Clay Balls

Clay balls

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful, stylish, famous or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know a person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem of Jesus living his resurrected life in that person begins to shine forth. May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

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The Sabbath Trap

A friend told me this recently. “From what I can see, Christians are still supposed to be keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath in Old Testament times always meant the seventh day of the week, Saturday. I have studied and studied this topic. I read that in the year 312 Constantine changed the actual day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Is this so? If it is, it would seem to me that we are breaking God's fourth commandment. I can't find any answer that says otherwise. I know we are in an age of grace, however, there still are New Testament scriptures that say we are to keep the commandments of God. Do you think we are keeping the fourth commandment by calling Sunday the Sabbath?”

I was ensnared by the "Sabbath trap" for a number of years. Here's the short version of the Sabbath trap:

1) The first step is to insist that Christians must still keep the Ten Commandments (as well as, depending on the group or church one believes and teaching one accepts, some other stipulations of the old covenant). For example, as one sabbatarian said, the weekly and annual Jewish holy days stand or fall together. If one accepts someone's authority - someone who would not be our risen Lord - that Christians are required to obey the seventh day Sabbath, then Christians must also keep and observe all the Jewish holy days. It's a small step from there to add any number of other old covenant stipulations - such as keeping kosher food laws. Sooner or later this quest stops, on the authority of some human religious leader, because no one that I know of who says they are Christian proposes that we stone offenders, sacrifice sheep and doves, keep the year of jubilee, etc. The problem with this first step is accepting the premise that Christians must obey the Ten Commandments. That idea, which is a legalistic teaching, is taught in many Christian churches. But it is absolutely wrong. The New Testament talks about commandments - but the commandments it talks about are the new commandments of Jesus Christ. Many Christians – including both Saturday and Sunday Sabbath keepers - read these passages as if the word "ten" should be inserted before the word "commandments." But take a look - the word "ten" is missing! We must ask why!

2) The second logical misstep in this decidedly un-Christ-like reasoning further sets the Sabbath trap. Once the person who is about to be trapped accepts the premise that Christians are obligated to keep the Ten Commandments - then the plot thickens! The Sabbath trap then proposes that it's not enough to keep just nine of the commandments and ignore the fourth one.

3) If the unsuspecting continues to nibble at the bait, they are lured deeper into legalism. The Saturday sabbatarians will then question the validity of those who call themselves Christians, who say that they "keep" the Sabbath on Sunday. But the Saturday sabbatarian argues, the Sabbath is the Sabbath -- no one has ever been empowered by God to "change" the day of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday.

4) Therefore, reason Saturday sabbatarians, with their final step of legalism, which denies Christ and the power of his cross, and the gospel of grace, is this: Unless you go to church on Saturday you are spiritual toast (and of course there are usually, depending on the brand of sabbatarianism, a number of activities which are forbidden on the Sabbath, because it is so-called "holy" time). As to the second part of my friend’s statement "there are New Testament Scriptures that say we are to keep the commandments of God" - where are they? There are New Testament passages, after the Cross of Christ, within the new covenant in his blood, within the covenant of grace, which explain the behavior that Jesus produces, as he indwells believers. These lists are often called, negatively, "sin" lists - explaining behaviors which will not be habitual for Christians, if the risen Lord lives in them. Positively, they are called "virtue" lists. Search all these lists and no where will you find "Sabbath keeping" or "Sabbath breaking" to be a behavior which is a hallmark and "sign". We must ask why?

Law & Grace: A Tale of Two Covenants

Trying to live the Christian life by focusing on the Ten Commandments is a little like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Paul said in Romans 7:9: “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.”

What if you were to begin each day with repeating “Keep off the grass” ten times? This would tempt you to walk on grass that you had hardly noticed before. Hammering away with oughts and ought nots is not God’s plan for stimulating Christians to do good works today.

But it WAS God’s plan back then under the Old Covenant when He gave the Ten Commandments PLUS over 600 other requirements of the law. His purpose, as we look back in hindsight, was to show humanity that focusing on keeping law in our own human strength was IMPOSSIBLE!

So, what exactly is the purpose of the law if it is not to be the focus of the Christian life today? The law can be harsh, demanding and intimidating for us flawed human beings. It’s no wonder – it represents the fullness of God’s demands for righteousness! This is why some of the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth are so very, very hard.

Jesus’ preaching was meant to bring the people of His time to the end of themselves – to leave them desperately looking for another way to be saved other than by keeping the law.

And then, at just the right time, the gospel of the New Covenant was preached, and people began to be saved by it. Jesus did all the work, and Peter and Paul and John got all the credit.

Jesus’ preaching took place under the Old Covenant – under the law. The New Covenant was instituted by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and not a minute before. Jesus said, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

He fulfilled the law in two ways – in His preaching and in His life. In His preaching He raised the bar so high that there could be no mistaking that God’s salvation would be by grace alone. As defined by Jesus’ preaching, there would be no chance of attaining eternal life by works. He would make it as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle.

