Culture

For thousands of years it has been held that spitting upon a person, especially spitting on the face of a person is severe degradation.  The point was included in the Law of Moses.  Recovery from such an act took seven days of privacy for the degraded person.  The practice and the throwing of one’s shoe, remain as signs of dehumanizing persons in some cultures to the present day.  None is taken as more the testimony of degradation as spitting in the face of a rejected human being.  Chapter 9 in John’s Gospel is entirely taken up with the act of Jesus using his own spittle, accenting its qualities by mixing it with the dirt of the ground, plastering it on the eyes of a stranger blind from birth, ordering him to go and wash off the mud, and by doing so the man would see.  The event led to a major confrontation that included the man, his family, the community, the clergy, and Jesus.  The controversy offered no glory that a blind man could now see, but whether the whole matter was a violation of the interpretation of the authorized personnel of the meaning of the Mosaic Law in responses of the facts reported by the man healed.  Jesus’ context was not considered.

Last week, from this writing, a man dying made a last request.  He wanted once more to be in the woods and out of doors before his last breath.  He had been a Ranger in Washington State, and wanted once more to breathe the air of the forest and smell the vegetation.  The local fire department hearing of the request determined to give the man his wish, and spent some hours in compassionate service to this dying man.  The response on the internet was, at first, reflective of the grace of God to all concerned in the event.  Then the responses warded off the references that made the act appear in a divine context, and the exchanges became ugly in the back and forth on belief or unbelief about God.  The dear man was pushed away while some humanists, now unfeeling about the real event wanted persons to know that it was the thing to do without any reference to deity.  Of course it was, and the humanist can say so if that is what they want to do, but do so in the light that a good thing is a good thing whether one believes in God or not.  Why do so many unbelievers want to tilt at windmills?  Whether I believe in God, or do not, there is a decency that belongs to all persons.  That decency may generate from God, whether credited to him or not.  It may be built within us, and if not followed becomes a sin against mankind by mankind, or a sin against God and mankind by mankind.  To argue between those of faith and those of nature over the cause is out of order in this instance.  We are pleased with the acts of the fire department and all those who demonstrated compassion for whatever reason they wished to find for doing a random act of kindness.  God honors that.

Christians should witness their faith any time they may if their attitudes and motives are right. God does not need to be approved.  He needs nothing from us.  He needs to be declared.  If believers in God become so angry they want to enter warfare with weapons of words or explosives, God will honor the atheist over the militant.  God and thoughtful men and women want mankind to live in love and peace – in whatever their culture may be.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for declaration of affirmative life and that to live by.  If there is to be approved fight, he can order legions of angels to the fray.  Guess who will win.  To reject God as a part of the context of life is not an unimaginable loss to God, but an enormous loss for mankind.

We have a few glimpses of the oddities of God with mankind in attempts to gain attention to his meaning for us: the single event at the Temple when Jesus was twelve years of age; the single event of the spittle and the blind man (others appear not to have needed any process in miracle); the one event of anger with Jesus cracking a whip over the money-changers at the Temple; the regal ride with ceremony as he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – and more that informs us of the darkness in man that hides the light of meaning that God is willing to give to those who seek him, and are willing to acknowledge his involvement. There is blessing in these events in the lives of Jesus and passers-by entering into conflict or relationship with him.  Some persons want to go it alone.  It is permitted, but human folly for the impenitent in personal pride.