"Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18
Jesus: Looking
for Faith in All the Wrong Places
So, right after the
“importunate widow” finally gets justice, Jesus assures the faithful that they
will be avenged speedily. No
delays. Justice will happen quickly for
his own.
But then he asks
this question:
“Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18
And the grammar,
Greekishly-speaking, expects a negative response. That is, Jesus is saying that the Son of Man
may not find any faith anywhere when he returns. In fact, the form of the interrogative is
actually a prediction: I’m not going to find any faith!
Now fast forward a
couple millennia. We’ve got thousands of
different forms of Christianities. In
some forms, God knows all and predestines all.
In others he knows all, but doesn’t predestine it. And in yet others, he actually doesn’t really
know everything. He’s sort of self-lobotomized.
And that’s just one aspect
of one doctrine. After all those
doctrinal issues are debated, there’s the lifestyle questions. Do I have to live like a good person? And to what extent? What does it mean to be
good? Like: Can I get divorced? Does God monitor my sexuality? Should we push our government to monitor
everyone else’s sexual practices? Do I have to give a damn about the poor?
Not so
wonderful works
What about Jesus’
teachings? What about some of the wild
claims he made:
“Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name
have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”. Matthew
7
So, we have people
doing lots of wonderful things as followers of Christ, but they weren’t paying attention
to what he had just said in the three chapters preceding this statement. Or if they did pay attention, they still
decided not to live that way: the Sermon on the Mount WAY.
But to make up for
not living the way Jesus teaches, they decide that they can make up for it by
prophesying and preaching a lot. And by
causing spiritual renewal, casting out the demonic forces and being a
missionary. Lots of wonderful salvation
ministry.
Missionaries
for Christ
Except they don’t
live the Jesus’ Way. Just not
interested. Much more exciting to travel
land and sea:
“Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than
yourselves.” Matthew 23
And that’s a hell of
thing, to travel land and sea to convert others…while not living the Jesus way
of justice and peace.
Too often, the
desire to bemission others is a sad effort to obviate one’s own boredom. It’s an attempt to overcome my own ennui.
Apostasy is
literally “from-standing.” It’s staying
away from the vital message of how Jesus teaches us to live, while focusing
instead on side issues. When the time
comes to give an account, how will we answer?
What will we hear spoken to us?
