Good Morning Friends,
Ruth Bell Graham once said, “Christianity is like good music, in that it is written better than it can be played.” And so, it is in how our life is played out too and perhaps why God takes our imperfections and, in the end, makes them righteously assigned to Jesus’ act of sacrifice. So, along the way, when life takes a loved one…when we are asked to do something very hard… like Ezekiel, we should not expect the Lord to be easy on us in those moments but only to be with us on the journey helping us to get better. Friends, sometimes the events of life are hard. Part of the problem may be that our stubborn nature is getting in the way of our making good choices. Maybe we are falling into doing things a certain way just because that is the way we have always done it or because we see others doing something that looks appealing. Both can be problems, especially if we elevate ourselves to a holier than thou position. Sure, we want to be good but what really is the intention of our hearts? Jesus knows what we lack. Jesus knows the difference. But are we really seeking to please God in our love and sacrifice? Jesus asks a rich young man a related question to this issue. So, Are We Seeking The Perfect And Eternal Relationship With God?
Scripture: The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” Then I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me: Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another. Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; you shall do just as he has done. When this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord God.
Ezekiel 24:15-24 (NRSV)
Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Matthew 19:16-22 (NRSV)
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NRSV)
Message: The classical definition of perfection by Aristotle is when a thing lacks nothing with respect of goodness or excellence. I am not exactly sure why Jesus commands us to be perfect knowing that we will fail, but he does. There is a story in Matthew 19 about a rich young man who wanted eternal life. He had kept all the commandments but still was not perfect. And the thing is that we can learn something from him related to our quest for life. For the thing is that we are engineered as humans missing something. Everyone lacks something. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, part of the task here is to face up to the reality of what we are lacking and what we are willing to do and the reality that we cannot do it alone. We cannot buy it. We cannot afford the price of eternal life. Only Jesus can save us. Good works, matter how good, cannot save us. Money did not save the young rich man in the story. The only way to be saved is to cry out to Jesus who is perfect. Perhaps you get the impression the Lord wants something from His followers we are constitutionally unable to give. If so, you are spot on right. So too Ezekiel’s Israel was far from perfect. Instead, they made a wrong choice by deciding to rebel against God, forsake their covenant and serve the idols of their neighboring nations. This truth is very much evident in the lives of the people of Jesus’ time on earth as well as for many Christians today. We too have the tendency to forget the Lord especially when no one is reminding us of our responsibility as Christians. When everything is all right, we are happy and feel contended. But when pressures mount and the temptations become overwhelming and our moral fiber is weak, we tend to revert to the old life. The problem is that we love the wrong things. We need Jesus to intercede for us. You see whatever we love the most, serve most, seek out most, give to the most, worship the most and care about the most is our god. Our “god” can be our career, our bank account, the way we look, a position or degree, influence, power, or physical pleasure. It can even be considered intrinsically good, yet we allow it to dominate our life more than God. Our “god” is whatever we allow to control us, to be the ultimate guide to decision-making, the place of our supreme loyalty, and the source of our self-worth. And so, this is what God was teaching Israel during the time of Ezekiel and what Jesus is doing here with the young man in the passage from Matthew. Jesus was showing him how he was not good enough for God. He was putting a magnifying glass on the sin that separated him from God, and it was his greed, his idolatry about the things he possessed and possessed him. Interestingly this same kind of question preceded the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And Jesus did the same sort of thing there. He put a magnifying glass on the lawyer who asked what the Law required. The Lawyer astutely answered that it was summed up in loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. But the lawyer, wishing to justify himself, no doubt knowing that he didn’t love everyone he knew, asked the fatal question: Who then is my neighbor? And with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus showed him how not only he, but any of us with any prejudices fail in this regard, as it was a hated Samaritan, rather than the self-righteous Jews, who had demonstrated what it means to love your neighbor. It means helping anyone we encounter, even the ones we are not supposed to like–anyone who needs our help. Breaking the cycle of sin related to this problem can be helped with prayer but may not completely be resolved until Jesus returns, for we are a bunch of sinners doing what we see right in our own eyes.
And So, the rich young man wanted eternal life. He had kept all the commandments but still was not perfect. We cannot afford the price of eternal life. The only way to be saved is to cry out to Jesus who is perfect. So, this brings us back to what it means to be perfect and moreover perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. And here friends, I would suggest to you that we as Christians are not to place the cruel burden of perfectionism on ourselves and others but are called to press on. Ezekiel, in contrast to the rich young ruler in the Gospel message, did not go away from God grieving but pressed on to obey God, even to the point where obeying God put him into uncomfortable situations. He was asked to do many difficult things. But Ezekiel did not sit hopelessly brooding when he lost his wife. He obeyed the imperative call of duty. Ezekiel does not question God but shows himself as a man of faith, fortitude and courage who can bear sorrow because of his faith. He endures and triumphs over things that make others bitter, cynical and rebellious. His faith could not be conquered even by sorrow. Maybe he would never be the same, but life would go on because he had matured in the faith. So, we are not perfect now and can never be aside from God transforming us at the end of time. So, perhaps something is lost in the translation in our understanding of the word perfect. Perhaps it is about the purpose of life that matures in its ending to reach a greater potential that God understands, and we do not. Indeed friends, we need constant reminding that God is Holy, and we are not. However, it is true that in Christ, we are perfect, that God looks at us and sees Jesus. But even though we have been forgiven this is not fully credited to us now. Perfection is a characteristic bestowed on mortals, not in this life, but when Christ returns, and we see the Lord in all the glory intended from the beginning. Thankfully we have Jesus coming to rescue and free us from the cycle of sin as the perfect sacrifice of love.
Pray we keep practicing until we can practice no more. Pray we realize that obeying the Lord is not always comfortable, but it is always the right thing to do. Pray we be comforters of the broken-hearted and encouragers to others. Pray we ask Jesus for help. Pray we be a sign of great faith to others. Pray we endure. Pray we realize that we are never going to be perfect on our own but only when we understand that we can take nothing with us into the next life aside from our love relationship with God. Pray we always live in God’s mercy and depend on God’s strength. Pray we make good choices. Pray we recognize what really matters. Pray we submit to God’s ways. Pray we recognize our idolatry. Pray we, with Jesus’ help, break free of sin. Pray we learn to love people more than we love things. Pray we seek and find a relationship with Jesus that in eternity will perfect our trust in God and stop the cycle of sin.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 