Chapter Three
“Dear Susie,
Today Tippy tried very hard to get up to Cortez Road to get a big beautiful meaty ham bone that was in the middle of the road. There is so much traffic on that road that I am sure she will either be killed or hurt very badly. Several other dogs are wanting that ham bone too.
I wouldn’t let Tippy go onto the road for that bone. I held her so tight, she growled at me, she scratched me, and she even bit me, but I wouldn’t let go. She just wanted that bone so badly she didn’t know what she was doing. I brought her back home and put her into the garage for now. What do you think I should do, Susie?”
What is a “big beautiful meaty ham bone” anyway? Well, let me begin by putting it into context. My loved one writes in her note to me, “Today Tippy tried very hard to get up to Cortez Road to get a big beautiful meaty ham bone that was in the middle of the road.” Let me ask us a question: “What is it that we are trying very hard to get?” Am I trying to get something for myself or am I seeking to please God? If I am seeking something for myself then I have forgotten that I am dear to God and I have replaced my affection for Him with my affection for myself. If I am seeking to please God then I have not forgotten that I am a dearly loved child and I am allowing Him to work in me according to His perfect will. Consider the words of the apostle Paul once again, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 ESV).
In Luke 15, we see a picture of someone near and dear to the heart of his father who tried very hard to get “a big beautiful meaty ham bone that was in the middle of the road.” His “today,” like Tippy, was marked by his seeking something for himself ultimately revealing that his affection for his father had been replaced with affection for himself. He had forgotten he was dear. This someone is the “Lost Son” also known as the “Prodigal Son.”
Here was a son (the younger of two sons) “who showed arrogant disregard for his father’s authority as head of the family” and asked his father to give him his inheritance early so that he could go where he wanted to go, do what he wanted to do, get what he wanted to get (mind you, when he wanted to get it). This “younger son…rebellious and immature, wanted to be free to live as he pleased, and he had to hit rock bottom before he came to his senses. It often takes great sorrow and tragedy to cause people to look to the only One who can help them.”[1] What we do in the name of our own selfish freedom brings death, but where the Spirit of the LORD is there is true freedom, freedom that comes through obedience to Christ, life-giving, life-producing freedom. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV).
In the parable of the Lost Son, we see that the father gave the son what he asked for and he divided his property between the two brothers. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living” (Luke 15:13). The “big beautiful meaty hambone,” the seductive lure of wild living, was bred through the Son’s deceptive belief that what was “out there” in the world was better than what a relationship with his Father had to offer. Isn’t that the case so much of the time? Sadly, many spend their lives sacrificing a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ our LORD, on the altar of selfish desires. Our own unbelief in God leads us into places where we “have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place” to our own destruction (see Isaiah 28:15). I think of a quote I prayed through last night as I read the book, Jesus Freaks by DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs from one particular saint named Zahid. He writes,
“I live in a land ruled by the false teaching of Islam. My people are blinded, and I was chosen by God to be His voice. I count all that I have suffered nothing compared to the endless joy of knowing Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.”[2]
For us, we may not live “in a land ruled by the false teaching of Islam.” For us it may be that we live in a land ruled by the false teaching of a new age philosophy, pluralism, humanism, mormonism, buddhism, hinduism, alcoholism, atheism, universalism, or consumerism. You name it. But the fact remains, wherever you live, your land is ruled by “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (See Ephesians 2:2) and there are people all around you who are blinded (see 2 Corinthians 4:4-6). Here’s the kicker, like Zahid, you and I have been chosen by God to expose the “false teaching” and to be His voice by speaking life, Gospel-waking life, into the hearts of those who are sleeping. The “ruler of the kingdom of the air” (or simply stated: Satan) likes nothing better than to tempt us to indulge in the selfish ambition (selfishness that preaches and boasts in itself in contrast to boasting in Jesus Christ alone) that hampers our authenticity, sincerity, productivity, and effectiveness for the Kingdom of God.
In the case of the prodigal son, he had made his inheritance a safe place and the hope of an “earthly pleasure” his refuge. His was deceived into depending on his wealth, his father’s wealth, “which is so uncertain” instead of the One “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). The result: everything came tumbling down. Consider with me, the contrast between the man who build his house on the Word of God, Jesus Christ and the foolish man who did not in Matthew 7:24-27:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
The wise man stood when the “rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against his house”—it did not fall. But, the foolish man’s house, under the same circumstances “fell with a great crash.” Be sure of this: no earthly treasure will ever save us, nor keep us safe. There is only One Safe Place and that is Jesus Christ Himself. Certainly, the prodigal son, like every one of us, went right for the “big beautiful meaty hambone.” It became the apple of his eye and he went to every length to get it. He “entered into a covenant with death, with the grave he made an agreement” (Isaiah 28:15 NIV). He sacrificed every relationship he had for that seductive “hambone” and that “hambone” did nothing but betray him for his loyalty. “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).
