MORE HARD STUFF . . . LIKE POPPY SEEDS

I've discovered two things as we've dug into the hard stuff Jesus says in the Gospels.

One is that even though I may not get it all cleared up and straight in my mind (I'm not even sure I'm supposed to), I'm feeling closer to Jesus, as if in asking the questions I have to draw in to hear the answers. The process definitely explains why in the Gospels, nine times out of ten the question someone asks is not the question he answers, because the answer to THEIR question was not what the person needed to know. (If I'm making any sense, read on!)

The second thing I've discovered is that it isn't always what Jesus says that's difficult to swallow, but the way so many people have traditionally interpreted it. Take today's passage for example -- Matthew 17: 14-21.

A man desperate to have his seizure-ridden son healed reports to Jesus that the disciples couldn't do anything for him. Jesus says (as interpreted in The Message):  "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?" As I have already confessed, if those words had been delivered to me, I would have run crying to the nearest restroom. Well, except that Jesus immediately had the boy brought to him and "ordered the afflicted demon out --and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well." Worth sticking around for.

But the disciples were disturbed, as any of us would be in the face of both their failure and Jesus' disappointment in them. Once they had Jesus off to themselves, they asked him why they weren't able to throw the demon out. Here's where I think we start to get tangled up. Jesus says:

        "Because you're not yet taking God seriously . . . The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle."

That one verse has probably been more misused than any other in the Bible (with the exception of the one about wives submitting to their husbands . . .) How many people in the last 2,000 years have been told, or told themselves, that if they'd just had enough faith, the spouse would not have died, the kid wouldn't have gone astray, the miscarriage wouldn't have taken place, the business wouldn't have toppled, etc. etc., ad nauseum. That gross misinterpretation of Jesus' words has probably been responsible for more guilt than twenty generations of nagging mothers. So much toxic theology has grown from that, it has at times threatened to poison us as a community of believers. I'm sure it's turned more than a few people away from God when their faith "failed" and they were sick of trying.

I'm thinking the people who interpret this portion of Scripture that way must have been home sick with chicken pox the week figurative language was taught in English class (I was out with the pox when Roman numerals were covered and I never have gotten past XIX. Why did people ever put whole years in Roman numerals on monuments, for Pete's sake?) Jesus was no plain speaker -- he was the ultimate master of figurative speech. "A mere kernel of faith, maybe a poppy seed" -- what a wonderful metaphor. "You would tell this mountain, "move!' and it would move- -" a superb example of hyperbole. Jesus himself didn't move mountains (not that he couldn't have) and he doesn't expect us to. And I don't think he has casting out epilsepsy on our list of must-dos, either, or there would be no children of Christian parents with seizure disorders. As I study this passage, I see Jesus once again answering a different question than the one that was asked. We don't need to know why we can't rearrange the Rockies and then go away burdened with guilt because we'll never pull it off. But we do need to know what faith looks like, in its tiniest and yet highly effective form.

        It's my friend Pammy praying for her special needs daughter to be healed, but at the same time trusting that God will continue to pull them both through to tomorrow.

        It's my friend Joyce wanting to give up her writing because after umpteen years she still wasn't published, but finishing just one more manuscript that will be in the front of every Barnes and Noble store this August. No kidding. (The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow, Abingdon Press)

        It's Becca Stevens of Nashville's Magdalene House, watching a recovering prostitute relapse, and still turning her attention to the ones who are responding to the love and the hope and the strength of her program.

        It's every one of us who, like Captain in the picture above with friend Dawn, paces and barks and whines and struggles at the dock, and finally takes the plunge into what we were made to do. And it's knowing we won't drown in the process. 

What I'm thinking is that we each need to wake up every morning with our own personal poppy seed clutched in our hand -- and we need to open up our palm to God and say, "Do what you will with this today." That's not a name-it-and-claim-it theology. I can't say, "God, I know you're going to heal me from fibromyalgia," when I don't, in fact, know that. He CAN, but is that what I need? Or do I need to draw closer and live a more balanced life and stay quiet more? That poppy seed of faith tells me great things will happen. I just don't get to decide what they are.

That's what I'm thinking Jesus is telling us when he says, in essence, 'Get focused, people. Get serious about God. Watch me.' That's what I'm thinking. What are you thinking? What's your little kernel of faith? As always, I would love to hear.

Blessings,

Nancy Rue           
 

Comments

[Kay Day]

I got first comment!
It's not as exciting as I thought it would be.

I'm thinking right along the same lines you are. Beth Moore says something like, if God doesn't move the mountain, than get ready to climb. Either way, we are getting it under our feet.

And that may look just like the scenarios you described. Living victoriously through something is just as huge as eliminating the thing. Even huger, actually.

[Mary Kay]

Thank you, Nancy and Kay. Great perspectives.

I learned long ago (when I still weighed about 50 pounds!!) that my brain hurt when I tried to figure out some of God's ways. (Such as--but what's beyond the moon, then the solar system, then the galaxy, then...?) There are just some concepts my mind doesn't stretch far enough to grasp. For me, that meant resting in faith that it's the truth--even if I don't get it. And that's what I did with a lot of the "hard stuff" you're sharing, Nancy.

