“The discerning sets his face toward wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.” – Proverbs 17:24
Wisdom keeps us on the path of life but doesn’t always mark it out for us far into the future. Even if the fool identifies a correct future destination or goal, the path to get there might bend in ways they won’t see by looking only at the end goal. The discerning focus on the daily task and the daily bread.
Today matters.
Do you ever feel that God has appointed a task to you that you can’t see the point of? These opening verses refer back to previous posts about Jesus asking Martha to move the stone away from the opening of Lazarus’ grave, and also to the man who was given only one talent to put to work for his Master’s benefit:
“Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” – John 11:39
“He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’” – Matthew 25:24-25
As we continue a series on the Beatitudes with the third Beatitude “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”[1] I am reminded of the mid-2000’s TV series Lost, where character Desmond Hume is trapped on a mysterious island and enters a code into a computer every 108 minutes. He does it – even in the middle of the night – because he was told he is “saving the world” by someone he trusts. When the code – 4 8 15 16 23 42 – is entered on time nothing happens except the re-setting of a clock to 108 minutes. “The numbers” are referenced over and over again in the show, individually or all together, and seem to have a mystic power over events. The number of minutes allowed to enter the code – 108 – is the sum of the six numbers. Even fans seemed to believe “the numbers” had power – there was a boom in playing them in the lottery.
As other characters find Desmond and ask questions, the numbers and the button become a case study of faith versus reason. Why is he doing this? Eventually, the button isn’t pushed on two occasions and the consequences are very serious indeed, but this lesson is only learned by failing to act on faith. While initially faith demands that Desmond enter the numbers over and over again, the two failures show that there was a reason behind Desmond’s faith even if he didn’t know it. It wasn’t pointless after all. However, failure isn’t always the best way to learn to be meek.
Every Talent Matters
In a story told by Jesus in Matthew 25:14-30, a man entrusts his servants with some money (the “talents” in the story were a large unit of currency, and the word later came to mean a natural or special ability): five to one servant, two to the next, and one to the last servant. The first two servants use their “talents” to bring in more for their master, but the last buries the money in the ground to keep it safe. This servant might have been thinking: “What’s the point? The other guy has five talents, and with that I might be able to do something. But with only one…Why bother?” But if the master’s intent was to keep the talent safe, why would he give it to a servant? It was only after some time, when the master returned from a journey, that the servant learned the consequence of his inactivity. The servant is cast out and his talent is given to the better servant.
Waiting until we have more to offer, more to do, or a better sense of the possible consequences is like burying our talent in the sand and therefore determining for ourselves that it does not matter and there is no point. In the words of “Shy Away” by twenty øne piløts, you “manifest a ceiling when you shy away.” Whatever purpose God has for our talents – in their exact amounts and types – it wasn’t for us to bury them. The meek servants who took what they had and worked for their master’s interest, were rewarded. “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”[2]
For me personally – sometimes I put off, or want to give up, writing because it seems pointless – who reads this anyway? But it’s what I currently feel compelled to offer. Blogging may seem a strange thing to do, but it’s better than burying these ideas in the ground and hoping a fruit tree magically pops up. I don’t know what will happen when I do or don’t write, but I know a refusal to be meek to our Lord has consequences. Sometimes we aren’t sure why, but we know Who is asking.
Play Your Own Numbers
Jesus has not asked me (and probably not you) to enter “4 8 15 16 23 42” into a computer or to move a stone from a tomb, but He knows exactly what He wants us to do, to become, and how He wants to impact others through us. There are specific needs He wants only us to meet, including our own needs for meaning and joy. We should never just copy someone else’s “numbers,” but seek our own. If Lost fans won the lottery with those numbers, they would have to share the prize, but if each won playing their own way their prize would be much bigger. Likewise, I believe the eternal reward is higher when you play the numbers – and only the numbers – God gave you personally[3].
Consider God’s personal instructions to you as your own lottery ticket, or the most important treasure you will ever have:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field…
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” – Matthew 13:44-45
Being meek is not a matter of how much one has to offer but knowing who you offer it to and being faithful to that master’s interests. It is not a matter of knowing why, but a matter of trusting the One who asks you to be meek. He is the King of the Kingdom.
Finally, just because the consequences aren’t obvious to you doesn’t mean there aren’t any:
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” – Guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, in It’s a Wonderful Life
This post continues a series on the Beatitudes. To start at the beginning, click here, and for the next post click here
[1] Matthew 5:5
[2] Matthew 25:29
[3] Is it stretching the point to say what happened to Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-3 resulted from them trying to “make up their own numbers”?
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32
Finally, we continue the series on the Beatitudes, the opening statements from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, with Matthew 5:5 – “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” This one is particularly tough to write about because meekness has such a negative meaning to many people. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines meek[1] primarily as what you are not: courageous and strong. It even references the first Beatitude accidentally, saying that being meek is being “deficient in spirit.” But as we saw in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The dictionary gives an example of “a meek child dominated by his brothers.” A good way to start this series on “Blessed are the meek” comes from one of my favorite movies, but unfortunately one which has little to do with Christian truth.
The Malevolent Incarnation
In The Matrix, humanity has been imprisoned inside a computer simulation by artificially intelligent machines. A group of rebels are fighting within and without the simulation to free humanity, and the machines created super-powered Agents to track down and destroy rebels within the Matrix, which is what the simulated world is called. These Agents hate the Matrix, which to humanity is their “real” world. Hugo Weaving plays Agent Smith, the main Agent in the story, who says:
“I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever you want to call it, I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink and every time I do, I fear that I’ve somehow been infected by it. It’s — it’s repulsive! Isn’t it? I must get out of here. I must get free…”
Agent Smith is a “Malevolent Incarnation,” an artificial intelligence who took on human form to represent the rulers of the Matrix, and his job was to make sure humanity stayed enslaved, which required brutally suppressing any rebellion. What Smith couldn’t stand however was “the smell”! His biggest motivation was to get the rebels in line so he could leave the world behind. Agent Smith’s objective was to keep mankind imprisoned in a set of rules.
