Aug 23, 2020
Would Jesus SPIT YOU OUT?
8-24-20
“If you’re not for us, you’re against us.”
“The friend of my enemy is my enemy,” or variations.
“Decide this day who you will serve.”
… and a hundred similar aphorisms. These are not fortune-cookie sayings or snippets of advice. They truly are life-rules, and are best understood when put into use… when circumstances oblige us to make choices.
I have mentioned before how once when I visited Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist (Maus) and his wife Francoise Mouly, now Art Director of The New Yorker, they were eager to have me explain, if I could, an ad they saw in a magazine. It offered T-shirts, one of which bore the legend “Don’t let Jesus spit you out.”
Surely a curious message for those who are not Christians (and, I’m afraid, many who are); or those who are not familiar with the challenging book of the Apocalypse, Revelation.
The full title of the Bible’s last book, in many translations, is The Revelation of Jesus Christ To His Servant John. The elderly Apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos off the Greek coast, a penal colony, for evangelizing in Ephesus. It was on Patmos that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the words of End Times, messages to the major churches of the day, and, many believe, describing the stages of spiritual maturity of believers as represented by future history’s unfolding dispensations.
The words to the churches are… revelatory, and often harsh. Lessons to all believers. They should be read without confusion by Christians who identify with the challenges, shortcomings, and warnings. Some passages:
I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead…. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
… I am coming quickly; hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
And to the Church at Laodicea, which many think is a picture of the Christian church of our times:
The faithful and true Witness… says this:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to receive from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Can these words be true? Chilling, if so!
Jesus would prefer that you are totally sold out for Him (hot)? Or prefer ice-cold nominal Christians, or lax church-goers (cold)? Prefer over “lukewarm” Christians?
Of course it makes sense, and that fact, if lukewarm Christians would stop to think about it, should make them deathly afraid. Jesus does not even say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you,” another famous verse… because lukewarm Christians do not really know the Savior in the first place.
What can be more graphic than virtually “spitting someone out”? – Distaste, disgust, rejection. Jesus warns that He will do it… and that we can bring this on ourselves.
This is surely good theology; it was spoken by the Son of God, in a “letter” written directly to “the Church at ———” (you may supply your home address there).
Beyond theology, there is no better user’s manual, so to speak, in life.
It might not have application in every moment of life, through history (yes, it does, but that’s another message) but it surely resonates today! The threats in this world… the crisis in our nation… the turmoil on our streets, and parks, and neighborhoods, and churches, and government offices… demand that we not be lukewarm.
We cannot be lukewarm in the face of efforts to destroy our heritage. How can you be lukewarm about the destruction of police headquarters, and the homes and shops of average citizens and neighbors? We should be spit out if we are lukewarm about the assault on secular and sacred statues – the Founders of this nation, and of Jesus, Mary, and saints – as we merely watch on TV.
It should against the law to be lukewarm in the face of such things.
Actually, it is. Against God’s law.
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Click: Halleluyah in Jerusalem
God reproves and disciplines those he loves. I remember my joy at first reading this. I was alone and sad and realized that God had sent me into the Wilderness to find Him. He knew me and cared about me, but He expected things from me. Action. Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:14 is a call to action. So is much of the Gospel of Luke. God help us to overcome! Rick, the powerful readings you chose seem to tell us that the very measure of our success in this world, this wilderness, is our ability to overcome challenges and defend our faith and Christian way of life. If we accept defeat, we fail miserably. I pray we don’t disappoint our Father.