28 March 2014 - can you handle the truth?

28 March 2014 - can you handle the truth

Have you ever been afraid to be right about something?  The scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the most important.  The commandments, we know, are principles for wise living that allow us to walk in the freedom which God intends for us.  Jesus tells the scribe:

The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And the scribe, apparently, knows this.  He says:

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

But look, isn't it as though they were all hoping to hear something new, something novel, something different?  Isn't it as though they are hoping to hear something esoteric and abstract that does not make any real demands on their lives?  Why does this response of Jesus intimidate them so much when it is something they all ought to know.

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

They are not far from it but they aren't quite there yet.  No wonder we find ourselves living in time Paul describes "when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths" (cf. 2 Tim. 4).

This is why we need to hear God remind us, “This is the way; walk in it" (cf. Isa. 30:21).  Don't look for something new.  It isn't about finding some new technique, system, or idea.  It isn't ultimately something that complicated.

Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.

It is good that it is simple.  All of the other places we try to put our hope never end up satisfying us anyway.

Assyria will not save us,
nor shall we have horses to mount;
We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion.”

The LORD pleads, "If only my people would hear me, and Israel would walk in my ways", and promises such amazing things to those who obey him.

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;

How freely indeed does he love us.  How could we imagine the "best of wheat" with which he feeds us without seeing for ourselves as he gives us his very flesh and blood.  His Holy Spirit fills us like "honey from the rock" if we just repent of the idols we seek instead of or along with him and put our hope in him alone.

Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
“I am like a verdant cypress tree”–
Because of me you bear fruit!