The Good News Of Love

This morning I was reading the story of the woman who anointed Jesus feet and head with perfume. These are the muzings that followed.

Jesus is invited to be the guest of honour at a party thrown by Simon the Leper. However, while Simon is honouring Jesus he is careful not to honour him too much. He doesn't give Him the customary kiss in greeting, and he doesn't have one of his servants wash Jesus' feet which again is customary for all guests.

Matthew and Mark tell us that Simon is a leper, so we can safely guess that Jesus healed him, and that this feast is Simon's way of showing thanks for that healing. Luke tells us that Simon is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect of Judaism that focused on keeping the law perfectly, and they disapproved of Jesus because He did not keep the law they way they thought it should be kept. In fact many of them were plotting and planning to kill Him. Hence Simon has a dilemma, how to show gratitude without alienating his fellow Pharisees. This is I think the reason why Simon is so 'offhand' in his treatment of Jesus. Have the party but don't be polite, it would be understandable to his fellow Pharisees that he feels he must show his gratitude, but he can't let them think he's too close to Jesus in case they throw him out of the Pharisaic club.

At the party a woman shows up and breaks open a bottle of very expensive perfume, the smell is so strong it fills the whole room. The woman pours the perfume on Jesus's head and feet, then she cry's all over Him and wipes the excess liquid away with her hair.

Matthew and Mark just call her 'a woman' Luke tells us that she is a sinful woman, and has lived a sinful life in that town, she is notorious. John tells us she is Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

Two people object to this treatment; first is Simon, the Pharisee. All he can see is that Jesus is making himself unclean in the eyes of the law by allowing a sinful women to touch Him. The second objector is Judas. Judas objects to the waste, why is this perfume being squandered? The money could have been sold and given to the poor.

Only Luke records the objections of Simon. Interestingly Simon does not voice his objections but keeps them in his heart. Jesus responds to them anyway, He asks him a question, "Simon, two men owed a moneylender money, one owed him a fortune, one owed him a smaller amount. However neither were able to pay. So, the moneylender cancelled both debts. Which man will love the moneylender most?" Simon correctly answers that obviously the man with the greater debt will love the moneylender most. Jesus then compares and contrasts the actions of Mary with the actions of Simon, pointing out that while Simon has shown Him rudeness Mary has shown only extravagant love. The point is that Mary was forgiven much. Mary has a great sense of her own sinfulness and she has responded to the love and forgiveness of Jesus with uncensored and unlimited love. She doesn't care who is watching, she cares only that Jesus is shown the respect that is her due.

John tells us that Martha is serving at the party and that Lazarus is also a guest. I can imagine that Mary is out the back, unseen and she observes, or Martha tells her of the slights Simon has given Jesus in his rudeness. In her love Mary (who herself has endured many slights and rudeness's over the years) is hurting for Jesus  because she knows how it feels, and she wants to make it up to Him, to comfort Him. Love prompts her to go and get the perfume and anoint Jesus's head and feet. If this incident had not happened the perfume would have been used to anoint Jesus body on the Friday afternoon of His burial. In fact Jesus tells us that this is what the perfume was meant for. However He accepts and loves her for her service of love to his living body, even though it changed God's plan.

It is the same for us, if we act out of love God will accept and appreciate our service to Him, even if it is misguided and changes His plan. But if we act from duty or fear or any motive other than love then our service is not acceptable to Him. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3;

"I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned—but if I have no love, this does me no good." (Good News Translation) 

Without love our actions are pointless and useless. We must pray and ask God for the love, His love.

After Jesus talks to Simon He turns to Mary and assures her that her sins are forgiven, and Mary leaves. I am sure that as she left her love for Jesus was even greater than what it was when she arrived.

Then Jesus hears the mumbles and grumbles coming from the direction of the disciples. "Why was the perfume wasted? It should have been sold for the poor." Mark says these complaints came from "some who were present." Matthew narrows the focus and tell us "some of the disciples" were making these criticisms. John again is the one who zero's in and tells us, 'It was Judas!' John goes further and tells us that Judas said this because he was the keeper of the money-bag and that he was a thief, helping himself to the money in the bag. The implication is that Judas was thinking that the perfume should have been sold and the money given into his keeping so that he could access it for himself. Judas's words also show us that he had no love for Jesus. He didn't care that Simon was rude to Jesus, that Jesus was being honoured by Mary had no bearing on the situation, all he could see was his own greed and that he was missing out on an opportunity to benefit.

This story illustrates the three kinds of people who follow Jesus, the first is represented by Mary. These people have a deep and abiding love fore Jesus. Their actions are motivated by love, they want to please Jesus, to honour Him and to show others how good and wonderful He is.

Simon represents the second kind of follower. These people honour/obey Jesus because the think they should. There motivation is duty. These people often go to one of two extremes; "How much is enough? What's the least I can do?" or "How much is enough? Have I done enough?"

