Monday, February 25, 2019
641 - Cake Walk
Spirituality Column #641
February 26, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity
Cake Walk
By Bob Walters
“Then you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus, John 8:32
The
instructions on a box of Betty Crocker cake mix are there to tell you how to
make a cake, not to tell you how not to.
Sure … you
take that box into your own kitchen and are free to do anything with those
instructions you want – you can add stuff, delete stuff, change stuff, ignore
stuff, even try to outguess or improve what the instructions say. But if you want a cake as it is advertised on
the packaging, those directions will tell you all you need to know; just pay
attention and do what it says. You have reliable
truth not only for baking success, but, without saying so, how to avoid having
a bad cake.
This
analogy – a parable almost – may lack Jesus’ brilliance but provides some understanding not just of what the Bible is
but how to use it and how to pursue our human life and our Christian walk. Look at the Bible as a helpful list of things
that are (a.) meant to be and (b.) we should do, not a draconian list of
impossible demands and behavioral prohibitions.
The Bible read properly leads to the right kind of cake, not an
indigestible mess; to frosting, not fondant; to love, not heartburn; to Jesus,
not Satan.
Generally I
believe it is more vibrant to look at the Bible as God’s relationship book than
His instruction manual, but this cake analogy popped into my head as a way to
explain the presence of the many rules and instructions that the Bible
contains.
For example, consider the Ten
Commandments. Their purpose isn’t God
telling Moses, or us, “These are the only 10 things in existence to do or not
to do,” but are true guidelines for how to have things go well: for how to bake
a cake. While they are great human rules
for all time, they were specifically aimed at the Jewish nation in the
wilderness. As for the other hundreds of
Levitical laws, those were God’s code by which the Jews going forward were to
honor and relate to the God who had chosen them as His people. All those laws and rites and festivals – the Old
Covenant – weren’t for Greeks, Romans, Gentiles, or … ahem … Christians. They were for the Jews.
So along comes Jesus as the
fulfillment of all Godly instruction and relationship. He presents to all humanity a New Covenant of
faith and the “Two” commandments: to love God and love others. Simple?
Yes. But humanity constantly
burns the cake.
As surely as the truth of Jesus
will set us free in joy and eternity, it is the lies of Satan that bind us –
all humanity – in misery and death.
Jesus speaks of truth and freedom in John 8:32 (cited above), but
shortly thereafter (8:44), speaking to non-believing Jews who refuse to hear
the truth, points to Satan: “He was a
murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, and there is no truth in
him … he is the father of lies.” Perhaps Satan’s greatest lie is that we needn’t
honor God’s instructions, because if God made us in His own image, surely, we
can make up our own rules.
Humanity buys it – always has –
thereby ignoring God’s instructions, snubbing Jesus, and grieving the Holy
Spirit. In our perpetual arrogance and in
a specific fashion of our times, we invent, claim righteousness in, and pledge
obeisance to “my own truth.”
That’s code for “bad cake, no
frosting.” And truth is, it’s a recipe
for destruction.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) looked at a cake mix box and saw just this
one “Thou Shalt Not”-type instruction: “Do not eat raw cake batter.” That’s good advice.
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