Finish My Course

09/30/15

Luke 13.31-32 31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.” – Dr. Luke, the Physician

What does one do with a death threat? Does one take it seriously? Does one become afraid? Or does one call someone’s bluff? Death threats can be real or they can be a façade. I suppose it all depends on who is making the death threat. In Jesus day, a death threat from the sitting ruler would have given most people pause, and cause to believe the threat was real – murder in Palestine was as old as Cain and Abel.

There are those who are threatened by a death threat and are afraid; then there are those who, when threatened, adopt the mentality: if it resorts to me being killed, I am going to continue doing what I do until I wind up in the morgue. Only death can stop such a one.

Jesus, on the other hand, knew He was going to die. He knew He came to die. But He knew when He was going to die and He wasn’t going to stop doing what He did until He died. And He knew He would rise again. The only way He knew all this was He was told all this by the Father and He believed. Belief isn’t the salvation here, it’s the Source of the information. Belief is key when God is in charge; death has no power when God is in charge.

Jesus, focused on what God told Him to do, took Herod’s threat in stride and stayed focused because He knew Herod wasn’t in charge of His death, God was. And God is in charge of the death of all His children: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psalm 116.15). Their race is over, they kept the faith.

I’ve yet to receive a death threat; perhaps that day is yet to come. But I don’t lay awake at night and worry about it either. My goal is to keep the faith, run the race, and when it’s over, it’s over. In life it is more important to stay focused on what God says than on what someone else threatens. If I die in the process, then I die. But my goal is my goal and that is what I’m to stay focused on.

What I am more conscious of today is things like greed, pride, selfishness, and unbelief. What I am more afraid of is forgetting about God and just doing my own thing. The silent killers for me are those things that take me off my goal of staying focused on what God has called me to do. That’s my big concern.

Father, threats are threats and it wasn’t Herod who killed the Savior. Jesus stayed true to His mission and because He did, I am writing this, in faith, today. Help me to stay focused on Your mission and plan for my life, and to let distractions pass right on by. I need Your help in battling distractions and I need Your help to remain faithful. That is my concern and my prayer – amen.