Spirituality Column #280
March 27, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Triumphal Entry Marks ‘Narrow’ Victory
By Bob Walters

“… but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, …” (Matthew 7:14)

This weekend most of the Christian world celebrates “Palm Sunday” marking the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Thus in Biblical times began a week that would see Jesus exalted, suspected, betrayed, arrested, questioned, beaten, denied, humiliated, abandoned, mocked, crucified, dead, entombed, and, by the beginning of the next week (Easter), freed from the tomb and eternally victorious over death.

We are the redeemed from death. Jesus is the physical, divine, triumphant Risen Christ; our Lord and Savior.

Each of the Bible’s four Gospels recounts the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19). In a sense it’s odd to call the arrival “triumphal” in that Jesus was riding a donkey, a sign of humility, not triumph. Still, the Hosanna! shouting, palm-bearing crowds passionately cheered Jesus. News of His recent resurrecting of Lazarus from the dead was on everyone’s lips, including those of several not-so-enthused Pharisees.

And as Jesus approached that small gate at the end of that narrow road to Jerusalem, He knew something nobody else but his Father knew: Jesus knew what would happen that week, of the “cup” He could not pass, of another resurrection.

Jesus knew his “Triumphal Entry” began a march toward a victory in scope and impact unlike any imagined by the mind of man. He knew of the pain and suffering that lay ahead for him, yet He continued on the path for love, God’s glory, and our salvation.

“… and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:14, continued)

Here, “it” refers to the life that one finds in Jesus Christ – servanthood, sacrifice, joy, hope, faith, love, heaven, etc. The entry point to this life is likened to a small gate at the end of a narrow road. That’s not because the gift is small – it is huge – but because of what Jesus already knew, and knows, about the self-focused fallenness of mankind.

The good news is that the gate to eternal life exists in the living person of Christ. The bad news is that “servanthood and sacrifice,” as Jesus describes life with Him in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-6-7), doesn’t sound “triumphant” to egotistical human ears.

Jesus, in obedience and knowing what lay ahead, traveled the narrow road to Jerusalem and courageously entered the small gate to serve others and glorify God.

How many of us are striving for that kind of victory?

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) understands that the gate is small but wonders if it is wrong to pray that it is big enough. His book, Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, is available at Amazon.com.

Spirituality Column #279
March 20, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

‘Whatever gods might be'
By Bob Walters

“I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.”

So ends Scotsman William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus”, a couplet seen a thousand times on a thousand motivational posters. I saw one recently.

“Invictus” is Latin for “unconquerable.” Henley’s lines bespeak heroic will, stoic self-sufficiency, and uncomplaining fortitude. His words invite responsibility, imply courage, and place no blame – these are all virtues.

Our human souls stand buoyed by the “master and captain” language of control: I control my fate, make things happen, and do what I want. It’s up to me. My conscience is the only consequence. When the chips are down, my head is up. I am all I need.

It is precisely here where aspiring virtues start devolving into self-absorbed vices; where “whatever gods might be” (in the poem’s first verse) subordinate Almighty God.

Few would envy Henley’s life (1859-1903). Persistent childhood infections required the painful amputation of a lower leg at age 17, and Henley was told he would soon lose the other. Dr. Joseph Lister (the founder of antiseptic medicine; ever heard of “Listerine”?) arrived and saved the remaining leg. Near the end of that ordeal (1873-1875) at the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary in Scotland, Henley wrote "Invictus." If Henley could spit at discouragement even then, who wouldn’t admire him?

And yet as a Christian believer, I see Henley’s famously defiant, courageous, poetic truism as profoundly, misleadingly, and destructively untrue. His “master and captain” imagery conjures secular humanism, mocks reliance on God, and eschews relationship with the only proper master and captain of every human life, Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Picky, picky, picky. What’s wrong with a person taking command and being responsible for his or her own life?” Well, this is what’s wrong with it: it separates that person from God. There is only ever one “master” in our life and if that master is me, then it is not God. And if my soul cries out to nowhere beyond the self-imposed captain’s quarters of my own inner life, then I am confined in the brig of my mortal soul rather than being eternally freed by the saving grace of Christ.

“I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me,” says Paul (Philippians 4:13). Our Christian goal is not to master and command our limited “light and momentary” lives, but to love and worship the unlimited and eternal living God.

Death, you see, conquers all, except for Jesus Christ who conquered death.

“Invictus”? ‘Tis wiser and more profitable, methinks, to serve a Master and trust a Captain who truly is unconquerable.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) reads more into posters than he used to. Google “Invictus” to read the whole poem.

