Who Do You Think You Are?
“We reject the claims of Christ not because we misunderstand them, but because we understand them only too well, in spite of all our protestations to the contrary.” – R. Alan Cole
“We all have a source of authority in our lives, someone or something that guides us and drives us, something that rules. For most of us, like the Sanhedrin, it is ourselves. We are not really interested in surrendering that rule to anyone else.” – Daniel L. Akin
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” -Abraham Kuyper
Sometimes it is in light of one thing that we understand another far better. Or at least we see it differently. It is interesting to take the Majesty of Jesus as presented in Revelation 5 and bring it into our text in the end of Mark 11 and the beginning of Mark 12. The One who has all creation crying out in praise, is here questioned as any common man would be. And in this maybe we have a chance to see the immense mercy of the Incarnation anew. The One who receives endless praise from heavenly creatures beyond description or imagination has come to take on flesh and be questioned as if He were any other man. “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to speak and act like this?”(Mark 11:28b, MSG) Credentials? Authorization? What a way to talk to the Creator! And yet, Jesus’ humility shines like the sun in giving them yet one more opportunity to see and know Him. Tragically, they are unwilling to see and hear. They will cling instead to their religious system with all of its built-in perks for them as leaders. Because it is them and not us (me) it is easy to see their tragic error and call it out. Seeing the same error in my life is more difficult but hardly negates the reality of it. How often do I, prior to submitting to His Lordship, essentially say to Jesus, “Show me your credentials.”? How many idols hide out in plain sight in my life? But I refuse to give up despite the all surpassing greatness of knowing and serving Jesus Christ my Lord? One of the ironies often lost on us as we read and study the Gospels, is how the people most like the average church goer were the people who responded least favorably to the person and work of Jesus. It wasn’t the pagan Romans who insisted Jesus must die for His claim to divinity and therefore His claim to authority over humanity. No, that was the people who claimed to know God best and to represent Him to everyone else. One of the matters then that must confront us as we seek to follow Jesus is how to overcome the blindness and deafness that seems to disproportionately impact the religious. I’ve not solved this riddle in total but, I did run across a list of helpful questions in a devotional study that is helping me see and hear better. I am passing them on to you in hopes that God uses them in your life in a similar fashion. Here is the excerpt:
“How can we expose any idols we are trying to worship alongside God?
Look at each area of your life (family, career, possessions, time, etc). Ask:
· Am I willing to do whatever God SAYS about this area?
· Am I willing to accept whatever God SENDS in this area?
If either answer is “no,” that is an area of your life and heart you have opened to, or given to, an alternative god.” Explore by the Book 90 Days in Judges, Galatians, & Ephesians. Timothy Keller & Richard Coekin, pg. 89.
The greatest danger we often face as followers of Jesus is not outright rebellion. That is too easily understood for the offence it is to the Lordship of Christ. Far more often, it is the more subtle, and nuanced trap of taking a little area of our life or souls and setting it apart as a place ‘just for us’. This little area will not keep me from following Jesus we think to ourselves. But, there is no space for other gods in the life of a fully devoted follower of Jesus. Either He has all of us or we have yet to understand what it means to follow Him and submit to His Lordship. Might it be that God continues to graciously work in your life to show you where you’ve set up your own private pantheon, your individual fiefdom. And in seeing, it may He grant you grace to topple every argument, thought, or allegiance that keeps you from being fully devoted to Him.