The Tragedy of Inertia

We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.

- Matthew 11:17 -

From the day of His baptism, Jesus preached, taught, healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the storm. He also pushed buttons and challenged many to leave their status quo.  Inertia, as defined in the dictionary, is the tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.

Through all of His calling out for a response from the people in the places where He had traveled, most had remained unchanged.  Sure, they heard about the miracles and the teachings.  But their lives remained unchanged.  They were content in their struggles.  They were content in their nine-to-five lives.  They were content in their bar-mitzvahs, their birthday parties, their weekly Sabbaths and their Passovers - year in and year out setting a place for Elijah to return someday to announce the Messiah's coming, but never really expecting it to happen.

Then Elijah came, singing the dirge and announcing Messiah's coming.  Then Jesus came, playing the flute.  But how many danced?  How many mourned in the towns where he visited? How many responded to Yahweh's call for a response?  Apparently not many, for Jesus lamented over Capernaum, Bethsaida and Korizim's lack of repentance.

Like the cripple at the pool of Bethsaida (John 5), we can get so stuck in our lives that we fail (or refuse) to see when a breath of fresh air from the Holy Ghost comes to change our lives forever!  We continue with our picket signs, our daily banter, our bills, our taxes, our chores, our TVs, our sports games... The list goes on ad-nauseum.

If we miss His coming to us to break the mortal cycles, this New Life will move on without us.

The Call of Perez

run, silent with Me

through fields of wheat

dripping sweet in golden sun

for these are days

I find of you the breaking free

by trees and current liberty

High Maintenance Faith

Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.

Matthew 4:5

This is how Jesus answered John the Baptist when John was wrestling with the idea that Jesus might not be the Messiah after all.  He asked Jesus a question that sought only a simple "yes" or "no".  But Jesus answered John with something much more: an answer that spoke to the struggle of his soul.  John likely had been in prison during most (if not all) of His teachings, His demonstrations of authority and His confounding the Javert's of the world.  From prison, nothing was available to him to bolster the faith he had declared at Jesus' baptism - his recognition of the Messiah.

Isn't this how it is us who have put out lives into Christ's hands?  We don't have the opportunity to behold Him face to face.  Most of us don't see His miracles on a daily basis.  It's the status quo for angels, but not for the mortal believer.  That's where faith comes in; indeed faith wouldn't be faith if we had the daily experience that angels were privy to.

But Jesus is also reaching out to John with an understanding heart, saying "I know it's hard to believe right now.  I will not apologize for it, but if you stay strong to the other side, you will be blessed."  He reiterates this to Thomas after His resurrection, saying "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

Our faith is expensive because He is the priceless prize.

Seventh Bell

when the seventh bell tolls
behold the captives are free
by the hand of the man who paid on a tree
when the rooster calls
all remember the cost
and not one will be lost

for there is a way beyond the cross
see them run
when gates are lifted high
when bars melt like wax
at the sound of His call
when shackles shatter as dust to the ground

-- revel8r 6/2/2018