Raise Your Right Hand, Please

1 John 5:7-9

          Giving testimony in court used to be something sacred. You would raise your right hand, place the left hand on the Bible, and swear to tell the whole truth with God’s help. God was actually invited into the courtroom! That was a different day.

          Today the character of so many has collapsed to the point that you never know if someone is going to tell the truth on the stand. Often, if they think they can get away with it, they will lie. We of course has some very famous liars. For many of us, the Bill Clinton lying stands out. “I did not have sex.” Hah! To be proven wrong, there must be physical evidence. Hard to get. So now we erase hard drives. Oops, I am getting sidetracked again.

          Our text tells us that there are three sources of testimony that John appealed to that proved Jesus’ identity as the Messianic Son of God. John feels like he is in the fight of his life in preserving the integrity of the Gospel message being spread in his day and age. Others were coming in and changing the foundational blocks on which the Gospel was laid. And he knew that if the foundation was changed, the whole building would collapse. The Gospel, that for which he had been exiled, for which so many of his friends and fellow Jesus-followers had been killed, that Gospel would be emptied of its power.

          John’s argument is that if we accept human testimony, we should certainly accept God’s testimony. This has been a theme from the beginning of this letter. He had been an eyewitness to Jesus’ life, burial and post-resurrection appearances. He was not dealing with a phantom, a ghost, a vision. This was Jesus, fully human and fully God. Seen, heard, touched and handled.

          Part of the struggle of our society now is the lack of trust in authority, any authority. The trend blossomed with the baby boomers, into the universities, and led to the ‘throw off all restraints of the past’ 60’s and 70’s. The social experiments that began to infect the way people think about personal freedom and choice is now center stage of the dialogue about marriage, gay, straight or otherwise. Since there is no authority structure, other than the “as long as I don’t hurt somebody else” ethic, we have not anchor for our decisions. It is a failed ethic which thinks of people as isolated individuals rather than an interconnected and interdependent being.

          So now we have every word up for redefinition based on whatever every individual wants it to mean. Marriage can now mean man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, and even woman-dog. There are pushes to include multiple partners in the term. Parent has gone to ‘anyone who contributes in some way’ to the life. Genetic material contributions can now carry obligations. Or there can be no genetic contribution, but that doesn’t mean the ‘parent’ term can’t be applied.

          So when John tells us that God’s testimony should be the deciding factor in the identity of Jesus, the modern person simply says, “Why?” Since they reject every authority except their own authority, the authority of God carries no more weight in a definition than my dog’s opinion. And I don’t even have a dog!

          But for those of us who have submitted our will to His will, God does retain the right to write definitions. He can tell us what relationships are healthy and why. He can tell us about Himself and how we can properly relate to Him. He can tell us about ourselves and we must accept His definition.

Rental Agreements

Mark 11:4-6

      Have you rented a vehicle lately? Man, there is a lot of paperwork to fill out. I almost feel like bringing a pint of blood with me, and maybe pictures of my grandkids as collateral. I guess Hollywood’s use of vehicles in high speed chases has inspired a generation of rental car drivers. I just can’t figure out how the lawyers have messed up so many aspects of life.

      But it wasn’t always so difficult to borrow things. Not that long ago, and still in some places in the world, your word, and maybe a handshake was all that was needed to seal a deal. A person’s word was their bond. When they said something, they meant it. You also knew them. They lived in your town, and if they backed out, everyone in town would know they had backed out, and they would stop doing business with them. It was a personal matter.

      This didn’t mean that there was NO dishonesty back then, but that most transactions that involved finances were handled with a simple pledge acknowledging the obligation to repay. Traveling salesmen perhaps came to gain a bad reputation because they weren’t known personally before the transaction. This is one of the reasons for the Better Business Bureau’s creation. People could complain and have the complaint recorded. Then people could check on the business to see if there were complaints against that business. It was the official word of mouth.

      Two of Jesus’ disciples enter into an agreement with the owner of a young donkey. They do a little name dropping, “The Lord needs it,” and that is enough. This would indicate to me that the owner knew Jesus, or at least knew of Him. They might have even known these two disciples. But Jesus and the disciples had been to this area before during the three years of His ministry.

      Ministry takes support from all sorts of sources. No fruitful ministry can be an isolated ministry. The best ministries make lots of connections. We need each other. Sometimes you need to borrow a donkey, and connections may help.

      Jesus was not afraid to ask for a favor. Sometimes He had to ask for help from others. This asking for help can put a person in a vulnerable position. The person being asked could reject the person asking. That is always a possibility. And it can be humiliating to be rejected. The ego takes a big hit. The self-esteem can go right out the window in those moments.

      But sometimes, you have to ask. There is no way to accomplish what you need to do if you don’t ask for help. Jesus trusted both the disciples and the owner of the young donkey, that they would support Him in His ministry. He had faith in them.