CP 294 An Imaginary Tale

 

CP 294 An Imaginary Tale

Part One

Imagine that you are a poor itinerant worker and you have managed to find permanent employment on a large estate. Your employer is a stern man, but he is also fair and honest. Since you do not have a house of your own, he undertakes to provide a cottage for you on the estate but it will be made available to you under strict conditions. He instructs his lawyer to draw up a formal agreement which sets out the conditions you both agree to.

On his part, he makes the dwelling available as long as you are working for him. He will pay all insurances, and any Government levies and taxes. He also undertakes to pay for any regular or necessary maintenance on the property.

On your part, the monthly rent must be paid on time without fail. You will be responsible for keeping the cottage clean and in good order at all times. You will also be required to pay for the cost of electricity, water and sewage services. You are permitted to make use of the garden and orchard. No pets are allowed inside the house under any circumstances.

When the lawyer has drawn up the Lease Agreement, he presents it to the owner and both parties sign it in the presence of witnesses. It is now a binding agreement between you.

Fifteen years later…

Imagine now that you have been living on the estate for fifteen years. By and large you have managed to fulfil the terms of your agreement. You have worked hard and always done your best. You have learned so much. In your private time you have kept the cottage neat and tidy and you garden has given you joy. There is no doubt you have been blessed here. You have almost always worked on estate projects with Joshua, the son of the owner. There is a sense of delight when you are in his company. In recent years you and Joshua have celebrated birthdays together, often in your employer’s own home. You know your place but sometimes it seems as though even your employer has forgotten that you are not a member of the family.

One day, you are going about your duties when you see the estate lawyer arriving in his black Mercedes. Ten minutes later the ageless estate manager, whose name is Sophie, comes to you and tells you that you are urgently required at a meeting in the owner’s office. You are nervous, and a fleeting thought flashes through your mind that maybe the owner is intending to terminate your agreement.

When you and Sophie enter the office, the owner and the lawyer are in serious conversation. You notice a number of official-looking documents on the desk. The owner indicates you should sit. The atmosphere is strange, and you feel awkward. Then Joshua also enters the room, with a solemn look on his face, and sits next to you. His father picks up a document from his desk and turns toward you. He is the first to speak, and he says something that you could never have expected and which shocks you to the core.

‘Frederick, in the last few weeks, I have had extensive conversations with Joshua about your future. I have come to a decision which may surprise you.’ He pauses. ‘I want to adopt you as my own son.’

What? You are speechless. You shake your head as if to clean your ears, because you cannot possibly have heard what you thought you had heard. You look back at him and he looks steadily at you and repeats what he said.

‘Frederick, I want to adopt you as my own son.’

Now you are truly confused. How could this possibly be? You turn to Joshua, as if to ask a question, and he says quietly, ‘Freddy, this was my idea. I want a brother. I want you to be my brother.’ His father addresses you again. ‘Frederick, I mean it. I want to formally adopt you. I want you as my second son. Here in my hand are the official deeds which will be registered with the authorities.’

You are overwhelmed, but you hear surprising love and joy in their voices. They know they have shocked you. Never in your wildest dreams could you have imagined such a thing. You feel totally unworthy of what they are proposing. You begin to weep. Joshua taps you gently on the shoulder. ‘Freddy, will you please be my brother? I love you like a brother. I want you to be my brother.’ Now you can hardly speak because you cannot think. You tell them you have heard what they have said but that you need time to think. You rush out of the room. By the time you get to your front gate you are a blubbering mess.

One month later…

Once again you are in the estate office and the owner is behind the desk. It has been a month of conflicting thoughts and emotional turmoil. Your comfortable little world has been turned upside down, and you yourself have been turned inside out. Once again Joshua, Sophie and the estate lawyer are present. Once again there are documents on the office desk. Once again Joshua’s father asks his question. ‘Frederick, will you agree to be my son? Will you allow me to adopt you?’ And without further ado, but with an almost unbelieving humble heart, you say, ‘yes’. You both sign on the dotted line, and your signature is witnessed by Joshua and Sophie. Your brother hugs you, and everybody, including the lawyer, has tears in the eyes. Your father says, ‘Now, my son, there are two more items of business.’ He picks up another document from his desk…

Stop Now! Take time! What do you think will happen next?

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An Imaginary Tale – Part Two

What happens next

Father picks up another document from his desk. He speaks. ‘My son, this is the Lease Agreement which we signed fifteen years ago. We won’t be needing this anymore. It’s obsolete.’ He proceeds to rip it into pieces, all of which he throws into the waste bin.

