I live in a part of Kentucky that is defined by Karst geology. This is large sheets of limestone that have been focally dissolved by acidic water. This phenomenon results in three things that define the bluegrass region of my state:

Thoroughbred horses which thrive on the limestone water and the bluegrass

Bourbon whiskey which requires this special water

Caves which are formed when the water dissolves the limestone

On a tour of one of our caves, I was introduced to a species of fish that lives only in the depths of the caves. This species is completely blind. It simply has no eyes. It has no lungs. It has no nose. It has no ears. It lives out its life in a world without air…..without light. This fish understands its world based on the taste and temperature of the water, based on what it touches, and based on vibrations that pass through the water.

Now, imagine that you are that fish. You swim around seeking water that is the temperature, taste, and chemistry that you prefer. You feed yourself by chasing down the source of vibrations nearby. You swallow what tastes good and spit out what tastes bad.

Life is good in your world.

Then, one day, someone describes to you a warm summer evening. The sky is a deep blue. The setting sun is a rich red. It’s a little muggy. Katydids are singing. You can hear a mourning dove. There is a gentle breeze. There is a campfire and there are steaks on a grate. You are tired from the hike up the mountain to your campsite. Soon, the stars will come out. There is going to be a meteor shower tonight.

Life is good in this other world.

The problem is that you cannot conceive of that world. Your experience of life gives you no understanding of the atmosphere, the weather, the sounds of the woods, the feel of the air, the beauty of the sunset, and the glory of the night sky……..not to mention that steak. The fact is that, even if you were exposed to these things, you don’t have the sensory apparatus to detect the data that you would encounter. The facts and rules of your world simply do not apply to this other world. The experience, the science, of your underground world simply cannot handle the information of the aboveground world.

We live our lives in the physical world. All that we know……all that we can conceive is limited by our experience of our world. All that we can understand is limited by the rules of the science of our physical world. And the science of our physical world is limited to what we can sense and measure.

We are blind cave fish living in our physical world.

There is a spiritual world. It operates on a set of rules and realities that are entirely different from our physical world.

And we just don’t understand. So we do the same thing as the blind cave fish. For the most part, we go about our business. We swim around and eat what we can find. We don’t think about the aboveground world because we can’t. We lack the tools and experience. Maybe we simply deny the possibility of a sunset. After all, it is impossible………in a world without light and air…….in our cave world.

But, the fact that a sunset is not possible in my “blind cave fish” world………does not mean that such a sunset doesn’t exist in that other world. The concept that just because I cannot sense something, measure something, or comprehend something……means that it cannot exist is flawed.

This is a good working definition of hubris:

A blind cave fish………who has it all figured out.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God, Isaiah 55: 8-9, ESV

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

Paul, 1 Corinthians, 2:9,ESV

It is odd, that we go through our lives and never study the most important concepts in our world. We just take them for granted and go along our way. Arguably, the most important reality in my world…….your’s too……..is life itself.

So……here it is:

What is the nature of life? More specifically……..what is the nature of my life?

The answer is, at once, both simple and straightforward…….and dauntingly complex.

First, the simple part:

Life is: breath, movement, thought, and much more. This is our physical life. We can see it, touch it, even understand it. We can manipulate our life and the lives of those around us. Our physical strength and our intellect give us the ability to master the physical world around us. Some of us have more power…….some have less. This is heady stuff. It is very easy for us to become proud of our success at running our world. But, all of us are constrained. Our power and understanding are limited to the physical world. The physical world is the realm that we typically think of when we talk about life.

The problem is this:

There is a duality to life. The physical world that we enjoy is a thin veneer covering a much larger reality. That larger reality is the spiritual world.

We are, for the most part, blind to the spiritual world. In a word, we are almost completely ignorant of the nature of the vast majority of our life. We are given brief glimpses of the spiritual side of life……of our life. These glimpses consist of the life of Jesus and the prophecies of the Bible. Occasionally, something happens that violates every rule and law of our physical world. We get a glimpse of the spiritual world. We call these episodes “miracles”. We tend to minimize these events. We try to explain them away using the rules of science. We deny these facts…….because the rules of our world cannot deal with them. The resurrection of Jesus is one of these events. The resurrection is not a lie. It is not a myth. The resurrection is a brief glimpse into the other side, the spiritual side, of our life. It is just as real as the people who surround us.

