ken castor

What Makes a Christian

What is required in order for someone to be a Christian?  Is it a prayer?  Is it a certain doctrinal statement?   Is it a particular church?  Is it a particular strain of practice?  Is it being good?  What makes a Christian?

This morning, while studying the Bible with our Social Justice students at Crown (see chalk art above), I wrestled with what God wants from people that call God theirs.  We looked at these two passages:

• Micah 6:8 - He has shown you, O Man, what is good.  And what does the Lord requires of you? To ACT JUSTLY and to LOVE MERCY and to WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD.

• Mark 12:29-31 - "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  LOVE THE LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR as yourself.'  There is no commandment greater than these."

With these words in mind, we searched for God's heart.  I became convicted that a true Christian is someone who follows the LAW of God.  The Christian life is not a list of commands, not a rule-book, not a set of bylaws.  The Christian life involves the personal, practical implementation of God's commands.  Namely, God wants his people to follow his LAW.  God wants people to LOVE, ACT, and WALK.  A follower of God is supposed to love the One True God with all their being, to act genuinely-altruistically towards others, and to walk in humility in a living relationship with God.  Inherent to the Christian life is a posture of obedience, a gospel of response, and an intimacy of theological practice. 

In Micah 6, those who have identified themselves as God's people actually stand judged before God.  They are arrogant in their religious practices and passive in their response to injustice.  God doesn't want their inherited religious practices.  God wants something other the doctrine and location and words of these religious people (identified in a personal, collective sweep as "Man").  He doesn't want their arrogant sacrifices.  God wants them to follow His LAW.  If they don't, they stand judged.  Their injustice demands justice from the hands of God, even if they cry "Lord, Lord" (see Matthew 25).

In Mark 12, those who have identified themselves as God's people are infighting about doctrines and debates and end times and conjectural specifics of eternal existences (I know!).  Each particular sub group of the religious culture considers itself better than the others, more right than the others, more close to the right hand of God in the Kingdom.  They fight over who holds the truth and who stands condemned and who is the heretic.  Some reject Scriptural teachings and some place a stranglehold on Scriptural teachings.  And Jesus isn't impressed.  He doesn't want their arrogant sacrifices.  Jesus wants them to follow his LAW.  Watch out for the "righteous" who devour the houses of widows, he says.  Instead, Jesus suggests that people should give out of the poverty of their spirit, like the poor widow who gave her only coins to the Lord.  After all, injustice demands justice from the hands of God.

This challenges me.  Am I someone who lives Micah 6:8 and Mark 12:29-31... OR... am I someone who lives the other parts of those chapters?  What should I do right now, today, this week in order to better reflect the LAW of God in my life?  And am I ready to demonstrate God's true LAW living in me?  Am I ready for the impact such a life would have on others?  Or would I honestly rather want people to see my piety instead?

Generational Transference in the Bible: The Gospels

 

             John Wilkes suggests, “Responsibility without authority disables rather than empowers followers.”^[1]  So it is that Jesus gave his authority and blessing to his disciples.  Jesus gave them opportunities to practice the challenges to leadership through an environment in which they were formed spiritually and empowered.  It’s interesting to note that Jesus sent the twelve disciples on a responsibility-based action-learning experience early on in his ministry.^[2]  He then did the same with seventy-two followers.^[3]             

            But with authority came also the necessity of humility to pass on ministry to the next generation.  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,” Jesus said.  And, perhaps by no coincidence, Jesus calls his followers his children, and then passes on responsibility to them.^[4]  He then intimates that his disciples will carry on his mission after him through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.^[5]

