Series on the Mount
Low Risk, High Reward
Matthew 7:21-23
November 18, 2007
Maurice Blondel said, “If you really want to understand a man, don’t just listen to what he says but watch what he does.”
We have seen over and over how Jesus wants us to put into practice his teachings. However, the great temptation in this is to believe that somehow or someway we become worthy and deserve what we already have. We start to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.
It is like the young hotshot plumber who taken aside by an older plumber and in an effort to teach the young man some humility told him, “On Saturday, I want you to come with me on a trip. I need to show you something.”
The older man took the younger man to see the great and wonderful Niagara Falls. The old man was sure that upon seeing that the young man would stop exaggerating his self-importance. As they walked up to the falls, the old man, “This is what I wanted to show you.”
They stood silently watching thousands and thousands of gallons of water pour over the edge for several minutes. Suddenly, the young man turned to the old man and said, “Yeah, I think I can fix this.”
Ok, let’s look at Matthew 7:21
"Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Let’s look at the text.
Risky Lessons
• We must do God’s will
This has been emphasized over and over again. Notice it is not about what one sees others doing or what you think is best. It is knowing what God desires for your context. It is also about taking action. One can know and say what is the right thing but never really do it.
• Many know about Jesus but do not know Jesus
They call out, “Lord, Lord!” They know the name of Jesus. They know what he expects but there is no relationship. “I never knew you.” John says we know God’s voice because we are His. We show we love God because of how we live out the Shema of Jesus. The reason that we do not know is that we are not His. We aren’t seeking. We aren’t trusting. We work and work and work but never take the time to stop and listen and worship and just be in God’s presence.
• Attention does not mean it’s real
Notice how sensational the three ministries are: prophesying, driving out demons, and doing miracles. Lots of attention for those!!! It’s as if the person is saying, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at what I’ve done. Ain’t I a good person? I’ve labored and advanced your kingdom.” And I hear Jesus saying, “I tell you the truth. They have received their reward in full.” You wanted the attention. You built your empire on my name. Blessings flowed. Money came. You never lacked for anything. You had all the attention, recognition, fame, prestige, power, wealth, and comforts of life but we never really spoke.
It is like Jesus is saying, “You never figured out that I am crazy in love with you.”
Mother Teresa said, “Little things done with great love!”
This is the way of the disciple. Great love poured in serving the least of these where we never really gather any attention or reward. Great love because we serve in obscurity.
• Right things done for the wrong reasons make right things wrong
Healing people and driving out demons. Lives being changed. What could be wrong with that? Yet, Jesus calls these false servants, “Evil doers!” They are doing evil. They were doing admirable deeds but for the wrong reasons. Sounds like bad trees. The fruit is not what it seems. A bad tree cannot bear bad fruit.
Here is what Jesus was probably referring to: charlatans. In fact, the miracles were probably nothing more than illusions designed to fool people to gain fame and fortune. Maybe they were even conning themselves.
Josephus describes an exorcism. In these exorcisms, the exorcist would begin uttering every phrase and combination of words hoping to get the demon to obey. I talked about this when we look at Matthew 6:7 and the pagans babbling to get what they want. Sometimes this would go on for days. However, I didn’t mentioned what was supposed to happen when they hit the magic formula. (God doesn’t operate on the basis of a magic formula of words or prayers).
A pot with a lid would be set up across the room. When the demon left, supposedly it would run across the room and enter the pot. The pot would rattle indicating success.
Jesus simply cast out demons with a command. They obeyed because of his authority and power. The disciples were given that same authority. So, most likely, people started imitating this (although the religious rulers were skeptical and accused Jesus of being in league with the devil). So people were supposedly driving out demons (into pots, I guess) using the new magic formula that Jesus and his disciples used. Staged miracles to get people to believe that they were genuine and could be trusted as teachers and especially as recipients of people’s money.
Yet, we are not too far off. Because we do a lot of things in the name of Jesus and for the good of the church that are nowhere near the heart of God. We work and minister and even love others trying to earn God’s favor. Even when doing these teachings of Jesus, we are tempted to think that we deserve our blessings. We expect that others should live up to these commands of Jesus. He will love us if we are moral, good, and diligent.
Lloyd Ogilvie notes, “We try to live so that he will love us, rather than living because he has already loved us.”
So we rack ourselves with guilt instead basking in the light of His grace. Do you really accept the message that God is head over heels in love with you?
Brennan Manning urges us toward creative listening imagining God’s words to us as such (I invite you to close your eyes and imagine Jesus speaking these words to you now): “Has it crossed your mind that I am proud you accepted the gift of faith I offered you? Proud that you freely chose Me, after I had chosen you, as your friend and Lord? Proud that, with all your warts and wrinkles, you haven’t given up? Proud that you believe Me enough to try again and again? Are you aware how I appreciate you for wanting Me? I want you to know how grateful I am when you pause to smile and comfort a child who has lost her way. I am grateful for the hours you devoted to learning more about Me; for the word of encouragement you passed on to your burnt-out pastor; for your visit to the shut-in; for your tears for the retarded. What you did to them, you did to Me. Alas, I am sad when you do not believe that I have totally forgiven you or you feel uncomfortable approaching Me.”
Does this seem strange to that God is grateful for you? Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks to God for all the blessings that are too numerous to count. But have you stop to consider that God has gratitude? All good things come from God and certainly gratitude is one of them. So why wouldn’t God be grateful? Grateful for you. Grateful for your faith. Perhaps this week as you give thanks you can pray and meditate on God’s gratitude for your love and effort to serve Him. Be grateful for God’s gratitude. What have you got to lose?
His Call: Risk everything on Jesus
This is Matthew’s call and reminder that everything is risked when we follow Jesus. They knew it profoundly as only a persecuted community could. We are called to risk it all. Lay it all down. Hold nothing back. Why? Because we have nothing to lose! Faithfulness to Jesus means that all our sins, scars, fears, insecurities, character defects, failures, mistakes, transgressions and on and on all accepted with the rest of us. We still stand with Jesus and Jesus stands with us.
You have nothing to lose when you let everything hang out. This includes our sins and our brokenness. Risk it all on Jesus. Stop putting on the façade and playing the hero calling out, “Lord, Lord!” Stop hiding from Jesus and everyone else.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone.” In fact he goes on to say, “The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from their fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.”
All of our posturing and posing to impress God is meaningless. All of our scrambling to earn brownie points leaves us empty. Our thrashing about to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt is nauseating to God. It denies the gospel and shows that we truly don’t know Jesus nor His grace.
Matthew 9:12-13, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Morten Kelsey wrote, “The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.”
The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves, to each others and especially to God. Jesus taught us how to live a life as a child in the kingdom. But it is not a life of perfection. Life in the kingdom is more than just not sinning and it is more than denying that we are tempted. The battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us.
Being redeemed by the blood of Christ (not our good deeds) means that I can acknowledge that sometimes I am irritable, unloving, selfish, self-pitying, and even angry with those closest to me. When I come to worship, I can leave my mitre (that’s a Pope’s really tall hat signifying His Holiness) at home and admit that I fail. God loves and knows me as I am. I need not fear hearing, “I never knew you.” I can admit, “I am powerless but I know the All-Powerful.”
Richard Selzer, MD, writes in his book Mortal Lessons,
I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She till be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve.
Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? The young woman speaks.
“Will my mouth always be like this?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say, “it will. It is because the nerve was cut.” She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles.
“I like it,” he says, “It is kind of cute.”
All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a god. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate hers, to show her that their kiss still works.
Jesus calls us to risk it all but it isn’t much of a risk. But it has the highest rewards!
