The Goal of Our Christian Discipleship

Dear Church Family,

As finite human beings, we all have moments when we realise we have missed the point entirely.  Well, I hope so, because who does not need to learn and unlearn so many things from the Saviour (e.g., Matthew 11:29 and Psalm 143:10)?  It is important for all of us to be teachable by God in our walk with Him as we go and hopefully grow on the road of maturity, so we can become more like Jesus Christ.  This is the goal of our Christian discipleship (see, for example, Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 5:1).  In different cultures, we can find sayings relating to missing the point that hold fascinating details in the context of this series on encountering Jesus.  You will recognise some of these examples. 

Although in Church culture we are not particularly fond of the idea of snakes, an interesting saying that originates in China is “drawing legs on a snake.”  You may have guessed that this describes the act of taking an idea that was already perfectly formed and adding completely unnecessary details.  Can our interpretations of faith and service today sometimes be like that?  If we are honest, we will realise there are times when our mental processes and interactions have made a situation more complex, perhaps through confusion, fear, “self”, or even a hero complex that can get in the way, adding pointless complications.  From the same region of the world, another saying, “playing the lute to a cow”, captures the idea of wasted efforts trying to share something noble and elevated with an audience who is incapable of appreciating it.  We do not refer to individuals in this way, but perhaps we can trace the principle in how we have dealt with new approaches, ideas or ways of seeing things.  Maybe you have felt the frustration and isolation of being the one whose approach means you don’t quite fit in and you are misunderstood.  God can turn this situation into a learning moment that strengthens us. His will has a way of prevailing in the end.  

Another saying from the African continent, probably Ghana, is “look where you slipped, not where you fell”.  It highlights not missing the point by focusing on effects, mistakes or problems rather than the causes and on the result instead of the choices that got you there.  This is important in evaluating and strategising for the future.  Here in the UK, we have some similar sayings: “you can’t see the wood for the trees”, which means getting so involved in a situation that we are lost in detail, so we lose a sense of perspective.  Then there is “barking up the wrong tree”: seeking something where it cannot be found or an approach that reflects misdirected effort or having the wrong idea about things.  This is like the idiom “getting the wrong end of the stick”.  In Church circles, we also refer to “majoring in minors”: again, focusing or specialising in things that are not very important.

Following on from last week when we began to look at people who encountered Jesus, it may be surprising to realise that at times, “missing the point” is reflected among them all.  Here we reflect on how He interacted with two more categories of parties that encountered Jesus and what we can learn: Creation and Religious Leaders.

Creation

It might seem unusual to include Jesus’ encounters with Creation, which I will do briefly here, but in scripture, the environment has a way of mirroring our own state that was reflected in striking encounters Jesus had with nature which are very revealing about us.  This week in the UK, temperatures apparently hit a record of 36 degrees centigrade.  Some may argue that the current heatwave is reflective of humankind’s poor stewardship of the environment.  (As a side note, one thing I would like to know is that everyone keeps adequate supplies of water with them and shades and paces themselves as necessary while the current heatwave continues.)  Could it be that perceived changes in the weather are linked with habits of excessive consumption, selfishness and “the love of money” (1 Timothy 6:10) that have led to humankind’s sin causing damage to the rest of Creation?  This would certainly speak of our failure to take care of the planet God has entrusted us with (Genesis 1:26-28), missing a major point.  In the Bible the environment was often linked to people.  E.g., in the Creation of humankind from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7), Jesus in His teaching illustrations, spoke of the four types of soil in the parable explained different states of the human heart when it comes to how we receive “the seed” of God’s word (Matthew 14, Mark 4 and Luke 8).  Those who delight in the word of God are “like trees planted by water” (Psalm 1:3) and the man whose sight was being restored He had begun to be able  to men “like trees walking” (Mark 8:24).  Like the fruitless fig tree Jesus once came across, He was disappointed with His people because they had missed the point or purpose of their existence of being a light to the world (Luke 13:6-9).  Then there were the three times Jesus instructed disciples to catch fish miraculously (Matthew 7:24-27, Luke 5:1-11 and John 21:1-14), the storms He stilled, the water He walked upon (e.g., Mark in chapters 4 and 6) and numerous wonders.  While Jesus chose to be humble and, in His humanness, rely on His own Creation as a source of food and shelter, narratives that show His command over nature are somehow reassuring.  Especially when like us, it includes the worst natural states: the wildness of thorns, stony grounds much like many hearts, weeds He used to represent false believers, dangerous animals, hostile environments and climates (as some may feel the heatwave represents), natural disasters, and anything else inconvenient, all ways which can cause death and reflect missing the point of the perfect world God created.  This encounter will one day have a good ending.  The promise of the New Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1) is the resolution to a beautiful story of how like the rest of God’s Creation, His people are subject to His absolute sovereignty, His indisputable authority, His righteous commands, His perfect judgement, His ultimate redemption and restoration. 

