Space Invaders

Years ago, I banned video games from my home and pulled my computer games into the trash, too. Too often they had held me captive longer than they should. I knew first-hand just how addictive they could be and saw how pernicious they were for some young men who lived with us. When they should have been finding work and taking their first steps to success they were instead battling imaginary enemies. Unable to conquer their sins and worthless desires, they fancied themselves conquerors of empires.

We are never shown Jesus indulging in an act of personal amusement. He came to do a job and did it. When his enemies took up stones to kill him he said, “Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?” (John 10:32).

Christ before Ciaphas.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie Radio (based on a true story) has Coach Harold Jones (well-played by Ed Harris) criticized in the barber shop for brefriending Radio, a young man with a disability. Rather than defend himself with many words, he asks, “Is that what you think Radio is? A Distraction?” Setting down his coffee cup he adds in a calm voice, “Think I’m going to do us all a big favor and let you all finish this one on your own.”

Whether or not that was the real character of Jones (he loses his temper with a referee once), he comes across as terse, wise and self-controlled in this scene and several others. It aptly illustrates Solomon’s proverb.

Jesus illustrates it even better. His teachings were terse and memorable. His responses to heckling and to honest questions were brief, well-considered, and to the point. On several occasions (most notably with the woman taken in adultery, and at his trials), the Gospels comment on his silence. In all these things, he showed true knowledge and understanding.

Robert Boyle, a Christian maker of modern science, struggled with doubts early in his Christian life.

After Robert Boyle committed his life to God at the age of sixteen, he struggled against thoughts of suicide. The reason? Much of the “science” of the seventeenth century went so contrary to the Word of God that he was torn in his mind. Both could not be true.

In the end he opted for the Word of God but determined to study the sciences to see if he could sort out the truth for himself. The results were peace of mind and new light on the sciences. He exposed the errors of alchemy, moved the world toward a more accurate understanding of chemistry, and became a charter member of the Royal Society. He proved in his own person that true science and reasonable faith are not at odds.

The legacy of his faith was of great value to national culture and to science. As his confidence grew, he shared his thoughts with contemporaries. They made bestsellers of his science object lessons. More importantly (as far as the present age is concerned) it was in refuting certain skeptical propositions of Thomas Hobbes that Boyle promulgated his law of gases which still stands. He created the scientific paper as we know it, which describes the hypothesis, tools, and conditions of an experiment.

Moving from the example of Boyle to that of Christ, it is evident that our Savior committed his ways to the Father. He did so with such fullness that he could say “I and the Father are one” (John 10). As a result his thoughts were recorded by his followers and are established as scripture throughout the entire world. So certain was Christ of the validity of his words and his unity with the Father that he could call everyone to take his yoke upon them and learn from him (Matthew 11:28-30). Now that is the ultimate example of having one’s thoughts established.

Peter Cartwright, fearless evangelist.

Peter Cartwright, a frontier evangelist in 19th-century America, was noted for his boldness. He spoke fearlessly of the things of Christ to high and low. In one notable instance, he warned “Old Hickory,” General Andrew Jackson, future president of the United States, that unless he repented, he would be damned to hell just as surely as the lowliest slave who rejected Christ.

Another preacher apologized for Cartwright’s blunt words. Jackson retorted that Christ’s ministers ought to love everyone and fear no mortal man. He added that he wished he had thousands of officers with the courage of Cartwright.

Jesus, too, did not flatter with the tongue. When Peter tried to tell him he did not have to go to the cross, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God.” That retort taught Peter—and us—a more memorable lesson than a thousand soft words would have done.

Inside McCormick's blacksmith shop in Virginia.

There was a time in the United States (and much of the rest of the world) when every able-bodied person was needed to get in the harvest. It made no sense to increase acreage in wheat, because the window for reaping was so narrow and the number of hands required to get the crop in was so great. Had any able-bodied farm-boy slept over-late at harvest, he would have been the butt of scorn. As it was, despite the best efforts of farmers, hogs had to be turned into the fields to fatten when the grain became overripe.

Cyrus McCormick changed that by inventing the first machine with the seven essential parts of a true reaper. He was jeered at first and his efforts considered folly because his reaper did not work well on the uneven, hilly ground of his native Virginia. But he persisted, and the US became the breadbasket of the world.

Jesus placed this whole concept on a spiritual level. There are fields of souls waiting for harvest. He commanded his disciples to reap them now and set the example as God’s only begotten son. Will we not be rebuked in the judgment if we have idled our hours and allowed our neighbors to perish without the word of truth?

