Straining Out Gnats

Hi, this is Dave Scherrerrer, and you've found Kingdom Offerings, a podcast environment of a hundred-fold ministries. And I guess I want to confess, starting out here, that I don't follow local or state politics very well. I could and should do better. Actually, I think Christians that are civic-minded and engaged make a huge difference. That's a fact. I should say, however, let me just editorialize for a second. If that civic enterprise somehow becomes a cosmic hope that in that we will eventually fix the world by passing Christian laws, that would be incorrect. That's a fact, too. Being involved in civic endeavor is a good thing. That's a fact. But if it becomes an idol, that's a bad thing. That's a fact. You see, there's nothing in the world that can fix the problems of the world. We are in desperate need of a sinless Savior, someone from the outside who can remove the grave clothes that we live in and set us free to live a new abundant life, unencumbered by the old fear and guilt and shame that used to cripple our best efforts. That said, Christians that engage civically, to see that our government of various forms, local and national, don't pass laws that are unjust or what I feel like I see sometimes now sort of narrowly conceived so as to benefit only a narrow, lucky few. Christians that get involved, this is a noble and good endeavor. We are to, Scripture tells us, act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly. And being watchdogs over laws that are being drafted under our noses that violate these truths is a really good thing. So, as I said, I could do better in my civic attentions. My friends Kevin and Lynn are good at this. Recently, they alerted me to a bill that was going to find itself in committee discussion here in Colorado called House Bill 1163. House Bill 1163 would have required the state commissioner of agriculture to develop, implement, and maintain an online pet animal registration system. This law would establish that you and I, as Colorado pet owners, would be required to register our pets with the state at a cost of up to $8.50 a piece or $16 a piece for cats or dogs that are not spayed or neutered. Pet parents, you and I, would also have to designate a caregiver for their animals in the event of an emergency. Any animal found without a designated caregiver would cost $25 per year. Okay, all right. This bill defines pet animal. Okay, this is kind of interesting to include cats, dogs, hamsters, gerbils, fish, rodents, reptiles, and any other species of wild or domestic or hybrid animals six months of an age or older. So, this might include your hermit crab, I suppose, if he's six months old. So, according to the bill's text, the database would function kind of like a next-of-kin notification in the event that first responders find a pet that's in crisis. Okay, so let me just say, some of you might be smiling. Right now, I am a little bit. Let me just say that the motivation of this law was not so awful. As I read up on it, I discovered that the intention of the bill was to help fund animal shelters that are struggling to keep up with abandoned pets. So, that seems good, but the overreach wasn't so good. It would have cost as much or more to police this bill as any amount of money that might have been raised, and the harvest of any goodwill hoped for would have turned to dust. So, about here, you should be saying, Dave, where are you going with this? And I want to say that Jesus had a problem with well-intentioned laws that lost sight of their true purposes. In fact, some of the most documented teaching and conversations were with the Pharisees who lifted up and promoted a legalistic approach to faith. Let me give you a for instance, on his last trip to Jerusalem, on the trip to Jerusalem where he would be murdered, Jesus spoke at length about life under the Pharisees' rule. You can find this in Matthew 22, Matthew 23, and Matthew 22. The writer says that the Pharisees constantly tested him and plotted how to entangle him in his words. Matthew 23 is one of those great chapters that I was speaking of, of pharisaical teachings and Jesus' response to them. In this chapter, Jesus pronounced seven woes against the scribes and the Pharisees. He was accusing them of laying heavy burdens on the people with laws that no one could keep, while at the same time lifting themselves up. And in so doing, they were preventing people, not helping people, but preventing people from entering God's kingdom. And that made Jesus really, really mad. He was especially harsh in his confrontation with them over the strict adherence to the laws of tithing, where they were neglecting the more important matters of the law. Christ's fifth woe, remember I said there were seven woes in chapter 23, his fifth woe relates to their hypocrisy regarding the ceremonial washing of dishes. The various Jewish sects all agreed on the need to wash their dishes in order to maintain cleanliness, but Jesus pointed out that it's senseless to clean the outside of a cup and leave the inside of the cup filthy. This is exactly what the actions of the Jewish leaders achieved. They focused on outward behavior, but neglected the most important commands of in God and one another. Jesus talked about the Pharisees straining out a gnat and then being willing to swallow a camel. Their intentions might have been good, at least for some of them, but they got misguided in their applications. Jesus's rage with the Pharisees was for real. They were overreaching the laws and legalistic demands and were keeping people from the kingdom of God. And like I said, I'm going to say that most likely many followed these laws with good intentions, and we know that Nicodemus and Josephus are two of those that did. But many use their positions to exact wealth from their roles and to politically assure that they stay in power. And that seems all too familiar to me as I look at our political landscape today. So Jesus had a response to all of this silliness of trying to earn your way to heaven, to the overreach of Jewish laws and the artificial justice that was being wielded by the power brokers. He said it wasn't about keeping laws, but it was about childlike faith. A few chapters earlier in Matthew chapter 18, he famously confronts the disciples who are trying to keep the children away from him, and he says, truly I say to you that unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So I'm going to say that's a good reminder for us today. Let's stop there. This is Dave Scherrerrer, and this Kingdom Offering podcast and others can be found on Spotify and Apple, other media distribution sites, and it can also be found at our website. The link there is 100foldministries.org. You'll also find our blog environment there that's called Backyard Conversations. And I want to say just before I sign off that I should mention that this morning I saw that Colorado House Bill 1163 has been withdrawn from consideration. So good news today, your goldfish and guinea pig can remain safely anonymous. Peace.