The first group are the people who cut the corners  they try to do the right thing but at the same time they are wondering, "Just how much is enough? What's the least I can do?" For example, "I know I can't have sex with my boyfriend before I get married but how far can we go? Petting perhaps? Or oral sex?" Another example, "I have to keep the Sabbath, I missed Sabbath School this morning, but I did make church, and I'm sure it's ok to go to the game this afternoon, I'm not working." Or, "I know drunkenness is condemned in the Bible, but it's alright to drink as long as I don't get drunk." These people are concerned with doing the least possible and still being 'ok' with God. Sadly they are far from God because they are not motivated by love.

The second group are the people who worry "How much is enough? Have I done enough?" These people go to the other extreme, "I must maintain my purity, I won't even hold hands with my boyfriend until we are married, there must be one metre between us at all times." "God asks for tithes and offerings, so I'll give 10% of my income as tithe, like He asked, and I'll give another 10% in offerings, even if I can't eat this week to cover it, I wonder if I should give more?" Again, these people are serving God out of duty, not love and they are sincere, but they have missed the point. If they have no love then all their gifts and services are pointless, which is particularly sad as they lose the joy in life and come to resent God for taking all the things they love, when He never even asked for them.

Finally there are the Judas's. These people follow God from greed, for what He can do for them. They are looking for the rewards, they may search out the promises in the Bible and carefully try to meet the conditions of each promise so that they can put God under obligation and claim the promised reward from Him.

I think at some point in our lives we all follow God for any and all of these reasons. Love, Duty, Avarice. But God only accepts the service and gifts of Love.

I want to be  Mary, and I know there are times I've been a Simon and a Judas. I want the love, but here is the kicker. It is impossible for us to manufacture the love. The only way we can have the love is as a gift from God, in response to the love He has shown us. Like Mary we recognise our own sinfulness, and when we see God's love and forgiveness, in response our hearts open and God fills us with His love which we then send back to Him. This is why confession is good for the soul. It brings us face to face with our own sinfulness, and we have the opportunity to acknowledge God's love and forgiveness.

Note: I'm NOT saying we should commit more sins to increase the love! God wants to transform us, to keep us from sinning. One of the results of our love for God is that we stop doing those things that separate us from Him aka sins because we want to be closer to our lover.

And that is the good news of love, it accepts me as I am and transforms me to be better than I think can be.

Revelation's Hope

If you study the the book of Revelation you will see the following series of events:
1. Jesus, clothed in priestly robes is in the Most Holy part of the heavenly temple mediating with the Father for His followers earth.
2. Jesus leaves the Most Holy Place and now His followers who are alive on the earth have no one to mediate for them, they must stand in front of God and be holy in their own right.
3. Jesus dressed in Kingly robes comes to the earth to collect His followers.

In Matthew 24:21 Jesus described this time where He would leave the heavenly temple as a time of great tribulation, worse than anything the world had ever seen before.

Many people I know have worried about this because they know they can not stand sinless in front of the Father, and we can not be accepted by Him unless we are sinless or have Jesus to stand in our stead.  But during this time, Jesus is no longer standing in our stead ...

I was thinking about this today, and it suddenly dawned on me that this period of time - the great tribulation - comes directly after the falling of the 'Latter Rain.' According the the Bible the 'Latter Rain' is a time when the Holy Spirit comes to God's people with great power and fills them.

Now think, will it be a problem for us to stand sinless before God if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and are surrendered to His leading? Of course not. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit and following His leading then we will not sin. What is better? Jesus mediating for us to the Father? or Jesus living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit? The second of course. ^^ How else can we overcome sin? There is no other way than to have Christ in us, the hope of glory. That is Revelation's Hope.

So the obvious conclusion then is that we must daily pray for the Holy Spirit to live in us and to control us. And that we have the grace to surrender to His direction.

Nature Vs Nurture

I've been house sitting for the last two weeks and for the first time in a very long time (years and years) I've allowed myself to watch too much TV. I've been filling my head up with detective nonsense, all that lovely scientific CSI stuff. Problem is, you can't watch the science without seeing the evil the science is supposed to catch.

Now it's midnight, my body is buzzing from tiredness and I'm afraid to go to sleep because I know I'm going to have nightmares. Why didn't I think about consequences before I watched 6 hours straight of murder detective type programs??? It's not like I didn't know ... That's why I stopped watching them in the first place. When you start dreaming you're the CSI person and there is a psychotic killer killing people just so they can leave you messages in blood ... Well when you start dreaming that every night, it's time to stop putting rubbish in your head. Wish I'd remembered that earlier ...

In a bid to stay awake I thought I would blog about the nature vs nurture debate.

The last line of the last detective show I watched spoke to the hopelessness of the fight against our own natures, that we can never change, that in fact it is not even desirable to change and that we should simply accept who we are and live with it, live with both the good and the bad we find in our hearts. Now the show didn't actually say all that, but carried to its logical conclusion that is the message that was given. And it made me think.

Nature vs Nurture, normally this debate is about genetics but I want to take a different slant on this tonight. I'm thinking good and evil. However I think my thoughts apply to both takes on this debate, genetics and morality. Because both deal with the perception of inevitability and free will, determinism or choice.

