What’s In A Name?

Almost 19 years ago, my husband and I found out we were going to be parents for the first time and had to come up with a name for our son.  We quickly chose a family name that meant “conqueror or victor.”  A strong name would serve him well we thought.

A few years later, we went through the process again, this time for our daughter.  We made list after list, but nothing seemed “just right.”  A baby name book sat on my nightstand for months.  As my due date approached, we finally settled on a name despite the fact it meant “bitter.”  I prayed the name’s meaning would have no real influence on her personality. (It hasn’t.)

In today’s passage – Matthew 16: 15-19 – Jesus informs his disciple Simon that he is Peter.  The Message translation states: “And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out” (v 18).

Giving Simon the name Peter was very intentional.  Peter means rock and Peter was to truly be the rock on which the church was built.

In Matthew 7: 24-25, Jesus explains that a wise man builds his house on rock, so when it rains and the wind blows, it doesn’t fall because it has a firm foundation. When our faith is built on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, then we can withstand whatever tries to knock us down.

Jesus, thank you for being the true embodiment of YOUR name’s meaning – Savior.







 

The heart of the free

“... a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant, ‘Why this waste?’ They asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’” Matthew 16:6-9

Have lots of money? Give to the poor! It seems like a righteous slam-dunk, doesn’t it? I mean, what would we say if we were there as this woman broke open a jar of perfume and poured out an entire year’s wages in a single moment? Wouldn’t we moralize, too? Or maybe it’s better to ask ourselves, wouldn’t we also be tempted to reduce this woman’s sacrificial act of love to a sterile study in situational ethics?

The heart is a labyrinth so complex we are easily and often lost on our own paths. How is it, for instance, we justify our disgust for a person by measuring him or her against our moral rules? Or, like the disciples, do we really think we can cozy up to Jesus by condemning our neighbor? Why do we keep judging the act without knowing the heart? And in so doing, what do we betray about ourselves? This is not to say “it’s all good” and there is no right and wrong. Rather, the heart of our sin nature is an incompetent magistrate and a hypocritical one, at that.

But how different the heart freed and made new in Christ! Not even the noblest of religious expectations could constrain the woman’s sacrificial act of love. Likely, she was completely unaware of the ultimate significance of her gesture, which was to prepare Jesus for burial; she knew only the Spirit’s voice and her desire to heed his call. And how did Jesus – he who cared more about the poor than anyone else in the room – respond? “She has done a beautiful thing to me.... I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” What does he ask of any of us but such faith and obedience? What could please him more?

It was Paul who wrote, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Clearly, the Spirit was upon the woman with the perfume that day and certainly she followed in freedom. Her story lives on forever as a quiet lesson in liberty.

Holy Spirit, live in me today. Move me freely in your ways – unfettered and eager to do the Father’s will in even the smallest of ways.

[The reading for the day is Matthew 26:6-16.]

Bad advice

“General Eisenhower, I suggest we land in Calais, instead.”
“You’re tired, Dr. King. Let our friends in Birmingham handle their own bus boycott.”
“Mr. Lincoln, we can always pass a 13th amendment after the war is over.”
“You want to be a nun in Calcutta?!? Teresa, why don’t you just find a husband and settle down?”

What if one day we realized we had dissuaded a person from his or her life calling? What if we learned our bumbling best of intentions had changed the course of human history, and not for the better? We’d be devastated, wouldn’t we?

But what if we persuaded a friend to run away from a problem that God was ready to lead him through? It’s not so far-fetched, is it? It may happen more often than we’d like to admit.

After Jesus had foretold his suffering, death and resurrection, Peter “took him aside and began to rebuke him, ‘Never, Lord!’ He said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” Talk about bad counsel! Peter’s words were as potentially devastating for mankind as was Adam’s silence. In them were the all the making of an Eden2.0. But Jesus would have no part of Peter’s “shoot from the flesh” advice. He knew the evil at its source.

God often brings his people to individual crises of belief – decisions points from which we can proceed boldly down his unseen paths in faith, or retreat “safely” to our familiar shelters of fear. One choice represents obedience; the other, disobedience. Each will yield its own kind of fruit.

So what do we do when our family and friends come to us for input in these kinds of situations? I think, far too often, we offer coddling counsel, as Peter did. And other times, we shrug a weak “whatever” like Adam. But how much better it is to stop and pray with them, accompanying them to the throne of grace as they seek God’s will in a matter and the strength to obey it! There is where they will find real answers.

And with friends like that, who conquers enemies?

[See the daily reading in Matthew 16:21-28.]

Vital signs

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.” Matthew 16:1

In a way, it is hilarious – the Pharisees and Sadducees, at odds in so many ways, now conspiring together to approach Jesus. To him, it must have borne all the subtlety of the aggravating Emergency Alert System signal and its dispassionate “This is only a test.”

But that’s about where the humor ends, for in their ploy, they met only rebuke from God. Face to face, no less. And their brief encounter ended in the saddest of ways: “Jesus then left them and went away.”

Why? What is wrong with asking for a sign? Haven’t so many of us sought from God the assurance of his presence? Haven’t we looked for signs of guidance and confirmation?

The issue is not in the seeking of a sign, per se, but the heart behind the ask. Were the leaders truly seeking guidance in God’s ways, or was it justification of their own? Did they approach God with humble hearts bending low before him, or prideful hearts rising up against him?

I think God gives us far more guidance and assurance than we realize, for his heart toward us is proactive love and purposeful care.

So we do well to look for the signs that guide us along his ways, and avoid the ones that loop us back to ourselves. For his ways lead to life – abundant and eternal life.

Holy Spirit, open my eyes today to seek the signs of your direction and the assurance of your ways. Call me away from my own paths and guide me in yours. Be glorified in and through my life today.

[Read today’s scripture in Matthew 16:1-4.]