Here's Mud in Your Eye

[HKHaugan]

That’s an expression used when someone lifts his drink to hope you enjoy yours. But it also carries with it the kind of eye contact that desires you’ll join them and justify their continued indulgence when they say ”Aw, just one more.” Two things happen at that point. First, they have someone to let loose with and second, you compromise and indulge them in their weakness which means you both lose. But there is a third and hidden issue. It’s the issue of sin that has already been the encourager to ‘muddy’ the situation so that spirits mean more than just the alcohol content. It’s the spirits of compromise and lust for escape that worm their way in. Sin is the primary inviter. Sin is the ‘mud in your eye’ we inadvertently extend. This leads us into any number of compromising situations.

Sin is subtle in its movement. The core thrust of sin is how it gets us to deny it even exists. Its main strategy is to lie hidden in our denial that it is a problem. Sin is what causes that lurking unrest, being unsure, uncertain as we go from one choice and decision to the next. It affects what I think and do in every next moment as I hesitate and ask myself whether or not it will be right or wrong. What if I make the wrong one? That ‘what if’ is the devil’s playground. He really likes it when we ask what happens if I make a mistake. Then we get into ‘what if’ this or that happens. This is where he exploits our fear and pride with his goading spirits as he hides in the background of our willingness to deny his existence. When we ‘what if’ life be ready to find the spirits of fear and pride emerging like a submarine upping its periscope to see if it’s OK to surface.

Sin’s main activity is to blend itself into our assumption we can be in control of everything we do. Sin is like a mole that tunnels into every choice and decision we make. It can direct our beliefs, who we trust and justify how we act denying the fear that pushes us. It is always whispering in our mind’s ear that we are in charge, in control and there’s nothing we can’t do.
Sin is the infection in our relational experience when we bring our misery and insecurity into the lives of others and demand that what advances we may have made should be everyone else’s solution as well.

Sin in us doesn’t allow us to accept others as they really are but what we think they ought to be. Sin dwells in the container of our expectations, expectations we have built to protect ourselves from our own past hurts. This is how sin hardens our hearts and slowly isolates us from others but only increases the unsettledness in ourselves. The more we see imperfection in others the more we are looking in the mirror of our own imperfections. Sin drives us into ourselves to look for solutions to our unease while keeping us thinking that our conflicts can be blamed on circumstance, environment and other people. This is the devil’s goal as he pulls the strings on our willingness to indulge ourselves.

The amazing thing about Jesus when the devil tried to tempt Him to speculate about His power, His relationship with His Father and the extent of His self-concept, He had no hesitation, no pondering moments, no attempt to parry and thrust in response. His instantaneous replies were perfect. Why? He knew exactly who He was, to whom He was related, what that relationship demanded and the nature of the one who was tempting Him. He was His Father’s Son, He knew His Word, was aware of His will, He had His Father’s heart and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

But there was one thing the devil knew about Jesus. He was limited to a human body and had to respond as a human being within the context of its limitations. Here is where the devil thought he had Him. He overlooked one thing, faith. Jesus’ faith was perfect. His responses were perfect. His bearing in the midst of the external impulses that were thrown at Him was perfect confidence and trust in His Father. It was His faith that did the impossible. It moved the mountain of temptation that stood before Him.

Turn stones into bread in the midst of ravenous hunger?

Throw yourself off a great height to prove yourself while physically weakened?

Make the whole world work the way you want?

Again, He didn’t say “Give me a moment to think about it. I’ll get back to you on that.” No, His responses were faithfully and instantly given. It was not His sin that had to be beaten internally. He had none. He had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.

It was the external temptations to take control that only faith could counter.

His was a perfect faith, faith in His Father, faith in His Word and faith in His Spirit. He was conceived in faith, lived in faith, died in faith and rose from the dead in faith. His whole mission was built around faith that each of us might have that personal tie to our Heavenly Father restored. Faith is what Paul found that far exceeded the Law and his own struggle. This is why he preached that we are saved from our sin and justified by grace through faith in Jesus. When we asked Him into our hearts that is when life, eternal life, began for us. It is His faith we live. His faith is the gift, His presence our right being and the Holy Spirit our companion, forever.