You think to yourself, ‘What on earth or in heaven does that mean? Gosh, maybe I won’t have to pay rent anymore.’ A skip of delight bounces across your heart as a new thought occurs to you. Your new father might even want to give you the cottage. It would be wonderful to have this comfortable retreat as your own home. However, your father’s next words make clear that he has no plans to do that. He says, ‘Frederick, could you please give me back the key to the cottage?’ With a tinge of sadness, you take it from your pocket and give it to him.

The third document

Now your father picks up the third document. You’re looking at him, wondering what is coming next. How many more surprises can there be? He sees the question flash across your face. He says, ‘Don’t worry son, I don’t need your signature on this document. This is my Will and Testament. It has my signature on it, and Joshua and Sophie have witnessed it. Joshua has personally sealed it for me. This document is the declaration that you are now a joint-heir with Joshua of everything I have. My estate is now your estate. My house is now your house. My treasures are now your treasures. My servants are now your servants. Everything you can see around you is the inheritance you share with Joshua. It is there for you to use and enjoy.’

Then he reaches into the right-hand draw of his desk, finds what he is looking for, and hands you the biggest key you have ever seen. He says, ‘Son, take this. It’s your key to our home. It opens the front door.’

You faint.

Two hours later

You are waking from what seems to have been a deep asleep. You know you are at home. You feel wonderfully comfortable and comforted in a way you have never ever known. You open your eyes. ‘Wait! I’m not in my cottage. Where am I?’  You take in your surroundings. You have been asleep in a huge bed in the largest room you have ever seen. It is beautifully decorated in bright and joyful colours. The afternoon sun is streaming through the window. Strangely, you feel you belong here.

You hear the sound of a gentle cough. You turn and your eyes light on your father, sitting quietly by the bed. He smiles. ‘How are you Freddy? We were a bit worried about you.’ He grins. ‘You fainted when I gave you your own house key. Joshua has been sitting with you for the last couple of hours but I told him I want a private word with you myself. I suppose you are a bit overwhelmed. By the way, this is your room. Joshua’s room is next door.’

Now it is your turn to smile. Suddenly, from deep inside, you realise there is an awkward thing you must do, a word you must say, and now is the time. Timidly and sheepishly, you say, ‘D..d..d..dad?’ Then more words come slowly. ‘I… I… can hardly believe… what you have done for me. I don’t deserve this. I’m really overwhelmed. And I feel a bit scared too. I… I… don’t know how to live in a place like this. It’s so big, much bigger than anything I’ve ever known. I feel free, but I don’t know what that means. Dad, why have you done this for me?’

‘Ah,’ says dad, ‘Joshua told me you would ask that. Freddy, I’ve adopted you because I love you. No more, no less. I love you. And if you ask Joshua the same question, he’ll say the same thing. Ever since you turned up he has only wanted the best for you. He has been passionate about having you in the family. He’s been on about it for ages and ages.’

‘Dad, can I ask you a question? What do you want me to do for you? I’m happy to do anything you ask, but is there one thing above all others you want from me?’

‘Freddy, before I answer that question, I want to ask you a question. What is happening in your heart? What is the voice in your heart telling you to do?

‘That’s easy, dad. That voice inside me wants to tell the world what a good, good father you are.’

‘Thank you, Freddy. I hoped you would say that. Now I can answer your question. All I want is for you to love me. That’s what will make me happy. Nothing more, nothing less.’ He pauses. ‘Freddy, do you know how to love me?’ The look on my face tells him I’m not sure. Father continues. Actually Freddy, that’s the reason why I wanted to have this little talk with you. You want to make me happy so I’m singing and full of joy? It’s easy. All you have to do is love Joshua with everything you’ve got. Love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That’s it, Freddy. When you respect Joshua, you are respecting me. When you honour Joshua, you honour me. I’m blessed when you bless Joshua. That’s how I will know you love me. It’s simple really. Love Joshua and I am loved!’

For the whole time dad has been speaking, something has been happening within me. It feels like there’s a bubbling spring inside me, looking for a way out. I want to jump and sing and shout.

A knock on the door

Just then there is a gentle tap on the door. Joshua pops his head in. ‘Hey dad, are you finished? I want to talk to Freddy myself.’ Dad winks at you. ‘Yes, Joshua, I’ve said everything I want to say. Come on in. I’ll see you later Freddy.’ Joshua sits himself in the same seat dad used.

‘Oh, Freddy, Freddy, how are you? I can see you are much better. It all a bit much I suppose. Anyway, I’ve been so excited today. My heart is singing. You’re my brother! The whole household is buzzing. Freddy, I’m so happy!’

His enthusiasm is humbling. You take a moment to think. ‘Joshua, what you’ve done… what has happened to me… it’s hard to get my head around it. I’m just amazed. I want to thank you and at the same time I’ll never be able to thank you enough. But I want to ask you something? I know you love me because it was you who got me here. So what do you want me to do?’

