Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
Mark 12:10-12
Ever seen a coward in action? The short answer is no. They want to do something. They know that they should do something. But what happens?
They do nothing. They sit there with their hands under their butts. Or they stand there with their hands in their pockets. They are a do-nothing group that’s full of inactivity.
And what’s the motivating force behind their inactivity? Fear. Fear of doing something. Anything.
· Fear of what people might think.
· Fear of what people might say.
· Fear of what people might do.
And what’s the fruit of fear? Flight. When someone’s fearful, they run away. They know they should run towards something but do the opposite instead. They hightail it out of there. They can’t stand the heat, so they get out of the kitchen.
That’s exactly the response and reaction of leadership to Jesus. They knew exactly what he said. They knew that he was pointing his words at them, so did everybody else. They knew that they should act, but they were afraid to.
Their inaction didn’t come from a lack of information, it came from more than just concern, it came from fear. Fear of the crowd. Fear of what the crowd thought. Fear of what the crowd might do. Fear of what the crowd might do to them.
Fear is a great disrupter. It only stops, it never goes. Fear more than just gums up the works, it throws a monkey-wrench into the works and stops the gears from turning.
In modern terms, fear unplugs your wireless router so there is no Wi-Fi. Fear switches your cell phone to Airplane Mode so no calls can be made. Fear drives you away to a place where there is no cell coverage.
But fear does more than just make action impossible. There’s a second action other than no action. Fear also makes people walk away, run away, hide away. Fear makes people leave the area where the fear is. Fear doesn’t just make people hunker down; it makes them get out of Dodge.
With everything that’s going on in the world, there is more fear than ever. Fear of the pandemic. Fear of the economy. Fear of violence. F fear of being hacked. Fear of being scammed. Fear of missing out. Fear of what’s coming next.
We’re forging a generation of fear. Is that what God wants for us?
God’s best, God’s plan for us is not to fear. Fear started right after Adam and Eve sinned. When they heard God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, what did they do?
they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden
Genesis 3:8b
They hid because of fear. The fruit of following the enemy is fear. But God’s person, God’s plan for us is not fear.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.
1 John 4:18
If you find yourself handcuffed by fear, you need to ask yourself the questions. Why am I so full of fear? What is it that fills my heart with fear?
The answer to your fear is to replace your fear with God himself. If “God is love,[1]” then his presence, his word, his power cannot be in the same place with fear. It’s one or the other. It’s never both, it’s always either, or.
So, who will you choose?
[1] 1 John 4:8
Σχόλια