WORDS FROM W.W. July 11, 2016
(During this week “Words from WW” will consist of an ongoing conversation. Part 1 of the conversation can be viewed at “WordsfromWW.com”)
“How so?” I asked Jesus with a poorly disguised element of indignation. “How is being cynical a safe place to be?”
“Do you remember the story of Lazarus?”
“Sure! Dead in the grave and then you brought him back to life.”
“His sister Martha was a bit of a cynic. Her belief was based on what she could do. It didn’t matter whether it was housework, cooking dinner, or crying about a dead brother. When she came to me with her tears about the death of Lazarus and then I said that her brother would live again, do you remember what she said in reply.”
“Something about the resurrection at the last days.”
“Yes, she could only see her brother as being dead TODAY! To believe that he could be alive again was not in her thinking. To take my statement and have it apply to some time in the distant future, that was her way of staying at a safe distance.”
I thought for a moment before saying anything. “So Martha was a cynic about faith?”
“Martha was a grieving sister who lived in a world where life did not come out of death. She had been with me when a blind man received his sight, and hungry people received bread, but when death came close to her she became cynical about faith, about trusting. When I came to her brother’s tomb and told the people there to take away the stone that was covering the entrance, her first response was about the odor that would be apparent. And I said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
I stared into my coffee for a moment. “A faith cynic…I guess that’s where I live most of the time.”
“As I said, Bill, cynicism is a safe place, for if something miraculous happens…so be it! But if nothing happens then the person can say ‘See! I knew it wasn’t true!’ So what are you willing to risk to be changed? How far are you willing to believe that what is troubling you, and troubling the world, doesn’t have to stay that way?”
“But…” I let the word be exhaled like a puff of smoke, and then left to disappear on its own. We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. “It’s kind of like the speck in someone else’s eye that I can see, and not the two-by-four in my own eye. What you’re saying is that I should look at what is going on in my own life before I speak sarcastically about what I see in other people’s lives.”
“It’s a hard thing to do, isn’t it?”
I nodded my head. “It’s easier being a Pharisee.”
“Pharisees had a lot of good points. They had the right idea that went the wrong way.”
“That seems to be the story of a lot of us Christians. We start out with the right idea, but somewhere along the way things get a little wacky.”
“There are a lot of people who believe in me, Bill, but somewhere along the line they became Pharisees also. Pharisees for Jesus…doesn’t quite have the ring to it that Jews for Jesus does!”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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