He also fulfilled the law in His life. He lived a perfectly righteous, self-controlled life. He spoke nothing and did no actions of His own – He always followed the will of His Father dwelling within Him. He was the unblemished, precious lamb of God.

If you’ve ever wondered why some of Jesus’ sayings seem so harsh and Paul’s, on the other side of the cross, seem so full of grace, this is the answer.

Exit Law, Enter Grace

The Old Covenant law, including the Ten Commandments, was fulfilled and ended at the cross (Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:13). (Although there continued to be a mixture of law and grace for about 40 years from the cross to the destruction of the Jerusalem and the Jewish temple in 70AD.)

So if the Ten Commandments are not supposed to be the focus of the Christian life, what then? In a word, it’s JESUS. Jesus is the only one who ever kept the law perfectly. He put His Spirit into you when you were saved so that you can keep HIS commandments. This requires a fundamental shift in your thinking, which by the way, is the nature of repentance.

In the book of Galatians, Paul delivers a blistering rebuke to the churches in Galatia, but mostly, his harsh words are directed toward the legalistic teachers who were leading Paul’s precious flock astray. These new Christians had abandoned living by grace and had made the focus of their Christian life the law. Paul was livid. And, by the way, those words in Galatians aren’t just Paul’s words; they are the words of God.

The Christian life is to be lived by walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). It is a moment-by-moment dependence on Christ within to live the Christian life through us. It is not an easy thing to get your arms around sometimes. I’ll admit a system of dos and don’ts is at least a little easier for me to understand (infinitely harder for me to live under, though).

My attempt to lead the Christian life by keeping the Ten Commandments was a monumental failure. How’s your progress? Ready to try a different approach? There is one true test of the system that I just described to you. Does it work? Will it bring victory over sin in my life? Will it help me to face each day of my life with a sense of peace and joy? My answer to these questions is a resounding, whole-hearted “Yes!”

My new understanding of the New Covenant was a godsend to this recovering legalist. If you have a warped view of God and Jesus from religion and legalism, it will be to you too. You see folks, the Ten Commandments are indeed the greatest laws ever written. They represent moral virtues that are excellent and praiseworthy. But they were for a time when God wanted to expose humanity’s weakness for sin.

But that is all they are, they are not a SAVIOR! We are now in the age of grace, in the age of the New Covenant where we have the strength of God in Christ right within us in a living union.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life – not the Old Covenant including the Ten Commandments.

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"Well Done!"

His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21,23)

When this passage is preached or read, people usually think of a future time when they wait in a long line to appear before God’s throne of judgment. They hope the moment they stand before God will find them having worked tirelessly, and finally at the end, earning their heavenly Father’s commendation.

This passage is often preached when church members are urged to donate. In such cases, this passage is abused, turning divine grace into human religious performance. The idea that we must work and work and work and then wait, on pins and needles, for the final judgment of God (hoping that God will accept us) violates and corrupts the gospel of Jesus Christ!

In the parable of the talents, Jesus portrayed a wealthy master calling three servants together before he took a long trip (Matthew 25:14-30). The master took eight talents – the financial resources he decided to provide – and divided them among the servants.

The master then left, and while he was gone, two of the servants gained more talents – doubling the amount they were given. The third servant dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. The master then returned from his journey and settled accounts with the servants.

The master responded to the first two servants in the same way: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”

The third servant completely misunderstood his master. He didn’t perceive his master as loving and generous, but unforgiving and vindictive. The third servant was like many within Christianity today who perceive God as a harsh and stern taskmaster. They therefore fear God like the third servant feared his master. The master has no words of praise of the third servant, but rather calls the servant wicked and lazy and worthless.

Let me share 5 keys which can guide our thinking as we consider the meaning of the parable of the talents:

#1 – The master gave the talents – the servants did not earn or deserve them. The talents were a gift, a sacred deposit of God’s very own grace, which cannot be earned by human effort.

#2 – The master did not give each of the servants the same degree or amount. They all received his grace – they all received his generosity, but in different quantities. The parable doesn’t say that he was making this award based on their prior performance – it was simply a decision he decided to make.

#3 – The master expected the gifts he gave to be used. The gifts he gave were to be shared, circulated, broadcast, and distributed. He intended that these talents be spread around.

#4 – This parable all comes back to the master’s generosity and his determination to share what was his to begin with. The master gave them grace and he wanted to see his grace used and shared. The servants weren’t expected to produce more grace – no human can produce such a spiritual gift. The servants were (and are) simply asked to share his grace, because God’s grace is dynamic – it grows as it is shared and passed on. The master merely asked that his servants become conduits and vehicles of his grace. The master didn’t want his grace returned (as the third servant thought) – he wanted it shared!

