October 26, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court...or… as I truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5.25a, 26)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

How Jesus urges us to make it our spiritual DNA to not let our feelings and emotions pollute our right thinking and our right action! Jesus strikes at the heart of our “intentions” and allows that truth then to judge and transform our actions. It is so easy for people to believe that simply changing behaviors will then transform the thinking, or lack of it, of the person or the people who “needs” it. Interesting, is it not, that this advice is so freely given to others and heeded to so little by those offering it. This was the failing of the ruling elite in Israel. Their descriptions of what “righteous” and “unrighteous” people look like became the descriptor of one’s acceptance by God in the world (Saduccees) and in the world as in the next (Pharisees.) The problem is that neither of them could see the truth and thus be set free to let the Spirit of God lead them in righteousness. So, when it came to “you should not murder,” there was justification of such by the ruling elite and the desperate criminal alike as to the level of “unrighteousness” the victim was at. It would have been common to hear “They deserved it.” Whoa and wait a minute. If not for the grace of God, we all would get what we deserve because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Thus we can hear the depth of grace in the words of Jesus to the penitent thief as He declared “Today, you will join me in Paradise!” Why would we hear that? Because the penitent thief declared, “We are worthy of such a penalty as cruel death on a cross but not this One.” Jesus transformed the penitent by grace. He would not and could not withhold it from Him. He was equally willing to share it with the other thief, too, if only…. The “if only” never came. Nor did it come for the ruling elite as they would not serve their heart, soul, mind and spirit and see the truth about themselves as it was revealed. It was revealed prophetically of old and manifested before their eyes and ears. Yet, they would not hear it nor see it and confess that their part in the moment of reconciliation was being made complete.

And it is from there that Jesus moved in the Sermon on the Mount to another foreshadowing of righteousness rising up out of unrighteousness. That may sound odd. It does to me as well and I have to stop and let the Spirit of God open it slowly for me. We all know the physical law “For ever action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” We also know an associated law of physics which says “A body in motion remains in motion.” We can see this principal at work in the “falling of dominoes.” I have watched some outstanding objects akin to a work of art in the arena of falling dominoes. Elaborate set-ups of dominoes in the thousands to create all kinds of visual images or just the sheer force of the moment have been created and put into motion. There was even a reality television show with that as its hallmark. Of course, when the last domino falls there is no more motion. It is replaced by emotion either elation or deflation depending on the completion or incompletion of the attempt. As Jesus addresses the “intent” of His accusers which extends far beyond murder (the falling of the first domino) and into the consequences (the unquelling of the emotion and feeling which precipitated the act of murder), we have to stop and reflect upon ourselves as well. Jesus, I believe in anticipation of what will happen within the next two years of His life as the two lines of dominoes (just and the unjust) begin to fall, moves from settling differences to settling debts.

Hear the hard lesson which is true in the reality of “debtors” prison. Jesus taught about this as Matthew recorded it (18.21+) where a man confessed that he would devote himself to repaying the debt because he did not want his family to be sold into any kind of slavery. He pleaded for mercy. The king forgave the debt at that moment and allow the man and his family to live free (a hint of Jubilee). However, in that freedom, the forgiven man comes across another man who was indebted to him for a far smaller amount. He demanded payment to have something when he now had nothing but his freedom to earn a living. When that man said he was unable and begged for mercy, none was given. He was thrown into debtor’s prison. Word of this transaction got around to the King who then called the first man in and renounced his mercy. He sentenced him to be in debtor’s prison until the full amount was paid. (I have to believe the King forgave the second man his debt since the first man was not incarcerated.) But, herein lies the awful reality. How can one repay a debt when one cannot labor for wages? Does time served equal money spent? It now becomes a debt that can never be repaid. That leads us to the second reality in Jesus’ teaching. That reality is that Jesus used real life examples as the fodder for parables. He used the parables to illustrate spiritual truth. What is that truth? It has to be this: sentenced to the most severe debtors’ prison of all which is Hell, the debt of sin can never be repaid. It is a consequence that continues in motion because there is no “last domino” to fall. That person continues to fall, fall, fall. It is only by grace can the momentum of the falling down be changed to rising up, up, up. And in this, we find hope for ourselves as we confess our debt of sin and the measure of our transgression against one another and most of all against God. In Christ, the debt is forgiven and the measure is forgotten. Freedom, as in Jubilee, comes upon those who were drowning in such indebtedness that no measure of work and works could repay. Such freedom is the mercy and grace of God extended in the forgiveness of ours sins. But, those who do not? They will continue to strive in their negative disposition forever and ever with the unquenchable desire to be debtless but recognizing that it is doubtful.

This is what the Spirit is showing me when I heard “the foreshadowing of righteousness rising up out of unrighteousness.” Jesus is speaking about our spiritual lives in such a far greater degree than debts in our physical lives. We probably would incur fewer physical debts if we followed more the spiritual freedom which God’s righteousness has always intended. For those who opposed Christ, then and now, the debt in sin can be forgiven but only if they ask, receive and then deliver it to others. The ruling elite didn’t, in the days of Jesus, and that is where our reflection continues tomorrow. See you then and there, as we freely share what is freely given.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed 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.