Doves On Distant Oaks

Several years ago, my wife decided to start drinking coffee. She had never drunk coffee before in her life, so it came as a surprise to me when she started. The problem was, she didn’t like the bitter taste of plain coffee. So she began taking the edge off with cream and sugar; a little at first, and eventually a lot. It became a running joke in our family to ask her if she would like a little coffee with her cream.

Sometimes I think we view Christianity the same way. The way we're supposed to live our life is clear-cut. At times, these instructions seem too bitter. A pastor that used to preach at my church was fond of saying, “The Bible isn’t complicated, folks. It may be costly, but its not complicated.” So costly that we take what we read in the Bible, through the words of Christ and the inspiration of the biblical authors, and begin to water it down. What results is ‘cream-and-sugar’ Christianity.

This never became more apparent to me than recently when I was revisiting the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). It’s a well-know parable and concludes with an earth-shattering declaration from Jesus: Go and do likewise. There’s nothing unclear about that command. Its not a feel-good philosophy we are to sit around and discuss. Simply put, we’re to go out and show observable evidence of God's love. No exclusions, no exceptions.

But what tends to happen? We immediately start to put exceptions on those clear instructions. We may say, “I’m certain that God doesn’t want me to put myself in harm’s way. That would be foolish and a waste. God wants me to use my mind and common sense.” So we begin passing that hitchhiker on the road because he could be dangerous. Or turn our head away from the homeless woman because she’s wearing what seems to be a warm coat and has gloves on, so she can’t be that bad off. Or we sanctimoniously criticize organizations for failing to help that family in a bad part of town because it would be too dangerous to drive there ourself.

Then we begin to justify our behavior with other Christian actions to replace what we know we should do. Remember the first person to pass the man who had been robbed, stripped of his clothing, and left for dead? He was a priest and may have looked at the wounded and dying Jew and thought, My particular ability is prayer, so I can serve this poor man better by spending time in prayer for him.

The second man along was a Levite. They had a subordinate role in sanctuary duties and were spread throughout Israel to help keep alive the knowledge of God. This particular Levite might have thought how the Temple itself could help. At the next council meeting, he might have considered bringing up the awful state of affairs along that path. "Something should be done about that," he might have said. .He too probably have felt he was following the spirit of God’s law by hurrying on to get help.

And yet, search the scriptures as hard as I could, I couldn’t find the words, “Go and do likewise, according to your abilities.” No, Jesus's words were, simple, direct, and unmitigated—"Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:36-37).

Can you see yourself in either of those two people? In the end, we're faced with two courses of action. One is to justify our actions, in essence saying, "Well, God understands and will accept that it wasn’t within my power." The other is to admit weI’ve failed to reach the perfect state of spirituality, and ask forgiveness for our shortcoming. After all, salvation is not about watering down and placing conditions on God’s laws, but about redemption when we fail to follow them.

It all boils down to an inescapable biblical truth. God does not accept disobedience, but he does forgive it.



Keywords: Giving, Parables


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