And many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:8-10)
The Middle Eastern sun is high and hot as an enthusiastic crowd starts to fill the streets of Jerusalem, cheering, celebrating, giving each other “high fives” as the young rabbi rides into the city on a donkey. Their people had suffered under oppressive regimes for centuries—the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks, the Ottomans, and now the Romans—and their frustration had reached the boiling point; there was no turning back. An oppressed people can be kicked around for only so long before they start to fight back. At some point someone has to draw a line in the sand—and this young rabbi could be just the man for the job. The people are looking for a champion —someone who would fight for them; some rugged son of David who would stand and turn and face the Goliath of Rome and raise his clenched fist and shout the challenge to the arrogant enemies of God and of His people: “Who are you to defy the Living God?” And so they follow him, cheering as they go. “Hosanna!” “Save now!” “Deliver us from Roman oppression!” “Give us back our kingdom!” “Make Israel great again!” These are the cries that come from their mouths that echo the hopes that they treasure in their hearts as they follow this strong but gentle rabbi who claims that he has come from God and is returning to God. Goliath is about to fall. God and His people are about to be vindicated. The enemies of God and the enemies of God’s people are about to be defeated. No one defies Almighty God and gets away with it—at least not for long—and now the day of reckoning has come. While they are cheering and waving their palm branches, they might be asking themselves some questions that they dare not verbalize. “Why the donkey? Shouldn’t a warrior-king be striding into the city on a white horse? Could this have something to do with Zechariah 9:9? Where are the armies? That embarrassingly ordinary-looking bunch of unarmed “disciples” who insist on following him everywhere he goes doesn’t exactly look like the kind of militia that could march in and take over a city, let alone push back an empire. Something is not quite right about this turn of events. Something is not going as planned. This young rabbi seems to be departing from the conventional script. Why this talk about ‘love your enemies’? What kind of king is this? What kind of man is this? He talks of God as though he really knows Him. Could anyone know God that intimately? He speaks of God as being his Father in a way that seems almost scandalous. His way of dealing with people is not that of a warrior-king. He relates to people as though he really loves them. Can a warrior-king love his people? How can a conqueror allow his heart be touched by the needs and cares of his people, and even of his enemies, and treat them as his friends? He seems too gentle to be a warrior and too loving to be a king. His authority is won not by his harshness, but it’s somehow tied to his gentleness. He acts more like a servant than a king. He gathers his followers neither by threat nor by coercion but simply by being who he is. His people are his willing followers because at a place deep within themselves they know that there is something about him that’s worth following—or so they say. He teaches, but not as the other rabbis. He’s different. He’s a son of David, perhaps, but a different kind of son. Who is the man?” The people are perplexed but they dare not give up their hope, so they continue to cheer, waving their palm branches as the entourage enters the city. Perhaps something good will come of this; perhaps not. If he is the long-awaited Deliverer, the strong man who will set right all that is wrong with the world, then they are in the right place at the right time, following the right man. Rome is about to fall, and they are getting a front-row seat. Some day they will tell their children and their grandchildren that they were there on that historic day when the king came into Jerusalem, turned the tables on Rome and restored the Kingdom of David. If he is not the Deliverer then they have nothing left to lose, and so they continue to cheer. Today here in the US, we have our own brand of religious nationalism, Christian Nationalism, that closely mirrors the religious nationalism that surfaced on that first Palm Sunday in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago. If Jesus were a Christian Nationalist, the story would have ended very differently. Jesus would have said “So you want a king who will make your nation great again? Fine, I’m here, let’s do it”. They would have put together an army, or at least a very strong coalition of religious and political leaders who were willing to work with each other toward the accomplishment of some mutual goals, with an army to back them up. They would have gotten rid of the Romans and set up their own government. They might have accomplished the task of making Israel great again, but by side-stepping Isaiah 53 they would have accomplished nothing of eternal value. Israel would have become a superpower, and the tables would have been turned against the Romans. Through a powerful alliance between what we would now call Church and State, with the religious leaders legitimizing the power plays of the political establishment and the political establishment providing special status and protection to the religious realm, Israel would be a force to be reckoned with. That’s not the way the story ended, because Jesus was opposed to what we today would call Christian Nationalism, and he refused to become a king under the terms set up by a coalition between the security-seeking religious establishment and the power-mongering political leadership. Jesus would have nothing to do with that kind of an agreement. He wouldn’t dance the dance of “I support you, you support me, and together we’ll make Israel great again”. His goal was not to build a powerful world-dominating empire. His goal was to die on a cross, and to invite his followers to be willing to do the same. He allowed himself to be killed by the very sort of political and religious coalition that the religious nationalists of his day would have wanted him to spearhead. Jesus didn’t say “pick up your flags and guns and follow me”; he said “pick up your cross and follow me”. The way of Jesus is not the way of flags and guns and political might. The way of Jesus is the way of compassion, self-surrender, and self-sacrificial love. Christian Nationalism leads to the building of an empire that is characterized by flags and guns and the pursuit of political and military power. The way of Jesus leads to a cross. On that original Palm Sunday there were two groups of people in Jerusalem. First, there were the cheering palm-waving crowds who were surrounding Jesus. These were the religious nationalists, who wanted to use Jesus as a tool to make Israel great again. Second, there were the disciples who were following Jesus, though it would lead him (and eventually many of them) to a cross. Today we need to declare ourselves. Either we are standing with the crowds, waving our palm branches in hope of building a Christian America, or we are surrendering our quest for power, and we are following Jesus all the way to the cross. We can’t have one foot in each group. After showing us the way to the Father and teaching us how to live, Jesus died on the cross to provide atonement for our sins, and he arose victorious over sin and death, and he ascended into heaven, and one day soon he will return to set up his kingdom on the earth. It will be a peaceable kingdom that will be characterized by love, compassion, justice, and freedom from oppression. Let’s not make the same mistake that was made on that first Palm Sunday on the streets of Jerusalem. When Jesus returns, let’s not be found building the wrong kind of kingdom. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