‘Oh, Freddy, there’s only one thing I want from you. I’m just like our dad. I know it sounds silly but we love to be loved!’

‘Well, I can understand that. But how will I know how to love you?’

Joshua takes his time to answer you. ‘Freddy, I know you trust me, and I know you believe in me. So how do I know you are loving me? It’s simple, really. I know you are loving me when you love and look after other people the way I’ve loved and looked after you. Actually Freddy, I’ve been watching you and I’ve seen you already doing that. But tell me, when dad was talking to you, did you feel anything happening inside?’

‘Oh, yes. How did you know? It was strange. It was like I was being filled up with happiness or joy. Even right now I can’t wait to get up to dance and sing.’

There’s a twinkle in his eye. ‘That’s dad’s doing. He’s worked out a way of putting his own spirit inside people like you. His heart is so full of love that it tumbles out of him into the people around him. But I guess you didn’t see that side of him too much before today.’

You have one more question for your brother. ‘Joshua, I think you know that I have no idea how to live like you do. I know how to live in the cottage. I got used to that. But Father’s house is just so big… so spacious… it’s challenging. How can I learn to live here? How do I work out how to live like a son?’

Joshua smiles one of his best smiles. ‘Freddy, you ask the best questions. Again, the answer is simple. Stay close to me. Follow me around. Learn from me. Be with me as much as you can. Do what I do. I’ll show you how. And then he drops his voice as if he doesn’t want to be overheard. ‘And if you get stuck, just ask Sophie. I know you don’t see her around much. She has a habit of staying out of sight, but when you need her she’s always there. She’s wise. Sophie always knows what to do. She’s always ready to give you whatever you need. You can ask her.’ He chuckles. ‘You know, in her heart of hearts she’s a teacher. She loves to be asked!’

From downstairs there comes the boom of the great gong near the front door. Joshua says, ‘Goodness gracious me. How time flies. We had better get moving. Your home-coming feast starts in 15 minutes.’                      (Copyright Fred Veerhuis 7/10/2021)

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An Imaginary Tale – Part Three

A poor - yet important - parable

Yes, the parable is inadequate

I assume, if you have read this whole imaginary tale, that you realize that my story is a type of parable of the salvation story of the New Testament. I freely admit that is an inadequate story for two reasons.

First, the picture I have painted of Frederick isn’t at all true. He was never that good. The real Frederick was happy to live in the cottage but among other things he was a thief and a liar. Away from the estate he would often badmouth Joshua and his father as greedy and even unfair. Not only that, but away from the estate, he kept company with some very unpleasant people who despised the owner and his family. The rent for the cottage was often paid late, and sometimes not at all. Frederick was also lazy. He made sure the outside of the cottage and the garden were generally presentable, but often the inside of the cottage resembled a pigsty. The reality is that Frederick deserved nothing, not even some reward for good behavior.

The second reason my story could be assessed as a failure is that there is no indication of the sacrifice the Father and Son have made through Jesus’ life to the cross and into the tomb. The resurrection isn’t mentioned either! Frederick’s acceptance and adoption could not have happened without that action of holy love. But all that said, my story carries some powerful truths.

Still, a very important parable

When I sat down to write the An imaginary Tale I had one aim in mind, and only one. I wanted to launch an assault on one particular Bible teaching which is embedded in the heads and hearts of almost all Christians I know, and it should not be there. This teaching needs to uprooted and evicted, and thrown on the manure heap alongside the Apostle Paul’s dung heap. (Philippians 3:8) The teaching is in us because it was taught into us, and it has a powerful religious hold over us. We believe it, we are enslaved to it, and it contaminates the whole way we see our relationship with our heavenly Father and his glorious Son. It prevents us from living in the fullness of our inheritance as adopted children of our heavenly Father. It is a teaching which erodes hope and steals joy. I must explain.

Think of your computer. It does what it does according to the way it is programmed. It will not respond or process contrary to the way it is programmed. Someone has put the necessary data together in a particular way, and it is that format which pre-sets the way the computer works. In the same way, our Christian upbringing, the traditions we have been exposed to, and all the teaching we have received, has created a control tape which determines how we understand the call to live the heavenly kingdom life.

So what is the teaching which so many Christians hold in the minds of their hearts which is so destructive of their confidence, joy and hope?

The torn-up Lease Agreement

When you read the story/parable, what was your reaction when the Father ripped up the Lease Agreement and threw all of the scraps into the waste basket? Think carefully about this. Frederick was leaving the cottage and being moved into the Father’s own home. Through his adoption he was no longer a servant. He had become a son, with all the privileges of a son. Sons and daughters live in the Father’s house. Was the Father right to destroy the Lease Agreement? Of course he was. It no longer applied. As the Father said to Frederick, adoption had made it obsolete. The Lease Agreement was between the Owner and his servant. It had to be discarded.

