Dying Like a Dog

"I said in my heart, 'Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they are animals.' For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows if the spirit of the sons of men goes upward, and the spirit of the animal goes down to the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:18-20).

 

This is the counsel of despair, the musings of a man who, for the sake of argument, is assuming the outlook of secular man. (He has deliberately limited his understanding to what human reason, experience and observation alone can learn).

 

If we have no word from "upstairs," all that remains is to eat, drink and be merry and bewail our bitter fate: to die like a dog. Why then must we go on when every beat of our heart, like a muffled drum, is marching us straight to oblivion?

 

Ah, but here's a piece of good news: Jesus said, "This is the will of my Father, that everyonewho looks on the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

 

The secularist asks, "Who knows if we go up to God, or down into the ground like other animals?" (3:20)—a question for which we have Jesus’ conclusive answer: He will raise us up!

 

But how will our friends and neighbors hear unless we tell them? “How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:14).

 

David Roper

4.17.21

The Purpose for Every Purpose

 

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-7).

 

I read some years ago about a man who attended a parent-teacher gathering in a very progressive Montessori school. During the meeting the headmaster took it upon himself to explain the purpose of every aspect of the classroom experience. The purpose of this; the purpose of that. On and on he droned.

 

At the end of the presentation the parent in question raised his hand. “But sir,” he asked., “What is the purpose of all these purposes?” The principal was stumped.

 

The fundamental things so easily elude us: In developing every aspect of church life we can forget the ultimate purpose for which we exist: To proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). For that purpose every other purpose exists. 

 

Here in this text we learn again that God wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And what is the truth?  “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” This is the gospel handed down to us by Jesus and his apostles. There is no other (Galatians 1:7).

 

To this we are appointed as preachers and teachers. Let’s not forget what we’re here for. 

 

David Roper

4.13.21

Teaching a Pig to Sing

 

“The kingdom of God does not come through talk but through (divine) power” (1 Corinthians 4:20).

 

Ancient wisdom advises us that we should never try to teach a pig to sing because (1) pigs can’t sing, no matter what we do, and (2) we will only annoy the pig.

 

The Wise Man put a different twist on the same idea, “Don’t keep trying to correct a scoffer because he will end up hating you” (Proverbs 9:8). And, more’s the pity, he may end up hating the truth as well (Matthew 7:6).

 

Not to say that people are pigs, although Jesus did use that analogy on one occasion, but there are some folks who are “unable to come to the knowledge of the truth,” because they, at least for the time being, aren’t looking for it, or to use Paul’s analysis, they don’t “love it” (2Thessalonians 2:10).To plague them with truth is a bad idea because we’ll only annoy them. Furthermore, it may stir them up to wrath and turn them away from the truth. 

 

So what can we do for those that are obstinent and unpersuadable? Well, to be honest, some things are impossible for us. But not with God. “All things are possible with God” (Cf., Mark 10:21-27). We can put them in his hands and just love them.

 

David Roper

4.10.21

Teamwork

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel…” (Philippians 1:27, 28). 

Marine Corps General Chesty Puller once mused that the Korean conflict was a “lousy war,” but, “It’s the only one we’ve got.” 

I think some of us who call ourselves Christians live with that mentality: the only conflict we can find is with our brothers and sisters. It’s a “lousy war,” but it’s the only one we’ve got! My goodness! What would we do without it? 

What can we say about our church spats, splits and the splendid isolation into which we afterward withdraw? Instead of striving together for the faith, we have wasted ourselves in striving against one another, unable to detect the difference between our enemies and those whom Jesus calls our brothers and sisters. 

Instead of bearing our siblings’ burdens we have become their accusers, finding fault and forgetting the infinite love of our Father who comes in tenderness and forgiveness to correct all his children in due time. Is it any wonder that our non–Christian neighbors no longer take us seriously? Can they be blamed? 

Polycarp of Smyrna, writing to the Philippians church one–hundred years after Paul wrote his letter said, “What means this word ‘only,’ but that this (standing together) and naught else is the thing we should seek? (Epistle to the Philippians). We must stand together for the sake of the gospel 

for, as Jesus said, the world will know we’re Christians by our love. 