Scientists talk about a concept called a singularity. A singularity is an event where the entire nature of a system is completely charged. The nature of time, matter, and energy are completely re-arranged. The rules that we call science on this side of the singularity simply do not apply to the new order. The classic example of a singularity is the “big bang”. This is the event that science uses to explain the creation of the universe…….out of nothing……no mass……no energy…….no intelligence……no creator. The rules, time, and structure of the universe prior to the “big bang” are beyond our comprehension. This is because they are completely different from the “science” that governs our physical world. We will never understand what is on the other side of this singularity. We just do not have the tools. The simple fact is that we cannot even measure the “big bang” itself. So, we make something up as best as we can using the rules and structure of our physical life. But, our explanation is doomed to fail……because the rules on this side of the singularity simply do not apply to the other side of the singularity.

And then we die…….and everything changes.

Because death is a singularity too.

No matter what you believe. No matter what you want. No matter your politics. No matter if you lived a good life…….or not. You simply cannot know what is waiting for you on the other side of the singularity that we call death:

Paradise
Hell
Dead black nothing

At our death, we transition from the physical world into the spiritual world. The old rules simply no longer apply. Time, mass, energy, and space as we know it no longer apply. The Bible deals with this using language that is largely symbolic. We call it apocalyptic literature. Try applying the rules of our physical world to the book of Revelation……or Daniel…….or to Biblical prophecy. We just lack the tools to understand it all. We are forced to rely on faith.

So….what do we really know about the spiritual world?

Not much.

What do we understand about the spiritual world?

Even less.

Here is the best I can do:

There is a sovereign creator……..God.

God’s primary characteristic……..is love.

God has expectations……..love him…….love everybody else.

Welcome to the spiritual world. You might as well start getting used to it. It’s going to be around…….forever.

So are you.

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:3-4, ESV

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Psalm 102: 25-27, ESV

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality

Paul explaining the “singularity” of death, 1 Corinthians 15: 50-53, ESV

The most important questions you will ever ask……..and answer…..come down to a simple binary decision:

Is Jesus divine…….supernatural…….God?

Or

Is he the greatest con-man who ever lived?

This question has a corollary:

Is the Bible true?

Or

Is it a myth?

Because Jesus endorsed the Torah. He also endorsed heaven, eternity, and a literal burning hell.

The answers to these questions will set you on one of two paths. The importance of these questions arises from the destination at the end of each of those paths:

Heaven, Hell, Eternity, something you made up, or dead black nothing.

There cannot possibly be any choice that you will make in your life that is more important. And here is the rub……..not deciding……..ignoring the question……..is, by default, choosing the con-man path.

So what is the evidence?

Jesus clearly and unmistakably said that he was supernatural……devine……..God. And he was crucified for it. This is a historical fact, documented in multiple contemporaneous sources, not to mention the Bible. If this is untrue, then Jesus was a con-man……..or perhaps a lunatic.

Peter saw Jesus transfigured into a supernatural being. Mary and Martha met him a few days after the crucifixion. Paul spoke with Jesus on the road to Damascus years later. If this is untrue, then the divinity of Jesus is not only the rant of a con-man, it is a conspiracy.

Jesus appeared to hundreds of followers on Pentecost. Now, it is a vast conspiracy.

All of the disciples, save John, were brutally killed for their faith. Not one of them ever denied the divinity of Jesus.

Somewhere between 25 million and 100 million Christians have been martyred since then. They died rather than deny the divinity of Jesus. If Jesus is not divine, this is now a vast, lethal conspiracy. Some have called it a delusion.

My first question is this:

Can you name any other belief system that is supported by hundreds of eye witnesses………..any other belief system that tens of millions of followers have endorsed at the cost of their very lives?

My second question is this:

Search your heart. Do you really believe in dead black nothing as your destiny?

Or

Do you really believe that you get to decide the nature of your eternity? Because, if you get to dictate the terms of eternity, then people should be building churches…….to worship you.

“I and the Father are one.”

