Please Bless Us to Live for You, Soon Again

Doesn't it seem as if Jesus is so much smaller today, in our hearts? The simplest lessons we learned as children seem to be crushed under social edicts and politically driven demands.

When I was a child, I heard from Matthew 20; and that seed of a lesson began to grow in my heart as an adult. In Matthew 20, there's the parable of workers for Jesus: not extortioners, thieves, and hateful neighbors, but sincere workers for the Lord.

The lesson I was taught as a child is that Jesus said all His workers were due the same reward. That reward is life everlasting in Him. Life everlasting in Him is the payment that Jesus says is "right" for those who trust and work in Him.

Because I was a child when I received that seed of a lesson, I never questioned whether or not Jesus meant to say anything about money in His talk. I accepted that He was saying "right" payment is eternal life for every Christian. He said that, no matter how much or how little work we've done, we are all due to have our life, our time of peace, in Him. He said that's the payment that's "right."

But some translations of the Bible have made a big mistake about that. It isn't a mistake that we can't correct. We correct Bible translation mistakes by praying, seeking answers from the heart, and reasoning together when Heaven sends us our answers.

Some versions of Matthew 15:20, for example, say that Jesus shrewdly asked whether it's against the law for Him to do as He has set out to do with His own "money." And some versions say His own "things." But "money" and "things" are words added by translators. The Spirit's meaning was only, "Why are you accusing me of doing something wrong about those who are my own?"

The Spirit's meaning was only, "Why are you accusing me of doing something wrong about those who are my own?"

Jesus said "my own" — not "my own money," nor "my own things." Translators assumed His conversation was about money, because He spoke of pay. But Jesus was speaking of us, His church. He was saying He treats each of us as He would like to, generously giving the promise of a life of peace in Him after all is said and done.

That's not difficult for me to understand. But it's a challenge to many people who get stuck on the idea of "money" and "fairness." They don't understand Jesus is not that kind of social advocate.

In fact, he tells us poverty, unfortunately, will always be a need the church should attend to, as long as we're in this present, imperfect, sinful world. But there's absolute equality in knowing that, no matter anyone's station on this side of eternity, there's peace in the everlasting.

But, to bring things back down to earth and allow for that need to reason together without always having our heads in the clouds, I've thought carefully about how many others think about faithful, Christian work and financial compensation. And I can admit there's a little bit of a parallel between actual pay and the payment of life in a day of peace.

When a worker in Jesus does not have a fruitful income in making a living, that person is less likely to be motivated and reasonably healthy in whatever the work is. So, I admit, it's not arbitrary that the Lord tied a parable that mentions payment to the promise of life in Him. After all, to live in Him is to have health or well-being while we are working, and well-being comes from having the fruit of our labor.

But isn't it interesting that our Savior, our everlasting Father, doesn't take anything away from what He gives any of the workers in His parable? He doesn't take out of the basket of one to put into another.

The Bible says He knows each of our needs, before we ever ask.

 

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We are living during a day when 14,000 have died over seven years, in a quiet war of pride between Russia and Ukraine; a day when in the neighborhood of 300,000 black girls and women have been reported missing in the U.S. over the course of only one year; when 5,295 indigenous girls and women have gone missing in the U.S. that same year; when the unthinkable happened to at least one for whom we have a name (Vanessa Guillen); when too many are taken hostage; when too many become "soldiers," subject to the worst human rights abuses, during childhood; when too many die in childbirth, even in our own nation; when millions die in infancy or before age five each year in countries overseas. And we are living in a day of many other challenges almost worse than the present pandemic.

For many of us, crises in community are only an arduous symptom of our overall historic condition. And, yet, we serve a Savior who has urged us to "endure."

While days like today are not joyful, while some — like in the aftermath of today's Ahmaud Arbery trial — are saying "happy" and "joy" only to keep from crying, we, as Christians, do know joy will be again one day: if only we could love again, and not hate, assault, and lie about, that girl that seems like a boy — if only we could know, again, as our heavenly Father knows.

Lord, help us haste the day when you return to us in heart, the day when you bless each of us with freedom of life in you again: the day when there is innocence, again, of breakfasts with Grandmother, according to the riches you keep in the store of our hearts.

 

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I am praying someone will change the HTML edits he has made on this blog. The leading between lines should be like the text in a book, instead of like double spaces in a book report. And I'm praying this blog won't be hacked into, anymore.