I was caught a few weeks ago by an advert which my daughter pointed out to me on TV - it promised on an auction site that I might get a computer for a few pounds or a car for even less. I decided to, somewhat cynically, investigate. There is that old adage that things which look too good to be true usually are and this turned out to be a penny auction scheme, where each bit is only a penny but you pay between 75p and £1.50 to place it. You can do the maths -if 500 people bid on something it can be said to sell for £5.00 but the 500 lots of at least 75p per bid make a nice chunk of money for the company and so the real cost of these items ends up being hyperinflated.
Jesus warning today (here) is not about money making websites but it is about being aware that not everyone who seems good on the surface is good underneath. I am sure that we all know the problem of meeting people who seem really nice and then, after a few minutes, we realise that they have their own agenda which is never going to consider the well-being of those around us. When it is obvious that someone just wants to sell us something or just wants us to do something it is easy enough to make the decision to walk away, or not, depending on our own needs and desires.
But I think Jesus is telling us something deeper as well. To me this speaks of the peddlers of easy answers and simplistic theology. I suspect we have all come across this too - but it is very alluring because it preys on our doubts. If someone says to me that they have all the answers, that all I have to do is follow the rules (which often involve heavy financial support of their organization) and that if I do what I am told I will get to heaven then there is a very small part of me that wonders, if only for a moment, whether that would not be an easier path. After all to live life assured of the eternal outcome and guaranteeing that outcome by my own effort.......that seems like a great deal.
But that is where the wolf comes in. There is no one on earth who can make us that guarantee of being with God - that is the job that Jesus did and does and Jesus did and does it by dying and rising. Jesus is where our assurance is - an because of that we have to deal with all that we are and that includes those parts of us which do not sit easy with some of the things we encounter.
Of course it might be easier to switch a part of our brains off, to turn God into some sort of vindictive monster who allows the bad things to happen for some eternal purpose but will keep us and ours safe. The problems is that this sort of thinking destroys the very humanity in us which Jesus came to redeem and ultimately bring home to himself.
To some things there are no easy and immediate answers - but we do have trust. Not that we can make it all go away by formulaic religion - but that everything about us and our world are somehow held by God in love, somehow redeemed in the cross and somehow can be filled up and healed by the Holy Spirit. But that does not mean ease, or that we get flowers in winter.
Jesus talks both about false shepherds - those who claim to be the Messiah but will run away at the sight of the jaws of the wolf and false sheep - those who claim to follow him but point, ultimately to themselves and their own greedy bellies. Much of this revolves around money, but people also love power and influence.
Jesus doesn't give us an easy check list of things - but he asks us to look carefully. Where are the people who would influence us really coming from, what sorts of lives do they live, how do they conduct themselves. Perhaps this is why we are still so engulfed by public scandal - we sense a wolf when someone in public office proves themselves to be devious in any area of their life.
Look carefully, look at the fruit and the roots - both our own and those of those around us. Jesus wants all of us to grow up from him and to bear his fruit - hard as that can be in a field of thorns.
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