            These emerging leaders were entrusted not just with the responsibility of continuing the mission of Jesus, but also enabled with the permission, opportunity and capability to do so.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,”^[6] Jesus said.  And the authoritative responsibility transferred to this group of next generation leaders was specifically in the interest of developing further successive generations of leaders.  In fact, because all of Jesus’ authority had been transferred to the disciples, their appropriate action was to “therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.”^[7]  Jesus demonstrated the fruitfulness of generational transference by sharing the responsibility of God’s mission with others.  To give authority and responsibility to the disciples demonstrated how much Jesus valued these people as leaders.  Wilkes comments,  “when Jesus called the disciples to himself on the side of a hill and commissioned them to continue that mission, he was not abdicating his own responsibility for it - he was sharing that responsibility.”^[8]

            The Gospel of John illustrates the transfer of leadership in terms of mission and character.  For instance, John the Baptist, resolute in purpose, promoted Jesus through personal humility.  John the Baptist described Jesus saying, “the one who comes after me has surpassed me.”^[9]  There is not a hint of possessive leadership with John the Baptist.  When Jesus came onto the scene, John the Baptist encouraged his own disciples, in whom he had been investing himself, to follow Jesus.  While this example is not generational according to age, it is generational according to transference of ministry leadership.  John the Baptist, in many ways, ordains Jesus publicly and releases others to follow him.

            The Gospel of John then portrays Jesus as a leader who raises other leaders up through personal humility.  “I am the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep,” Jesus told his disciples.^[10]  Before the Last Supper, John reveals the posture of leadership that effectively transfers ministry.  John wrote:

          “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power... so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples‘ feet.”^[11]

 

            Bruce Milne noted the self-sacrifice for others and the humility of Jesus as the true model for leadership.  There can be no possessive tendency for the leader of biblical patterning.  As Jesus led his disciples through humble service and releasing strategies, so he instructs them to do the same.  Jesus says, “Now that I have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”^[12]  Milne argued:

“The aim of many leaders today,” Milne argues, “is their own glory.  Not truly loving those they lead, they use them as a means to their own personal satisfaction.  It is the leadership of the hireling, not of the shepherd.  This principle is certainly not confined to the church.  Leadership, whether in political life, industry, business, or community, follows one of these two routes.  Either it is directed to the self-life of the leader, or it is directed selflessly for the good of those who are led.  The former is the way of the world, which leads to death; the latter is the way of Jesus, which leads to life."^[13]

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^[1] Wilkes, C. Gene.  Jesus on Leadership: Discovering the Secrets of Servant Leadership from the Life of Christ.  (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1998), 181-182

^[2] Matthew 10:5

^[3] Luke 10:1

^[4] John 13:33

^[5] John 15:26-27

^[6] Matthew 28:18

^[7] Matthew 28:19

^[8] Wilkes, p.181

^[9] John 1:15

^[10] John 10:11-15

^[11] John 13:2-5

^[12] John 13:14

^[13] Milne, John.  The Message of John (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 149

Rooted Faith: Go Out (part 3)

(...continued from yesterday...)

3. Fruitlessness produces nothing good.
I think we want it to be different.  I think we want to be a part of a vibrant movement of faith.  But fruitlessness produces nothing good.  In Mark chapter 11, on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples passed by this healthy, good-looking fig tree.  The tree really looked great.  The leaves were incredible.  But Jesus stepped in for a closer look and discovered the good-looking fig tree had a problem.  It had no figs.  The fig-tree was fruitless.  Jesus got quite upset and he cursed the tree!  They all went on to the Temple, which was busy with religious activity and looked healthy and vibrant, and full of people attending and doing their religious duty.  But Jesus stepped in for a closer look and he was frustrated by what he saw.  The Temple- a place where people were supposed to come and be changed by their focus on the Lord- was not rooted in God anymore.  In the Temple that day were distracted hearts.  There were marketers, set up to sell their goods and make a profit, stealing attention from God and probably stealing some money from the people who had come.  This practice was cheapening the spiritual formation of the people.  And everybody seemed to be just fine with it all.  Except for Jesus.  He got really upset.  And he cursed the Temple!  He went around overturning all of the selling tables and driving out everyone associated with this unfaithful system.  He chastised everyone saying, “My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”  Quite a day! ☺

The next morning Jesus and his disciples passed by the same old fig tree again.  But this time, when they saw the tree, the disciples noticed that it didn’t look very good anymore.  In fact, this fruitless fig tree, was completely shriveled-up and dead!  Mark notes that the tree had withered from the roots up.  It dried up from its source.  All of the sudden what looked to be pretty and impressive on the outside was cut off from its source and couldn’t draw up the nutrition it needed.