The task of following Christ is not for the faint of heart. It’s a lifestyle of intensive discipleship as our character is transformed into the character of Christ. How, then, does Jesus invite his followers to take upon themselves an easy yoke and a light burden? What’s so “easy” and “light” about embracing a lifestyle of intensive discipleship? I believe it has to do with the fact that when we learn to follow Christ, we learn to abandon the project of building, protecting and defending “The Kingdom of Me”. We no longer have an agenda that we need to maintain at all costs. We lay down our agenda when we pick up our cross. That’s why countless Christians around the globe can be persecuted and killed for their faith, and go down not cursing, but singing. They aren’t afraid to die because they have already died to their own agenda. They have already abandoned the building project of their own kingdom. They have already discovered “the pearl of great price” for which they are gladly willing to abandon all other pursuits. This is what yields the lifestyle that Jesus described as an easy yoke and a light burden. The Baby of Bethlehem was born in a stable and placed in a manger for a reason. Had he come as a wealthy and powerful king he would have reproduced followers who would dedicate their lives to the accumulation of wealth and the pursuit of power. Instead, he came as a helpless baby, born in poverty, that he might reproduce followers who renounce the manipulative power-mongering tactics of this world and instead pursue peacemaking, humility, and sacrificial love in the beauty of joyful obedience. He came to call those who would gladly renounce their own personal kingdom-building agenda, taking his yoke upon themselves and learning to become more like him. Jesus still invites us to take his yoke upon ourselves. When we are thus yoked to Jesus, he sets the agenda, he establishes the direction, he determines the pace. All we need to do is stay under the yoke and to keep on walking, lovingly, trustingly, joyfully. In doing so we become more like him, reflecting his character before a watching world that desperately needs to catch a glimpse of the real Jesus made visible in the lives of those who belong to him. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to place ourselves under this easy yoke and this light burden and to allow them to accomplish their work in us, allowing Christ to be formed in us more fully. It’s the only way we’re ever going to have the kind of impact on this world that Jesus calls us to have. It’s how we shine brightly in a dark place. It’s how we point to a future that is not yet but soon will be. It’s how we become people who radiate joy and hope in a world that is characterized by futility and despair. It’s how and why we celebrate Christmas, inviting others to celebrate along with us. It’s how we show the world a better way. As we celebrate the birth of the Savior, let’s not neglect his invitation to take his yoke upon ourselves and to learn of him. Then we will learn by experience that, despite the demands of intensive discipleship, and despite the hardships, difficulties and disappointments of this life, his yoke is truly easy, and his burden is truly light. I used to be able to see the stars at night. For most of my life I have lived in or very close to urban areas, so my view of the universe has been limited by urban glare, but at least I was able to see a few of the stars. That is no longer the case. Urban glare has taken its toll on the city where I live. Now I can still see two or three planets, but I can no longer look up into the sky and see the stars. When did the stars disappear? Has anyone else noticed that the stars have gone missing, or am I the only one? I know that the stars are really still there and that I simply cannot see them because there is too much light in the sky, and that stars require a dark sky in order to be visible, and that the sky is not black where there is excessive urban glare. That explanation satisfies the scientist in me, but my soul still feels the loss. My view of the universe has been obscured by the growing glare of urban civilization. I can see the distant galaxies through the James Webb Space Telescope, but I can no longer see the closest stars from my own backyard, and there is something both sad and ironic about that. I want to see the stars again.
I used to live in world where people pursued the common good. I grew up in a town where neighbors looked after the safety and well-being of each other’s children, where parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins and schoolteachers and community religious leaders worked together to teach children what is good and right and beautiful, and what is wrong and harmful and destructive. We kept an eye out for each other. Whether we were buying groceries or clothes or shoes, we knew the people who owned the stores, we knew the people who worked behind the counter, and we “gave them business”, because we knew that they had bills to pay, just as we had. We knew that if we helped them, then we were really helping us— the community— and that the only way that we could thrive was for all of us to thrive together. Now I live in a world where people are afraid of each other. I live in a world where the Conservatives and the Liberals and the various special interest groups each pull in their own direction, intent only upon their own agenda, even if at the expense of the other groups. Everyone is afraid of everyone else, so we hide from each other, and we throw stones at each other, and we pretend that the problems of the world are everyone’s fault but our own. I want to believe in the common good again. I used to live in a world where people believed in Truth. We might disagree on what was true and what was false, but at least we knew that Truth existed. Truth was something to be discovered, not to be created or designed or fabricated. The quest for Truth was like mining for gold, not like writing a good book of fiction and then convincing ourselves that what we wrote was true, just because we wanted it to be true. History was what happened; not what we wished to have happened. Now I am living in a world where Truth has been replaced by “my truth” and “your truth”, and we start with the agenda that we are trying to sell, and then we work backward to generate a story that will get us to our desired agenda, and we call that story “truth”. I want to believe in Truth again. I used to live in world where people worshipped God because He is God. Now I live in a world where people use God as a manipulative tool to accomplish an agenda. God has become a means to an end, rather than an end in Himself. If we want to convince people that they really ought to hold the position that we think they should hold, we simply try to convince them that God stands where we stand, so that if they oppose our position they must be opposing God. We try to convince the world that God is in favor of our political party, our denomination, our position, our agenda. We try to use God to justify injustices and to make America great again. Instead of encouraging each other to worship and honor and obey and love God, we grab onto God and try to use Him against each other as though He were a hammer, just one more tool in our tool chest. “You need to jump onto our bandwagon; After all, you wouldn’t want to oppose God, would you?” becomes our modern-day creed, despite our lip-service to the Nicene. I want to live in a world where people worship God because He is God. OK, my memories of how the world used to be are naive and overly simplistic, but after all these are childhood memories, so they bear the mark of childlike innocence. The world was never as simple and as straightforward as the one I am depicting, and the problems of our postmodern world are really no different than the problems of the ancient world, but something has gone awry. There’s been a quantum leap in the wrong direction. The pace of the societal implications of our common human dysfunction has accelerated. We’ve been distracted by too much noise, but it’s the noise of our own making. We’ve been distracted by too much glare, but it’s the glare that