As we have seen Jesus consistently challenging the stance of legalism as being deficient in righteousness, we have learned that the law extends to the level of our thoughts and emotions. Matthew 5:27-32 certainly is an expansion of his beatitude "Blessed are the pure in heart..." and reveal the startling truth that we are not pure in heart. So, I approached this difficult section of the Sermon on the Mount using a more emotional, soul-level, spoken-word poetic/prophetic approach. While I am not Prince Ea and there is no sick beat or music video to back it, I hope it impacts you as strongly as I have felt its message this week.
Lust…
A stolen look, a coveting glance,
did anyone see me?
Boy, I’d kill for
another.
I’m telling you straight up when you are enslaved to lust
it
doesn’t matter what day it is,
You
just want to offer twisted worship before your mirrored idol.
If your mother heard what you were thinking, she would throw
up...
But then you don’t speak the truth anyway,
starting
with lying to yourself behind the façade of privacy,
so others merely
suspect what you are all about....
That
you are taking God’s name,
his holy character, in vain.
And in a thought
indulged
and appetite embraced,
all the
commandments lie shattered at our feet.
Exchanging truth for a lie,
freedom
for bondage,
relationship
for a transaction
a subject
for an object
Even though God knows their name
you treat them
like products to consume
and
then assume to presume
upon their
rejected redeemer to give you a pass…
because you can’t help yourself
as
you help yourself time and again
to what is not yours.
Lust gives poor return on our
investment for like a casino
the odds are not in our favor
outside the kingdom of heaven…
the bitter aftertaste is deadly
and contagious.
Adultery…
Rooted in discontent and rebellion
against
God
and our
spouse
or
the spouse of another…
following the maxim that stolen
fruit is sweet,
but not realizing that sin,
like poison from an
ant trap
is carried home with us to kill our family.
A tearing of affection away from God and his gifts
to pursue that which,
though it looks good for food
will only leave us naked
and
ashamed,
and
afraid to enter into real relationship.
Giving away pieces of our heart, soul, even body
and
receiving nothing that lasts in return.
Or perhaps we distance ourselves,
taking
back our affection and intimacy
from the one to whom it belongs by holy covenant
so that we can
break out against all reason
against all trust
to draw another into our dinner date with the
dead.
Such soul infection cannot be hidden forever,
for either sin
finds us out in conviction
or in
getting caught.
We
might think we are clever covering our tracks,
yet God
knows
and
feels the pain of our betrayal
right from
the first longing that we cast away
to
another who knows not
that they are
merely a temporary stand-in for our own ego.
Will we stop and look up to meet God’s patient gaze
in time to hear
the rooster of conviction crowing?
Will we like Simon weep bitterly at our repeated denial?
Divorce…
The death and burial of the two become one that God brought
together.
A public killing of one of God’s creations.
Since Adam and Eve disturbed the peace
of
the cosmos in self-promotion,
their selfish actualization cost
us all.
But we
fall close to the proverbial tree,
judging for ourselves
that this daily walking together in the cool of the day is
pointless.
We want to choose our own path.
We want to make our own way.
We want to play the field,
explore our options,
stop having to share ourselves
with the wife/husband of our
youth;
Breaking faith all too willingly.
Sure there
are reasons,
hurts,
failures- a-plenty.
There always are.
Sure we can make a case for it
if we try hard enough even lobbying
support
from family and friends,
but that merely exposes our own hard-stony-heart
that has not been changed
by
the love of Christ into living beating flesh.
If it had…
would we not rather accept the
disappointments,
even the small niggling defraudings
that
come from living in community
with an imperfect
person
like ourselves?
Why draw away
instead of drawing near?
Oh, let not
man separate
what
God has brought together,
but
instead learn to forgive
and trust the One who died,
and now lives, to bring wholeness
into
our lives!
Divorce breaks the vessel that Jesus is shaping…on the
potter’s wheel of life
I don’t
want to be that guy…you know…
The one who
breaks God’s stuff.
Who rebukes the Lord’s stated purpose,
“Far be it from you, Lord!
This
shall never happen to you.”
Yet just because I didn’t pay a lawyer
or sign the paper
doesn’t mean I am free and clear.
Where is my heart?
Am I laying
down my life, like Jesus did,
to walk in
love towards my spouse?
Or am I
continuing to deny them delivery
of the
love Jesus has sent them in care of me?
God hates divorce, because it kills a relationship
and
wreaks more havoc than any terrorist plot.
Fact is, we all have failed.
But do we really know it,
feel
it,
cringe at it?
Do we sense our utter lostness,
our disembodied desperation,
apart from Christ?
Or has the soul-numbing influence of our sin habit
self-medicated
us to the point of insensibility?
Our destiny hangs in the balance…so what will we do next?
Jesus calls to us,
“Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. “
Run
to the One who loves you too much
to leave you unchanged…
and He will run to meet you!
What line resonated most with you?
ReplyDeleteThe line about "they are merely a temporary stand-in for our own ego."
ReplyDeleteThe line...
ReplyDelete"I don’t want to be that guy…you know…
The one who breaks God’s stuff."
Am I laying down my life, like Jesus did to walk in love toward my spouse.?
ReplyDelete"Rooted in Discontentment and Rebellion against God" is what spoke to me. Any sin I have ever been slave to has started here. I would like to say unknowingly and maybe at first but it doesn't take the Holy Spirit long to bring Truth to Light.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Sharing, especially the Hard Stuff --Barb C