The Ambivalent Incarnation
Set against Agent Smith in the story is Neo, played by Keanu Reeves (“whoa!”), who wants to liberate mankind from rules altogether. At the end of the movie, he says to the rulers of the Matrix: “I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.” The contrast of these characters is a thinly veiled expression of atheistic Marxism, which argues that rules (particularly religious ones) exist only as an expression of power, particularly the power of “oppressors” which must be overthrown.
It’s no wonder why meekness has a negative association for many people, if authority figures are portrayed as malevolent oppressors, and our heroes are ambivalent, requiring nothing of us, so we can avoid being meek, pursuing whatever we want (even if it leaves an odor). It is also undeniable that many rulers throughout history, including religious ones, have been malevolent. Therefore, freedom good; rules bad. Simple.
But it’s not that simple. When Neo destroys Agent Smith in the end, the audience cheers, but if Neo is the hero of a “world without rules”, where does his authority over Agent Smith come from? Agent Smith should be Exhibit A that letting everyone live as they please leads directly to oppression by the powerful, because this ethic does nothing to cure self-interest. It only encourages it. Under Neo’s “world without rules,” who rules Agent Smith? He rules himself, and as we know, he hates all of mankind. Also, what if Neo turns into a malevolent oppressor? His own ethical system does nothing to stop him, and he’s more powerful than everyone else. In the famous Latin phrase: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchmen?
Wonderful Counselor Redux
Merriam-Webster thinks being meek is undeniably a negative, but in reality, the value of meekness depends on who or what you are meek towards. Do we often think about or realize who or what is guiding us? We all submit to something, even if it’s our own desires, but is the thing we’re submitting to malevolent, ambivalent, or benevolent? In my recent Christmas series, I wrote about Jesus as Wonderful Counselor (here). I encourage you to read that if you have not already, or even read it again, because we are blessed by God through meekness because He is Wonderful. This series will expand on that post.
This post continues a series on the Beatitudes. To start at the beginning, click here, and for the next post click here
Fellow travelers,
Last week I introduced a weekly series on the “Psalms of Ascent”, grouped together from 120-134 and used as a liturgy for pilgrims going to Jerusalem for annual festivals. Before jumping into Psalm 120 next week, today we consider what it might mean that Psalm 119 precedes it. Was this order intentional (as the grouping of Psalms 120-134 was) and for what reason?
Laws, Precepts, Statutes, Rules, and More
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, with 22 sections, or stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In it, the Psalmist poetically praises God’s moral law, using 8 different words to describe it, and including at least 6 of these in every stanza.[1] It seems repetitive, but by approaching it from so many angles, the Psalmist is saying “no matter how you look at it, everyone is better off if they know and follow this law.” For example, verse 105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” – says that not knowing the law is like walking in darkness, but that following the law keeps you on the right path. Verse 98 – “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me” says the law is a reliable source of wisdom, and better than the rules of God’s enemies. There are many such examples in the 176 verses.
But, while declaring that following the right moral law is good for us, Psalm 119 also declares that none keep it regularly. The Psalmist says “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law” in verse 136, and also that “I have gone astray like a lost sheep” in verse 176. God’s word may be a lamp to our feet, but our feet go elsewhere anyway. Therefore, we mourn sin – that of us and that of others – because we are all guilty and we all suffer the consequences[2]. We take no joy in other’s misfortune because we are not immune. Any moral law – including a perfect one from God – always shows us how far short we fall. Rules cannot make us perfect; they can only define perfection.
Christ Crucified
Therefore, there is another part of God’s law – the ceremonial law – which is never mentioned in Psalm 119 unless you want to include the “freewill offerings of praise” mentioned in verse 108. The Psalms of Ascent follow a Psalm praising God’s moral law because, although His law is good, it is not enough. Only by going to the temple regularly could God’s people see what sacrifices God prescribed to compensate for their failures and satisfy His justice. While these ceremonial sacrifices were insufficient, they always pointed forward to the ultimate, perfect sacrifice of Christ which would fully cover our sin, empower us to grow in obedience to His good moral law over time, but also make the temple sacrifices irrelevant and unnecessary from that time forward.
To today’s Christian, the Psalms of Ascent remind us not only of our need for salvation apart from law, but they prepare us to regularly contemplate His provision to accomplish that salvation. As these Psalms provided instruction on what Israelites should have been thinking about along the way to the temple in Jerusalem, we can benefit from them also as we travel to congregate with other sinners seeking our only hope together. God’s people didn’t just arrive in Jerusalem and become magically transformed by ceremonies. The Psalms of Ascent encouraged them to prepare and participate.
This post continues a series on the Psalms of Ascent. To start at the beginning, click here, and for the next post click here.
[1] As noted in the Reformation Study Bible.
[2] See this blog’s series on “Blessed are those who mourn,” which starts here.
Today I’m sharing a piece written by Glenn Parkinson, the retired former pastor of my church. He writes: “Biblical hope expectantly waits for what we know we cannot find in this life, but are certain will be ours when Christ returns.” Hope like this can transform our every day lives!
Well worth a read (and a subscription)!
What Christ’s Return Means to Me
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 