Jesus, claiming his divinity, John 10: 30, ESV

Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The transfiguration, Matthew 16:1-5, ESV

Paul had an ailment. He called it a “thorn in his flesh”.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul discussing his illness with God, 2 Corinthians l, 12:7-9, ESV

Paul’s ailment clearly bothered him. It bothered him enough that he repeatedly asked God to heal it. But, God said “no”. Sometimes “no” is God’s answer to our prayers. It can even be the answer given to the greatest leaders of the church, leaders like Paul. If anyone ever deserved……earned…..an answered prayer, it was Paul. But, God denied Paul’s prayer…….over and over. And Paul accepted God’s answer…….and he was content.

How often does God answer a sincere, honest, perhaps desperate, prayer from you…….with “no”. God says “no” and we ask “why”? At best we decide that we don’t understand, and we trust God. At worst we lash out at God. We may even reject God altogether. Have you ever heard something like this, “I refuse to accept a God who would let my child die.” It happens every day. God says “no” and we try to punish him by rejecting him.

Back to Paul and his “thorn”. Instead of healing him, God sent Paul a physician. This physican became a close friend and traveling companion of Paul in addition to being his personal doctor. In return, Paul was likely a mentor in the faith for the physician.

The physician’s name was Luke.

Yes, that Luke.

A decade or so after Paul’s death, Luke wrote two books, “The Gospel, according to Luke” and “Acts of the Apostles”.

Together, Paul and Luke wrote over half of the New Testament. This happened because of a friendship and collaboration that grew out of God’s refusal to heal Paul. God had a better idea. Perhaps, God knew what he was doing after all.

The moral of the story is this:

God is working out his plan…….not ours. We cannot see the whole plan. We cannot expect that everything that God does will make sense to us. We cannot expect that everything that God does will satisfy our short term needs and appetites. What we can expect is that God loves us and is building something fabulous for those who accept him, honor him and love him.

We must be like Paul. We must trust God and be content.

The Bible is full of answered prayers. Elijah prayed for drought and it didn’t rain for 3 1/2 years. Then he prayed for rain…….and it rained. We love the answered prayers on the Bible. They give us confidence. There are precious few unanswered prayers in the Bible. But, those unanswered prayers are the most important prayers in the Bible.

I believe that the most important prayer in the Bible was unanswered. It was Jesus’s prayer, in Gethsemane, that he be excused from the crucifixion. He repeated it three times……just like Paul. In the Bible, repetition means “PAY ATTENTION…..THIS IS IMPORTANT”. And God was silent. By his silence, God said no to the prayer of his son.

Think that through:

If God had answered the repeated prayer of Jesus…..there would be no crucifixion.

No crucifixion……..no resurrection

No resurrection……..no reconciliation

No reconciliation……..no forgiveness of sin

No forgiveness of sin………means that we are all doomed.

The simple reality of the denial, by God, of his son’s prayer, is this:

The only reason that I have the hope of paradise……….is that God said NO…….to another guy’s prayer.

Something to ponder……the next time God says no to you.

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus……the greatest unanswered prayer……ever,
Matthew 26:39, ESV

Jesus began his ministry in about 30 AD.

He was crucified in 33 AD.

Paul, as Saul, viciously persecuted Christians from 30 AD to 40 AD.

Paul had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus in about 40 AD and began his ministry.

Paul wrote his letters between 50 AD and 60 AD.

Paul was executed in 65 AD.

The four gospels were written between 70 and 100 AD.

Let that sink in.

Paul’s entire ministry occurred before the Gospels were written.

Paul wrote his letters between 50 AD and 60 AD. In addition, he mentored Luke. Indirectly, he was responsible for the gospel of Luke and of Acts. Together, these letters and books constitue just over half of the New Testament. This means that most of the New Testament was either written by or inspired by Paul before the Gospels were written.

Paul (Saul) was a passionate enemy of Christianity. He had never read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He had obviously heard about Jesus and was familiar enough with the fledgling Christian faith to persecute them mercilessly.

Then, one day, out of the blue, he became an itenerant preacher and the first author of what would become the New Testament. He did this without having read the Gospels.

He never recanted his teaching about Jesus, and he was imprisoned and beheaded for it.

A few days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to His supporters and the apostles. Six or seven years later, he appeared to Paul (Saul), arguably his greatest and most dangerous enemy. This was clearly a very special, “one off” event.

