Symbols
of success abound. With the recent release of the new iPhone, people stood in
line to be the first to have the newest. You can use this new phone to make
phone calls, play games, watch videos, surf the net, take pics and videos, and
a hundred other things. Oh, wait, so did the last iPhone. And the one before
that. Often what we get when we get the newest is poorer sooner.
What
we call “The American Dream” is a set of symbols. The house in the suburbs, the
two cars, the new this and that. What is funny is that the size of houses has
grown over the last 50 years, but the size of the family has shrunk. We now
demand a larger space for fewer people. And since we have this larger space, we
must fill it with stuff, lots of stuff, storage spaces of stuff!
We
get degrees, careers, portfolios, and gated communities to establish who we
are, or at least who we want people to think we are. We spend so much time
painting the exterior of our lives we don’t have time or energy to maintain our
relationships and spirit. We run ourselves ragged to obtain a line on our
resume’ because someday, way out there in the future we might need a line.
You
can tell from out passage today that Jesus doesn’t worry about His status with
the establishment of His day. If He did, He could have changed His tune and
danced right along with them. He could have gotten into line with their
hypocrisy and become one of them. He would have lived a long life, received worldly
accolades, and been thought of as someone successful. He could have become what
liberal theologians today think He was!
But
instead of conforming, Jesus continues to speak the truth to the powers that
exist. He shot holes in their neatly formed theology, theology that ignored
inconvenient passages, passages that contradicted their strongly held beliefs.
He pointed out that even King David, one of their heroes, recognized the
supremacy of the Messiah. No son could be Lord over a man like David.
Then
Jesus points out some of their symbols of success. They loved to be seen as
people of importance. The wanted to sit at the head table. They wanted the
boxed seat at the stadium. They wanted the plaque naming the building after
them. They wanted to be able to buy their way into controlling the political
direction of the country. They were into leveraging their positions for
personal gain. Does this like some of the richest people of our day and age?
A
bit of meddling of my own now, right in line with Jesus’ meddling. I hate it
when people with money, especially politicians and people who want to influence
our culture, speak about helping the poor, but then don’t reflect that concern
with their personal finances. They amass millions for some future generation,
filling their Biblical barns, but only give a small percentage of their money
to actually make a difference. Millionaires who only give thousands to actually
help the poor. Despicable.