Swine, Canine and Other Acquaintances of Mine

I have never been a big fan of rock musicals, which is why I was not moved one way or the other when NBC recently televised an updated production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Still, I read a number of comments from friends of mine who insisted that Alice Cooper, in the role of Herod Antipas, stole the show, so I bit. I found the video for the Herod scene online.

My first impression was: “Wow! That’s not your grandfather’s Alice Cooper,” but we all slow down with age. What I really wanted to see was the nature of the interaction between the Jesus and Herod characters. It seemed fairly accurate. Herod mocked Jesus and asked to see some miracle while Jesus remained completely silent. In the biblical narrative, there is no record that Jesus ever uttered so much as a word to this clownish, vile ruler. I could be overlooking something, but I cannot think of another instance when Jesus did not speak when spoken to. Apparently, in His divine wisdom, our Lord knew that there was nothing useful to say.

This interaction steered my attention to one of the most provocative things Jesus said in a discourse filled with provocative utterances, His Sermon on the Mount:

            “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”  - Matthew 7:6

I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a bit of a head-scratcher in that it raises two difficult questions: 1) Is Jesus saying that there are persons unworthy to hear the gospel? More troublesome is the second question: 2) Is Jesus trusting me to make a judgement about who these characters are that are unworthy to receive the gospel? An affirmative answer to both questions seems inevitable.

There have been times when I have failed to speak about Christ and regretted it. There have been other times when I have failed to speak and was unsure as to whether I should regret it or not. A patsy for guilt and accusation, I am sure I have beaten myself up when it was unnecessary to do so. Was it really essential to say something? Perhaps, it would not have even been appropriate to speak.

If am a witness for Jesus, as every Christian is, but I am not spiritually-gifted as an evangelist per se, I do not believe that I am justifying my cowardice when I confess that I need to recognize a spark of need and/or openness in a person before I engage him or her in a discussion about the gospel. I currently work in a situation where there are many vile, clownish people. They do not wield the authority of a Herod, but they demonstrate a similar spiritual appetite. I have never felt a compulsion to barge into the midst of some profane or obscene discussion in which they are engaged with a message of “Turn or burn!”

Instead, I keep my eyes open for people who seem lonely, estranged from the greater group, and I try to befriend them. I determine to let the abuse that gets thrown around quite often roll off my back, not because I am hard to wound or anger, but because I know that my representation of Christ in that arena depends on my patience and self-control.

I trust God’s mercy on me if I am wrong about any of this, but I am compelled to admit that there are times when I fail to admire the courage of that “in-your-face, confrontational type of evangelist” because I suspect that he is doing more kingdom harm than good. I also have serious reservations about the mindset that the religious right should work overly hard to get their own slate of candidates into office so that our sense of morality can be imposed on others by the force of law. Dare I say that I detect, rightly or wrongly, a lot of pearl-tossing to swine going on.

Understand that I am not professing to be fool-proof in my ability to delineate between swine, canine and persons who might be receptive to Christ. And, let us not react too emotionally to the terms “swine” and “dogs.” I take these metaphors to simply mean that some people are hostile to the topics of sin, repentance and eternity. Their personal demeanors inform me that trying to convince them of the truth may not be the best way to expend my own limited time and energy. But, they may also be God’s project for now. One person may be a swine today and a totally different receptor for truth tomorrow. After all, it is the Holy Spirit that awakens a hunger for God in any of us.

Isaiah prophesied during the reign of four kings. He ceased his preaching ministry before he was executed by a fifth king, the evil Manasseh. Did Isaiah feel no burden to prophesy to that king? Perhaps, Isaiah somehow just understood that this evil royal was not his project. King Manasseh was clearly swine material. But, sometime after Isaiah was dead and gone, God drove Manasseh to repentance. I never thought of that as a failure on Isaiah’s part.

These are tricky thoughts. One could easily use them to justify never speaking out for Christ. But, the flipside of that coin is that casting pearls to swine is a fruitless endeavor. May God bless you as you ferret out solutions whenever you encounter such areas of tension, wondering whether it is best to speak or not to speak.