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Meditative Reflection
Not to be Taken Away

“Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Lk. 10:42)

The story of Martha versus Mary is a familiar one, and Martha is usually the negative example, while Mary the positive, and rightfully so. But the problem is, we keep on repeating the mistake of Martha and seldom learn from the example of Mary.

To be critical, Martha made more than one mistake and those would  include at least the following:

1. Misplaced priorities: Although it was at a later setting that Jesus said, “But you will not always have me” (John 12:8), Martha should know how precious it was to have Jesus visit her home. Indeed, as Jesus said not long ago, “many prophets and kings want to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it’ (Luke 10:24). Jesus has not come to be served, but to show Himself to us, to preach the good news of the Kingdom and to lead us to the Father. In His presence, all activities should cease; only stillness, worship and listening should prevail. Martha misplaced her priorities. As much as she also desired to listen to Jesus, she was “distracted” from the main purpose of welcoming Jesus to her home.

2. Confusing serving with usefulness: Obviously, she was the oldest of the siblings, and very likely, in the absence of their parents, she was the “head” of the household. And in typical Oriental fashion, she felt responsible for everything in the family. Apart from assuming a position of authority, she imperceptibly desired to be recognized for being a responsible Big Sister. As such, she was used to being in charge of everything, and was the roll-up-the sleeve type as well. For her to be busy was to be useful. Just like in the Railway Series of Rev. Awdry (a children's novel series), one of the refrains is “to be a busy engine is to be a useful engine”! To Martha, busyness was next to holiness. In other words, she had built her identity based on being busy serving.

3. Allowing busyness to harden her heart: To be distracted is one thing; to confuse serving with usefulness is still understandable; but to order Jesus to tell Mary to help her? Martha had allowed busyness to harden her heart. For a moment, she had not only lost her love for her sister, but she had also lost her love for Jesus! When we sense that we have allowed busyness to narrow or harden our capacity to love, it is time call “time-out”!

On the other hand, there is more than one lesson we can learn from Mary, and they are just the opposite of the mistakes made by Martha. These include at least the following:

(a) Having the right priority of making time to spend in the presence of Jesus - to be still, to worship and to listen; this is the most important priority of one’s life.

(b) Not allowing oneself to defined by busyness

(c) Refusing to allow busyness to narrow or harden one’s heart to love

However, the last comment by Jesus about Mary is worth noting: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:42).

In a more literal translation, Jesus is saying that Mary has chosen the “good” part, not the better part. Without that good part, all the rest will not be “good” at all. And, in saying, “it will not be taken away from her”, Jesus was directly answering the request of Martha to order Mary to help. Jesus, in essence, was warning Martha, “Do not take it away from her!”

There is a prevalent teaching which says that we all love Jesus differently. Some may be the quiet type who is keen on spending time in solitude with Jesus like Mary, and there is another type who is like an activist, loving God with actions and serving. This last comment by Jesus should do away such a notion for good. Without choosing the “good” part, nothing else can be “good” at all. Spending time, much time, with Jesus first and foremost is not an option.

Meditative Reflection
God Centered Prayer, God Centered Faith

“When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come'. ” (Lk. 11:2)

It is obvious that what prompted one of the disciples to ask Jesus to teach them to prayer went beyond his desire to simply have Jesus follow John the Baptist’s example to teach his disciples how to pray. If we have had the same privilege of watching and hearing Jesus pray to the Father and the tremendous experience of praying with Jesus, we would have been so moved to desire imitating not just the content, the words or the posture of His prayers, but the very intimacy, the complete trust and natural expression of emotions and thoughts, plus a thorough understanding and knowledge of the Father. This I believe was what the disciples desired to learn from Jesus, and Jesus did not disappoint them.

The so-called Lord’s Prayer is definitely not meant to be a verbatim prayer to be recited, but a prayer that reflects the very essence of our faith and relationship with God. This 100% God-first, God-centered prayer highlights the essence of our faith in God as first and foremost a 100% God-first, God-centered faith.

This distinguishes the Christian faith from any other faith in the world. Yes, our faith in Jesus Christ results in eternal life, the forgiveness of sin and joy and peace that this world cannot give; and yet, it remains a 100% God-centered, God-first faith. We do not believe in Jesus for our sake, but for God’s sake.

If our faith remains a faith for our own sake, it will be, as the parable of the sower shows, easily taken away by the devil because of a lack of understanding; it will not be able to grow because of trouble or persecution; or it will be choked by worries and wealth (Matt. 13:18-22).

This is also why some believers experience the following:

- They become discouraged and lose faith when their prayers are not answered.

- They do not have any change in their lives even when they claim that they believed in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

- They do not have the lasting peace that is promised by Jesus (Jn. 14:27) .