#5 – There are at least two ways to read this passage: Is it about ME, or is it about JESUS? Is the parable about what God expects me to do, or is it about what Jesus has done?

With these keys in mind, let’s consider the phrase: “well done” What is the master communicating in saying “well done”? He is saying, “Well done, you have trusted me. Well done, you have accepted me.” The central message of the parable is faithfulness. The first two servants accepted the master’s faithfulness, which in turn empowered them to be a vehicle of his faithfulness.

The message of grace is that we are all held in God’s eternal embrace of love because of and through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We are already forgiven. We are already saved. We are already invited to his eternal banquet. We are already infinitely and eternally loved. Because of Jesus, God already says, “well done” to us.

When the master, our heavenly Father says, “well done” He is choosing to see the obedience of Jesus, which he has given to us by His grace, in our lives. If our faithfulness depended on our obedience, God would never say, “well done” to any human, for we are not capable of achieving such a result, apart from him.

Our relationship with God is one of Father-child, rather than taskmaster-slave. The significance of the parable of the talents is often twisted and distorted. Performance-based religion abuses this parable, offering it as an example of how humans are saved by grace, but rewarded by works. But such an interpretation completely misses the point – of both the parable and the gospel! The parable does not specifically say that either one of the two servants whose gifts doubled did so as a result of their own efforts. The issue in this parable is faithfulness – trusting in God rather than human efforts.

We are not the end user of God’s gifts. God’s grace, specifically, cannot be bottled up and buried so that we and we alone may enjoy and profit from it. God’s grace is dynamic – it defies anyone or any group who will try to hoard it for themselves. By virtue of accepting God’s grace we realize that God will use us as a vehicle to freely distribute His grace. God doesn’t expect us to return His grace – He wants us to be His instruments in passing on His grace!

The third servant didn’t share God’s grace with anyone – not even a bank! Truly, God alone is faithful, and He alone can make us faithful by the indwelling Jesus Christ.

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The Recklessly Extravagant Farmer

Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen! -- Matthew 13:3-9

The always overlooked point of this parable is that the farmer is reckless with his seed. A careful farmer would prudently plant expensive, good seeds one by one in the rich, cultivated soil of a field cleared of rocks, weeds, and brambles.

Yet, in Matthew 13, seed is landing all over the place, even on the road and on rocks and in thorn bushes. Jesus’ parable-farmer is flinging expensive, good seed in every direction. The original hearers of this parable must have thought that the leading character was at the least irresponsible, if not crazy. Why would he throw perfectly good seed on the road? On rocks? In a briar patch? That’s not just wasteful. That’s nuts!

Thankfully, a few seeds land (purely by chance, it seems) in some good soil, and those seeds grow a bumper crop. So what’s Jesus’ message here?

What if God the Father (the farmer, in this parable) scatters the truth of his kingdom extravagantly and passionately on everyone? What if he’s seeding the whole world with the good news of his gracious kingdom, seeding the entire cosmos with his Son’s all-inclusive message of Life, and wildly seeding the universe with his word of grace to all people?

Jesus said, “[For your heavenly Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

I think Jesus’ point is that the Father loves perfectly, that is, indiscriminately -- impartially. He confers grace to the whole world via the kingdom present in Jesus. His word of truth and freedom and Life is freely distributed to everyone. He doesn’t play favorites.

For Jesus to go to Galilean agricultural villages to preach, and for him to say that his heavenly kingdom is like a farmer who went out wasting good seed, hitting the road and rocks and briar patches, would have been both highly entertaining and maybe not a little bit shocking to those folks. Why? Because a Palestinian farmer would never do that!

What if, however, this farmer isn’t your standard farmer? What if he throws seed in every direction so that the seed lands everywhere? What if he lets the seed find good soil by itself? What if the Father has sown the world with the word of forgiveness? What if he’s seeded the world with his Life in Jesus?

The parable implies that he’s an extravagant Father to be sowing such precious seed so recklessly. But reckless extravagance is required to seed a whole planet -- or should I say a whole kingdom.

Maybe Jesus is telling his listeners that everybody is graced equivalently by a God who is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He has no bias. Maybe God graces everyone just the same, whether you are a rock, a briar, a path or fertile soil.

This is similar to Jesus’ parable of the vineyard where the all-day workers get a full day’s pay and the one-hour workers get a full day’s pay (another great kingdom of heaven parable in Matthew 10:1-16). This is also like Jesus’ parable of a father who loves his runaway prodigal the same as he loves his stay-at-home prodigal (Luke 15:1-3 and 11-32).

It seems that everyone gets this seed-gift in equal measure in the kingdom of heaven. Forgiveness is scattered on the whole earth without calculation of who’s more deserving. It doesn’t seem fair to scorekeepers, and it may seem as crazy as a farmer wasting perfectly good seed by flinging it without direction, but it is grace personified from the perspective of the heaven of Jesus’ parables.

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