Biosophilia

But they are wrong. While God does call us to offer our best, that is not the main point of the Gospel and the New Testament. It is the main point of the Law and the Old Testament, where the focus is on human responsibility.

The Gospel is about the predicament Aron Ralston would have faced if he had not succeeded in severing the last tendon that kept him attached to the forearm pinned under a boulder, if he had exhausted all his resources as well as his last energy in his attempt to save himself. The gospel addresses the predicament of facing death when you have run out of resources to forestall or delay it.

That, of course, is the human predicament we are all in, eventually. It doesn't matter how strong we are, or how good we have been. Eventually, even Aron Ralston will meet his match, and he will die-of old age, if nothing else-unless Jesus returns before that.

The Responses of Unbelief
You would think that belief in God would be the first requirement of those willing to listen to Jesus, but there is a requirement that comes even before that. You have to believe in your own predicament, that you are going to die.

In one way we all know this, but that doesn't mean we believe it in relation to ourselves. The one place where young men and women see it is a real possibility is a battlefield, where they must face the fact that people with guns and bombs want to kill them. But on prom night, when teenagers routinely die, I doubt that many of them say to their parents before leaving in the evening, "If I don't make it through the night, you'll find a letter in my underwear drawer about what to do with my stuff." Probably none of them do. Some kids die on prom night, but not me! There are 181,000 references to prom night death statistics on the Internet. People are sort of interested, but not enough to make a difference.

Jesus came with a warning and a command: the kingdom of heaven is at hand, so you had better repent! To update his illustration about the children in the marketplace: He is like a child who comes by on a bright Saturday morning, looking for playmates. He will play whatever game they choose. But it's Saturday morning; they want to watch the children's programs instead of going out to play. "We piped to you and you did not dance. We wailed to you and you did not mourn."

Jesus could not get the attention of his generation. So if you think that any church with Jesus himself as the pastor would be on fire for God, don't count on it. He was pretty good at drawing a crowd, but he would not force them to become participants. They wanted to watch instead of play, and any excuse was good enough.

[18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon.' [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

The cities Jesus had preached in had listened but they had not believed. If you don't see your predicament, you won't see the solution. You won't even look for it. The unrepentant cities didn't have to look. They had seen with their eyes and heard with their ears the warning of the Lord from heaven. They saw and heard what he had done. So Jesus says to them, "For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Instead of repenting, they said that John the Baptist was demon-possessed and that Jesus was a partier who kept bad company.

Why can't they say that if it's their opinion? It's their life, isn't it?

Yes, it is. My point is, it is also their death. Jesus came to them and he comes to us with the divine solution for the human predicament of death. We are all in that predicament, and only he can get us out of it. Death is a foe beyond any of us. Jesus alone must hold the narrow way for us.

If you wonder what part of the Bible that's from, it's not from the Bible at all. It is from The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf says it when a hideous creature of great power attacks the fellowship of the ring. In the fellowship are two mighty men who seek to help him but Gandalf commands them to retreat. He will face the enemy alone. "This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow way!"

• If you don't believe there is a foe that is too much for you,
• And don't believe there is a narrow way that must be defended,
you won't repent. You plan to muddle through one way or another. And are more likely say at Sunday dinner, "The preacher got carried away a bit this morning, don't you think?" That must be what the unrepentant cities said about Jesus.

The Invitation
Only those who repent, who want to get rid of their sin and guilt, will take Jesus and his invitation seriously.

Taking it seriously means recognizing it as the only way, not as one option among many. In the next verses Jesus makes a huge claim about himself.

He introduces it by saying that being smart does not bring you to Jesus "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."

Then he claims that God has given him charge over everything, so that the only way to know God is through him."

Finally, he gives his invitation. It doesn't resemble much an invitation to join the Marines (the few, the proud) or a professional association (if you can past the test) or a business (if you can survive the interview). It's an invitation to the tired. It is an invitation to Sabbath rest.

He has told you who he is. He is the Son of God, the King of creation. You can trust him to do what he says. And when he says to take his yoke, he doesn't mean to share his burden, He means that he wants to share yours.

Someone who knows says that in a team yoked together, the stronger can go no faster than the weaker, or they will be working against each other. Jesus is not so much inviting us to walk with him; he is telling us that if we share his yoke he will share our burden and walk with us. He does not expect us to match his step. He is saying that he will match ours!

Second, do not see the that burden simply as the cares of this life. See it is as the burden of sin that leads to death and the burden of guilt that we take with us to judgment. See Jesus taking your sin and guilt upon himself. Only when you are free from them will you see how bad the human predicament is, and how wonderful the divine solution. Amen.

Community Christian Ministries
516 S. Main
Moscow, ID 83843
www.ccmbooks.org

(Reprinted by permission.)