If the Lease Agreement was obsolete then so were the conditions attached to it. Within the Father’s house the adopted son was no longer bound in any way by the previous tenancy rules. This is the fundamental issue. Is the son going to live under Cottage rules or his Father’s House rules? In Christian terms, do the sons and daughters of the Father live under the Sinai Covenant commandments or under the new commandments of the New Covenant?

Cottage Rules or Father’s House Rules?

I believe many Christians are convinced that they should still live by the strict Cottage Rules, even in the Father’s House. Many Christians do believe they are called to live by the Ten Commandments even though they are embraced by the New Covenant. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Apostle John, in his Gospel, reveals the Father’s House commands which Jesus taught. There are just two:

First, there is an occasion when the Cottage Rules’ experts ask Jesus, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’ (John 6:28-29) One chapter earlier, Jesus had told those same Cottage Rules experts that the whole point of his coming was that, ‘all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.’ (John 5:23) More than 75 times in his Gospel, whether he is recording Jesus’ own words, or writing Apostolic truth, John is insistent: In the Father’s House, the first Command is to believe in, trust and honour the Son because that’s the way to love and honour the Father. (Don’t believe Fred. Believe the Scripture writers! For a start, check John 1:12, 3:16, 3:36 and 20:31. Also Colossians 1:3-5 and 1 Thessalonians 1:3)

There is something about human nature which always leans toward living in the cottage. We are infected with the world’s view that acceptance is gained by performance. We are taught a similar thing when our Christian teachers turn the Father’s ‘Yes!’ into ‘Yes, but…’ 

With all my heart I pray that the Spirit of Jesus would open your heart and mind to the new reality that under the New Covenant, there is only one truth which sways the Father. He asks, ‘What are you doing with my Son? How are you responding to my Son? Is your hope anchored on my Son and what he has done for you?’ That which the Father seeks is called faith, and that faith is a gift freely given to us by the Father’s grace. (Once again, don’t believe Fred. Believe the scripture writers. Check Ephesians 2:8-10 and 1 Corinthians 12:3) Your heavenly Father is blessed when your faith is totally in Christ. Amazingly, he freely gives to us the very faith in Christ Jesus that he requires. That is how Jesus the Christ is the only way to the Father, the only truth which is unshakeable, and the only fountain of life which is eternal. 

Secondly, on the night before he died, Jesus issued a second new commandment to his disciples. ‘A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ (John 13:34) It is worth noting that no more than a minute later, Jesus told the disciples that he was going away to prepare rooms for them in his Father’s House!

Sinai demanded, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ If you love your neighbour perfectly, the way you love yourself, the blessing will be yours. Jesus commanded, ‘Love one another as I have loved you’. Think of Calvary and the Cross, and the Lamb who died for the sins of all people. The blessing of perfect love comes before any loving on our part. First you are blessed by love. Then you can love from within with his freely given love.

[The root of our problem with the Cottage Rules is that we have been led to believe that Jesus taught that the Sinai Commandments were to be the commandments for his disciples. (Luke 10:25-29, Mark 12:28-33 and Matthew 22:34-40) This is not correct. It is true that in each of the Gospel accounts Jesus acknowledges the commandments of the Law. But he came to fulfil that Law so that we could live under Grace. John in his Gospel could not be clearer: ‘The law was given through Moses: grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ (John 1:17)]

The two new commandments apply to those who are adopted into the Father’s House. The Ten Commandments of the Sinai Covenant do not apply to those who live in and from the Father’s House. Those who choose to live in the Cottage place themselves under the Sinai Covenant and therefore the Ten Commandments do apply to them. Go back, and re-read the Imaginary Tale. You will see that the two New Commandments, one issued by the Father, and the other issued by the Son, make the Ten Commandments irrelevant in the Father’s House. (But don’t believe me. Believe the scripture writers.)

Look at these truths in a different way. The Ten Commandments issued through Moses are commands of Law. Blessing comes if they are obeyed. The two commands issued through the Father and the Son are commands of Grace. Blessing comes through Jesus Christ’s obedience and death, and within that blessing is the freedom and power to continue believing and trusting in Christ. Without any prior effort or merit on our part, the blessing of the holy love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ is poured into our hearts, and from the richness of that blessing we are able to love freely as Christ first loved us.

John in his first letter, could not say everything I have said in less words:

‘Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.’ (1 John 3:21-23)

                                                                                            (Fred Veerhuis 7/10/2021)