we’ve all created. We’ve created so much noise that we can no longer hear each other. We’ve created so much glare that we can no longer see each other. We’ve fabricated so many lies that we no longer seek or recognize or understand the Truth. We’ve become so politicized that we have a whole generation of young people who are afraid that if they dare to profess faith in God, they may become weaponized by someone’s political agenda. We need to stop and take a deep breath and admit that the world has lost its way before we can see and hear clearly enough to know what specifically has gone wrong. We’ve go to stop pointing the finger toward the Other and start looking at our own sin and weakness and dysfunction, for a world of sin and weakness and dysfunction is the only kind of world that can be built by people who are sinful and weak and dysfunctional. The problems of our world mirror the brokenness of our soul. Jesus said “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). If Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to show us God the Father, then where else would we find the solution to our common human dilemma, if not in Jesus? Our quest for truth must began and end with Jesus— not the Conservative Jesus, or the Liberal Jesus, or the Patriotic American Jesus, or the Black Jesus, or the White Jesus, or the Hippie Jesus, but Jesus the Son of God, who died for our sins, wearing our name tag, and who rose victorious over sin and death, and who is coming again to Earth to set up the kind of world we have been dreaming of. No one else can show us Truth but the One who is The Truth— but our dysfunction blocks our own healing. We try to make progress but we get in our own way, because we aren’t willing to face the Truth— and so we create more glare, and more noise, until we are so blind and deaf that we can no longer see and hear, because we would rather not see or hear. We would rather live in our own delusions. I want to live in a world where people worship God because He is God. I want to live in a world where people believe in Truth. I want to live in a world where people pursue the common good. I want to see the stars again. I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice. (John 10:1-5)
Jesus came to call his own sheep to follow him. He didn’t force people to follow him. He invited them to hear, to recognize his voice, and to follow him. There are times when he warned people of the consequences of rebelling against God and refusing to turn to God in repentance and faith, but he called his sheep to follow him. He was a shepherd over his own sheep, not a herder over someone else’s cattle. How did Jesus call his followers to influence the world? You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matt. 5:13-16) We influence the world by being who we are— not only as individual followers of Jesus, but most importantly, corporately, as the Church. Against the backdrop of an evil and corrupt world, Jesus came to show us a better way, and he established the Church as a community that would show the world a better way. We reject the ways of this world. We pledge our allegiance to a higher Authority, and we point the way to a greater Kingdom. By not making a lot of unnecessary noise but by living in the ways of God in Christlike humility, love, compassion, and servanthood, by learning to “esteem other better than themselves” (see Phil. 2:3), we point to a better way— God’s way— and “those who have ears to hear” (see Mark 4:9) will join themselves to the Lord, and to us, because they will hear the voice of God as they see the character of God demonstrated by the way we live as followers of Christ. Jesus never taught that we could change the world by jockeying for power, by use of violence, by fighting wars or by forcing compliance to God’s ways through political coercion. We cannot force our beliefs and values on others, whether by war or by the ballot box. Christian values and ethics and a Christian lifestyle must we freely chosen. Our task is to influence, to demonstrate, to pray— in short, to be the salt and light that Jesus has called us to be. The hard way is to quietly demonstrate the character of God through godly living. The easy way is to jump onto the military and political power-plays of our world. God calls us to the hard way, which is the path of greater resistance. When we find this path too difficult, we settle for the easy way, which gives us a sense of power and control, but “the end thereof are the ways of death” (see Proverbs 14:12). God does not honor the path of the pursuit of power through military and political conquest. God’s Kingdom will ultimately destroy the pursuit of power. God’s way is the surrender of power. It is the pursuit of humility and self-sacrificial servanthood. It is the rejection of military and political power-plays. It is dying to ourselves, surrendering our power, “that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in us” (see 2 Corinthians 2:14). So, we have the larger society, built on principles that do not honor God or the ways of God, and we have the Church, built on principles that are contrary to the kingdoms of this world. Here in the US, what happened is that the larger society became polarized. The Left and the Right got into a tug-of-war regarding who would control the nation. Tragically, Christians took sides. That was a huge mistake. May God forgive us. We took sides because the way of the pursuit of power is easier than the way of surrender of power. By siding with either side of the so-called “culture wars”, we abdicated the way of God. We chose the way of the earthly kingdoms; the very kingdoms that God will eventually abolish. We made the wrong decision. We “traded in our birthright for a bowl of stew” (see Genesis 25:34), and Heaven weeps. When will we ever learn that Jesus came to call his sheep to follow him, not to pass laws to force those who are not his sheep to live as though they were his sheep, against their will? If Jesus never told us to force Christian values onto the rest of the world through military or political conquest, what, then, if anything, is the role of the Christian in politics? To begin with, if we are to have any political involvement at all, we need to stop taking sides in the “culture wars”. We represent Christ, not the Left of the Right. Both the Left and the Right try to control the nation through political power-plays, but the Church should have no participation in these manipulative grasps for power. We must reject the pursuit of power. We must embrace the pursuit of servanthood, love, and Christlike compassion. The Bible does talk about spiritual warfare, but let’s not so easily identify God’s side with either the Left or with the Right. I believe that God is equally opposed to both. The enemy is not the Left. The enemy is not the Right. The enemy is satan. Our warfare is “not against flesh and blood” (see Ephesians 6:12). God has not called us to be arrogant culture warriors who are engaged in a vicious tug-of-war in order to gain control of the nation. We are called to be humble servants of Jesus who see through the errors and the evil that exist both on the Left and on the Right. We need to have the proper stance before we can be properly engaged. Once our proper stance has been established, then I think we need to consider two options: The Anabaptist option and the “common good” option. One option is to go in the direction of the Anabaptists and to limit or refrain from political involvement altogether. That is a valid option that needs prayerful consideration. The Anabaptists have a long history behind them, and we cannot dismiss this option too quickly. If the way of God is to influence the world by being salt and light, then it makes sense for followers of Jesus to totally avoid or at least drastically limit our involvement in the world’s power-plays, both military and political. Another option is to seek “common good” politics. According to this option, the purpose of politics is to promote the common good, not to take sides between the