What is my nature? I know my heart, it is filled with not nice things. All those impulses and desires that I keep a tight leash on because they are just evil. Only sometimes the leash goes limp and the evil slips out in words and actions. Is that my nature? Is it possible to change?

Some people will tell me that indeed that is my nature, the desire to do evil is who i am, and that even those desires i have to do good come from selfish motives. Those people say that my nature is sin. I was born in sin, so I am a sinner, and a sinner I will remain until the second coming of Christ when I am to be miraculously remade as a saint. If I follow that view then it is a hopeless battle for me to try to change. In this argument nurture has no place, all I can do is say in the words of Popeye, "I yam what I yam." Who am I to think I can overcome the sin in my life? All I can do is hope I am strong enough to control it, and that I won't do too much damage to myself or others in the process.

In genetics this is the same as blaming my hereditary for all my problems; "I have the fat gene, I can never be slim so why bother? Just accept it and enjoy the food." Or for someone else; "I have the alcoholic gene so I might as well drink myself to death now and make it on easier on everyone." People are looking for genes for everything because then they can blame their DNA for their problems and sit back in a kind of self satisfied pride and say 'It is my genes, I can't change my nature, I'm sorry it's hurting you but I can't change, so I'm going to accept and enjoy it - whatever 'it' might be."

This is an incredibly soul destroying philosophy on life, and it is one that many people have chosen so that they can give up the struggle with themselves, "It's my nature, I can't change, stop making me feel guilty."

On the other hand there are people who say, 'No, your nature is not evil, your nature is your tendency to love self and your desire for evil activities because they make you feel good." I love food, it tastes good and it calms and suppresses a part of me that makes me feel bad. Food is my drug of choice to escape from the realities of life. Is it evil? Yes, when my eating choices are destroying me then those choices are evil. Is it my nature? Well yes, my love of and desire for food, especially sweet, salty and fattening food, is definitely my nature. Can it be changed?

Now I happen to know that my desires are rather fickle, much of what I want changes depending on what I have put into my mind and body most recently.

This second view leans heavily towards nurture. It says, you were born with a love for evil but you can change. This view gives place to choice, to freewill and to hope. It tells me that with appropriate nurture I can change my nature.

I believe it is the second of these views which is correct. I'm not going to go into all the reasons why I believe that right now, but I will give the most important one; in the Bible it is very clear that God expects us to overcome the sin in our lives and to be sinless before Jesus returns. If God expects it then it must be possible.

In genetics there is an exciting field of study called epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of how the environment effects our DNA and turns genes on and off. It is possible to have a gene and never have it expressed. To have a cancer gene but not get the cancer because your environment has turned off that gene. It is possible to have the fat gene and not be fat because I have trained my body to desire only healthy food and hate the unhealthy food. It is possibly to rise above my genetics and be more than my DNA.

In the same way it is possible to rise above my evil, selfish, pleasure seeking nature. So why do so many people struggle with this? Why do we not see more people winning victories and overcoming their own personal battles with the evil and destructive things they love?

The answer is that we are trying to do it ourselves by gritted teeth and determination. But, gritted teeth and determination only go so far, they change the outer behavior. They do not change the heart, they do not change the nature, they do not take away our love for our destroyers.

Consider, it is impossible for our genes to turn themselves on and off, it is also impossible for us to change our own natures. Our genes are turned on and off by a power outside of the DNA, by the power of the environmental choices we make. What we choose to put into our bodies. In the same way, changing our natures, our destructive loves and desires, must be done for us by a power outside of us. Just like a plant that can't cultivate itself we can not nurture ourselves, we need a gardener to cultivate and nurture us.

So how do we change? The answer is Jesus. By looking at Him we are changed to be like Him. Sinless and glorious, and helpful to ourselves and others, rather than destructive.

How do we look at Jesus?

1. Pray and ask God to show us Jesus in all His goodness and love.

2. Read about Him in the Bible.

3. Contemplate, what does this story show me about Jesus and His character? His goodness? His Love?

4. Ask God to change you to be like Him.

5. Don't look at your own evilness, instead continue to contemplate Christ's goodness.

6. When the impulse comes to do something good surrender to the impulse and do it, no matter the cost. And when the impulse comes to resist doing something bad, surrender to that impulse too, no matter the cost, turn away and find something else to do instead.

7. When you fail, and this is a learning process, so at times there will be failure. When you fail, turn back to Jesus, tell Him where you went wrong. Ask for forgiveness and start again.

8. Never give up. It doesn't matter how many times you have to start again, as long as you keep trying, you are coming closer to your victory. Each time you win you become a little more like Jesus, and each time you fail you learn one more thing to help you win next time.

As long as you keep looking to Jesus He will keep changing you. And one day you will run out of things that need changing, there will be no more loves for sinful, evil, destructive things in you - or me. This is the process of nurture that Jesus, the gardener, uses to change our natures and one day we will be perfect.

It is possible to rise above our genetics and it is possible to rise above our natures. All you have to do is ask.