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.