Left and Right. We will side with the Left when the Left promotes the common good. We will side with the Right when the right promotes the common good. We promote what is sometimes called the “Consistent Life Ethic”, which advocates pro-life positions from conception to death, or “from the womb to the tomb”. Here in the US, the American Solidarity Party represents such a position. Here’s my approach: The purpose of politics is to preserve life and to promote the common good. If Christians feel led by God to engage in political activity, then it should not be to promote the interests of the Left or of the Right or the Christians or of any other special interest group. It should promote the preservation of life and the common good. We have no business trying to build a “Christian America”. God never called us to such a task. Our task is to be salt and light, to demonstrate the character of God through a Christlike lifestyle and demeanor, and, if and when specifically called by God, to wade into the waters of political involvement cautiously, in an effort to preserve life and to promote the common good. Now let’s talk about the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The purpose of the overturn was to preserve human life. The purpose of Christian support for the overturn was not to advance the cause of the Right in the culture wars. Our goal in supporting the overturn of Roe v. Wade was simply to preserve the lives of babies who have not yet been born. We are moving in the wrong direction if we are now going to use this as a stepping-stone into more and more issues in an attempt to gain control of the country for the Right. That would be a huge mistake. Christians, beware, we dare not let satan lure us into his quest for power. We Christians have an Enemy who is a power monger, who wants to turn us into power mongers. Don’t go for the bait! Our Enemy knows that if he can lure us into his political power-play, the Church will cease to function as the salt and light that God has called us to be. We cannot be salt and light if we cave into the power-plays of this world, whether they be political or military. We disqualify ourselves as representatives of Jesus, we discredit the testimony of Jesus, we trash our credibility, and we drag the name of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the mud when we resort to the manipulative power tactics and the arrogant and fear-based political polarization of this world. We lose our hearing before the watching world. We become very poor ambassadors who tragically misrepresent the One whom we were called to represent. We dare not let his happen! Far too much damage has been done already. It’s time to do an about-face. Allowing the Enemy of our souls to drag us further into the mud will be allowing the name of Jesus to be dragged even further through the mud. We dare not let this happen. We need to turn around. We need to repent. Those of us who are Christians need to be much more careful about what we say and how we say it, for our sloppiness in communication, especially on social media, is leading to gross misinterpretation. For example, when women struggle with an unwanted pregnancy, they need to see Christians as compassionate followers of Jesus who will help them to care for the beautiful child whom we hope they will bring into the world, not as heartless culture warriors who want to use them as pawns in a political battle between Left and Right. When those who are struggling with same-sex attraction are struggling to make the right lifestyle decisions, they need to see Christians as compassionate fellow-strugglers who well help them to deal with their sinful tendencies, as we continue to deal with our own sinful tendencies. This is not what the watching world is seeing. God knows what is in our heart, but what is in our heart is not always accurately reflected in our words. It is the role of an ambassador to communicate effectively. It doesn’t work to say “God knows my heart even if I am being misunderstood by the watching world”. We need to communicate more effectively with and before the watching world so that we will make ourselves understood. We need to be very careful about our “battle” terminology. We are forgiven sinners who sometimes continue to struggle with our sinful tendencies, and we are inviting other sinners to join us in experiencing God’s forgiveness and entering into a relationship with God that will change us forever. The language we must use is that of warm invitation. We are not trying to win a political or cultural battle through manipulation or coercion. We are inviting others to join us as we follow Christ. It’s not enough to believe that. We must communicate the message effectively, demonstrating its validity through our own Christlike character and our lives-in-transformation. Barking battle terminology onto our Facebook posts will be totally counter-productive to what God has called us to be and do. If we must celebrate the overturn of Roe v. Wade on social media, let’s be very cautious about how we celebrate and what we may be unintentionally communicating. We need to be careful and compassionate and Christlike at all times. The world is watching. For those of us who are Christians, let’s not use the reversal of Roe v. Wade as a stepping-stone into more and more culture war victories. The reversal of Roe v. Wade is not a victory of Conservatives over Liberals or of Christians over those who are not Christians. It is the preservation of life, plain and simple. Let’s not let this be the occasion for the Enemy of our souls to drag us more deeply into the mud, and then to drag the name of Jesus through the mud. Jesus didn’t die so American Christians could win the culture wars. He died to set the captives free. That includes all of us who have come to know him, as well as those who will eventually come to know him through our witness. Many of them struggle with fear of bringing their child into the world. Many of them struggle with same-sex attraction. Many of them are very suspicious of anything that looks like power mongering. Many of them do not understand that we Christians are fellow-strugglers who have been forgiven and who want to invite others to join us in the journey of forgiveness leading to life transformation. Our goal is to invite them to experience God’s redemption and transformation along with us, and to travel along with us as we together bring our struggles and temptations to God. That is God’s way. Let’s not sabotage it by settling for taking sides in culture wars that will ultimately destroy all of us and will not bring any glory to God, no matter who wins or loses. If we who are Christians are wise and cautious, we may be able to wade into the muddy waters of political involvement in ways that will preserve life and that will pursue the common good, but politics can never change a person’s heart. Only God can do that, and God’s chosen way of doing that is by calling the Church to be salt and light, so that by living out the implications of the Gospel, we show the world a better way. Any other method is an attempt of the Enemy to sabotage God’s plan. