I know, I know. 21st Century sensitivities get all squirmy over gender sounds. But seriously, the word makes me smile; couldn’t we say that it has a fun sound? Couldn’t we say it is apropos?
Now come with me off to Luke 12 and a ‘tramply’ moment.
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1–ESV)
Just beyond the inner circle of Christ’s disciples were those drawn by a variety of cords: sincerity, need, curiosity, hostility. There was another cord binding another force trampling that day one reigning internal. Sin, self-service, rebellion, my way, call it what you will but none then and none now are exempt.
From the middle of the crowd-crush Jesus reached in, plucked up a rat by its tail: hypocrisy. The lesson of Christ was not to the Pharisee but to the disciples and we. That day Christ taught a universal lesson on a human problem, an human antagonist. It is personal. Christ’s arrival on the planet, a.k.a. the incarnation, was to target the enmeshment of personal sin. Sin is our antagonist. We could say sin is the mantagonist and Jesus is the rescuer.
All too relevant here is the issue of hypocrisy. Disciples then and disciples now are tempted by our own evil desires. “I am not like them.” But we are. Is that not the heart of this matter? We have been given the gift of the cross to treat the crux of this matter. Alexander Pope said, “To err is human.” Those four words are only the beginning, three more were penned that 16th Century day: “To forgive: divine.” So, God has forgiven us by sending Jesue to trample the mantagonist: sin.
From the relationship restored God reveals to us important things. Knowing these things we have a responsibility. 1 What will we do with knowledge like this? Will we sit at the feet of Christ and learn? David wrote (Psalm 16) that he praised the Lord who counseled him. Counseling and instruction are the words of knowledge. We must close the loop by living that knowledge.
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