“The ‘way that seems right’ may offer many options and require few sacrifices. Easy choices, however, should make us take a second look. Is this solution attractive because it allows me to be lazy? Because it doesn’t ask me to change my lifestyle? Because it requires no moral restraints? The right choice often requires hard work and self-sacrifice. Don’t be enticed by apparent shortcuts that seem right but end in death”[3]
It took the irreligious squandering of everything he had, a severe famine (moreover a spiritual famine) to understand that the “big beautiful meaty hambone” he was trying so hard to get would never ever meet the deep rooted need in Him for God. For most of us, this is what it takes. See, he was always worshipping something, just as we are, even ourselves. But, then through His circumstances God granted him the grace to repentance. It was the same thing that Satan sought to steal, kill, and destroy him with, God used to heal him with. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men” (Luke 15:17 NIV). He remembered he was dear to his father and so he returned and His faithful father, as is our Heavenly Father, was there to receive him with open arms. In light of this, I think it is important to note that like the apostle Paul we must be convinced of this: “that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). The prodigal came to his senses and conquered the power of his own selfishness when he realized he was loved. The power to conquer comes through a working knowledge that we are loved no matter what we have done, what failures we have succumbed to, who we have hurt and who has hurt us. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
The knowledge of the truth that God considers us dear will win our hearts every time. “Each day Jesus says to us, “You are my beloved child. I am well pleased in you. Now live that way.”[4] If we could just get it deep down inside. Ask God for this reality now. The woman at the well “got this reality” when Jesus offered her Something that she’d been seeking relentlessly through her relationship with men: true love. Suddenly, her identity and value were rooted in her relationship with Christ rather than her relationship with a man and she was a fountain overflowing, suddenly satisfied in Christ. At that moment in time, she made a decision to live for God’s glory rather than the smallness of self (Kim Wagner, the Fierce Woman). What a huge difference Christ makes in the life of someone who, by God’s righteousness, chooses to believe they are dear to God.
Can you imagine waking up to the judgment seat of Christ and realizing that all of your life, you have risked the dangers of this world for something that will amount to nothing and not only that, you have led your loved ones to this same destruction? All of that for what? You can fill your “what” in according to what you’re chasing after now if you are chasing anything less than the glory of Almighty God, Jesus Christ our Lord. What does your “big beautiful meaty hambone” look like? What kind of traffic do you brave seeking the satisfaction of something that will never satisfy? Stop chasing after that bone and start chasing after the only One who can satisfy, Jesus Christ. Chase Him with all of your heart.
Recently, in a woman’s Bible Study at church, the word “eager” came up again and again. I was reminded of a time when I was on a boat and a sudden storm came up. The storm so kicked up the water that the boat was in danger of capsizing. Those aboard were strongly encouraged to jump off the boat and swim to shore. After putting up a fight…and losing…my four-year-old daughter (at the time) and I dove in. In the meantime the captain threw the anchor overboard trying to bring some stability to the boat in the midst of tyrannical wind, rain, and waves. However, when he threw that anchor overboard in hopes it would catch the bottom and stabilize the boat, he realized the anchor was not tied to any rope. It landed somewhere on the bottom of the bay. He lost no time in jumping off the boat eagerly seeking the anchor. Miraculously, he found it. Looking back, this could have only been an act of God. I am reminded that, like the captain of that boat, we are called to leave behind every worldly satisfaction to eagerly seek God, through Jesus, the One and Only who can stabilize the human heart. He is the only Anchor that can keep our ship from sinking. “We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline…We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure…” (Hebrews 6:19 MSG; HCSB).
“…Our hope is secure and immovable, anchored in God, just as a ship anchor holds firmly to the seabed. To the true seeker who comes to God in belief, God gives an unconditional promise of acceptance. When you ask God with openness, honesty, and sincerity to save you from your sins, He will do it. This truth should give you encouragement, assurance, and confidence.”[5]
[1]NIV LASB Commentary Luke 15:17
[2] DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus Freaks: Martyrs: Stories of those who stood for Jesus: the Ultimate Jesus Freaks, page 55.
[3] Proverbs 14:12 New International Version Commentary
[4] J.D. Greear, Gospel, page 143-145
[5] Zondervan NIV Life Application Study Bible, Commentary Hebrews 6:18,19
Solid in the Faith 