Idolatry in Back to the Future

Suggested Reading: Mark 15:27-38

As a teenager, one of my favorite film series was the Back to the Future series. In fact, when I was sick and I would stay home from school, I would lay down on the couch and watch all three movies back to back. The first two movies are a lot of time-traveling fun, but they set up the third movie where Marty McFly, the main character, learns an important lesson about how to respond or, more accurately, how not to respond when people call him a coward. See, Marty's biggest flaw was that he couldn't stand for anyone to call him a coward and he felt compelled to demonstrate his lack of cowardice anytime anyone did. Only when that tendency landed him in a life-and-death situation did he realize that trying to disprove every disparaging statement made about him was not the brightest idea in the world.

I was reminded of Marty's lesson recently when reading the crucifixion scene in Mark. As Jesus hung on the cross, his political enemies (and those who just joined in the "fun" of a public execution) mocked and taunted Jesus, demanding that he prove his status as Messiah by coming down from the cross as a sign. They scoffed, "He saved others but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel come down from the cross that we may see and believe" (Mark 15:31-32, NIV). If Marty McFly had been on the cross, we would all have been in a lot of trouble because he would have had to prove himself to his mockers by coming down from the cross. But coming off the cross would have eliminated the primary task Jesus fulfilled as the messiah, enduring the crucifixion so that he could rise from the dead. Fortunately, Jesus was sure enough of himself that he endured their taunts, knowing that he did not have to prove himself to anyone.

How many times do we feel the need to prove ourselves to someone? How often do we do things we know are unwise because we want to silence those who mock us? How often do we take a position we don't really believe because we don't want people to see us as stupid or ignorant? As believers in Christ Jesus, we cannot allow our actions to be dictated by the possibility of someone looking down on us. We cannot silence the words God has given us to speak or hold back acts of love and service because people might think we look stupid. We have to remember that, like with those people who wanted Jesus to come off the cross, proving ourselves is not worth the cost.

More than that, when we allow ourselves to be goaded into an action we would not take on our own simply because of what those people might think of us, we give those people, rather than God, control of our lives. Our desire to look good (or to not look bad) gives those people who would mock and ridicule us power over us, and that turns us into idolaters who worship at the altar of other people's opinions rather than faithful followers of Christ.

People thinking badly of us is not the end of the world if they think badly of us for doing the right thing. We should respond to taunts, insults and mocking in the same spirit as Jesus: "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23, NIV). Sometimes, not responding is the very best thing we can do.

Insulting Your Dinner Host

Suggested Reading: Ephesians 3

One of the things that drove me crazy when my children were younger was how they had no shame in asking people for things. We'd go to someone's house and my son would ask if he could have the fireplace poker because it would make a good sword or my daughter would ask if she can have an entire bowl of fruit three minutes before our hosts served us dinner. At times, my children had absolutely no shame. And while my wife and I were trying to teach them appropriate manners, we still had the regular cringe-worthy requests that came every time we were a guest in someone's home.

Sometimes, however, I wish we were a whole lot more like my children in our prayers. I can't count the number of times that a group or church has invested a large amount of time and money into an outreach project and then I heard someone pray, "Lord, let us reach just one person because then it will all be worth it." Every time I hear that prayer, it makes me moan in despair, and I think, Who do you think you are talking to? Some bum on the street? You're talking to the Almighty Creator of the universe! Ask for the entire community!

Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (NIV). If God really is capable of doing so much, and if God's goal really is that no one should perish, why don't we ask God for more? I think, 1) we are trying to set our expectations so low that we won't be disappointed or 2) we are trying not to be presumptuous towards God. Often, I think we use #2 as an excuse for #1. But doing that is like going into someone's home for dinner and avoiding the dinner table but asking for a stick of gum. Sure, we're not being presumptuous, but we are probably being insulting.

Paul reminds us of how much God is able to do above and beyond our imaginings right after offering a prayer that we will be able to understand how long and high and wide and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18, NIV). Paul asked for the impossible and then reminded us that God is capable of doing the impossible.