No matter how impressive the expression of religiosity, no matter how grand of a building or prestige or reputation they once had, if at their roots a generation rejects the opportunity to grow down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love and draw up life from him, that generation or that person or that system of religion will shrivel up.

I fear that if Jesus took a close look at our good-looking expression of Christianity from the 20th and 21st century in North America he might be really upset with the lack of fruit… with the shallow roots… with the poor spiritual nutrition.  It is clear in Scripture that those who claim to be religious but who are actually only dressed up, only appearing to be good in their church habits, do not please God. Read Matthew 25 or Luke chapter 11.  The harshest words in Scripture are reserved for those who pretend outwardly to be close to God but who lack the inner heart of faith to produce fruit from God.

Matthew 7:17 says “A healthy tree produces good fruit… And every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.”  Faithlessness produces fruitlessness and fruitlessness produces nothing good.

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Full audio version of this sermon.  Download June 21 09 Ken Castor 

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crowded marraige

The crowd had stopped them from getting it.  There was no way the paralyzed man and his friends were going to get through any door into the house to see Jesus.  It was just too crowded.

This is when a lot of people would assess the situation and think- "Oh, it'll wait until tomorrow.  Another time. No hurry.  We don’t need to see Jesus today."  But being with Jesus is not a moment to miss.  The friends of the paralyzed man were bold in faith and in friendship.  They were ready to break through any barrier in order to present their friend to Jesus... even if it meant being impractical, or disappointing their neighbors or their families… even if it meant creating a bit of a mess in life… making things a bit chaotic or disordered…

You probably know what happens next.  The men climbed to the roof, carrying their friend.  They hacked through the tiles and straw and wood, probably raining down debris on those inside the house below.  They kept it up until their was hole big enough to get their friend through… all this even while the crowd yelled at them to stop--- can you imagine the owner of the house!  “Hey, what are you doing!  Stop!!  You jerks!  You’re ripping through my roof!”  Or imagine their friends… “Stop!  What are you doing!  You can’t do that!”  Or the mom!  Can you imagine the mom of one of these guys?!  No good son would rip through the roof of someone’s house.  But their faith in Jesus and their friendship with one another was their priority.

So eventually, despite all the obstacles, they lowered their friend to Jesus.  And the rest is an amazing story.  Jesus doesn’t care about the mess… he doesn’t care about the hecklers… he doesn’t care about the clamoring people… Jesus loves those who come before him committing to one another in his name.  Jesus sees their faith and hope and love and he is moved to meet them there.  Jesus must have thought to himself, “You know what, I’d break through every barrier for you guys too!”  He forgives the man of any of his wrongs.  He blesses the friends.  He shuts up those who scoff.  And he heals the paralyzed friend… who jumps up and… get this… leaps through the crowd- as if the Red Sea had just parted in awe of the love and power of the outstretched arms of Jesus Christ.

I share this because I see some analogies in this event that will encourage your life of marriage.  Analogies of faith and friendship--

not even room for one more person

No one else could get in.  People were pushing and squeezing.  Little kids were lifted up on shoulders.  Some people stank.  Everybody was cramped up against everybody else.  News had spread quickly that he was back.

Jesus was staying in a house in Capernaum.  His life in the public spotlight had just begun... and already he was a superstar.  News of his arrival back in town created quite a stir.  It wasn't long before his house became overwhelmed with paparazzi and crowds and autograph seekers and admirers and skeptics and a plethora of curious others.  Nobody else could fit in the house.  So people lined up out the door... squishing into the windows.

