8/16/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’” (Matthew 19.23-24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

It is suggested that there was a gate in the wall of Jerusalem called “The Eye of a Needle.” In actuality, that gate was probably not in the wall of Jerusalem itself but a smaller gate, or doorway, set in one of the existing gates. It isn’t an uncommon practice. It serves a very practical purpose providing a safer entry during vulnerable times. Those vulnerable times can be when an enemy is approaching, perhaps, or when the wind and weather are prohibitive and invasive. The smaller entrance helps to control who comes in and who goes out far more than merely “opening the barn door wide.” With this in mind, we can look at Jesus’ teaching about wide gates and strait gates, broad avenues and footpaths, which it comes to the development and expression of our faith. This, I believe, is the teaching which stands at the bedrock of Paul’s instruction to the community of faith in Jesus which was in Corinth. In one of his early letters to them (there were at least 4), he said, “All things to me are lawful, but all things are not profitable; all things to me are lawful, but all things do not build up.” (1 Corinthians 10.23) We see the same truth evidenced in today’s world and especially in our own nation. The presence of “freedom” opens the door to a wide variety of choices by which one may express their life and their identity. However, just because “we say so” doesn’t mean “we should.” We have to exercise due diligence and intentional effort with a heart for others before ourselves in order to be “truly free.” This is the underpinning of our Constitution and Bill of Rights: we have the right to choose but it must be weighed carefully so as not to infringe on the “right” of others. If only we had a heart, mind, soul and spirit which said we all looked out for each other. Instead, we have reached the instruction for a coming generation which says “You can do anything you want and not have to be concerned about others.” The scary truth of the matter is that this coming generation may well convince itself that “I can do anything because everyone is saying I can…even though I am not truly saying they have the same opportunity.” Why wouldn’t others have the same opportunity? Because no one is going to be willing to “lay it all on the line for others to do for them while they are doing it all for themselves.” We are fast approaching the day when any semblance of selflessness will be swallowed up in selfishness. I pray that on that day, that generation will be called Jonah and find themselves in dire “straits.”

Have you truly thought about the story of Jonah as it relates to his experience of being swallowed whole? He was swallowed whole long before entering into the sea and consumed by a “great fish.” He was swallowed whole by his theology and attitude toward the “unrighteous” whether they were Jew or Gentile. In his favor, he had a narrowness of heart and mind which said “only God.” But, he had a caveat to that heart- and mindset which fostered “only God so long as God doesn’t ask me to change the way I feel about others.” It was good that he hated unrighteousness. God hates it, too. But, their approach to dealing with unrighteousness varied greatly. We might say there was a “gulf fixed between them which seemingly could not be crossed.” When it comes to Jonah being swallowed by a “great fish,” we mentally struggle with it because the throat of all the great fish we know is narrow and limited for intake. The miracle is not so much that a “great fish” existed which could swallow Jonah but that Jonah had to become “small” enough to conform to God’s will for his life. His prayer of recognition and transformation in the belly of the whale was an eye-opener for his spiritual reality. It was not about how he “felt” about the situation but about being obedient to God’s will in whatever situation he would find himself. He had to decrease so that God could increase. I am not suggesting that God can get bigger but that His presence in our lives and in the eyes of the world would become unavoidably noticeable. Jonah didn’t follow God’s will as one being called to preach to the Ninevites. He did everything but what God asked him to do including heading “straight” in the opposite direction. When he did it, all kinds of bad things happened to him and those around him. But, when Jonah was constrained, constricted and brought through the narrow way and the strait gate like that of the “eye of the needle,” he found freedom to be a powerful preacher. Reduced to a small, seaweed and whale-vomit covered “voice in the wilderness,” Nineveh repented before he ever made it from one end of the city to the other. If he was bigger than life and boasting his own “righteous disdain” for the Ninevites, he probably would have perished on the spot.

Matthew gives us a glimpse into his modern-day version of “Jonah and the Whale.” A rich young ruler full of himself approached Jesus asking “What does it take to inherit eternal life?” I believe the attitude was more of “Just let me know the price for admission and I can easily pay it. How much does it cost?” He walked in bigger than life with a self-righteous ego to match. That is not the way he walked out. Jesus was his reality check. Jesus was “the eye of the needle” through which the Kingdom of God could be entered. The rich young ruler watched as his idols in the offices of Rome and the Temple paraded through the streets of the towns of Israel, especially in Jerusalem. The gates were opened wide. The road was cleared. And where there wasn’t room enough, room was made. I imagine he thought the same would be true for the Kingdom of God. Did he really entertain the idea that for a price he could pay or a token good work he could do, that God would open the gates wide and just let anyone and everyone in? Well, Jesus showed him there was not only a better way but just one way. Jesus called him to walk the “narrow way” through the “strait gate” called the “eye of the needle.” And there didn’t have to be a literal gate, though in principle at least one existed in the “wall” of Jerusalem. The concept was clear enough to any who had attempted to thread a needle or tie a hook. You were running a length of rope or a large gauge of wire in those instances. You have to think small to go big…or go home. And that is what happened to the rich young ruler. Going small was going to be hard because it meant giving up all he had.

That was the image of the “eye of the needle” Jesus alluded to in his teaching the disciples about who can be saved. They pondered, “If the rich cannot buy or earn their way in, then what chance does a poor person have?” Jesus pointed to a passing caravan, perhaps, and caused them to see a camel laden with spices, oils, jewels or silk. For a low gate, they would have to duck. For a small gate, they would have to be unloaded and make their way on their knees. Jesus was getting “straight/strait” to the very heart of the matter. We might consider that the “eye of the needle” gate was like the heart of the larger gate. In order to gain what is precious, we cannot use what is precious in this world as the key to gain entry into the Kingdom. We must come just as we are as a person. Is our mind right? Is our heart right? Is our life right? Is our soul right? Is our spirit right? If we are reduced to a “virtual” little would it truly be enough do you think? I ask you, mighty ones of God, to consider yourself like a key fitted for a lock. In comparison to the lock and to the door, the key is small. It must be fitted for its service or serve no purpose at all. The same is true for our lives and demands that in order to gain access we must “be the key” and small enough to do the work we are created for. We may do great things but only if we start small to go big.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed Yourself to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.