Who's The Fool?

How was your celebration of Easter this last weekend?  I had the pleasure of hosting our two girls and their families over at our house on Sunday afternoon.  Needless to say, we all had a very enjoyable time laughing, telling stories and watching the antics of our two grandchildren.  I thought that I had done a pretty admirable job in baby-proofing the living room… but somehow, little Silas still found potentially unsafe objects that he could play with. 

Most of all though… I think that Fiver had the best time playing with the grandkids, swapping licks, and chasing each other.  As soon as they left, he hit the floor and didn’t seem to have any thought of moving until I prepared his dinner a little while later!

One thing that I’ve come to notice in Piper’s absence on all the holidays and special family events, is that I feel kind of lost… or out of touch and a little bit clumsy when it comes to how to respond to them.  You see, while Piper and I did a lot of things together, we tended to lean on each other’s expertise for whatever the task was at hand and therefore she always took the lead for these special holidays and events, and I happily played the role of her able-bodied assistant. 

Similar to the way in which I would plan out and finely detail ministry events and even family vacations, she would plan and prep for the holidays well in advance.  Therefore, we would have plenty of advance notice and understand what was coming and when!  Now that she is absent from my world and luxuriating in heaven, I find that I am realizing what event is coming upon us… just a few days before the event… and then clumsily scrambling to get things done!  Tell me the truth… Is there anyone else like that out there?

But… putting all of that aside, we did have a nice family gathering… even if I did have WAY too much food!  I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the knack that Piper had in expertly planning and purchasing the food supplies for family and church events!

One “knack” that I have developed though, since she got sick, was to really personalize my understanding of God’s Word… and in particular… concerning what each of the Biblical Holidays that we celebrate… really mean to me!

The first thing that I did early on Easter Sunday morning was to open up my Bible and study Luke’s version of the Resurrection of Christ found in chapter 24, verses 1-49.  I could spend weeks discussing the miraculous events that are described in this chapter and perhaps I will at another time, but for today’s post… there was one verse in particular that stood out to me.

This event took place later in the day on that first Easter when,

“Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a journey of about seventeen miles.”  (Luke 24:13 TPT)

And as you can imagine, their heads were probably spinning with questions over all that had happened over the last few days that culminated with the report of an empty tomb and the rumor that Jesus had risen from the dead.  The two men where in deep discussion about the events that they had witnesses when Jesus (unbeknownst to them) suddenly joined them on their journey.

He asked what they were talking about and the men were shocked that the stranger seemed to know nothing of the startling situation that was shaking up the entire countryside.  I got the impression from the discussion that followed, that the men were almost making fun of the stranger’s ignorance of the current events.  But then Jesus made a comment that really opened my eyes to some things that I have vividly experienced in the past... and see history repeating itself in our country today.

After listening to the two men’s retelling of the morning’s activities and witnessing the look of shock and confusion on their faces,

“Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are! You're so slow to believe everything the prophets said!”  (Luke 24:25 God’s Word ©)

His comments must have gotten their attention as they raptly listened to Him while He promptly took them through the Old Testament scriptures and shared all the teachings and prophecies of Moses and the prophets that talked about the coming of the Messiah.  I think that it is even funnier that after all of that, the two men still didn’t recognize Jesus and because of the late hour of the day, convinced Him to stay with them.  But they finally recognized Him when He broke bread with them, blessed the bread and gave it to them to eat.

It was the specific choice of Jesus’ words in Luke 24:25 that especially grabbed my attention.  Once it was pretty clear to Jesus that these men… who had been hanging out with Him for three years… still didn’t comprehend the what and why of what happened when He arose from the dead, He called them “FOOLISH!”  One translation repeats the exclamation twice in order to make Jesus’ point even more pronounced.

Various other versions insert different descriptive words saying, “How INCONSIDERATE, UNTHINKING, SENSE-LESS, DEFICIENT IN UNDERSTANDING or THOUGHTLESS you are.”  The word “FOOLISH” in the original language is defined as “unintelligent, sensual, unwise, inconsiderate and brutish.” (Strong’s, Thayer’s and Mounce)

Therefore, the use of the word “FOOLISH” has a deeper connotation than our modern understanding of someone who is simply acting silly, unwise or rash.  Jesus seems to be declaring that individuals who are slow to believe the inspired words of the sacred writings… which today would include the New Testament as well… are in effect, acting inconsiderately and thoughtlessly toward others, aren’t thinking straight, are living without much common sense… and plainly stated… are deficient in their ability to understand the gospel truth!

And as you can imagine, that statement of His hit home with me, as Piper and I had been accused of acting according to all those discrepancies as we sought to follow what we understood to be the way of faith during her time of infirmity… When according to Jesus’ understanding… the ones making the false accusations… were the actual guilty parties! 

And history repeats itself over and over again… as we have seen the political party in power in our country making the same accusations of the other party… only to be clearly and decisively proven incorrect – NOW- as the truth continues to come out!

I also thought it to be very interesting when I observed that the two men were so wrapped up in their own storyline… that they totally missed it when Jesus Himself – as living proof to the prophecies of old… stood in their very midst.  We saw that unfold in our lives some five years after people prophesied that we were going to go broke and then continued to speak of it as is it were fact... even after we had moved to North Carolina and paid cash for a new home.

In the political world, we see the same as the devastating policies of the DNC are falling apart at the seams, inflation is at all time highs and crime is running rampant in Democrat run cities across the country… while the leaders of the DNC continue to deny it, lie about great gains and turn a blind eye to the death and devastation in our cities!

So who then… is the INCONSIDERATE, UNTHINKING, SENSE-LESS, DEFICIENT IN UNDERSTANDING or THOUGHTLESS ones?  Those of us who are quick to follow after, believe and then DO the truth of God and His Word… or those who don’t?  The truth of the matter is pretty easy to see… whether one wants to deny it or not!

If you’re anything like me… then you don’t want to be considered SLOW to dig in and LIVE according to the principles laid out in the Word of God… wouldn’t you agree?  I don’t really care anymore if people want to call me “FOOLISH.”  What makes ALL the difference to me though, is what JESUS thinks about my life…

HOW ABOUT YOU?