leads to a view of the world that we will then act upon.  If we are afraid, we will shrink from God's call.  If we are prideful, we will avoid God's direction and go our own way.  If our hearts are scarred, we will distrust others and only rely on ourselves.  If we are hungry, we will sometimes settle for less than what God offers.  So?  The days are short, and time here on Earth is immensely valuable.
     So Jesus launches into His next parable: “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:35-40).
     We must take care of our hearts, because He is depending on us to be ready.  If we are distracted in any way, we may miss the signs and be caught unaware.  Is this just applicable to His return?  I think not.  I think that He wants us to be ready for divine encounters--a person comes to us needing advice, a prayer needs to go before the Father now, we must act quickly and with discernment in a crisis.  If our hearts are out of contact with His heart, we may lose opportunities to serve in His name.  If the voice of God is quieted or even silenced by worry, arrogance, or distraction, a moment where His light could break through might be lost.  Not forever--God is too persistent with us to only reach out once--but our choices could delay some needed healing.
     We must keep our lamps burning, awaiting of the knock of our beloved Master.  Be watchful and when He comes, we participate in His work as if we were His friends!  Look at the reversal of roles:  the master dresses himself (his servants are now his friends, so they won't be dressing him!) and they join him at the banquet as guests!  He waits on them!  Jesus is saying, Look, partner with Me, and lovingly look to do the work of My Kingdom until the day I return.  Don't do the work out of duty and obligation, or fear or worry, but out of love for Me!  Let your heart be so in love with Me that you long for My return and yet stay busy, with a heart always on the lookout to serve Me!
     It is startling how Jesus jumps from a master/servant idea to a thief breaking in.  Why does Jesus change the comparison from master and servants, who have a close bond, to a homeowner who will not let a thief he knows is coming to break into his house? Jesus says in Revelation 16:15, "Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed." In Thessalonians 5:2, it says, "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."
     A master returning seems almost inviting as a comparison; he may be angry if his servants are not ready, but a thief ups the ante.  The thief takes away the master's possessions, and the servants can't just go out and replace them for the master.  The thief takes away when he comes to a house.  So, Jesus is showing two sides of one coin:  He will come for His own, and seat them at the table as friends and partners in the work of His Father.  We like that.  But a thief jump starts us to readiness--we need to be always ready, ever watchful and dutiful to what He has called us to do.
     Jesus is both Lamb and Lion, Master and Thief.  He wants us to dine with Him, but He also wants us to be vigilant:  "You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”  We wait not in fear of the Thief, but in holy expectation of His glorious snatching away of His people.   
     In the meantime?  Serve. Love. Worship. Pray.  We've got a lot to do, you and I.

You Can't Take It With You, Nor Should You--the Parable of the Rich Fool

     It is always interesting to see the context in which Jesus is telling His parables. 
     In Luke 11, Jesus is invited to a house of a Pharisee to eat with him.  The Lord did not wash before the meal, and the Pharisee comments on this.  Jesus then recites quite a list of woes against the Pharisees.  The house no doubt falls silent as Jesus lets fly His grievances against such men who should know better.  They are in daily contact with God's word, and yet they are miserly in their hearts. He admonishes them to give to the poor, practice justice and the love of God and stop wanting to be the center of attention at the synagogue.  He then excoriates the teachers of the law, because they load burdens upon the people that are too heavy.  They kill God's prophets.  These "experts in the law" are castigated for wallowing in ignorance and preventing others from obtaining knowledge.   Needless to say, as He is leaving, these men throw angry questions at Him.  They seek to comfort their bruised egos, as well as discredit Him in front of the ever-growing crowd that is gathering outside. 
   The crowd is so huge that Luke says the people are "trampling on one another."  The Pharisees are there as well, no doubt quite flummoxed by the crowds.  Luke is contrasting how, when Jesus teaches, the crowd jostles one another, perhaps roughly, to hear Him.  No one gathered in huge numbers to hear the Pharisees.  The people may gather out of respect, but never in such numbers.  The crowd hungrily gathers to hear Him, to see Him and maybe even to touch Him.  The crowds are a testimony to Jesus' earlier indictments of the Pharisees:  these spiritual leaders have left the crowd desperate to hear of God's love, not of another failure.      
   Before Jesus tells this parable, He is confronted by a man with an interesting request:
"Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.'”   Uh-oh.  Jesus is appalled at this man's focus.  Jesus' reputation is not of a judge, but of a prophet and a healer.  This man is squandering an opportunity to learn the deeper things of life from this Rabbi of Nazareth.  He even calls Him "Teacher" but he does not want not to learn, but to dispute.
   You can hear Jesus' exasperation with the man: "Jesus replied, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?'”   The time is short and the men who should be teaching you of My heavenly Father have traded in their sacred position to become theological bean-counters.  Not only is your focus wrong, sir, but Pharisees...are you listening to this?  See what happens when you don't love as my Father loves, and live in the beauty of holiness?  You get disputes, conflict and a heart hostile to the things of God.
     Jesus turns to the crowd, and says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
     The man standing there is probably aghast at this.  He figures Jesus is willing to step in and do what teachers do--settle disputes, right?  No.  This was no ordinary teacher. 
     Jesus then drives the point home with a parable, not just to him, but to the whole crowd:  “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
     “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
     “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21).
     Earlier the Pharisees were put on notice that they needed to be generous to the poor, not burden the community with useless rules and not bustle about with outward shows of righteousness that does not please God.  Their hearts are cruelly calculating and ultimately, they are part of a long tradition that silences those who speak of God's demands and the need for repentance.  In other words, they are not serving God and will not hear otherwise.
    Look at the parable.  This rich man had been blessed with an abundance--all he needed had been provided.  Instead of falling on his knees to thank God and looking to bless the community with this surplus, he wants to build barns to effectively hoard the grain.  He will use his wealth not to provide for others who have nothing, but to store it away so he can live the high life.  No more work, just party and let the world pass us by!  I am at the center of my self-sufficient world and I don't need to care.  Let others take care of it! 
     Then God drops a bomb onto this rich man:  your life is over.  Who will get your inheritance?  Will you take it with you?
     The young man who had wanted Jesus to arbitrate his dispute over his inheritance and the Pharisees are both this rich man:  When you stand before God when this life is over (and that may come sooner than you think) what will you have to show for it?  Money?  Rules?  Possessions?  Prestige? 
      Jesus reminds them that being "rich toward God" is the greatest "wealth" that someone can have.  It motivates you to love others, to serve others, and to live in such a way that when you are called up to heaven, you will open up your empty hands and say, "My life is Yours, precious Lord.  You are all I have ever desired and needed." 
     The Father's heart will swell with joy and He will say, as His arms enfold you, "Well done, good and faithful servant."