One of the things that we have to do, as Christians, is deal with the truth. For the truth is often the last thing we want to read. It is often the last thing we want to hear. Let’s consider the second passage first: Jesus just tells his disciples that they don’t have the faith to heal. The implication is that it would be easier to flatten Mt Cook than heal someone.
For Jesus, not a stretch, but we lack his faith. When we are like Christ… perhaps. But at that time this world will not be the same. It will be new, and it will be made pure.
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”5And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
14When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, 15and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” 18And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Many years ago Schaeffer talked about the rules we make,and are taught, in the various fundamentalist churches from which a fair number of the workers in L’Abri came. That they were taught rules about keeping themselves away from each other, avoiding alcohol, dancing, gambling… but under these rules was the law, and behind the law was two rules: love the LORD your God, and Love your neighbour as yourself.
And these rules are terrible. Because when we look at them, we have to look at the risen Christ, with no veil, no rationalization, no priest, no shield. And that scares the poo out of us. Literally.
We cannot handle that much truth.
We cannot handle that much beauty, or honour, or justice. We cannot handle that level of love — that led to his death for us, for me.
And we cannot handle how we look in that light: broken, poor, ugly, impure, and unwashed. It’s like a mirror. It is not a tool for self affirmation, but to ensure that we have shaved evenly, and we are not going to work with shaving foam on our face. (And it brings to the fore each day that we are aging, that we are not perfect, and we just need to put on our big boy trousers and go out and do good).
I’m sure the women can think of a similar analogy.
But in this world, none of us are truthful. We are like the man in Hong Kong who lives in a hovel but has a German Car and gets his suits tailored so he looks prosperous (and he needs to do some of this, to remain in business: Hong Kong runs on the appearance of prosperity).
But we need to continually check ourselves for self delusion. For, under stress, as we turn to the sins that make us feel good (enabled by bakeries, internet gambling or porn, and the use of liquor as a loss leader — now banned in New Zealand — at the supermarket) we tell ourselves the pretty lies: I am worthy, I am wonderful, I am beautiful, what I do is right.
When we are not worthy, not beautiful, not wonderful, and we err, sin, and do evil most days. We were taught to confess our sins daily by Jesus for a reason. And this situation will not change in this world: even at the best our motives are flawed. It will take things being made new, when Christ saves a world that has moved to the brink of destruction.