As you seek to follow Jesus and turn the world upside down like the apostles, don't be timid in your requests of God, especially with regard to His kingdom. Don't ask God to help your church reach just one soul, ask him to help you reach thousands. Don't ask God to help you pay your bills, ask him for enough to pay someone else' s bills. Don't ask him to help you see a new facet of him, ask him to help you see all of him! When it comes to making requests of God, sets your sights on God's Kingdom and then have no shame. Don't insult God by asking for so little. Give him a chance to make his glory and power known. God may choose to only give you one soul. Or God may respond with an incredible outpouring of power.

Wall-Trampling Foxes and Mocking Insults

Suggested Reading: Nehemiah 4:1-9

When Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem were rebuilding the wall around the city and it became apparent that the work was progressing, people who had a vested interest in Jerusalem's disgrace went on the attack. A few of these people, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshum, began the assault with a series of insults and prolonged mockery. At one point, they even proclaimed, "That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!" (Nehemiah 4:3, NLT). They ridiculed those building the wall, trying to discourage them and make them think that their work was useless. But instead of recording a response to the taunts and mocking, the passage breaks into spontaneous prayer, "Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders" (Nehemiah 4:4-5, NLT).  Then the passage tells us how they completed half the wall.

One of the reasons that the people were able to work as quickly as they did, in spite of the ridicule and mockery they endured was that they chose not to worry about things they couldn't control, like people running their mouths. They turned it over to God and then got back to work. We can't control what other people are going to say or how they are going to behave. We can't change another person's attitude or whether they like us or not. But we can choose not to let those things dictate our own actions.  Nehemiah and the people rebuilding the wall chose to let people say what they were going to say and then focused on the task at hand. We could learn a lot from that.

How often do we hear or read some ridiculous thing someone has said and feel the need to respond, even though it distracts us from more important things? How often do we feel the need to prove ourselves to mockers who are only interested in achieving their own agenda and not at all interested in learning to the truth or getting to know us? With mockers, there is nothing we will ever be able to say to change their opinion of us or even their words about us. But we can choose not to let their words dictate our behavior.

Don't let people distract you from what's important with meaningless taunts. Focus on the task at hand. You'll accomplish a whole lot more that way. 

Biblical Racial Slurs and Literary Classics

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:21-28

Not too long ago I read Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. While I enjoyed the books and the clear societal commentary, I was a little taken back by some of the language. Living in today's society which is so politically correct we don't even notice anymore, it was shocking to hear Twain's characters use the names for black people which were commonly employed during his time. Those are simply things that we are not used to hearing today, at least not in the circles I run in.

Something we overlook at our peril is that the Bible is also full of shocking stories and language in a very similar way to Twain's literary classics. In Matthew 15, we find the account of a Canaanite woman who came to Jesus begging for him to save her demon-possessed daughter. And Jesus -- are you ready for this? -- ignores her. Jesus doesn't say a word to her and she keeps begging and begging. Finally, the disciples, in frustration, beg Jesus to send her away. Jesus' response is that he was only sent to help the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). "Translation: Sorry, lady, you're the wrong race so I can't help you." Then the woman throws herself at his feet and continues begging him to help and Jesus replies, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs" (Matthew 15:26).

Notice, Jesus didn't say "Dawg." He called her a canine. To anyone in that region, Jew, Arab, or Canaanite, being called a dog was an incredible insult and Jesus tells her he can't help her because she's a dog from the wrong race. Rather than arguing with him, though -- rather than saying, "Who are you calling a dog?" -- rather than protesting, "Us Canaanites are just as good as you Jews", the woman responds, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table" (Matthew 15:27, HCSB). Jesus applauds her response and sends her on her way with her request granted.

As Christians, we could learn a lot from this woman who accepted the idea that Jesus wasn't beholden to her, that he wasn't obligated to help her, that he didn't owe her anything and she probably didn't even deserve his help but was willing not only to ask anyway but to beg in humility.

It is easy for us, the longer we follow Christ and try to live the way we are supposed to, the longer we interact as a member of the community of believers, to come to a point where we feel like God owes us. Far too often we come to God assuming we deserve what we are requesting or that we have earned something from God. But the truth is that all of us are just like that woman. All of us are unworthy of God's help, none of us have earned it or deserve it, and we should never take for granted that God will answer our prayers the way we want. But we should all ask anyway, humbly, acknowledging that God is great and we, compared to God, aren't even the fleas on the dog's back.

When we approach God, we should always be aware of how little God owes us but grateful that God hears us and responds to us. God isn't obligated to listen but God does. Never take that for granted.