Religious Leaders

Somehow, Creation that does not have the freedom of choice and moral accountability of human beings did much better than the next party that encountered Jesus: the religious leaders of the day who were, for the most part, Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees (like the High Priest, Caiaphas).  There were a couple of named exceptions like Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the ruling council named the Sanhedrin and Nicodemus the Pharisee, who had open hearts towards receiving Christ.  Even Nicodemus was told by Jesus that though he was a respected leader, he had missed the point by misunderstanding something so essential as the new birth by the Spirit of God and eternal life in Christ (John 3:10).  We truly need Christ in our hearts, homes, churches and streets (SEC GO Inspired for Mission Strategy: 2024).  Are there situations in which you or I could seem to be functioning highly in our Christian lives but be missing the point of it all?  Can some of us not be truly converted?  This could be the case, but even the wildest of winds and waves were able to obey Jesus.  As with anyone, for leaders like this, truly being submitted to the spiritual leadership of God requires a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ.  We need to see Him in His perfection and sovereignty and humbly accept our need for Him.  There is no substitute.  So many cautionary tales in the word of God highlight that neither social status, appearances, complacency, pride or anything at all is worthy of coming between God and us.  However, if by the power of His Spirit, they were able to avoid succumbing to any temptations in this regard, religious leaders could truly be on God’s side and be used powerfully for good.  

Yet, overall, the depiction of Jesus' encounters with those accountable for spiritual leadership of God’s people in the Bible matched every saying about missing the point I mentioned earlier.  It is no wonder that this encounter between Jesus and the leading authorities was characterised by conflict that led to the most open rebukes Jesus gave: a very sobering reading indeed.  Jesus sees through showy semblances of worship which hold no traction with Him.  Entitlement may impress people who don’t know the full picture, but the thing is that God always does.  Theirs was a depiction of faith that had become particularly grotesque.  They added so many rules to God’s requirements (e.g., Matthew 23:4, Luke 11:46) that, like legs on a snake hindered the truth from getting anywhere by reaching the hearts of the people as God intended it to, so their message had become a completely different ‘creature’ that was unrecognisable.  This is why we always need to ‘check back in’ with Jesus and His word, reflecting with open hearts on the whole point of what we are supposed to be doing spiritually, who we should be, where we are going in general, accepting that God knows best and His will is always more than good enough for us.

This should have been a pause for thought.  The leaders were consumed and blinded by their own self-righteousness, jealousy, and threatened feelings; they went into opposition against Jesus.  They were unwilling to see these symptoms as messages telling them they should ‘look where they slipped” by prayer and reflection on scripture, asking God to show them where they had strayed from the message.  Opportunities for Jesus to show them had fallen could not get through.  His act of sharing truth with religious leaders often reflected the idea of “playing the lute to a cow” because each beautiful note and phrase of the gospel can no longer be truly heard or received by a person who has chosen to be spiritually dead.  Tragically, “the stick” was being gripped by stubborn hands totally at the wrong end, but evidently what the Lord Jesus disliked most of all was that in missing the point, they were leading others to do so as well (Matthew 15:14).  Let’s ask God for wisdom in how we use the influence He gave us.  Like lead musicians, the religious leaders were the main performers in society, called upon to be foremost in sharing the faith.  God has given human beings the skill to write sublime musical pieces, but how they are interpreted by those who play them can make all the difference.  The message of the gospel needed a “clear sound” (1 Corinthians 14:7-8).  In their pretentiousness, religious leaders of the day made additions to the faith with self-driven, fanciful interpretations (Matthew 23).  These threatened to undermine how the people could understand the essence of the Gospel by rendering it unintelligible.  In a rabbinical system, where leaders were being emulated in the way they lived their lives, this meant not only verbally delivering the truth as Jesus acknowledged they did but sharing it indeed too (Matthew 23:3-4).  Their “heroic” attempts to intervene in interpreting the law for the people made it more difficult for those who wanted to become members of the household of God (Matthew 23:15).  This included those in need, those who would be willing recipients of restoration and salvation.  The chilling thing is that they may not have been aware of it, but a series of choices had dulled their consciences so they could not respond to the Spirit of God with a genuine heart.  They had lost their grip and could not clearly see the Person at the centre of the message, who was right in front of them, which was Jesus Christ.  This would result in His Crucifixion.   As people who are reflecting on Christ in our hearts, homes, churches and streets, may Jesus take the reins of our hearts and may we never miss the point but stay focused on the message and mission of sharing Jesus Christ.