THE MISTAKEN ONES
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me, on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
(Matthew 7: 21-23 – NAS)
Step by step, Jesus has given cautionary warnings to those who were (and are) listening to His Sermon here. He has described the attitudes and actions that will distinguish His true followers, who will be counted the Children of God. He has warned them that false prophets and teachers will come among them, and given them guidelines as to how to determine whether or not such people are indeed true followers of Christ. He uses the metaphor of “good fruit” twice over to make it clear – good fruit versus no fruit, and good fruit versus bad fruit. And in this passage here, He now expands the warning to include all who say they follow Him, but do not strive to fully follow His instructions.
He flatly says that not everyone who calls upon Him will be recognized by Him as His true followers. And He seems rather uncompromising about this. Using His name to cast out demons, using His name to prophesy, using His name to work miracles, none of those impress Him, if the rest of that person’s life does not match up with the life Jesus has been describing in the Sermon.
It has always interested me that Jesus does not say that these “special works” did not happen, nor even that it was bad that they happened. It seems to me that it indicates two things: first, that the name of Jesus is indeed powerful, no matter who wields it; and second, that although good can be done by a false follower, if there is a failure to even try to be the person described in the Beatitudes and the rest, Jesus will not recognize the person as one of His own.
I sometimes wonder if that first aspect, the power of Jesus’ name in and of itself, becomes something that we use to deceive ourselves about how diligently we are at being the people He describes in the Beatitudes. If He only grants power to His name occasionally, does that not make Him fickle and inconsistent? It would, if He did indeed do that. But the Christ is not fickle or inconsistent. What a waste we make of the name of Jesus!
Imagine that any invocation of the name of Jesus caused a bubble or balloon of golden light to appear on the spot, something perhaps no more than three inches in diameter. This bubble is the manifestation of the power of the Lord’s name, and He has sent it to the person calling out so that it can be used for whatever purpose that person had at hand. And He sends such a bubble every time His name is invoked. What, then, would we see in the world around us?
We would see thousands and thousands of these bubbles hovering around certain people, present but never put to use. For when the power is put to use, the bubble is broken over the object, and that glorious light flows all over the object and sinks into it. We call upon Jesus for healing, for instance, and that bubble of glory bursts over the sick person and pours itself into the being of the sick person. We call for a blessing upon someone and that bubble of heavenly light breaks open over the recipient’s head and showers down upon the person being blessed.
But, many times people call upon Jesus, and then never declare a task that can be performed by the glory of God. We call down curses, begging God to destroy another one of His own children. Why would He do that? And so the power waits for a task it can perform. Many times, people invoke the name of Jesus for no purpose at all. They might as well be calling their cat, for all the sense of purpose they have.
If this is indeed the nature of the power of Jesus name, then it is no surprise that if anyone called upon His name to cast out demons, to prophesy, or to perform miracles, something is going to happen. But if the person prophesies in the name of Jesus, but because he wants to be famous and have attention, how is this fitting the portrait of the person of the Beatitudes?
We let our pride take over some times, even as believers. “I have the gift of prophecy,” I have heard someone say. But in what way, I often wonder, for I usually do not see it. The speaker may have an ability to extrapolate and thus predict the behavior of others, but that of itself is not prophecy. We get caught up in the specialness we feel when for a certain occasion we manifest a gift of the Holy Spirit.
“Not everyone who says, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What a shower of cold water that is!
Why does Jesus turn so suddenly stern here? After so many passages of reminding us of the loving attention of God the Father, example after example of the actions of God’s love, Jesus slams on the brakes, making us stop and pay serious attention. Why?
Why does He do this? Because, from beginning to end of the Sermon on the Mount, He is talking about matters of great power, amazing power. He is talking about very serious issues, and the tremendous inheritance that is put into the hands of His followers. And He knows full well how easily we are distracted, how easily we turn to treating such things lightly because the power is invisible and we cannot see it with our earthly eyes. He knows how easily we can overlook His instructions in the smaller events of our lives. Thus He rightly warns that many will in fact “practice lawlessness.”
So, then, where do we stand?
I know that I do not want to come to Judgment Day and find that the Lord is saying “I don’t know you” to me. It is that feeling that makes me pay attention to the “small stuff.” Do I call upon Jesus to do Big Things in order to make a splash in the eyes of others? Or am I trying to be the person described in the Beatitudes – humble, gentle, forgiving, merciful? Time and again, Jesus has said that Splashes are their own reward, and do not have any eternal status. They are not “treasures stored in heaven.”
It would seem, then, that if we truly want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, our calling card probably should not proclaim “demon casting, prophecies, and miracles.” Oh, those could be on our resumes, but that is not what Jesus is looking for as the basic description of who we are as His followers. Those acts alone are not our ticket into the kingdom. That is something worth remembering.