The commotion stopped as soon as Jesus began to preach.  All the pushing and shoving came to a standstill.  Those who couldn't see Jesus put their heads down, shut their eyes, cupped their ears and strained to absorb every word spoken.  Parents quieted their kids, religious leaders checked every syllable.  His words were straight from God.  His authority was astonishing.  What will he say next?  Maybe he'll stretch out his hand and heal someone.   And no one else could get in.

Especially the paralyzed man.  He wasn't going anywhere close to the inside of that house that day.  No one was going to budge even if they could.  So many it was impossible to make room... there was no where for anyone to get out of the way to.  His friends tried to be polite- "Excuse me.  Sorry.  Can we get through?  We're just trying to get our friend to Jesus."  Then they tried a bit more force- urging their way forward... but it was impassable.  Too many people. 

How much do you want to see Jesus today?  How deeply do you want a friend to see Jesus today?  Maybe you think- "Oh, it'll wait until tomorrow.  Another time. No hurry."

The friends of the paralyzed man didn't delay.  They were ready to break through any barrier in order to present their friend to Jesus... even if it meant ripping down the house...  (read Mark 2:1-12 for the rest of the story)

The Naked and Broken Leader 2.2

The Disrobing of Contemporary Leadership 2.2

           Gene Edwards imagines a scene where David is given the inheritance of brokenness so that he could become a king after God’s own heart.  The angel who is passing on the inheritance proclaims, “I must tell you that was has been given to you is a glorious thing- the only element in the universe that can change the human heart.  Yet even this element of God cannot accomplish its task nor grow and fill your entire inner being unless it is compounded well.  It must be mixed lavishly with pain, sorrow, and crushing.” {1}
            Jesus seeks leaders who will live like he lived.  Jesus searches for the naked and broken leader.  For in the exposed vulnerability of the soul Jesus is able to create the essence of true leadership- the change of a human heart. True spiritual leadership is breathed by Jesus and involves a process of exposure, self-awareness, uncertainty, pain, and sorrow demonstrated in submission to God for the sake of others.  The model of spiritual leadership is that of a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

          Undoubtedly, many could criticize Jesus’ principles of nakedness and brokenness as an incredibly “weak” archetype of leadership.  And it would be errant in the face of such constructive forethought to dismiss the leadership relevance of determination, courage and integrity as well as a myriad of other kingdom principles like charismatic communication and catalytic influence.  It must be noted, however, that such principles of power where humbly wrapped in the swaddling clothes of Jesus’ incredible meekness and submission.  The kingdom of Jesus, after all, involves a universal reign based not on authoritarian power, but on the authoritative precedence of God’s love.  And, therefore, it must be remembered that it was in love that the integrity, communication, influence, courage, determination and vision of the Leader of all Creation was wrapped in the cloth of a naked, fragile baby.  And so it was also in love that the omnipotent leadership style of Jesus surrendered himself to dictators and mongers- who were of a more culturally attractive leadership archetype- so that his arms could be strapped and his body stripped and broken through execution and the bearing of our sin.
And so it is that along with the centurion who witnessed the servant-hearted sacrificial leadership of Jesus, even the most power-based leaders among us must eventually admit that truly this was the Son of God, the ultimate Leader of the world. {2}
          The practiced definition of Jesus’ leadership model is shocking to a North American culture of Christianity that bends to the appeal of magnetism and the cult of personality.  As Kevin Mannoia stated in his book, The Integrity Factor, the “downward path” led by Jesus has “set the pattern for Christian leadership in opposition to the world.” {3}   And in fact, the servant-hood of Jesus was met be severe antagonism.  As Isaiah recorded for us, the Suffering-Servant’s awe-full leadership style produced an awful reaction: 

Many were amazed when they saw him- beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person… 

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance- nothing to attract us to him.  Jesus was despised and rejected- a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief.  We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by.  He was despised and we did not care. 

Yet it was our weakness he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down… he was wounded and crushed for our sins.  He was beaten that we might have peace.  He was whipped, and we were healed!  All of us have strayed away like sheep.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. 

