The Road to Spontaneity

[HKHaugan]

“We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ (2Cor.10:5 The Message).”

One of the most amazing impressions Jesus leaves with us is His spontaneity. As we have said many times before His responses are momentary, profound, simply stated and penetrating. They are consistent pointing to the stability of His character. They carry an integrity that never fails. When He is confronted by a situation that would confound anyone else there is no hesitation in His answers. He doesn’t ponder, appeal for time to think like someone who pauses saying, ‘I’ll get back to you on that.’

Typical of Jesus’ spontaneity is this every-next-moment challenge. The Pharisees try to trap Him any number of times. Take Mt.22:17, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" to which He responds immediately, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." On the same day they try again with a riddle-like question about marriage in the context of the Resurrection. Again His answer is given in such a matter-of-fact way that the surrounding crowd is astonished because He actually ‘kills three birds with one stone.’ The birds being the questions about the Resurrection, marriage after death and the errors in Pharisaic reasoning. Note again Mt.22: 29Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

While these are typical His spontaneity is evidenced in the calling of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus is on His way through Jericho. The passage infers He hadn’t planned to stop. But He does when He spots Zacchaeus in a tree and immediately tells him “I must stay at your house today.’ The result was Zacchaeus’ spiritual turn around which Jesus affirms, “9"Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

How can we possibly not see His spontaneity in the episode of the woman caught in adultery? Though His worded response is what most people remember it was His silent action of writing in the sand that we usually don’t really think about. That was His immediate response. His words came secondly. Why? Look at Jer.17:13, “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” Could this have been His message to the Pharisees?

If you consider all of Jesus’ teachings are they not spontaneous responses to the situations He finds Himself in? His parables were given in illustration to touch the heart because life is more than words. Jesus sought the depth of the heart and still does. The heart is where life is centered. It is who we are within. In fact from His childhood excursion in the Temple to His appearance before Pilate and His suffering on the Cross, how can we not see the thinking, the actions and the character of Jesus in any other light but that in His heart as well as His mind and Spirit, He is God, the One who cannot be anything but perfectly spontaneous? It is that same spontaneity that Jesus wants us to have which is why He gave us His Holy Spirit. This is why He said that He had to go away in order for us to receive the Comforter, the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth who would lead us to all truth.

What keeps us from being spontaneous like Jesus? What keeps us from thinking spiritually in every situation? What prevents us from being totally moral in our hearts and in our actions? Why do we lack confidence, have low self-esteem and question our worth? Why do we do the things we know are wrong and then refuse to do what is right? Why are we silent in the midst of wrong, reluctant to act when needed, avoid necessary confrontation, feel inadequate and fear vulnerability? These and many other questions expose the difference between Jesus and us. That is especially true when spiritual response is required.

While the generic answer is sin it is absolutely imperative we understand how sin specifies itself in each of us. Perhaps this is why Paul gives us 2Cor.10:5, 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” It motivates us to specify, perhaps ‘goads’ us, to face the inevitable truths about ourselves in our moments or needful repentance, the barriers that keep us from being spiritually spontaneous called strongholds. When Jesus confronted Paul on the road to Damascus He asked him, “Saul, Saul, why do you kick against the goads?” Could this have been the word Jesus knew would get Paul’s attention? Check Eccl.12:11, “The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd.”

Next, removing the barriers…