- They do not have the joy of forgiveness that comes from genuine repentance.

- They do not have the aroma of Christ that draws people to pursue knowing Christ as their Lord and Savior (2 Cor. 2:14).

If our faith is not a God-centered, God-first faith, there is no way we can pray this Lord’s Prayer meaningfully, or for that matter, pray meaningfully at all!

Meditative Reflection
Ask and it will be Given

“So, I say to you, ‘Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you'.” (Lk. 11:9)

The above sweeping promise by Jesus sounds too good to be true, and Jesus knew it. Therefore, after this promise He goes on to reiterate, “For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Lk. 11:10)

Why would Jesus choose to reiterate this promise? Because it is absolutely true, and He does not stop there. He continues to ask two rhetorical questions:

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead? Or, if he asks for an egg will give him scorpion?” (Lk. 11:11)

These are rhetorical questions because the answers are obvious.

The point Jesus is trying to emphasize is that in prayer, we are talking to our Father in heaven; we are asking the one who loves us beyond what any human being could, including our earthly fathers. Why then should we doubt His promise?

However, we need to understand several aspects relating to this promise:

(1) We need to understand the context within which this promise is made:

Luke ties this promise to the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus teaches not only about the essence of prayer but the essence of our faith — our relationship with God, our Father — in that our faith is a 100% God-centered, God-first faith. So should our prayers be.

(2) We need to understand that,

“All three verbs (i.e. ask, seek and knock) are continuous: Jesus is not speaking of single activities, but of those that persist. He is speaking of an attitude similar to that taught by the parable. The repetition in verse 10 underlines the certainty of the response…It is always answered in the way God sees is best.” (Morris, 214)

(3) We need to understand our own hearts:

We may think that we are asking for fish and egg, but in essence, we might be asking for snake and scorpion instead.

The key, therefore, still is an attitude of putting God first in everything we desire. If we are able to cultivate such a God-first, God-centered faith, our prayers will not be so much marked by petitions, but by praise, admiration and love. And, when we do come across our needs and our desires, even if we cannot pray according to the will of God in the beginning, we will come to understand, appreciate and submit to His will eventually. We will know that He, indeed, knows the best "what" and "when" for us. He will not give us anything less than the best. He is our Father!

Meditative Reflection
The Haunted House

“Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. The final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (Lk. 11:26)

William Barclay calls the parable of the seven demons, in Matthew 12:43-45 (and in Lk. 11:24-26), the parable of the “haunted house,” but his interpretation, I am afraid, fails to capture the severity of the warning by Jesus. Barclay concludes that it speaks of the evil of idleness and thus, “the Church will most easily keep her converts when she gives them Christian work to do. Our aim is not the mere negative absence of evil action; it is the positive presence of work for Christ.”

But Jesus was not speaking about the Church, but the wicked generation of His time where the devil fled in His presence (Lk. 10:18). By rejecting Him, and upon His departure, the prince of this world would take over (Jn. 14:30) and the world’s condition would be even worse than before.

Jesus’ message is one of “no fence sitting” which is being repeated through His ministry. Even in this same chapter, His message in v. 30 was, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”

As a result, anyone who does not receive Christ as their Lord and Savior rejects Him. One who does not make Christ their Lord and King, makes Satan their lord and king.

We like to think that we can be master of our own life. But the cold hard fact is we are either “slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience (to Christ) which leads to righteousness.” (Rom. 6:16)

You do not have to be a haunted house.

Meditative Reflection
Hope in the Midst of Wickedness

“The Queen of the South… (and the) men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it…” (Lk. 11:31-32)

According to Matthew, it was some of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who demanded a miraculous sign from Jesus (Matthew 12:38), but Luke implied that such an attitude of disbelief was not just theirs, but the that of the entire generation.

Indeed, Jesus had already performed numerous, unmistakable and great miracles, including the raising of the dead. And yet, the people refused to believe that He is the Son of God. Frankly, no amount of miracles could cause them to repent and believe in Jesus Christ except the very miracle of His resurrection from the dead. Even so, as we learn from the Book of Acts, those of His generation who would believe were still in the minority. These few caused the spread of the gospel beyond Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to literally the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

As much as the rebuke of Jesus to that generation was severe and the comparisons of them to the Ninevites and the Queen of the South were very convicting, it spells really good news to the rest of us. Both incidents were remarkable.

The people of Nineveh were indeed very wicked people. Their wickedness was such that, like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, it “has come up before” God (Jon. 1:2). And yet, as a people who did not worship Yahweh, who had their own tribal gods, who were bent on violence and wickedness, they instantly repented at the preaching of Jonah, “from the greatest to the least” (Jon. 3:5).