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the last of the slaves, living in Galveston, Texas, were finally freed, and that was cause for great celebration! Those of us who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ need to do some serious thinking about what Juneteenth is all about. We need to take off our Conservative and Liberal lenses and try to evaluate the issues concerning Juneteenth from a Biblical perspective, asking the Holy Spirit to give us discernment. We cannot allow the pre-packaged categories of Conservative and Liberal to do our thinking for us, for our identity is neither Conservative nor Liberal, and our allegiance is neither to Conservatism nor to Liberalism. If we are to be consistent and authentic followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, living out an authentic expression of New Testament Christianity, then our identity must be that of being apprentices of Jesus Christ, and our allegiance must be to Jesus Christ alone, not to a political ideology that we may find attractive. I therefore offer the following as an attempt to be neither Conservative nor Liberal, but Biblical. I am trying to ask the right questions and to seek Biblical answers. I know the questions are complicated, and I don’t have any simple solutions to offer, but I do think that we need to dig into the discussion somewhere if we want to respond to Juneteenth in a way that is appropriate to being apprentices of Jesus Christ, so this is my attempt to start the discussion. If you think I am off, I welcome your critique. Let’s talk about the situation in which the Hebrew slaves found themselves on the day when they were released from Egyptian bondage. They were free, joyful, able to worship and serve and obey God without Egyptian interference, but they were also unemployed, unskilled except in doing tasks that no one else was willing to do, living among a people who were used to thinking of them as their own personal property. Suddenly, the whole society had changed. The Egyptians had to learn how to function without their Hebrew slaves. The Hebrews had to learn how to function without their Egyptian masters. Thankfully God got them out of there quickly, split open a sea for them, gave them Moses as a leader, gave them the Ten Commandments and the entire Law of Moses, a whole sacrificial system, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, manna, quail, water from the rock, not to mention His Presence in the Tabernacle. God had a solution that saved the Hebrew people from a lot of chaos that they would have otherwise experienced had they stayed in Egypt. Much chaos was averted because God quickly removed them from the situation. The Hebrews were freed, the angel of death had passed over their homes, and that was cause for great celebration! The Egyptians were judged, the angel of death had not passed over their homes, and the sorrowful consequences were great. Now let’s try to imagine what would have happened if the freed Hebrews had stayed in Egypt— no longer as slaves but as free men and women, still living within the society that had previously enslaved them. That makes the situation far more complicated! While the Egyptians are trying to learn how to survive without their slaves, the Hebrews are trying to learn how to survive without their masters— and both groups are trying to learn different lessons in the same place and at the same time! It would have taken many generations for everything to get sorted out. Even after several generations, it’s easy to see how the Egyptians might think that everything was now OK while the Hebrews would feel that there were unresolved problems that still needed to be addressed. Now let’s transpose this situation into our American context. The Civil War had been fought. Slavery had been abolished, but freed slaves were living in the same society as those who had previously been their masters, and racism and prejudice did not suddenly disappear overnight. Jim Crow laws kept the old patterns of racism and oppression going. Eventually the Jim Crow laws were abolished, but the old patterns still persisted, perhaps in more subtle ways. The Civil Rights Era made some more progress, but some of the old patterns still persisted. When we talk about institutional racism, we are saying that the problems have not yet been resolved; the old patterns still persist, not only in the hearts of people but also in the structures of our society. Becoming defensive and dismissive of the whole concept of institutional racism is very much the wrong approach. The right approach is to listen, listen, listen to those who are still being ground under the wheels of institutional racism, listen to their stories, listen to their pain and frustration, and then listen for the voice of God. If we listen, we may just hear and understand. It is possible for a society to repent corporately. Didn’t the people of Nineveh repent at the preaching of Jonah? They even put sackcloth on the animals! (see Jonah 3:8). God holds societies accountable, not only individuals. If a society can repent corporately, then a society can sin corporately. We can’t begin to dismantle systems of racism until we are willing to recognize that racism exists, both on an individual level and on a systemic level. When we acknowledge, then we can confess, repent, and take action. If those in society who don’t know God can’t or won’t repent, then at least the Christians living among them can and should repent— even if they are not personally guilty of the sin of the surrounding society. Didn’t Nehemiah confess the sins of his people, even though he personally was not guilty of the sins that they had committed? (See Nehemiah 1). We can’t take steps to remedy the situation until we admit that the situation exists, and that we are probably in some way complicit with the sins of our nation. If we have seen the problem and have done nothing about it, or if we have refused to admit that the problem even exists, or if we have refused to ask God to shine his searchlight into our own hearts to reveal to us any traces of prejudice or racism for which we must repent personally, then we have been complicit. To gain some perspective, let’s compare our response to the issue of institutional racism to our response to the issue of abortion. If we who are pro-life Christians are willing to confess “the sins of our nation” regarding abortion, then why are we not willing to confess “the sins of our nation” concerning slavery and the ongoing ripple effects of the sin of racism? Why the inconsistency? Are we putting political ideology over Biblical teaching? I see no other explanation for the inconsistency. As followers and apprentices of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is our task to wave the flag of surrender. We need to be willing to face both the ugliness of our own heart and the ugliness of our societal structures. We need to throw away both our tendency toward defensiveness and our tendency toward hiding behind political ideology. We need to come clean. We need to beg God to show us what He wants us to do, and we need to beg God to give us the ability to do and be what He has called us to do and be. There is no place for trying to preserve our own sense of righteousness, and there is no place for trying to preserve a sense of how great our nation is and has always been. There is no place for these things in the life of an apprentice of Jesus Christ. Now let’s talk about what is commonly called “institutional racism”. We know from the Scriptures that every human being is a totally depraved sinner. If we human beings are all sinful, then it stands to reason that everything we build will be corrupted by sin. Sinful men and women build sinful structures, because the sin that corrupts our beings also corrupts all that we build and do. That’s why our world is in the mess that it’s in. That’s why we have conflicts, violence and war. Would we expect sinful human beings to build sinless structures? If we as a fallen human race have an inclination toward prejudice and racism in our hearts, if our sin nature inclines us to suspect, even in very subtle ways, that those who are not like us are probably in some sense inferior to us, and if our first inclination is to protect ourselves, not to glorify God by loving and serving each other in the self-sacrificial ways of love, then it stands to reason that we will build structures that will reflect and are corrupted by this sinful inclination, whether we do so intentionally or not. So why are some Christians trying to say that institutional racism doesn’t exist? When people speak of institutional racism, rather than disputing them, we should high-five them and congratulate them for finally catching up to what the Bible has been teaching for millennia. What an odd situation we have here. Secular thinking is recognizing the effects of what we Christians call “sin”, and many Christians are denying that these effects even exist. Instead