Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, nice people.
I let Becki sleep later as I was aware of her sleeping poorly in the night. So we’re getting off to a later-than-normal start—including our walk/jog excursion. Hondo is outside the studio door whining and fussing as he saw me wearing the high-viz vest that we use on our walk/jogs. He’s itching to go. I keep telling both dogs to go find a ball. They take that to look a little—but not enough to yield a ball.
Yesterday I mentioned Thano’s splitter engine. It turned out to be a minor problem—a fouled spark plug. Whew! That was close!
I admitted to needing a Kleenex in the course of writing the composition below. It must be contagious, because when Becki read it out loud to me, she needed one too—and then I needed another. What’s going on here?
May the Lord bless both you and your work today.Love, Dad/Ray.
What do you suppose will be the outcome of little grasshopper-like humans who get so puffed up with arrogance and self-confidence so as to mock and ridicule Sovereign Truth? If I read my Bible correctly, the best answer I can offer is, HELL. Another related question of perhaps greater importance could go like this: What do you suppose will happen to humans who don’t necessarily participate in the mocking and ridicule, but simply ignore Sovereign Truth? A careful reading of Scripture seems to yield the same answer—HELL.
I find myself marveling this morning at the amount of subtle meaning and Truth contained in this account of Jesus’ sufferings and crucifixion. Take, for example, the mention of the “scarlet robe.” Suddenly I’m reminded of the word “scarlet” appearing in Isaiah 1:18: “’Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” In this case, the color represents SIN. In other cases gleaned from a concordance search it represents human achievement—the clothing of luxury—implying human righteousness that is independent of God. So even that, as compared with the Holiness and Righteousness of God, presents something very flimsy and inadequate, even detestable, insofar as fulfilling God’s purposes for us and winning His applause. Isaiah is inspired to put it this way: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts (‘scarlet’ human righteousness) are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). The breath-taking, mind-boggling, glorious point here is this: Right here in this ugly scene that has every appearance of being a tragic atrocity, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Can you say, HALELUIA!? (I could be wrong, but I think I may be preaching fairly well when I cause myself to grab the Kleenex.)
There is much more meaning and inspiration that could be extracted from these two FOCUS VERSES above. We could talk more about the “staff,” “his right hand,” and the fact that “they knelt in front of him” and mockingly called Him “king of the Jews.” But the real tragedy in this account is to behold how many were so eagerly, arrogantly, and ignorantly participating in a celebration of their own demise.
Let’s be reminded of this Fact of facts regarding this King of kings: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).