Paul’s conversion from persecutor of the Christian church to the second most important founder of the Christian church, after Jesus, occurred in a 3 day encounter on the road to Damascus. More importantly, it did not come from a study of the Gospels. Paul’s conversion came about as a direct, first person, revelation delivered by Jesus himself. Nothing quite like it had ever occurred before. Nothing like it has ever occurred since.

Of millions of people, Jesus chose Paul. Jesus chose his most virulent enemy to be his spokesperson…….to author most of the New Testament.

What was Jesus thinking?

I can only speculate; but, I think that Jesus saw Paul’s talent and his passion. I think that Jesus chose Paul to initiate the writing of the New Testament. Jesus orchestrated a catastrophic event in Paul’s life in order to “turn Paul’s head”,

The history of Paul’s ministry, in particular, the three days on the way to Damascus, is more than just another “Bible story”. It is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As such, it is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence supporting the truth of the entire Bible.

I can imagine no other experience that would lead to such a drastic change in Paul…….no experience short of a first person encounter with the resurrected Jesus Christ.

I, too, will someday have that experience.

So will you.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Luke, relating a conversation between Jesus and Paul,
Acts 9: 1-5, ESV

So…..what is the opposite of freedom?

Enslavement
Restriction
Loss of control

Nope………the opposite of freedom……….is safety.

I know a guy.

He has made his way through the last 40 years without a regular 9 to 5 type job. He makes his living through tens of thousands of small individual transactions. He gets up in the morning, has his coffee, and decides how he will spend his day. This guy understands freedom. He lives it. But, he doesn’t have a clue as to where the money will come from next month. He doesn’t have a pension. He never has carried a lot of insurance. He has survived cancer and multiple hurricanes without it. In a word, he has freedom; but, he has given up a lot of safety.

I am the polar opposite.

At age 12, I chose a career path that would guarantee me a good stable income, respect, and prestige. I worked my fanny off. One summer I worked a job that was 36 hours on and 12 hours off…….all summer long. I have almost no memories of college. I slept during the day and studied at night. I did this to avoid the distractions of a social life. And it worked. I had a fabulous, extremely successful career. I live a liberal retirement. But, to get here, I have thrown away freedom by the truckload.

Freedom vs. Safety

It occurs to me that one of the most important choices that we will make in our lifetime is a choice between freedom and safety. It is the choice between secular humanism and Christianity.

Secular humanism offers us freedom. We can do whatever we want. If you don’t like being a man……identify as a woman. If you have an unwanted pregnancy….abort it. If you disagree with a law…..ignore it. Ultimately, you are in charge. Nobody can tell you what to do. You live freedom……every day. But, you are going to die. At that point, the lights will just go out. And, that is the best possible case scenario. The worst possible case is hell. Looking at it from a long-term perspective…….you have no safety at all.

You are on a tight rope with no net. And…..sooner or later…….you are going to fall.

“No one gets out alive”.

Jim Morrison

Christianity, on the other hand, is a way of life that imposes expectations on us.

Love God
Love everyone else
Obey the 10 commandments
Accept Christ as your leader……your saviour

These expectations will restrict everything that you say and do for the rest of your life…….if you do it well. You will give up freedom by the truckload. In exchange, you will gain ultimate safety. No matter what life sends your way…….you will spend eternity in paradise with a creator who loves you………a creator who made you for that one purpose.

Freedom or Safety.

And here is the amazing part.

You get to choose.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, a poem by Henley

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23: 4-6, ESV

I am, by training and career, a scientist. My career was in medicine, radiology to be specific. When I was in residency, I trained with a guy who was really, really smart. I know this because he never missed a chance to tell me how smart he was. One day he explained to me, in some detail, why it was mathematically impossible to perform an MRI scan in less than an hour.

This morning I had an MRI. My scan began at about 7am and I was out of the building at 7:10am.

So, what does this have to do with theology?

Scientists are constantly telling us what is impossible:

Creation in 7 days

God

The resurrection

Heaven

Hell

Eternity

An MRI in 12 minutes

But, there is a disclaimer that they never mention. This disclaimer should follow every pronouncement that any scientist makes:

“This statement is based on the one one millionth of the universe that I understand at this instant.”

For example: Dark matter and dark energy make up over 90% of the universe. Scientists cannot find either of these, much less understand them. And that is just matter and energy. Scientists cannot tell us how big the universe is. In fact, they cannot even tell us how much they don’t know.