of denying their existence we should be saying “Yes, racism is real, both in our hearts and in our institutional structures. It’s sinful, there is no excuse for it, Christ died for that sin, and it’s a sin of which we must all repent continually, asking God to search our hearts and reveal to us our wicked ways, both as individuals and as a society”. I fail to see how the concept of institutional racism contradicts Biblical teaching. We never sin in a vacuum. The consequences of sin affect not only the sinner and the one sinned against but also many other people in the surrounding society. Sin has ripple effects that go farther and wider than we ever realize, and sometimes the ripple effects of sin last for many, many generations. The term “institutional racism” is a secular attempt to label what the Bible describes as the effects or consequences of sin. If we’re uncomfortable with calling it “institutional racism” then let’s call it “the multigenerational ripple effects of sin”, but whatever we call it, let’s acknowledge that it exists. If we refuse to admit that institutional racism even exists, then how can we ever appropriate the Biblical solution of the cross and the resurrection and confession of sin and repentance and faith, coupled with the injunction of Micah 6:8 to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God”? The secular world admits that there is a problem but doesn’t have the solution. Christians have the solution, but some Christians don’t recognize that the problem exists. Sounds like some deception is at work here. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”. (Psalm 139:23-24) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. (1 John 1:8-9) We celebrate Juneteenth joyfully, for the freeing of the slaves is certainly worthy of joyful celebration! As we celebrate, we also need to ask God to show us what work still needs to be done, both in our hearts, and corporately as a society. We need to listen to and learn from each other. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for discernment. Those who are not the descendants of slaves need to try to understand what it’s like to be the descendent of slaves, to listen to them with an open heart and mind, and to gain their perspective on the work that still needs to be done to rid our society of racism and its ongoing ripple effects. We need to have more honest conversations with each other, and we need to be willing to listen with an open mind and heart. We need personal, ongoing repentance of our own sins of prejudice and racism, no matter how subtle, as we ask God to search our hearts. We need to ask God to enable us to examine our society from His perspective, to more accurately discern how the sins of yesteryear have set into motion policies and practices that still exist today and that still need to be addressed. We who are Christians are called to be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world”, but we cannot be who we are called to be in an authentic way if we insist on letting our political ideologies do our thinking for us. We have the Bible. We have the Holy Spirit. God will show us the way forward, but we must be willing to repent, and we must be willing to put aside our own perspectives and to ask God to show us His perspective. We need to be willing to do this not as Conservatives or as Liberals but as children of God. To those who are the descendants of slaves, I rejoice that slavery has been abolished! I want to do what I can to help complete the work that has was started on the original Juneteenth, as God enables. Many of us who are not the descendants of slaves want to be your allies in the ongoing work, not just celebrate a holiday in a way that probably misunderstands and misrepresents what the holiday stands for. Forgive us for celebrating a holiday without taking the time to think through its implications. Let’s work together to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God”. With this understanding and with this commitment, I hope we can now say in a way that is both honest and authentic, Happy Juneteenth! How do we stop the killing of unborn babies?
How do we stop the killing of innocent schoolchildren:
What’s so complicated about that? Once upon a time in a faraway land there were two groups of people. One group wanted to pass laws that would save the lives of pre-born children. The other group wanted to pass laws that would save the lives of children after they were born. No one was interested in passing both sets of laws. No one thought that this was strange.
I wrote two little stories about my mom, Rose Scordato, back in 2015. The first one was written in February, about 10 months before she went to be with God. The second was written on Mother’s Day, a few months later. I am posting them on this Mother’s Day in honor of her memory. Mom’s PrayersEvery night, while the sun was setting and the warm summer evening air was causing the palm trees beyond the window to sway, Mom and Dad watched Jeopardy in their Florida condo. Dad would sit in his big recliner, and mom in her smaller chair or on the sofa. Dad would try to guess the answers—or really, the questions. He was usually wrong but sometimes he was spot on. Mom, who speaks broken English, just listened, but probably understood more than she would let on. She would say to Dad, “Richie, these people, they’re so smart”. During the break between the programs Dad would go into the kitchen and bring them back a little snack, maybe a cup of tea or something left over from supper. Mom would get up for a few minutes to stretch her legs and attend to this or that. Then they’d both settle into their chairs again, this time to watch Wheel of Fortune. Dad was pretty good at figuring out the phrases. Mom just listened and was amused, partially by the reactions of the contestants when they figured out the phrases and made a lot of money, partially at Dad’s reactions to the contestants’ reactions. Dad didn’t feel well and Mom worried about Dad, but aside from that life was fairly cozy, comfortable, and predictable. All five kids had married, most of the kids and grandkids were living in other states, so life consisted of going to church, going to prayer meeting, going to Bible Study, having phone conversations with out-of-state family members, having guests over—they loved to share their home with others and were a gracious host and hostess-- and watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. It was an empty nest, but Mom and Dad did what they could to fill it with whatever joy and happiness they could. Family and friends were important, God was at the center, and nothing else really mattered. Now Dad is in heaven, the Florida condo has been sold, and Mom is living at a seniors’ residence in New Jersey. Every night, as the sun sets and the cold New Jersey wind starts to blow against the empty winter branches of the oaks outside her window, Mom settles into her little chair in her little room and watches Jeopardy. “These people, they are so intelligent”, she says of the contestants, when I visit her on Wednesday nights, and we watch Jeopardy together. “How did they get to be so smart?” When they win some money she is really happy for them, and when they get a wrong answer she is genuinely disappointed. During the break between the programs she munches on something so she doesn’t need to take her medicine on an empty stomach. Then she takes her medicine, downs a little plastic cupful of water, and settles back into her little chair to watch Wheel of Fortune. She tries to guess at the phrases, but because she speaks broken English she’s not very good at it; still, she tries her best. Her life is simple. She goes to church, she goes out to prayer meeting or Bible Study when she can, but she stays in her room a lot, too—there’s not much to do but they do try to keep her busy at the seniors’ residence, and she tries to stay as involved as she can. She tries to keep a good attitude and is usually successful, but sometimes she feels very tired and weary. The kids visit when they can, but some of them are out of state, so she is alone more often than she would like. Still, she tries to fill her little room with whatever joy and happiness she can. Family and friends are important, God is at the center, and nothing else really matters. When I visit her, we pray together. In her broken English, Mom prays for her kids, for her grandkids, for her church, for the problems of the world… the sincere prayers of a simple woman who lives a simple life and who has learned what is really important. She has learned the lessons that life has taught her, and she has learned them well. Her family needs her prayers, and the world needs her prayers. Her prayers rise up from her little room in New Jersey and reach the throne of heaven, where her Heavenly Father hears, and His heart is moved—and so is mine. I love to hear Mom pray! Reversal of Roles(Mother’s Day 2015)