Seal of the University of Paris.

As an older adult returning to school to pick up some skills, I notice that many of the youngsters seem serious about education. But there is a large subgroup attending for other reasons. Some have come to play. Others to find a mate. Still others seek reinforcement for ideas they have already picked up, or the chance to organize others around an ideal. Returning students, as a whole, seem more determined to get their money’s worth.

This generation is no different in that respect than others. I noted the same tendencies when I was in college as a teenager. Perhaps a rich father was footing the bill of the wastrel—or the government. That is why I like the New Living Translation for this verse. “It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.”

Wasted educational opportunities are not a problem limited to our time. Accounts of roistering, rioting, and recklessness crop up with fair frequency in the histories of great educational institutions. For example, the St. Scholastica Day riot at Oxford in 1355 began with a dispute over beer. It left 63 scholars and half as many townsfolk dead. A Shrove Tuesday strike in Paris in 1229 also began over drink—a tavern bill. Angry students smashed businesses with wooden clubs. In retaliation, city guards cornered and killed a group of students.

We have no record that Christ attended school. However, he had clearly set himself to learn what God the Father desired even while young, as his tough questions to the religious leaders in the temple at twelve years of age showed. At thirty, he became a rabbi (teacher).

His hearers formed a cross-section similar to modern students. Some scoffed. Some listened but went away, forgetting immediately what he said. Others “followed from afar.” A few took his words to heart and became the first Christians, who transformed the world through their master’s power.

John Nelson Darby

Two of the most influential theologians of the 19th-century were probably not men you would have felt comfortable with for any length of time. J.N. Darby and Arthur Pink each felt they had the corner on truth and had no use for anyone who didn’t hold their opinions and methods. It was a sad spectacle to see how each narrowed their circle and narrowed it again until almost no one remained in it. Darby, who had once been a leader in the Plymouth Brethren, formed his own small exclusive group of churches called Darbyites. Pink and his wife moved to an island to live alone, refusing association with any church at all, although issuing an influential teaching newsletter.

You have to realize that the men they were renouncing were of the caliber of George Mueller and D. L. Moody.

Contrast that with their Lord, who took a much broader view. When John told him “Master, we saw a man casting out devils in your name, and he does not follow us: and we forbade him, because he does not follow us.”

But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him: for there is no man who will do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Alfred the Great at his studies.

Unlike some historic princes who treated their people as so many creatures to be plundered, tortured, and misused at will, Alfred the Great recognized the importance of people and their diverse abilities.

In a famous comment in his translation of Boethius he wrote, “…no man can show any skill, nor exercise or control any power, without tools and materials. There are of every craft the materials without which man cannot exercise the craft. These, then, are a king’s materials and his tools to reign with: that he have his land well peopled; he must have prayer-men, and soldiers, and workmen. You know that without these tools no king can show his craft.”

Jesus accepted many of the limitations of earthly kings, choosing not to achieve his goals by fiat. Instead, he works through a people, who he himself draws and prepares for his work, and empowers with necessary gifts so that they can carry out his work. Like Alfred, he relies upon people to allow him to demonstrate his “craft.”

Godless Cardinal Wolsey

Cardinal Wolsey, after a long life of wickedness, which included every kind of self-indulgence, extortion, political maneuvering and worldliness, fell afoul of his master, King Henry VIII. The King summoned him to London to give an accounting.

Knowing that he would most likely be found guilty and executed, the churchman dosed himself so heavily with purges that he died. Before death took him, he said, “Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.”

What a contrast Christ Jesus presents to Wolsey. Because of his faultless and disciplined life, which sacrificed everything for obedience, God did not allow him to see corruption, but raised him from the dead, to reign forever and ever. He had no lament of failure as he went to his death.

The Death of Ananias by Masaccio.

One of the most terrifying stories in the Bible is that of Ananias and Sapphira. This pair sold a field, and held back some of the money, but wanting a reputation as great givers, pretended they had given the whole amount. There was nothing wrong with keeping some back. The sin lay in the pretense. God slew them, saying they had lied to the Holy Spirit. They had given a hypocritical gift, but God saw through it.

A man who lived not far from me gave a false gift of another sort. He gave his church large sums he could not afford, and when he had backed himself into a financial corner, attempted to stage an “accidental” death on his wife and children so he could collect their insurance. The fruits of his hypocrisy ruined himself and destroyed his family.

Christ’s giving, by contrast, was thoroughly genuine and cost him more than we can understand with our present knowledge.