We have witnessed over the past two thousand years that many gentile nations who had never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ repented and believed in Him, even “from the greatest to the least”. The Roman empire was a typical example. We should continue to pray for nations that are not unlike Nineveh, believing that the gospel is still the power of God to save (Rom. 1:16).

The Queen of Sheba, with her power, wisdom, and wealth, was willing to make a long and humbling journey to visit Solomon, not only because of Solomon’s fame, but because of “his relation with the name of the Lord” (1 Ki. 10:1). And what she witnessed led her to give praise to Yahweh: “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.” (1 Ki. 10:9)

The fact that Jesus said that she would “rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them” means that she had likely believed in Yahweh as a result of visiting and listening to Solomon. Some Ethiopian traditions point to the Queen of Sheba whose visit contributed to the bringing of the worship of the God of Israel back to her land.

This should also serve as an encouragement to us to pray for the heads of the nations, as their conversion would have a profound impact on their nations.

Meditative Reflection
The Light is Darkness

“See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness.” (Lk. 11:35)

I believe I previously shared about my experience at the Lewis and Clark Cavern when just for a few seconds, all the lights within the cave were turned off, and I completely lost my orientation. Indeed, the story was told of one volunteer who was inadvertently shut in the cave for just one night, and she almost went crazy, hallucinating and hearing strange voices. Fortunately, she was rescued the next morning.

The truth of the matter is, we are not meant to live in complete darkness, and yet many people do live in complete darkness within their souls. The problem is they think they are living in light, while the light within them is darkness. That is the worst kind of darkness, or to put it more correctly, the worst kind of blindness — we think we can see, but what we can see is only darkness, not light!

This is the picture of a world that rejects Christ (Jn. 1:5). This is the picture of a person without Christ, without the true light (Jn. 1:9).

However, as believers, we have to acknowledge that, not every part of us is full of light; there are parts of us still in the dark (Lk. 11:36). But the Lord’s desire for us is to be “completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you” (Lk. 11:36).

This is the reason why we do our daily devotion — by means of prayers and reflections on His Word, through adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication — that more of our blind spots (our darkness) will have the light shone on them.

If your darkness has yet to be shone upon by light today, why not use the following “Time for Silence” to do just that?

Meditative Reflection
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

“And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Lk. 12:10)

This sin mentioned in Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29 and Luke 12:10, has caused much unnecessary fear for over-sensitive Christians whose supposed “unforgivable sin” bears no resemblance to the deliberate accusation used by the Pharisees. I have a Christian friend who has suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder and for decades, he suffered from such fear because he could not control his mind in thinking of “pig” as he thought of God. He was certain that he had committed this unforgivable sin, until his sickness was eventually cured after many, many years.

He was not alone, unfortunately because traditional interpretations have created much confusion. The early Christians distinguished blasphemy as of three kinds: The blasphemy of those who under persecution denied and cursed Christ, the blasphemy of heretics and other profane Christians, and the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Some early Christian interpretation distinguished it into two kinds: The blasphemy against the Son of Man as that of the unbeliever, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as that of Christians, “hence the idea that sin after baptism is unforgivable”. (R.T. France)

In order to quell such fear, some Bible teachers simply interpret the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as the unceasing and continual rejection of the Spirit’s conviction to repent. While their intention was admirable, it goes against both the meaning of the word and the context.

By definition, blasphemy is a speech and the context in all three gospel narratives is clearly about what is being said against the Holy Spirit, a direct insult in words.

And Jesus clearly made a distinction between blasphemy against Him as the Son of Man, and the Holy Spirit. This, though, does not mean that He was making Himself any less or inferior to the Holy Spirit. Rather, He was referring to the failure to recognize Him as who He is, which has led to slandering words spoken against Him; such sin, if repented, can be forgiven. But deliberate slander against the Holy Spirit, fully recognizing who He is, then such a sin is not forgivable.

So, even the Pharisees who spoke against Jesus, if they eventually repented and believed in Jesus, they would have been forgiven, because their blasphemy against Jesus was based on the “incognito” character of Jesus; and we know that there were Pharisees who did turn to Christ eventually. (Acts 15:5)

Even Peter who denied Jesus verbally (Matt. 26:69-75) was forgiven.

Personally, I doubt if any true believer will deliberately and willingly blaspheme the Holy Spirit and I agree with R.T. France that, “Ultimately only God can know when an individual’s (verbal) opposition to his work has reached this stage of irreversible rejection”.

However, it also reminds me that as much as I am very leery about the charismatic movement, I should caution myself not to judge some of the supernatural manifestations as to their origin, lest I make the same mistake of the Pharisees.