Matthew 12:38-44: Asking, Never Intending To Change

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. - Matthew 12:38-44

 There are many fakes out there. If I read the headlines from various facebook posts, they all claim to possess some hidden or secret knowledge that, if I were just to listen, would change my life. From one of my early blog posts, a reader sent me a note to let me know that he was one of the few people to recognize that Lazarus was the author of the Gospel of John. He had the secret knowledge.

The problem is that we become numb to what is real while we try to protect ourselves from what is fake. The world is required to prove itself to us before we will believe. That is, our default answer is "No"

Jesus said that his listeners were "a wicked and adulterous generation" to ask for this sign. Somehow their asking was not a genuine request for information but rather, from the context, a dig for dirt to use against Jesus. In other places in the gospels, we saw that "They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor" (Luke 20:20) and in another place "they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath." (Mark 3:2) That is, it wasn't that they asked the question that was the problem. It was that they asked without ever intending to believe!

They were the enlightened. They knew that nothing important (like a Jesus) came from Galilee. As the enlightened, it was their responsibility and their joy to expose Jesus either as a fraud, as misguided or as dangerously inflammatory. In today's passage, Jesus gave examples from foreign nations (Assyria for the first, Egypt for the second) where people responded with genuine curiosity and a willingness to change. But not Jesus' audience. They asked without ever intending to change their lives.

It is a cynicism that threatens to cripple my life as well, because the enlightened (like me) never feel the need to change whereas the humble always sit at the feet of Jesus to learn.

Romans 13:1-10: How Love is Like Paying Taxes

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. - Romans 13:1-10

Unpopular laws, corrupt leaders and unreasonable taxes are often cited as reasons why people don't follow their leaders in government. Certainly the Roman empire had been no friend to Christians, with bouts of official and unofficial persecution since before Jesus' time. In Paul's recent memory, all of the Jews (and the Christians with them) had been kicked out of Rome and only recently allowed back.

But Paul (along with Peter) followed a line of thinking that can be traced back to Jeremiah when it comes to living in an unsympathetic and sometimes outright hostile civic environment. It says that God has set up government for his purposes-even if that government is made up of crooked and evil mean and women. It is their job to reward good behavior and punish evil behavior and God holds them accountable. Jeremiah told his fellow citizens, forced to relocate to Babylon, ...seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jer. 29:7) 

It appears that Paul's audience particularly objected to paying taxes to the Roman government and giving respect before the various Roman officials. Again, Jesus had given clear guidance on this, saying Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's. 

But then Paul takes that a step further: what if we thought of the taxes and the respect in the same way we thought about loving other people? What if we only loved people who we thought loveable or lovely, would that be truly love? Would we really be fulfilling the law of God? No. Love is proved when it is shown even to the unlovely. Again, Jesus' words guide us, If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? (Matthew 5:46)

Submitting yourself is hard. Loving other people is hard. Truthfully, paying taxes is a lot easier than loving some people. In doing the former, maybe I am being trained in the latter.

Amos 5:13 "Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil."

 

John 2:24: Full Disclosure?

Impressions are vitally important in the Church, it seems. We must make sure that people think we are spiritual, or at least desirous of being spiritual. We want them to believe our families are attaining all the right goals and ideals. We hope that people see us as if we have it together in our marriages, our jobs, and most of all in our walk with Christ.. - Pastor Craig Miller[1]

The acronym TMI tells me that I am sharing Too Much Information-details not appropriate for the situation or audience. Sometimes things come out of my mouth that members of my family wished were not a part of public discourse. Maybe it is about them. Or maybe it is about me that makes them question if their is (or should be) a familial connection.

Why? Because we want to control how other people perceive us and some "information" gives people the wrong impression. We (or, at least, I) want people to think that I am smart, compassionate, and in touch with modern culture. This is impression management - "a self-crafted means of getting others to believe what we want them to believe about us — but not necessarily believing what’s true."[2]

Not just for the insecure or precipitously famous, impression management is a skill that we all develop because we quickly learn that people react to you based on what they see rather than who you are.

We can see this in marriages. Vernon Edmonds used the term marriage conventionalization: "The extent to which a person distorts the appraisal of his marriage in the direction of social desirability."[3] That is, how hard does each spouse work to create the impression that you have the marriage that everyone else expects you have.

So there is this tension between, on one hand, wanting to be authentic with people and, on the other, knowing that not everyone can be trusted. One only has to remember what was repeated inadvertently by our kids in public. Church people can be a tough crowd because they have a whole other set of expectations. Even Jesus dealt with this tension:

But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. - John 2:24

Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said... - Luke 20:20a 

Ok. That makes me feel a little better. Why? Because they barely knew him. They weren't committed to him or, worse, were actively against him. Disclosure is tied to trust. Later, when he had spent three years with a group of twelve guys apprenticed to him, he finally said:

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. - John 15:15

Even then, it hurt, because one sold him out, one denied him and the rest abandoned him in fear. But Jesus established circles of disclosure: the three (Peter, James, John), the twelve, the seventy-two (Luke 10), and then the crowd. In each circle, Jesus is authentic but not exhaustively so. The transfiguration is for the three (Matthew 17); his high-priestly prayer (John 17) for the twelve, his commission (Luke 10) for the seventy-two; the parables for the crowd.

Why? Jesus spoke what was necessary for those who heard, at the time they were ready to hear it. 

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. - Matthew 7:6

Often Jesus would tell a story to one group, but only give the detailed explanation to his disciples. Again, authentic disclosure, but different levels of disclosure.

How does this work in life?

1. Speak with purpose. Your life story is meant to be used for God's glory. Not for yours.
2. Speak truth, but only as much as will make sense, given the listener's familiarity with your character and life situation.
3. Speak with compassion. Are you practicing hearing your words as if you were them?

I'm still working on how this works out and have that my modeling of another person's situation is often flawed so that what I intended for good is sometimes useless or even harmful. This is humbling and makes me grateful for the insight and words given by the Spirit of God to translate my good intentions into words that match.

[1] Pastor Craig Miller, The Road to Wholeness Is Blocked By Good Impressions, The Village Pastor (blog), https://gbcvillagepastor.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-wholeness-is-blocked-by.html, retrieved on May 7, 2017
[2] John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, Zondervan (2002)
[3]Vernon H Edmonds, Marital Conventionalization: Definition and Measurement, Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Nov., 1967), pp. 681-688