November 10, 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)

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6.1)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We might be able to look at Matthew 6.1 in this way, “Practicing unrighteousness is a fruitless effort to reveal God’s mercy to those who need it.” Imagine the very words of Jesus that afternoon on the mount[ainside] as they can rolling down like thunder. It is one thing to be in an open area when a thunderstorm announces it presence. The space between earth and cloud is sufficient to cause it to rumble. Condense that space and the reverberation is only intensified. Some have wondered why I reflect on the location of His sermon as a mountainside. I remember a story told by a Pan Am pilot many years ago. He was flying over the Andes Mountains of South America from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Lima, Peru. As the jetliner began to gain elevation sweeping up from the steppes to the plateaus to the peaks, the pilot noticed what should be obvious to us all. As the elevation increased, the number of people living in those areas decreased. Cities became towns. Towns became villages. Villages became farms and ranches. Eventually, the peaks covered with ice and snow had no habitation at all save for hikers and sojourners. He didn’t see many of them from his vantage point.

I see something similar in where Jesus was teaching a small group of disciples. Rising up to the heights provided solitude and the absence of distraction. Jesus often went to such places to pray. They were places where it was easier to focus on what was said and what was heard. But, such places are not conducive to larger crowds. If there were more people there they would be clinging to far more than Jesus’ words. Instead, Jesus met them on the mountainside. I can imagine a natural amphitheatre with the mountaintop looming above and the slope falling wider down to the water’s edge of the Sea of Galilee. Across the inlet or bay might have been another rise or cliff. Like water held in two hands having been dipped into a barrel, the people were held in captivation by the words which literally “came down” to them. Imagine, too, how those words would have echoed between them all the way down to the water’s edge and beyond and returning back in an echoing affirmation. Imagine, as well, those with hardened hearts who were hearing those same words but deflected them with doubt and anger. The more “faces” to deflect the greater the echo. Those in question made themselves more visible by default. They were in attendance not for the sake of the people or for Jesus. They were there to be seen and for their “practices of piety, religiosity and self-righteousness” to be made known. In innocence I could hear a child say to his or her mother or father, or a husband to his wife or vice-versa, “Did you hear that?” A wary eye might be glanced at the disapproving stare of those “righteous” ones who came to see but actually came to be seen.

Jesus did everything with intentionality. He was aware of time, space and need both of Heaven and earth. Nothing happened by accident. Words were spiritually directed as well as spiritually presented. They simply did not fall on ears, deaf or willing. They permeated the senses of those who were in their vicinity. They infiltrated the heart, the mind and the soul. They soothed, massaged, stirred and challenged. They were alive and offered with the purpose of bringing God to light, His righteousness and His mercy. Jesus was not doing any of this to promote Himself. He was not seeking to garner attention as if He was running a campaign for an elected office. He was not hawking wares or selling tickets. He was doing all things to make God visible, known and real. He was both bane and blessing depending on who was hearing the words and what they allowed themselves to listen to. And what was His reward?

Well, some would make sure we recognize that Jesus was pursued as an outlaw, an enemy of the state, a false prophet and an affront to God Himself as His pursuers understood God. He was arrested, tried (multiple times in multiple courts), found guilty, sentenced to death and was crucified. The hope was to silence the Word of Jesus. However, it would be hard to do when “The Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word which was made flesh to dwell among us was the light of the world which the darkness could not overwhelm, overcome or make silent.” His reward was not momentary death but eternal life!

For many others, they would make sure you would know of how He spoke as one with wisdom and authority. He spoke as if He knew the Word and the people to whom He was speaking. He matched His words and His works so that their integrity could not be questioned nor His character impuned. He spoke of life when their was death. He spoke of hope where there was emptiness. He spoke of God who dwelt among us and not as One who is removed and would never dare step a foot on soiled ground. What was His reward? Our lives are His reward. Health, hope, peace, courage, boldness, kindness, clear perspective and most of all- the nearness of God as if God is Immanuel in truth: with us, around us, in us and through us is His reward and our blessing.

Jesus didn’t do any of this for Himself. Staying faithful to the cause of God would be sufficient. As He said, “The bread of which I eat you have no knowledge of. My bread is to do the will of My Father in Heaven.” What a hard lesson for the disciples to learn that day. But, they would learn and partake of that same bread of life before the lesson of Jesus’ life on earth was done. They would practice their righteousness in the presence of others not so they would be seen. No, their purpose was to preach Christ and Him crucified. Yes, not merely crucified but raised from the dead so that all who would believe in Him, receive His word and follow Him would have life and have it abundantly in this age and in the age to come. It is our lesson to learn, too. I pray we will not only learn it but teach it to others by our experience. We cannot save the world from itself. But, we can bring the word of salvation to many more who live in the world so that it is not their only dwelling place.

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.