The first quarter of the 21st
century might appropriately be called the age of the tickling of ears. The apostle Paul spoke of how “the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have
their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance
to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn
aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4, NASB).
The New International Version translates these verses, “For
the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to
suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers
to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away
from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
This might just be that
“time” of which Paul Spoke.
It is certainly a time of
multiplicity, peppered with a pluralism that numbs the mind and undercuts any
word that might be held to be an authoritative word. This all raises a question for me, “On what
authority does a word that seeks to speak with authority, in dismantling all
other sources of authority, have that authority to do so?”
Sadly, to live in a
one-up-man-ship world where “itching ears” determine what the current truth shall
be is just a new version of the old Junior High adage, “My dad can beat up your
dad.” Only now it is, “My authority can
beat up your authority and that means your authority is inferior; so there. Put that in your peace pipe and smoke
it.”
I John 1: 5 says, “God is
Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Ephesians 5:8 says, “walk as
children of Light.” Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will
not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life" (John 8:12).
These verses assume some kind of authority-- truth, if you will. The buck stops somewhere, and in Scripture
that stop is Truth in the person and life of Jesus.
What seems to be so
cut-and-dry in Scripture, in these days of political correctness, pluralism,
and intolerant-tolerance, has become unclear, uncertain, and a mystery embraced
by lack of clarity. Even the church of Jesus has a thousand viewpoints on just
about every issue to which it addresses itself and the message it is sending to
the world is “We don’t know for sure what we believe about anything anymore but
we sure believe it.”
It is a crazy world, isn’t
it? My attempt to convince you that my
authority to put down your authority is confronted with your attempt to
convince me that my authority is only assumed on my part and is not backed up
by the reality of life, which has, of course, fully endorsed your
authority. It’s just my opinion. So, we go round and round and round claiming
an authority the other does not embrace as authority; and on and on it
goes. (I got tired just trying to write
this paragraph).
Consequently, pluralism is
the new standard of authority. I don’t
know who had the authority to make this the new standard, but it is among us,
and it is alive and well. The word out
there now is that there is no absolute truth.
Everything is either situational truth or truth for some sub-set of
beliefs somewhere, but truth is not and cannot be absolute. Truth is relative. Believe and embrace what you perceive to be
authoritative, and I’ll do the same, just don’t try to make your authority be
my authority. Then, like ships passing
in the night we miss each other, call it good, and move on merrily unaware that
there is an iceberg ahead about ready to do us in.
As a follower of Jesus
Christ I am compelled to deal with a Savior who insists that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John
14:6). That just upsets the whole apple
cart, doesn’t it? Not much wiggle room
here -- the Way, the Truth, the Life. That just about covers everything doesn’t
it? What to do? What to do? Is this just His opinion, or is it the
truth? And, in an age when all authority
is called into question and is not total or absolute, but personal and
situational and tribal, what do we do with someone who comes to us and says, “I
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life?”
Personally, I believe
Him. He has proven Himself to be who He
says He is? He lived in and among us,
and He never deviated from His message.
He suffered, died, was raised from the dead, gave His Holy Spirit to
those who would received Him, and created a Church that has moved through two
thousand years of history, with every opportunity in the world to die away, but
didn’t. People who have embraced Him
have come to know that He really meant it when He said He came that we might
have life and have it to the full (John 10:10).
Not only did He mean it; He did it.
I know this doesn’t set well
with folks who have set their itching ears on their “own desires,” and are
busily accumulating for themselves teachers who will reinforce those desires
and who make it easy for them to “turn away their ears from the truth and …turn
aside to myths.” And, truthfully, I
don’t expect those folks to believe a word I am saying; and, I’m okay with it.
One of the things I like
about absolute truth is that you can throw it out there, and let me be or not
be whatever it is or isn’t. If it is
really absolute truth, it can take the heat; and if it can’t take the heat it
isn’t really the truth. So, I give you
Jesus. Break Him if you can. If He can be broken He’s not much of a
Savior, anyway. If He can’t take the
heat He is not the Messiah He says He is.