When asked to explain anything, an honest scientist would say, “I am, for the most part, ignorant; but, here is what I understand today. Come back tomorrow for an update.

“It would be tragic for you to run your life based on scientific evidence that tells you that heaven and hell are not possible only to find out at your death that the scientists just hadn’t discovered them………yet.

The point is this:

Don’t plan your life based on things that scientists tell you are not possible. Because, the thing that was impossible today may be entirely possible, perhaps routine, tomorrow…….like a 12 minute MRI.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Paul, Romans, 11:33, ESV

Self esteem

The libraries and bookstores are full of texts telling us about self-esteem. If they are right, then self-esteem should be one of our highest aspirations. When was the last time you heard some expert say, ” Always remember that you are a tiny, almost insignificant blemish on the face of the universe.” Sounds silly doesn’t it?

But, in fact, we revel in our self-esteem. Comparing ourselves to our fellow man and promoting ourselves among our peers is in our nature. And self promotion is not necessarily a bad thing…….in its place. The problem is that there is a place where self-esteem is destructive. That place is in our relationship with God, our creator. God lives and operates on an entirely different plane. When we inflate our self-esteem to the point where we are co-equals with God…….or worse…….when we assign ourselves the position of supervisor of God, we commit a grave error. This is the world of the secular humanist. This is the world of the atheist and the agnostic. Unfortunately, I frequently hear Christians taking issue with some point of teaching from the Bible……from God:

Jesus was a nice man…….no more.
Hell is just a metaphor
All faiths lead to God
Fear God means respect God……not fear God
God used Darwin to build his creation
Your sexual identity is a personal choice.

What is going on here is that we have allowed our self-esteem to grow to the point where we listen to God and then apply our intellect to decide if God is right. In practice, we give ourselves veto power over the word of God.

If we are honest, it gets even worse. Because, we don’t limit our oversight of God to our intellect. We also apply our appetites. Show me a Christian who rejects a part of God’s teaching, and I will show you a Christian who wants to do something that God has clearly told him not to do. The Christian who does this has a mantra that I often hear.

“But, I’m a good person”

And that is usually true……..as far as it goes. But we are also “bad people”. Every one of us. From Billy Graham to Adolf Hitler, every one of us has a thread of evil. This is where self-esteem goes off the tracks. We become so fixed on our goodness that we deny our evil. This leads to the fatal failure of many Christians…….the belief that “I am good enough” to earn paradise.

Let me be clear.

I am not “good enough”…….and neither are you.

The moral here is humility. How can I, a created being with a streak of evil running through me, pass judgment on my creator, my God, who is by definition perfect? There are only two ways to pull this trick off:

Inflate my self-esteem to the point where I can effectively oversee God.

Denigrate God until he is more flawed than me.

Both of these intellectual exercises are dishonest. Both are wrong. Even worse, both are profoundly self-destructive.

But, that is where a huge segment of our culture is today.

A highly inflated self-esteem may be holding you back from a properly formed relationship with your creator.

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

God, speaking to Solomon, 2 Chronicles, 7:14,ESV

As Christians we are told…….we are expected…….to pray. We pray prayers of praise. We pray prayers of petition. It is not surprising that the bulk of our prayers of petition are for the benefit of ourselves, our family, and our friends. This is human nature. Put out the fire that is closest to you…….then worry about the fire that is further away.

In my Bible reading today, we are taught to pray for kings. There aren’t a lot of kings around today. They have been replaced by presidents, prime ministers, senators, and representatives. I think that it is fair to conclude that we are expected to pray for the political leaders in our world. This is where it gets sticky.

Some of the world’s leaders agree with me….with you…..with us. Some of the world’s leaders disagree with me….with you….with us. Some of the leaders in the political realm are good……some are simply evil. Most of them……like us…..fall somewhere in between. Current political thought is that we should hate the leaders who disagree with us. We are taught by our leaders to demonize anyone who disagrees with them. Donald Trump recently gave a speech where he proudly said that he hates his opponents. The leadership of the left casually throws out terms like Nazi and Fascist. I hear talk like this every day from people who tell me they are Christians.