But it is sooo neat when a perspective shifts just a bit and throws a gift of comprehension, like the sun through a drop of rain tossing off a rainbow. "A poppy seed of faith tells me great things will happen. I just don't get to decide what they are."
Thanks for the rainbow!
Blessings,
Mary Kay

[Mocha with Linda]

I think poppy seeds are just another term for baby steps. We expect ourselves to have it all together much more than God ever does. The Pharisees wanted to have these great discussions and debates, and they were the ones Jesus scorned and dismissed their so-called faith. The "sinners" fell at His feet, touched His garment, and begged for mercy. They recognized His greatness. The greater the object of one's faith, the smaller the faith needed. Powerless objects require an awful lot of faith!

One thing I think is a struggle particularly for Christians in America, as opposed to other cultures, is placing our faith in GOD. Period. Not placing our faith in what God's going to do for us. That's why folks have such a crisis of faith when He doesn't "perform" according to their expectation. We have to come to the point like Job where we say "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15) Or like Esther, "If I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16) He is sufficient.

If not getting what we ask for means our faith is weak, then Jesus was not the perfect man we say. Because He prayed "Let this cup pass from me." But He also had faith that God's purpose was greater than His circumstance because He intimately knew and trusted God.

I'm visited my sister-in-law's Bible Study with her this morning, and loved how Beth Moore described this regarding Esther.
Whatever "outcome" we are wanting, we often think "if _________ happens, then ________," with the first blank being whatever is our worst-case scenario (the opposite of our prayed-for outcome), and the last blank being "my faith wasn't strong enough" or "I won't be able to stand it." We need to get to the point that we say "if ______, then God."

Sometimes I think what we call "faith" is really no more than Dorothy clicking her heels together in wishful thinking. If we can settle completely in our minds that God is good and loving and wants what is best for us eternally, then that is when we have faith in Him, and not in whether He bows to our every desire like a sugar daddy.

And that is much easier to type than do! Which is another reason He honors those poppy seed baby steps! "I believe. Help my unbelief." (Mark 9:24)

Okay, I'm done rambling. . . .

[Kay Day]

Linda, your comment reminded me of some of my favorite verses.
In Habakkuk he is moaning and complaining to God, "When are you going to do something about these violent sinners?" Referring to Judah, and I'm paraphrasing.
God says, "Wait until you see what I'm going to do! You will be amazed! I am raising up a band of wicked, Godless, violent, terrible men to come in and wipe them out! These Chaldeans will sweep through like the wind!"

Well, Habakkuk had to wrestle with that a bit until he comes to my favorite part in vs 17-18:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation."

If ________ happens, then I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

[Pam Halter]

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Here's a quote from a book my dear friend, Candy Abbott, gave me. It's called "A Special Kind of Love" by Susan Titus Osborn and Janet Lynn Mitchell. It's a collection of stories of people who are parents, grandparents and friends of people with special needs of all kinds. It's wonderful! In the book, Karen Kosman says, "God sees beyond any physical deformity to the beauty within us. So is God really saying no if the prayed-for miracle never materializes? Perhaps the true miracle is when hope and faith remain even in the midst of tears and disappointment - and when the human heart accepts God's sovereignty."

WOW!!

One of my favorite books is Hind's Feet on High Places. It's an allegory of our journey with Christ. During the main character's journey to the High Places, she wonders if she should continue to follow the Shepherd. Her name is Much Afraid. Here's my favorite part:

Now she could make her own choice. Her sorrow and suffering could be ended at once and she could plan her life in the way she liked best, without the Shepherd.

During that awful moment or two it seemed to Much Afraid that she was actually looking into an abyss of horror, into an exsistance in which there was no Shepherd to follow or trust or to love - no Shepherd at all, nothing but her own horrible self. Ever after, it seemed that she had looked straight down into Hell. At the end of that moment Much Afraid shrieked - there is no other word for it.

To paraphrase the rest, she calls for the Shepherd, who comes immediately and she begs Him not to let her leave Him. She tells Him he may do anything - even deceive her - but don't let her go.

It takes my breath away. Such love!! I want that love! Don't we all?

[joyce magnin]

"That poppy seed of faith tells me great things will happen. I just don't get to decide what they are."
Thank you for this Nancy. The thing about poppy seeds is they get stuck in your teeth and you grind away and grind away and pick at and pick at. THs is what I did, I worried the seed, I named it and gave it its importance instead of simply and completely handing it over to God and saying, your will not mine. I think I missed out on much blessing because of my greed for the seed, as it were. But I'm learning, God is blessing beyond belief in spite of my greed, and I can now wake up every morning and simply, gently, and with trust hand the poppy to him and say, it's yours lord. and you know, relinquishing the seed is sometimes easier than holding it for so long. Thank you for being one of the planters God brought along side of me teaching, praying and loving me through it. And if it's all right with you, I might continue this conversation over at my blog.