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.  He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.  And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.  From prison and trial they led him away to his death.  But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins- that he was suffering their punishment?  He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone.  But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. 

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief… And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.  I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death.  He was counted among those who were sinners.  He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners. {4}

          As one who came to embrace the leadership principles of nakedness and brokenness, the apostle Paul urged other followers of Jesus to emulate their Master’s astounding model of servant-leadership.  “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had,” he told the Christians of Philippi.  “Though he was God,” Paul said, “he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.  He made himself nothing; he took on the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.  And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” {5}
          The example of Jesus’ archetype of leadership rings true not only in theory but also in practice.  Admired leaders throughout history have proven from ancient days (e.g. Joshua, Moses, David) to modern times (Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr.) that humility, vulnerability, authenticity, and meekness in the face of great struggle are the foundational leadership principles whereby the power-based principles such as strength, integrity and determination are championed.  It is in the naked and broken leadership posture of Jesus Christ that God accomplishes his work in this world. There are numerous contemporary leadership prophets who are calling us back to the principles of nakedness and brokenness. Thirty years ago, Robert Greenleaf astounded the corporate environment of North America by suggesting that the essential motivation of leadership was an attitude exhibiting care for others and that the central concern of leadership demanded “self-sacrifice” in addition to the more culturally palatable principles of “wisdom and tough-mindedness and discipline.” {6}   In Christian circles, Brian McLaren has recently suggested that the kind of leader that must emerge in the coming generation needs to embrace the endurance of pain.  “We can’t pretend that leadership is an easy career, free from suffering,” he wrote in his book, The Church on the Other Side.  “God’s leaders,” McLaren contends, “have always faced criticism, threats, misunderstanding, and unfair treatment- when they weren’t facing nails, whips, knives, and clubs.” {10}

{1} Edwards, Gene. A Tale of Three Kings: A Study in Brokenness (Carol Stream, Ill: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), xviii.
{2} Mark 15:39
{3} Mannoia, Integrity Factor, 50. 
{4} Isaiah 52:14; 53:2-12 (NLT)
{5} Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
{6} Greenleaf, Robert K. Servant Leadership: A journey into the Nature of Legitmate Power and Greatness
{7} McLaren, Brian D. The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 116. (Paulist Press: New York, 1977), 255.

Re: communion 7/9

Re:pentance

When Communion loses its place as an effective symbol in the Corinthian church, Paul loses his patience!  Divisions, self-absorbance and gluttony[1] had infiltrated the community of believers in Corinth, forcing Paul to write a scathing admonition to them.  “But when I mention this next issue [of the Lord’s Supper], I cannot praise you,” he writes.  “For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together.”[2]  Paul then soberly decrees:

“It is not the Lord’s Supper you are concerned about when you come together… If anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord.  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup.  For if you eat the bread or drink the cup unworthily, not honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.” (NLT)[3]

Communion, when misapplied or mishandled by the church, fails to offer Christ’s invitation to properly re:member.  Too often we pharisaically exclude from the Lord’s Table those people who have not yet “accepted Christ” while we eat the bread and drink the cup with division and arrogance in our own “saved” hearts.  Jesus invites sinners to the Table!  He levels the field through his own humility, serving each one of us with his garments as a towel.[4]  It is no coincidence that Jesus washed the feet of his followers before the Communion meal.  This simple act of humble service symbolized the extreme love Jesus has for others and it urges us to be of like mind.  The act re:calls the re:action of Zacchaeus, filthy with sin, who accepted the invitation to enter into humble communion with Jesus.  So moved by Jesus’ invitation, in fact, Zacchaeus re:pented and re:conciled himself to everyone else and, in so doing, gained salvation.[5]  Another dreaded tax collector named Levi did the same.[6]  Simon the Pharisee, haughty with religious pride, in contrast, ate and drank God’s judgment upon himself.[7]  To Simon’s dismay, Jesus invites every sinner to dine and find communion with him.[8]  Vander Zee shares that “since eating was an act of fellowship and acceptance, to eat with sinners was to accept them as friends and companions.”[9] Clapp concurs saying, “the Lord dined at an open table… This was to his contemporaries one of his most shocking and objectionable behaviors.  They understood what it meant: it signaled acceptance, friendship and empowerment of the tax-collector, the Gentile, the whore.”[10]