But, “hate your opponent” and “slander your enemy” are not what the Bible teaches. That is not what Jesus taught. Both Trump and the left, while many of them identify as Christians, have clearly missed the point.

Jesus and the Bible are crystal clear on this topic.

We are told in no uncertain terms to pray for the leaders of governments. We are told in no uncertain terms to pray for our enemies.

Christian conservatives are told in no uncertain terms to pray for:

 AOC
 Schumer 
 Maxine Waters
 CNN

Christian liberals are told in no uncertain terms to pray for:

 Trump
 JD Vance
 Charlie Kirk
 Fox

Both parties are told to pray for:

 Putin
 Xi
 Hamas
 Netanyahu 

I think that you get the point. But, how do we pray for people with whom we disagree? How do we pray for people who are evil?

We can pray for wisdom.
We can pray that they will turn to Jesus.
We can pray for repentance and healing.

In short…….we can pray that they will hear Jesus……and respond.

We can pray that they will turn to God and align themselves with him……..not with us…….not with our favorite politician “du jour”.

Can you imagine a world where all of the “kings” consistently followed Jesus?

Instead of you and me.

That’s a prayer worth praying.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers,[a] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus in Matthew. 5: 43-48, ESV

Ruth is my favorite book in the Old Testament. It is unlike any other book in the Bible. Chapter 3 is my favorite chapter in Ruth. What is so different about Ruth and why do I like it so much?

At its heart. Ruth is a love story. It is all about faith, obedience, generosity, grace, and especially redemption. Ruth is an outlier. It is just different from the rest of the Bible. The most important fact in the New Testament is the Gospel of Jesus. Much of the Bible is historical……who did what and when. Much of the Bible is guidelines to living a righteous life…….rules. All of this is good and terribly important.

And then there is Ruth.

So, why is Ruth so important…….so different?

Ruth is important because it tells us why.

Ruth tells us why God did it all.

Here is the condensed version of Ruth. Ruth was a refugee, illegal, undocumented. She was a widow. She was destitue. She followed her mother-in-law to an alien land because she loved her and because she had nowhere else to go. She hoped to build a better life in an far away place. While there, without permission, she gathered scraps of food in the field of Boaz, a righteous man. One night, while Boaz was sleeping, she crawled under his blanket. He awoke and found her there. She asked him for his care and protection. And Boaz did just that. He used his resources to support Ruth and her family. Then, he bought, redeemed, and married Ruth. She became a great-grandmother of David……and ultimately…….of Jesus. Ruth was destitute; but, she was brave, bold, even audacious. Boaz was rich; but, he was kind, righteous, and generous. Both of them were remarkable human beings.

Ruth was a refugee. She had nothing material to offer. All she had was the woman that she was…..kind, loyal, loving. Boaz was rich and powerful. He paid for Ruth. He protected her. He loved her. All he got from Ruth was their relationship. And that was all he was after from the moment she crawled under his blanket…….from the moment she asked for his protection.

In her audacity, Ruth traveled to a foreign land and sought out a powerful protector. She had nothing to offer except herself. She had nothing to offer but relationship. Her protector, her redeemer, rescued her at a significant cost to himself. He did it because he, too, wanted a relationship. Ruth did not earn Boaz, she did not deserve Boaz. Ruth did not earn redemption. The redeemtion of Ruth was an act of grace…….by Boaz.

Any of this sound familiar?

The story of Boaz and Ruth is the story of Jesus and of me, and of you. We are destitute. We live in a broken culture and we seek safety in Jesus. We crawl under his cover and ask for protection…….for redemption……for a future. And Jesus pours redemption and blessing over us. We didn’t pay for it. We didn’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It was and is an act of grace

All we can offer is relationship.

That is all Jesus wants from us.

But it goes even deeper.

I am not only destitute and in need of redemption. As it turns out, I too am refugee, a foreigner, an alien………… an illegal. I come from a harsh, hostile culture. I flee and search for a safe place. I have nothing material to offer. So, I find a kind powerful man in Jesus. I crawl under his cover and ask for protection……..for redemption……..for grace.

Am I really any different from the “illegal” at our southern border?

All I can offer………is relationship.

But, just like Ruth, that is enough. Relationship is what my redeemer wants from me.

At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter.

Ruth 4: 8-10,ESV