A Messy Sacrifice: arrested, charged, 8 hours in jail, a baby saved...and Glory

A Messy Sacrifice: arrested, charged, 8 hours in jail, a baby saved...and Glory

If we take a moment to honestly consider the scenes surrounding our Lord’s sacrifice, we would have to say it appeared to be a big mess!

It was very offensive, unpleasant, dirty, confusing, confrontational, divisive, and disruptive to the people in the community. It was shameful, embarrassing. Our Lord was stripped while being mocked and beaten. It was abusive and forceful. After arresting Him, they took Him away by force, jailed him and then ended up nailing Him to a cross. It was unlawful, unfair, He was innocent and yet He was viewed and treated as a common criminal. Then there was the variety of people: some for Him, others against. Some angry, some sad, some screaming, some crying, some praying, some rejoicing, some thought he was a hero, others a fool. What a mess our Lord’s sacrifice appeared to be! And yet behind the appearance of mess, there was a wonderful working of God’s love taking place. Jesus was saving lives.

Wednesday, June 16th, a group of twelve Christians from five different churches, entered onto the parking lot of Wichita’s child killing center, and pleaded for the lives of children. The act was very offensive, unpleasant, confrontational, and disruptive to our community. The group was arrested, charged and jailed. A woman who had come to abort her child witnessed what was taking place outside and inside the parking lot. She was crying with her hands covering her face. After a few minutes of arguing with a boyfriend, she turned from the building, leaving her boyfriend and walked away. She walked up to some of the sidewalk counselors who were off the property and said, "You sure make it hard to go in there." She then decided to keep her baby. This week, two of those counselors are meeting with her to begin helping with the needs of her pregnancy. What a messy sacrifice, and yet God’s love was working in the midst of it. For those arrested, we all agreed, there were few times in our lives that we had experienced a greater awareness of the Lord’s Love and Presence then we did on that parking lot, and while in jail. There was Glory!

Why do we often think our sacrifices to God must appear clean and looking good? Where did this idea come from? I cannot find one sacrifice in the Bible that did not have the appearance of a mess. From Able’s bloody sacrifice all the way up to the lives of the Apostles, they all appeared to be quite messy. Abraham, our father in the faith, cut up animals, made a big mess, and then God passed through it, spoke out of it, and blessed Abraham from it. (Genesis 15). I would suggest He still does the same today. It is the messy sacrifice you will find God passing through, speaking out of, and blessing us from.

It would be wonderful if our sacrifices of love could always look good. We could maintain our dignity, reputations and places among the people in this world. If all we had to do is have luncheons, guest speakers, prayer meetings, walks and bumper stickers on our cars, or just press the right button in the voter booth, this would be by far more pleasant and we would avoid the mess entirely. But without the mess, God does not pass through, speak from or bless out of. And we will not see the beautiful working of Christ’s saving love. Therefore, as important as all these things are, they do not replace or excuse our obligation to a messy sacrifice. God is still looking for a sacrificial mess!

And what of civil disobedience? What of Romans 13, I Peter, and Titus? They teach us our responsibility towards "good" government who "punish evil doers," and "praise them that do well." But Moses, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, Daniel, Esther, Peter and the other Apostles (Acts 5) teach us our responsibility towards government when they become bad. Moses was the first civil rights leader recorded in history. A large part of his God ordained ministry was to defy God ordained authority in Egypt, because that authority had become oppressive and evil. I am thankful Moses "who was faithful in all his house" did not seek refuge in Romans 13 when God called him to "...resist the powers that be." And what a messy sacrifice that was, but what a beautiful working of God’s love that took place in the midst of it.

All civil authority is ordained of God, but not all their actions or laws. Appointment and actions are two different things! God does not appoint evil authorities, He appoints authorities who do evil. When this happens, faith (not rebellion) must defy all authority that plainly violates the Word of God. When we refuse to stand against such authority, we make man’s authority supreme over God’s. This exchange will keep our sacrifices clean and nice looking, but we will never see the workings of God’s power and love in the world. We should say with the Apostles of the New Testament Church, "we ought to obey God rather than men."

The Bible does not call for absolute, unlimited, passive obedience to any authority except God Himself.

We must all be careful not to use Romans 13 and I Peter 2 as an endorsement for our complacency and a justification for our excuses in doing nothing. "...doth not he that ponders the heart consider it?...doth he not know it?"

Churches throughout America support spiritually and financially mission works all over the world that must directly defy their present civil authorities. From China, to North Korea, Pakistan, to the Middle East to Indonesia and parts of Africa, the gospel of Christ's love is working out of defiance of civil authority. How about the millions of Christians that came to the Lord during the communist rule in past Soviet block countries? Should they have submitted to civil authority and remained atheists according to the government religion? Is this what God had in mind when he wrote ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers"? Of course not! Do we support defying civil authorities in other parts of the world, but we condemn it here? Are our convictions consistent? Do our interpretation of the Scriptures depend upon if the mess involves us or not? It's something we all should prayerfully consider.

I have heard it said that risking arrest for the sake of a child is thought by some to be "counter-productive" to the pro-life effort. I would agree if we are talking about public opinion. It sure is not pleasant to look at and does not gain many supporters. But I would disagree it is counter-productive to pro-life when it saves a child. And that is what the pro-life effort is all about. Not politics, not appearance, not public opinion, but saving a life.

This line of thought also reveals a great problem with American Christianity today. It cannot seem to rise above a utilitarian view of anything. We test the value of everything based upon the appearance of tangible results. We call things "good" if we see the profit, and we call things "not good" if we don’t. We can be found preaching, teaching and motivating people based upon a entirely faulty premise. Instead of encouraging people to do things because they are right, we encourage them to do things because they appear to work. And when they no longer appear to work, the people no longer do them any more. This reveals they are not motivated by Biblical conviction, but by present, tangible results. Jesus spoke to religious people who were only motivated by present apparent profit as ones who "have received their reward." Christians are called to do things because they are right, not because of the apparent results. I can imagine people saying the very same thing of Christ as He died on the cross, "This seems to be counter productive to the cause". In reality I think it has more to do with the mess than the cause that we are so concerned about!

I have an invitation to give to give you. A invitation to a messy sacrifice. It will probably include an arrest, a trespassing charge, about 8 hours in jail and a future court date. It might save a "baby" but I can make no promises. I will not attempt to motivate you based upon results but rather on the fact that what you are doing is right. Don’t worry what people are going to think, trust me, it will be bad! A wise pastor told us as we prepared for the "save a life" day, that we will be "villainized" by the "right" and the "left". This is very true. The "right" and the "left" were around Jesus’ messy sacrifice and none of them had much good to say about Him or what He was doing. But rejoice, "No servant is greater than his master, if they did these things to Me, they will also do them to you." There is one thing I can promise you: GLORY! You will see the working of Christ’s love coming out of that mess, and you will experience a awareness of the Presence of God like you have never experienced before. The spirit of glory will rest upon you. "If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of Glory, and of God rests upon you....if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf."

There are no-righteous merits in anything that is done. No points, no applause, no feeling better about ourselves than others, only the reward of serving the interests of our Lord and a sense of His pleasure. "When you have done all things which are commanded you say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.’" At least on that day, we will be able to say we did DO that which was only our duty.

For information on being involved this month on the outside of the fence or the inside, please e-mail Pastor Mark Holick at markh@spiritonecc.org

Christ Love,
Pastor Daniel Thompson
New Canaan Church

Comments: danielandmattie@earthlink.net