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me, on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
(Matthew 7: 21-23 – NAS)
Step by step, Jesus has given cautionary warnings to those who were (and are) listening to His Sermon here. He has described the attitudes and actions that will distinguish His true followers, who will be counted the Children of God. He has warned them that false prophets and teachers will come among them, and given them guidelines as to how to determine whether or not such people are indeed true followers of Christ. He uses the metaphor of “good fruit” twice over to make it clear – good fruit versus no fruit, and good fruit versus bad fruit. And in this passage here, He now expands the warning to include all who say they follow Him, but do not strive to fully follow His instructions.
He flatly says that not everyone who calls upon Him will be recognized by Him as His true followers. And He seems rather uncompromising about this. Using His name to cast out demons, using His name to prophesy, using His name to work miracles, none of those impress Him, if the rest of that person’s life does not match up with the life Jesus has been describing in the Sermon.
It has always interested me that Jesus does not say that these “special works” did not happen, nor even that it was bad that they happened. It seems to me that it indicates two things: first, that the name of Jesus is indeed powerful, no matter who wields it; and second, that although good can be done by a false follower, if there is a failure to even try to be the person described in the Beatitudes and the rest, Jesus will not recognize the person as one of His own.
I sometimes wonder if that first aspect, the power of Jesus’ name in and of itself, becomes something that we use to deceive ourselves about how diligently we are at being the people He describes in the Beatitudes. If He only grants power to His name occasionally, does that not make Him fickle and inconsistent? It would, if He did indeed do that. But the Christ is not fickle or inconsistent. What a waste we make of the name of Jesus!
Imagine that any invocation of the name of Jesus caused a bubble or balloon of golden light to appear on the spot, something perhaps no more than three inches in diameter. This bubble is the manifestation of the power of the Lord’s name, and He has sent it to the person calling out so that it can be used for whatever purpose that person had at hand. And He sends such a bubble every time His name is invoked. What, then, would we see in the world around us?
We would see thousands and thousands of these bubbles hovering around certain people, present but never put to use. For when the power is put to use, the bubble is broken over the object, and that glorious light flows all over the object and sinks into it. We call upon Jesus for healing, for instance, and that bubble of glory bursts over the sick person and pours itself into the being of the sick person. We call for a blessing upon someone and that bubble of heavenly light breaks open over the recipient’s head and showers down upon the person being blessed.
But, many times people call upon Jesus, and then never declare a task that can be performed by the glory of God. We call down curses, begging God to destroy another one of His own children. Why would He do that? And so the power waits for a task it can perform. Many times, people invoke the name of Jesus for no purpose at all. They might as well be calling their cat, for all the sense of purpose they have.
If this is indeed the nature of the power of Jesus name, then it is no surprise that if anyone called upon His name to cast out demons, to prophesy, or to perform miracles, something is going to happen. But if the person prophesies in the name of Jesus, but because he wants to be famous and have attention, how is this fitting the portrait of the person of the Beatitudes?
We let our pride take over some times, even as believers. “I have the gift of prophecy,” I have heard someone say. But in what way, I often wonder, for I usually do not see it. The speaker may have an ability to extrapolate and thus predict the behavior of others, but that of itself is not prophecy. We get caught up in the specialness we feel when for a certain occasion we manifest a gift of the Holy Spirit.
“Not everyone who says, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What a shower of cold water that is!
Why does Jesus turn so suddenly stern here? After so many passages of reminding us of the loving attention of God the Father, example after example of the actions of God’s love, Jesus slams on the brakes, making us stop and pay serious attention. Why?
Why does He do this? Because, from beginning to end of the Sermon on the Mount, He is talking about matters of great power, amazing power. He is talking about very serious issues, and the tremendous inheritance that is put into the hands of His followers. And He knows full well how easily we are distracted, how easily we turn to treating such things lightly because the power is invisible and we cannot see it with our earthly eyes. He knows how easily we can overlook His instructions in the smaller events of our lives. Thus He rightly warns that many will in fact “practice lawlessness.”
So, then, where do we stand?
I know that I do not want to come to Judgment Day and find that the Lord is saying “I don’t know you” to me. It is that feeling that makes me pay attention to the “small stuff.” Do I call upon Jesus to do Big Things in order to make a splash in the eyes of others? Or am I trying to be the person described in the Beatitudes – humble, gentle, forgiving, merciful? Time and again, Jesus has said that Splashes are their own reward, and do not have any eternal status. They are not “treasures stored in heaven.”
It would seem, then, that if we truly want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, our calling card probably should not proclaim “demon casting, prophecies, and miracles.” Oh, those could be on our resumes, but that is not what Jesus is looking for as the basic description of who we are as His followers. Those acts alone are not our ticket into the kingdom. That is something worth remembering.
Labels: Judgment, Matthew 7, Sermon on the Mount
posted by Sarah | 11:56 AM
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