Break Him. Crucify Him if you
want, and He will rise up on the third day, in the most outrageous act of authority
in human history.
The story of E. Stanley
Jones continually touches a cord in my life.
As a missionary to India in the early and mid twentieth century he
wrestled with the idea of sharing Jesus in a world that was rooted and grounded
in pluralism and saturated with a myriad of religions. Of that struggle he wrote,
There came
the time when I inwardly let go. I
became willing to turn Jesus over to the facts of the universe. I began to see that there was only one refuge
in life and that was in reality, in the facts.
If Jesus couldn’t stand the shock of the criticism of the facts
discovered anywhere, if He wasn’t reality, the sooner I found it out the
better.
My
willingness to surrender Christ to the facts was almost as great an epoch in my
life as my willingness to surrender to him.
In the moment of letting go I could almost feel myself inwardly turning
pale. What would happen? Would the beautiful dream fade? To my happy amazement I found that He not
only stood, but that He shone as never before.
I saw that He was not a hothouse plant that would wither under the touch
of criticism, but He was rooted in reality, was the very living expression of
our moral and spiritual universe – He was reality itself.
I have,
therefore, taken my faith and have put it out before the non-Christian world
for these seventeen years and have said, “There it is, my brothers, break it if
you can.” And the more they have smitten
upon it the more it has shone. Christ
came out of the storms and will weather them.
The only way
to kill Christianity is to take it out of life and protect it. The way to make it shine and show its genius
is to put it down in life and let it speak directly to life itself. Jesus is his own witness. The Hindus have formed societies call Dharm Raksha Sabhas – Societies for the
Protection of Religion. Jesus
does not need to be protected. He needs
to be presented. He protects himself.
(E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the
Indian Road: Abingdon Press: New
York, 1925, 1927; p. 140-141).
That’s where my heart
is. “Jesus does not need to be
protected. He needs to be
presented.” I find no necessity for
Jesus’ Church to be a defense attorney for Jesus. The great need is for those of us who call
Jesus, “Lord,” to live out the meaning of His Lordship in our communities. We don’t need to argue absolute truth questions. We need to live redeemed and transformed
lives. After all, if Jesus is all we say
He is doesn’t He redeem and transform; and if He doesn’t why do we tell people
He does?
Here’s an idea. Instead of going through life defending God,
why don’t we go through our days living the God-life that has come to us
through Jesus? Make Jesus look good,
because He is good. Be a fragrant aroma
of Christ. Let’s live and move and have
our being in the God who “emptied Himself
of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race” (From Charles Wesley’s
Hymn, “And Can It Be”).
Be a wonderful problem, by
the conduct of your life, for those who want nothing to do with Jesus. I don’t know how well I do it, but I really
do want the quality of my life to put context and meaning to my words.
Go and be a person produced
by the God of grace and love and mercy and forgiveness. In an argument oriented world, if you don’t
win arguments, don’t let it get to you.
Keep on living the life.
Arguments come and go. In the cultures
of our world, today’s truth may be tomorrow’s ferry tale. Who knows?
Love Jesus. Be real and
authentic. Be vulnerable and
transparent. If Jesus is who He says He
is, even your weakness and humanity won’t do Him in. Someone who doesn’t agree with you may try to
tear Jesus apart in your life; don’t let it get to you. If they crucify Him again, He’ll rise up
again. If He is who He says He is let
the folks do whatever it is they do. As
for you, just keep loving Jesus and living in the life of His Life.
The old hymn says it for you
and me, doesn’t it?
My
faith has found a resting place,
Not
in device or creed;
I
trust the ever living One,
His
wounds for me shall plead.
I
need no other argument,
I
need no other plea,
It
is enough that Jesus died,
And
that He died for me.
Edmunds,1891)