Spirituality Column #278
March 13, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Glorious Gift of Doubt
By Bob Walters

Ponder this one for a moment:

Why is the Bible, a book of God’s truth, full of characters who doubt God?

Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Job, David, Jeremiah, Zechariah, John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Thomas – and many, many others – second-guess, mistrust, question, laugh at, rail against or just plain doubt some aspect of God, His glory, His faithfulness, His plan, or His love.

This is an important perspective to have when doubts creep into our own faith.

All of these Bible characters survived their doubts and eventually – granted, some later than sooner – came to understand the trustworthiness of God and the glory that is rightly His. Their doubts tested God, and the Bible shows us that God always proves faithful to His own truth.

This is a key point, that our faith in God must be based on acceptance that it is God’s truth that counts, not on the human fact of our own desires and comforts. God created mankind in His image, but we are not God. Christ Jesus, God’s son, came to restore our relationship with God, not to make us God. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth, irrespective of our own preferences.

So, just to be clear: There is a God, and He is not us.

As Christians we should give ourselves a break and not sweat a little doubt now and then. Doubt does not equal sin; doubt is part of the reasonable, faith-building equation of questions and dialogue, of investigation and learning, of familiarity and relationship. James 1:6 says “believe and do not doubt,” but this is in the context of our doubts, trials, and temptations leading us to God for answers, and that’s a good thing.

Sins are things that separate us from God and things that denigrate God’s will. Faith, rest, and peace in God mean that when our doubts do arise, we have faith – we trust – that God wants to help us understand His glory.

Any father loves to have his children trust him and ask him questions. Our Father in heaven is no different, and He is strong enough and wise enough to handle the tough ones.

Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith if it makes us engage, learn and understand. That kind of doubt is a gift, maybe because God craves a relationship with us and it gives us a reason to communicate. And for reasons – God’s reasons – I still don’t understand, God’s eternal Glory is somehow tied to our faith in Him.

I don’t doubt that is the truth, even when I can’t imagine why.

Walters (www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) notes that faith with some doubt is still faith; while doubt without faith is just ... doubt.

Spirituality Column #277
March 6, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Problem with Explaining Christ
By Bob Walters

It seems much easier to believe in Jesus Christ than to explain Jesus Christ.

Or perhaps that’s backwards … it’s easier to explain what Jesus is than to believe what Christ came to do.

Or perhaps both are missing the point.

The truth is, neither explaining about nor will believing in Jesus Christ sufficiently attach our lives to the eternal Glory of God. Nor will our explaining and believing persuade a skeptical outside world of Christ’s mission, goodness, grace, and truth. The world insists on proof, generally distrusts faith, and – saying “Thanks anyway, I have my own” – mostly shuns the existence of God’s perfect, ultimate, glorifying truth.

As much as we Christians are called – and ache, really – to explain, to share and to persuade others of the importance of a life in Christ, explaining and believing won’t get the job done. My favorite professor in college taught philosophy and could explain seemingly anything but made it abundantly clear that he didn’t actually believe in anything. And we all know that simply “to believe” in Jesus is not a final answer: Satan has more belief in and understanding of who Jesus is than any of us possibly could (Matthew 4:1-11). Even atheists can explain, and even Satan believes.

What, then, sets a Christian apart as an effective witness for Christ? Let’s consider the example of Jesus’ witness for Himself.

Jesus spent very little of his time on earth trying to explain who He was. Many asked, including the demon-possessed man (Matthew 12:23), Pharisees (Matthew 16:1), Sanhedrin priests (Matthew 26:63), Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:11), even His own disciples (Mark 8:27). Jesus mostly answered either with shrewd parables, questions, or some elusive form of “It is as you say.”

Jesus knew who He was, and made every effort to show others – by His actions, answers, and miracles – that He was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) of God Almighty. Jesus referred to God as “My Father,” but to Himself as the “Son of Man.” Jesus kept his earthly focus on glorifying God with His actions, not on explaining himself with His words.

That’s how one properly witnesses to a faith relationship; by glorifying God with one’s actions, not by dazzling mankind with one’s explanations.

Certainly, we are “to be prepared to … give a reason for the hope that you have,” (1 Peter 3:15), but a Christian’s joy, trust, faith, hope, love, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance … and belief … can all be explained in two words: Jesus Christ.

What’s easier, and simpler, and truer, than that?

Walters (www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) observes that much of the world shuns Jesus who saves, and accommodates Satan who destroys. Talk about “backwards.”