How helpless my mother would feel during those days when I was a child, and I was running a fever or had caught the latest virus or flu from some kid at school, or had come down with the measles or the mumps, and I was feeling miserable. “I wish I could do something to make you feel better”, she would say to me. She would watch me toy with my food, take a very small spoonful to my mouth, try to swallow, and then announce that I wasn’t hungry. “If only he would take a few more spoonsful, maybe he’d feel better sooner”, she must have said to herself. I wonder if she used to lie awake at night hoping that I was sleeping soundly, whispering a silent prayer, hoping that I’d feel better in the morning. Now I visit my mother who is not well. As I hold her weary hand I say to her “I wish I could do something to make you feel better”. I watch her toy with her food, take a few spoonsful to her mouth followed by a little sip of grape juice, and turn away the rest: “I’m not feeling very hungry tonight. I’ve had enough”. I think to myself “If only she would take a few more spoonsful, maybe she’d regain her strength”. As I try to fall asleep at night I wonder if she’s sleeping soundly, and I whisper a silent prayer, hoping that she’ll feel better in the morning. Reposted from last year:
We had such high hopes. We thought that the Long Awaited One had finally come. We could sense it when we were with him. Something about being with him made our hearts beat faster. We knew he had a special relationship with Ha Shem that no one else had. He understood the heart and mind and will of God, he understood the ways of God, and he was so eager to teach us and to show us! He wanted us to know God the way he knew him, as his Father! When he spoke, there was not only rock-solid confidence and uncompromising authority in his voice, but also profound love and deep compassion in his eyes, unlike anyone we had ever met before. He taught us how to walk through life without fearing the future, for he knew that God’s plan was unfolding— and somehow, he was at the center of it! By being with him, somehow we were at the center it! We were sure he was God’s Anointed One. We could feel it in our bones, and we could see it in his eyes. How his eyes sparkled when he spoke about God as his Father! He was the One who would usher in the coming age, the tikkun olam that was spoken of by the prophets — we were sure of it! Remember when he sent us out, two-by-two, to proclaim the Kingdom of God in all of the surrounding villages? Remember when we came back and gave him our report? Remember how excited he was— he even saw the evil one as lightning falling from heaven! Those were amazing days, to say the least! The things that he taught us made our hearts beat faster. When we were with him, the things that we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears made it impossible for us not to see the fingerprints of God all over his life and all over his teaching. When we were following this man, it felt great to be alive! Life was an adventure! The present was exciting, the future was secure, our joy was full, our hearts were overflowing. How great it was to be alive, walking the streets of Galilee with Yeshua! How we loved being with that man! And then they killed him. No, they didn’t stone him, the Jewish way. That would have been too kind. They crucified him, the Roman way. They had to make it as drawn out and as shameful and as excruciatingly painful as possible. And now he’s gone. How can we go on without our friend? How could we have been mistaken about his identity? Is there no coming tikkun olam? Were we believing in myths all these years? Has Ha Shem forgotten us? How can we have hope when there is no hope? As far as we are concerned, yesterday, on that cross, when Yeshua died, hope died. How can we go on? Truth be told, we don’t want to go on. We have no reason to go on. Hope is gone. Hope died on Friday. Today is Saturday, and we suddenly have nothing to live for, nothing to hope for, nothing to die for. It all happened just that fast. He’s here one minute, gone the next, and with him, everything we had ever hoped for— all gone in an instant. And now he’s in the tomb, and the tomb is silent— and the silence is a very loud silence. The silence is deafening! I guess we could go and visit the tomb, but what good would that do? Remember, it’s the Sabbath, so we can’t walk very far, and it’s the Passover, so we don’t want to defile ourselves. Besides, we’re supposed to be at home with our families celebrating the Passover— but the angel of death did not pass over Yeshua, and Elijah’s seat is still empty. We could reminisce, but that would just make us feel more sad and more hopeless. Where do we go from here? What happens after the Passover? What is the “new normal”? We could go back to our old jobs and our old routines and pretend that it was all just a dream, but we really can’t do that, and we really don’t want to. We can’t go back to what no longer exists. The world has changed, and we have changed— or so we had thought, but now we don’t know what to think. We sit here in silence. There’s nothing else to do. Saturday is the day of silence; the day of pause; the day of waiting for we know not what. It’s the day of suspended animation. It’s the day when the world waits. It’s the day when the world holds its breath. It’s the day of the drumroll that we think we may hear rumbling faintly, many miles off in the distance— but no, that must be our imagination. Nothing good is going to happen here any time soon. What can we do on Saturday? We can learn to be silent. We can learn to lament. We can learn to pour out our souls to God in utter honesty, as King David did in the Psalms and as Yeshua did in the Garden of Gethsemane. We can learn to listen to what is really going on in our own hearts and minds and souls. We can be honest. We can face our deepest fears and doubts. After all, God already knows how we feel, and there’s no reason to hide ourselves from ourselves when there’s nothing left to lose. You can’t get much lower than rock bottom. What can we do on Saturday? We can listen for the still, soft voice of God, as did the Prophet Elijah. We can strain our ears to hear what God might be telling us. It’s easier to hear when the world around us is silent and there is nothing left to distract us. What can we do on Saturday? We can learn to be less like Martha and more like Mary, as Yeshua taught us. We can’t surround ourselves with a flurry of activity and noise in a frenzied effort to keep ourselves occupied, distracted, too busy to think and feel. That doesn’t work when there is nothing left to do or think or feel. All we can do is sit and wait— sit at the feet of God and try our best to listen— but isn’t that exactly what Yeshua told Martha and Mary? Didn’t the “comforters” of Job sit with him in grief and silence for seven days and seven nights? Didn’t the psalmist say “He makes me to rest in green pastures”? Perhaps God is making us rest. After creating the heavens and the earth, didn’t Ha Shem Himself rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath? Dreams die on Friday, but if we are listening for the voice of