Sunday, September 23, 2012

Taking one for the team

James 3:13-4:3
Mark 9:30-37


I have a vague recollection from my early childhood of a time when my family and other families were enjoying a day at the river.  The adults were up the bank cooking and carrying on and having a high, ol' time, but we kids were down on the sandbar playing nearer the water.  I recall the river was pretty low - or at least low enough to expose a sandbar - and the now-high bank was reinforced with big rocks as you've no doubt seen many times.  Such jobs are done to help prevent further erosion and try to keep the river from cutting through Farmer Brown's corn field!  These rocks are very large and very sharp on their edges, and they are not hand-placed to make walking on them easier.  After a season or two, the crevices between the rocks are filled with snakes, dead fish, sticks, broken glass, and other objects that make climbing up or down these rocks tricky and very dangerous. 

Well, one of the kids got it in his head to wade out into the river (we had been warned to stay away from the water unless a grown-up is down with us).  This kid had a life jacket or an inner tube (again, my vague recollection) so there was no immediate danger, but he wandered out just far enough that the river's current swept his feet out from under him and pulled him away from the sandbar and out toward the channel.  The current was not too swift because the river was low, but it was strong enough to pull a small child out.

As this kid floated away, he began to yell for help (I remember sitting on the sandbar digging a hole, but I don't remember being too concerned with the floating kid.  Maybe I didn't like him much).  I remember suddenly my dad and another man (maybe this kid's dad) running past me with shirts and shoes flying as they prepared to dive into the river for the kid, but all of a sudden I was snatched up from behind by my mom who had thought I was the one screaming for help.  I do remember the utter chaos until the boy was brought in safe and sound.  What I found out soon thereafter is that my mom had come running down over those rocks and sticks and broken glass barefoot because she thought her child was in danger.  There was absolutely no thought about going over to the smoother path and concrete steps which led to the sandbar - mom and those men took the direct route NOT in spite of the obvious risks but BECAUSE of the obvious need; you see, the risks never crossed their minds because they were focused on the necessary task at hand.

Now it is never fair to compare a parent's love for their own children to any other kind of love because, quite frankly, there is no love on earth to be fairly compared to it.  This is truly the sacrificial, "agape" love referred to so often in New Testament theology.  This profound love is the foundation upon which so many successful relationships are built and maintained - each (not "one or the other"!) putting self aside for the sake of the other.  And it is this kind of love which speaks volumes about the very essence of the Lord's Gospel!  It is the essential message we are compelled to share through word AND deed by our own examples. 

On the surface, however, and according to what we can see with our human minds and eyes, there is nothing - NOTHING - in this abiding love for us.  When we give so freely and so liberally, we risk so much of ourselves because there is nothing - NOTHING - that will evidently come for us from such risk.  Oh, we can hope, of course, that there will be some kind of pay-off that will have made the risk worthwhile, but on the whole our practical, calculating minds can easily see that the risk will almost always outweigh any kind of gain.  Our cultural indoctrination is inclined to say, "Only a fool would take such uncalculated risks."

Yet challenge #16 of the Love Dare© states: Love intercedes.  Love gets involved where Love is needed.  Love does not consider risk or reward when it comes to interceding on behalf of someone in need.  Love will run down the river bank over jagged rocks and broken glass for Love's own sake.  Jesus did not long consider Himself, His personal risk, or His personal reward when the Holy Father called Him forth to endure what was to come, all He would put on the line; and it must surely have been known by Him that for all He would put forth, many more would walk (or run) away than would come forward; yet Love persevered.  Jesus endured unimaginable pain, humiliation, and degradation at the hands of evil men whose power was in jeopardy.  They were clearly unwilling to risk their political standing and positions of religious power.

I think it is in this very context that James slaps the hands of those whose "bitter envy and selfish ambition" blinds them to the certain reality that for as much as we focus on our own needs and our own desires and only on those whom we "like" outside of ourselves , we simultaneously diminish our capacity and willingness to risk ourselves for the sake of those who cannot do for themselves.  And this, I think, is the context in which Jesus brings a child into His lesson to the disciples about what being a member of the Body of Christ is all about; that is, what it truly means to be a part of Christ Himself. 

There was a time when I thought - and I still do to a degree - that a child in Scripture represents purity and innocence; all which is good.  In certain places I am sure this much is true.  I think, however, we must also consider all this child in Mark's passage would represent in our own cultural context; "widows and orphans" (the weak, the oppressed) in the context in which these many passages were written.  These represent not only perhaps innocence and purity to be jealously protected and defended at all cost - but also vulnerability and powerlessness.  Children are completely at the mercy of a culture that has become far too self-involved and almost completely removed from what the Gospel of our Lord is all about.  It is as much about "getting saved" as it is about "doing the saving" within our capacity to do so.  This is discipleship! 

It is simply a matter of what we are willing to do; and why or why we are NOT willing to do.

The dispute among the disciples as to who among them was "greatest" goes directly to what James expresses in "coveting" something for oneself and being prepared and more than willing to "engage in disputes and conflicts" (remember the disciples' sense argument!) ... and even "murder" {remember the religious authorities who sought to have Jesus killed for their own gain}(4:2); in other words, being fully prepared and willing to do harm to others for selfish gain, including deliberately withholding what is needed - not at all "willing to yield" if it means personal risk.  And if that willingness to take risk is not present, neither is the Lord present because Love is clearly and distinctly absent.  As it is written in 1 John: "The one who says he abides in Christ ought to also walk just as Christ walked" (2:6).  Otherwise, the apostle says we are just big, fat liars when we call ourselves Christians (4:20)!

Jesus makes it clear that the rewards of the Kingdom will come to those who are "last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35).  What Jesus is telling His disciples - then AND now - is that we can have our reward in this lifetime if this is what means the most to us, but we must not expect much in the life which is to come.  This is the tension most of us live in today because we are caught between the spiritual lessons of the Bible and the cultural and personal demands of a society that insists that "number 1" (that is, "me, myself, and I") must always come first - " 'cause if you ain't first, you're last" (Reese Bobby, "Talladega Nights").

When it comes to the power of sin and death, then, we must consider the analogy of the child in our own lives and in our own understanding of Jesus' purpose in His life and death.  If the child truly represents the "powerlessness and vulnerability" (Harper Collins Bible Commentary, 912) of those whom we are charged to protect and defend, then surely the Lord placed us in that very category as He prepared Himself to go to Calvary in our behalf.  We can pray, we can fast, and we can repent of our sins and resolve to never do it again as indeed we must; but we cannot by our own power OR will break the chains and shackles of bondage which sin and death have over us. 

"Whoever welcomes one such [powerless and vulnerable person] in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not Me but the One who sent Me."  So we discover by this profound statement that as much as we cannot overcome sin and death by our actions, we can and must help others to overcome the adversities of life.  And when we do this, when we "welcome the 'powerless and vulnerable' among us, we "welcome the One who sent the One willing to 'take one for the team'".  As He did, so must we; to the glory of our Holy God and Father.  Amen. 

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