Jesus
in Jerusalem
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the June 4, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“Jesus
spoke to them again in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king
who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had
been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell those who have been invited
that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been
butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.” But they paid
no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.’” Matthew
22:1-5, NIV
Seventy-five years ago, tensions were building in the
South Pacific as the United States and Japan were about to explode into open
conflict over control of the Pacific. That explosion finally came on December
7, 1941 with the launching of a successful surprise air attack against Pearl
Harbor and surrounding military facilities by the Japanese Naval Air Force.
Serious damage was done to American naval capabilities in the Pacific theatre.
The sunken battleship, U.S.S. Arizona remains at the bottom of the harbor as a
continuing memorial of that day and as mausoleum for the 1,102 sailors and
marines entombed within her. However, as surprising and horrific as that attack
was, it was only the beginning of a much larger planned offensive.
The next day, Japanese aircraft swept over the
Philippines and destroyed much of the American air power there, catching them
on the tarmac instead of in the air defending the islands. Within two weeks’
time, the Japanese were assaulting Luzon with beach landings of over 43,000
troops. While the Americans had more than twice that number, many of those were
support troops, and with little logistical support due to the damage inflicted
at Pearl Harbor, defense of the island was difficult. Add to that the
destruction of air support which allowed the Japanese unchallenged air
superiority, and the fate of the American forces and their Filipino allies
could probably be read in the grim lines of the faces of those charged with leading
the defense against the Japanese onslaught. The commanding general, Douglas
MacArthur, was ordered to Australia by President Roosevelt, leaving General
Jonathan Wainwright to preside over the largest surrender of American forces to
an enemy before or since. An army base in Alaska is named for him in honor of
the difficult command that capped his career.
Many stories of heroism tend to arise from the smoke of
battle, and the battle for Luzon, Bataan, and Corregidor was no different. The
experiences of Lieutenant Damon Gause[i] stand out among those
shared by survivors of the conflict. He escaped from the Japanese on Bataan by
killing one of his guards and fleeing to the water between Bataan and
Corregidor. He invited other prisoners to escape with him, but all decided
their captivity was safer than attempting escape. Many of those captives he
never saw again. Eventually making his way across the water he rejoined the
fight in the defense of Corregidor. When that battle was lost, he escaped
capture and fled to Luzon. He then managed to live on Luzon for several months,
even making trips to Manila disguised as a Spanish immigrant to the
Philippines. Eventually, he obtained a boat and decided to make for the safety
of Australia. Before doing so, he sent a flier by the hand of a Filipino
courier inviting any Americans still hiding out to join him in his oceanic
escape. One, Captain Lloyd Osborne, on the left in our picture with Gause and
the boat, responded to the flier and came to join the effort. No one else came.
They traveled through several storms, had many close
encounters with the Japanese, even spending time in a leper colony to avoid
capture. The finicky engine on their boat only ran intermittently. They were
strafed by Japanese aircraft, wounding Osborne and almost sinking their boat.
Yet somehow, in spite of all the challenges and thanks to a compass given to
them by the doctor at the leper colony, they made it to Wyndham, Australia.
Gause, eventually promoted to major, was reassigned to the European theatre
where he perished due to the failure of his aircraft while on a noncombat
flight which seems ironic given his earlier tremendous struggle to survive. He
was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic escape from the
Philippines.
What is significant for our lesson this week is not
Lieutenant Gause’s heroism as laudable as that might be, but the singularity of
his determination when all others chose to simply accept their lot and whatever
might come. Where Gause took control and responsibility for what would happen
to him, others chose to give up control and submit to fate. Perhaps this
attitude, more than any other, contributed to the fall of the Philippines.
Unfortunately, this same attitude existed within the church in Jesus time. In
spite of His repeated attempts to call the world to Him, most seemed to feel
that things were just fine the way they were, even feeling that His efforts
were threatening their security. In return, they lashed out and finally
crucified Jesus in order to preserve the status quo.[ii] Their efforts turned out
to be in vain for less than four decades later Jerusalem was destroyed and
those who sought to preserve their power, control, and way of life lost all of
it.
So when that happened, everyone learned their lesson and
things were fine, right? Well, the Apostolic Christian Church did seem to
overcome those tendencies for a while. Wealth and possessions were committed to
a common pool and proceeds from that fund were distributed based on need.[iii] But after a few
centuries had passed, particularly in the Fourth Century, when the church
gained the support of the state, the church became more and more about
collecting wealth and distributing it to those in power and less and less about
consideration of the poor and needy. As a foil to this tendency, orders like
the Franciscans tried to go the other direction, but they, too, with time, made
compromises. The concern with power, control and wealth that made Simony and
Nepotism a problem became so bad that even those within the church began to cry
out against the abuses. Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses nailed to the door
of the Wittenberg Church only expressed the volcanic reaction building up to
the excesses of the church and their indifference to the poor. For a time, the
Protestant Reformation brought some radical changes to how church was done, but
soon, the powerful and corrupt usurped that reform for their own purposes, King
Henry VIII of England perhaps foremost among them, twisting the reformation to
support his desire for serial polygamy.
Two thousand years after the birth of Christ, things
seem to have changed little. The church appears to have little desire to carry
forward the Gospel Commission.[iv] Some in response to such
an accusation might point to thousands of baptisms taking place in some far off
country. They do not seem to realize that those events only serve to even more
starkly illustrate the paucity of their efforts at home. Content to warm pews
each week and pat themselves on the back for single digit percentage growth
rates boasted by denominational publications, they fail to recognize how cold
they have become. Even those meager growth rates are only possible because of
those large baptismal events “over there.” The church sometimes seems lost in a
system where as children they are born into homes where their denomination is
given a favored place. They then attend parochial schools to isolate themselves
from the pernicious influences of the lost souls “out there.” Traveling through
the various matriculations of that system, they eventually reach the end of their
educational track and often go to work for a Christian employer, who may be
just as nominal as they are concerning the lost. Their contact with those lost
in darkness is minimal because they prefer to bask in the light themselves
rather than take it to others. They marry and have children and repeat the
cycle, hopefully rising to a position of power and influence to receive the
monetary rewards commensurate with the level of their acquiescence to the
current, indifferent order of things.
Perhaps some speak out against the lack of concern for
getting things back on the apostolic track. But if they do, they will rarely if
ever be allowed to achieve any real power to effect change from within. Like
Jesus, they will be kept on the outside of the halls of power except when
called into judgment for their supposed nihilism when they do not remain silent
about the abuses and corruption. While Jesus opposed authority that existed
only for the purpose of justifying its own existence,[v] such authority seems to
have been a siren call to the church, a siren call the church was more than
eager to listen to. Nepotism and even Simony are once again rampant in the
church as families seek to secure their hold on power on every level from the local
church all the way up to world-wide domains. Even local churches tend to
dispense power based on the amount of wealth those who desire power pour into
the coffers of the church. Don’t contribute anything to those coffers? Forget
it. You will have no say here. Doubt what I am saying? Observe how quickly a
church leader will end a conversation with a poor parishioner when a wealthy
member wants his or her attention.
Sometimes when I see such corruption amongst God’s
people, I understand Jeremiah who had so many tears for his people that he
wished his head were water to be able to cry them all.[vi] Why are we happy with so
little when God offers so much? Do we really think that God will reward us for
these abuses of ecclesiastical authority? Have we become so complacent within
the comforts of what little we have that like Gause’s fellow prisoners, we see
no reason to change our lot? If that is the case, when Jesus returns, will He
still be able to find faith on the Earth?[vii]