David Roper

3.6.21

When I Get to Where I’m Going

 

When I get where I'm going,
On the far side of the sky;
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly 

 

I'm gonna walk with my grandaddy,
And he'll match me step for step.
And I'll tell him that I missed him,
And then I'll hug his neck

 

—Brad Paisley

 

As I look back on my life I'm amazed at how quickly the years have passed by. A friend of mine once compared the brevity of life to the en-dash between the birth and death dates on our gravestones. I arrived 3.30.1933. Whoosh. I’m gone. 

 

When I do go, I want you to know that I’ll still be alive, more alive than ever before for Jesus said that everyone and anyone who believes in Him will live forever (John 11:25,26). He taught the certainty of a wonder-filled after-life, created that opportunity through His death, and then rose from the dead to show us that He meant what He said. 

 

When I get to where I’m going, I’ll run first to my Big Brother—thank Him and hug His neck. Then I’ll look around for the rest of my family and friends. I pray that you’ll all be there. Woody Allen said that the most important thing in life is showing up. Philosopher Peter Kreeft quipped, “That goes for the afterlife as well.” 

 

David Roper

4.3.21

In the Script

“These things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of His bones shall be broken.’  And again another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced’” (John 19:36,37). 

 

Often, when Caroline and I watch a BBC mystery she’ll ask—because she wants to be one step ahead of the detective—“I wonder why he did that?” I usually stifle the obvious answer: “Because it’s in the script.”

 

The Apostle John had something of that in mind when he, reflecting on the historical fact that "not one of [Jesus’] legs were broken." wrote that his side was “pierced" instead.

 

The first quotation is an allusion to the Passover lamb, whose bones were not to be broken (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12). The second quotation is from Zechariah 12:10, and drawn from a passage that refers to Israel’s future longing for her Messiah. 

 

When Jesus’ executioners came to Jesus, they saw no need to break his legs to hasten his death for he had already offered up his life. They pierced his side instead. (John, in another place, used the fact that “blood and water” flowed from Jesus’ side to prove that His body was human and not spectral, as the Gnostics claimed [1 John 5:8;Cp., John 19:35]). 

 

The fact that Jesus’ sufferings were so precisely foreshadowed by the prophets indicates that Jesus’ crucifixion took place according to a pre-arranged plan. Nothing surrounding that event happened by caprice or chance.  Everything was “in the script.”

 

And why does John call our attention to this detail? Because we must know that God has a plan for every earthly catastrophe, to turn it into the highest good—a eucatastrophe, to use Tolkien’s term: A deliriously happy ending to an otherwise tragic tale. 

 

David Roper

3.31.21

Thoughts on Palm Sunday

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey. —Zechariah 9:9

 

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written… —John 12;12-14

 

True story…

 

Many years ago, when I was in high school, my father decided to give his four-year-old grandson, David Wichern, a special birthday gift: a donkey colt. So, thinking the little animal might be injured in a horse trailer, we loaded him into the back seat of my father’s 1948 Mercury convertible, put the top down and set off for Memphis, Tennessee.

 

I kid you not: The little donkey sat bolt upright the entire trip, like a proper passenger, looking all around him, clearly enthralled by the scenery. It was fun and games until we drove through towns along the way and were greeted with guffaws and gales of laughter. The donkey loved the journey; I, on the other hand, a self-absorbed teenager, was mortified. 

 

When we presented the donkey to David he wailed, “But Pawpaw, I wanted a real horse,” which meant we had to haul the little beast all the way back to Dallas. It was like running a gauntlet. I bear the marks of that humiliation to this day.

 

In ancient days, the monuments reveal, kings rode “real horses”— powerful, 19 hands, 2,000-pound war horses similar to Clydesdale, Percheron, or Belgian draft horses. But Israel’s Messiah would make his grand entrance on a pint-sized, flop-eared donkey—a ludicrous sight, more worthy of side-splitting laughter than acclaim. 

 

We should note—for it is very important—that our Lord brought salvation to the world through humiliation and loss: “By dying he dying slew.” His lowly actions are a daily reminder that the weapons of our warfare are not the self-regarding aggressions of this world, but meekness, humility and self-denial.

 

By weakness and defeat, 

He won the meed (reward) and crown; 

Trod all our foes beneath His feet 

By being trodden down. —Simon Gandy

 

David H. Roper

3.27.21