But when the Lord’s Supper is diminished in its practice, disunity, rather than community, prevails.  Just as a song can be sung from the lips without engaging the heart, so the acted rite of communion does not guarantee one’s genuineness in relationship with God or one another.  A fractured Church made up of individuals who focus on their own selves fails to recognize that “we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit.”[11] 

So Paul urges the Corinthian beleivers to reconcile themselves to God prior to joining with one another.[12]  He also urges them to reconcile their actions with one another when they gather to “do this in remembrance” of the Lord Jesus.[13]  Vander Zee notes that through the practice of Communion we deepen our relationship with one another in the Body of Christ.  “In Paul’s understanding,” he says, “the Holy Spirit creates deep relationships in the body of Christ by our participation in the Lord’s Supper.”[14] While there are many parts to the body, there is only one body. [15]

As a primary ministry leader for the young adults among Brentview Baptist Church in Calgary, I am responsible to encourage and facilitate unity.  In her pastoral collaboration with Eugene Peterson, Marva Dawn describes that “one major function of the pastor that seems unnecessary to the world is to equip the congregation for its reconciling work in society and to make sure that congregants remain reconciled with each other.”[16]  For this reason, I am ever more convinced that the implementation of a re:newed practice of Communion should contribute impressively to the continually deepening formation of a community reconciled with God and others. 

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[1] 1 Corinthians 11:18, 21

[2] 1 Corinthians 11:17

[3] 1 Corinthians 11:20, 27-29

[4] “Before the Passover celebration… Jesus got up from the table, took off his rove, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.  Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.” John 13:1, 4-5 (NLT) 

[5] Luke 19:1-10

[6] Mark 2:15

[7] Luke 7:36-50; 1 Corinthians 11:32

[8] Mark 2:13-17

[9] Vander Zee, 141.

[10]             Clapp, Rodney, A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 108.

[11] 1 Corinthians 11:25 (NLT)

[12] 1 Corinthians 11:31

[13] Paul instructs the Corinthians to wait for each other rather than arriving early and gorging on the meal and becoming drunk on the beverage.  1 Corinthians 11:33

[14] Vander Zee, 43.

[15] 1 Corinthians 12:20

[16]             Peterson, Eugene and Marva Dawn, The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call (Grand Rapids, MI: 2000), 219.

SOUL-FLATULENCE AND DEFLATED LEADERSHIP

Forgive me for expelling the truth, but it must be done.  The world has leadership gas.  And it causes some extreme flatulence at the dinner table.  The world puffs itself up and eats everything it can for selfish gain.  Eventually though, the world emits its disgusting exhaust.

Jesus proposes different manners.  He told his followers in Mark 8:34-35: “If any of you want to be my follower you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.  If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.”

Our puffed up pride gets pricked by Jesus and deflates like a flatulent balloon.  Pride infected our soul and swelled our big heads.  But Jesus heals us of our encephalitic soul by giving us again the opportunity to be expanded not by our own hot air, but by the breath of his Holy Spirit.  In other words, Jesus tells that if we get rid of our soul-flatulence before we eat, then he will then fill us with the soul-life we need when we sit down at the table.

And before we think that Jesus might be suffering from any pride himself, we’ve got to accept the fact that Jesus gives himself up for our sake.  He tells his followers that he, the God-Chosen-Leader-Savior-of-Humanity, the Christ-Messiah, must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the “leaders.”  In other words, the way that Jesus lives is absolutely against the way the leaders of the world would approach life.  The world’s idea of gassy-leadership opposes Jesus’ idea of deflated leadership.