God, new dreams and new hopes can begin to be stirred on Saturday. Nothing very solid, no “aha” moments, no amazing revelations from the heavens, no lightning or thunderbolts or visions in the skies, but the smallest stirrings of the faintest hope of new beginnings. That may be all we get on Saturday, but that is enough. A little flicker of hope is all that we need. Even if we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, at least we can begin to suspect that the light is out there somewhere. Maybe we’ll see it tomorrow. Didn’t the psalmist of old remind us “You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again” and “Sorrow may last for a season, but joy comes in the morning”? Is it possible that we can have joy again— maybe not today, but eventually? We remember what Yeshua taught us on that last night when we were all together— could it be that it was only two nights ago? He taught us “In this life you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world”. Something is stirring. A still, small voice is speaking. The smallest flicker of hope is being born. Dare we believe it? Dare we trust it? It’s not over. When we cannot see the hand of God, then we must learn to trust the heart of God— and the heart of God toward us is good. Yeshua taught us well, and he was right. The heart of God toward us is good. Sometimes the voice of God speaks the loudest when everything else is silent. Sometimes we hear the voice of God most clearly when we are lamenting in silence, too sad and too stunned and too weak and to numb to be able speak or to fix or to repair or to distract or to blame or to argue or to defend or to criticize or to rationalize or to analyze or to strategize or to give an opinion or to even have an opinion. That’s when we learn that today is not the end of hope. It’s the day of waiting. It’s the day before the day of new beginnings. It’s Saturday. And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither. And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him. And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. (Mark 11:1-11)
We had it all wrong. We thought he was riding into town to gather an army. We thought he was going to conquer the Romans and restore our beloved Israel to its own people. We thought he would push the Roman oppressors out of Jerusalem, then out of Judea and Samaria and totally away from the region. We were ready to march with him. We were ready to fight for him. We were ready to pick up arms. We were ready to make him our general, and eventually our king. Oh, how we wanted him to declare war against the Romans! Oh, how we yearned for him to issue a call to arms! We would have gladly left our families, our fields, our occupations in a heartbeat! Why didn’t he pull together an army? Why didn’t he march into Jerusalem, kick out the Roman leaders, and establish himself as king? Surely we would have followed him. We were a potential army, an angry mob without a leader. He was a leader without an army— only a rag-tag group of fisherman, a doctor and a tax collector. Why couldn’t we have joined forces? We would be the army, he would be the general— or so we had hoped— and so we waved our palm branches and chanted our chants and cheered our cheers and sang our battle hymn of the republic while he rode into the city on his silly donkey. “Make Israel Great Again”, we chanted over and over again, but it was not meant to be. He entered into Jerusalem, he went into the temple, he looked around, he got back on his donkey, and he and his band of twelve went out to Bethany. Bethany? That’s such a small town. You can’t round up a posse of soldiers in Bethany. There’s hardly anyone out there, no guns or weapons, no stash of cash, no shakers and movers— just a bunch of sleepy old farmers and bored teenagers and a few sleepy old cows and maybe one or two old horses. Revolutions start in Jerusalem and Rome. Revolutions do not start in Bethany. We had it all wrong. We thought that every problem in the world could be fixed by power. The big fish swallow the smaller fish. We fight for what we want, and the strongest man wins. That’s just the way it works. But this man had a very different way of looking at things. He taught things like “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” and “Do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also” and “If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too” and “If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles” and “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” and “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”. Generals and kings and the powerful people of this world don’t talk about such things. And what about all this talk about love? We weren’t interested in loving our enemies; we were interested in destroying them before they destroyed us. It became clear that this man wasn’t going to help us to achieve our agenda. All this talk about love and servanthood was getting in the way, and the people were starting to buy into it. This man could undo the very revolution that we were hoping that he would establish, and so we set the wheels into motion that would eventually lead to his crucifixion by the Romans. We partnered with our enemy to stamp out the one whom we both rejected. No, we did not love our enemies, the Romans, but we needed for them to add their political power to our religious power so that we could stamp him out together. We had it all wrong. Looking back, we realized that we were the ones who had been brainwashed by the ways of this world, and Jesus had it right all along. We had thought that by combining political power with religious devotion and blind patriotism and military might, we could bring about God’s kingdom, but oh how wrong we were! How could we have been so blind? We crucified the Son of God. In our zeal to use God to bring about our own agenda, we murdered the Son of God. Now we realize that we are all Judas. Looking back, now we realize what was going on. He had to die as an atonement for our sins, as prophesied by the great Prophet Isaiah. He had to rise from the dead as conqueror over our real enemies: sin and death. He had to ascend into heaven, to be seated at his rightful place at the right hand of God the Father. He had to come back again to the earth, to establish his kingdom upon the earth, as had been promised to our forefathers. Yes, Messiah will rule from the throne of David, the Kingdom of God will come to the earth, but it will happen in God’s way, and in God’s timing, and according to God’s principles, not the principles of this world. His kingdom will be characterized not by military might but by meekness, and by not resisting our enemies with a show of force, and by turning the other cheek, and by giving away our belongings rather than fighting for our rights, and by carrying a soldier’s gear for an extra mile, and by loving our friends enough to die for them, and by loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, doing good to those who hate us, and praying for those who abuse and persecute us. Now we understand the words of the great Prophet Micah: “And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”. We had it all wrong. We were chanting the wrong chants. We were singing the wrong songs. But now we understand. Now we repent. Now we believe. Now we realize that God has forgiven us, his enemies, for all that we have ever done wrong, including the murder of his very own Son! God has forgiven us, and we are eternally grateful. Because of this, we are learning how to forgive each other, how to love each other, and how to love and forgive our enemies. We are being prepared to live as citizens of His coming kingdom. Now we realize that he sent his Son to die for those who crucified him. We are his grateful followers, and our joy knows no limits, but we had to admit that we were wrong before we could receive the love and forgiveness that would transform us into citizens of his coming kingdom. Now we sing a different song. |
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