BECOMING THE MONSTER

In the work we do in the ministry and in the community, we run into pockets of Pharassaic power.  They hold influence and access but they don't want to use it to fix problems.  They use their position to impose self-promoting demand protocols and to demand fealty. 

Like the Pharisees who didn't want to uplift the downtrodden Jews or resist the Roman oppressors.  They just wanted Jesus to tell them "Who do you think You are?  Who gave you permission to go out there and help people and heal folks and forgive sins?  You didn't check with US first!"  (Matthew 21: 23)

Remember.  Those Pharisees were Jesus' own people. 

The Pharassaic pockets of power today are also the very people who should be making good happen.  Instead they stand in the way of do-gooders until the do-gooders join their group or show them the "respect we deserve."

You have to fight those Phariseess so you can fight for the community.

But you must be careful.  See, sometimes when you win enough battles, the Pharisees invite you to dinner and they tell you what a good job you've done and they give you the honored seat and they offer you a position on their council.

Now it happened, as Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  ….So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places… (Luke 14:1, 7)    

And once you get to sit in the high places of honor sometimes you may want to be shown the "respect you deserve."

Then you might  starting looking sideways at people who are trying to do good without following protocol.  Once you kind of arrive you might see somebody casting out demons and forbid them to do so because they didn't follow US. (Mark 9: 38).  Never mind that people are being delivered from demonic oppression.  The big question is: How dare they do good without checking with ME first?!

You become the Pharisees.

 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”.  ----- Jesus (Matthew 5: 20)

To avoid becoming the part of the Pharisaic power structure against which you were struggling, Jesus advises us:
- not to seek honor for ourselves (Luke 14: 8);
- to make space for the powerless at our tables of influence (Luke 14: 12, 13).
- And as Jesus demonstrated, you have stay prayerful and focused on the work more than the honors you could receive. 

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. …When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

But Jesus said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” (Mark 1: 35-38)

You have to understand that even promotion can be wrong if it’s at the wrong time or in the wrong way.   In those situations you have to do the counterintuitive---- and turn down a good thing.

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.  (John 6:15)

And most of all, most of all ----you have to be clear and sure of who you are. You can’t depend on the accolades of the crowd or the opiate of being needed.  A fragile ego is great weakness, and the enemies of the mission will exploit it.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. (John 2: 24)

A clear sense of who you are, a willingness to say no to honors, prayerful focus on your purpose, the habit of sharing space with the less powerful, and a willingness not to self-promote.   These were the tools Jesus used to shield Himself from the temptation to become the very devil He’d come to defeat.

These are the same tools that you and I need to avoid becoming the very monsters against which we battle everyday.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

----Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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