SM #41: Of Pearls & Pigs

Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls to the pigs, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. ~ JESUS (Matthew 7:6)

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CORE

(The heart of the message)

The Gospel message - the Good News that Jesus is God with us come to SHOW US God's love, SAVE US from sin, SET UP God's Kingdom, and SHUT DOWN religion, so we can SHARE IN God's life - is the best news ever for everyone. Except, some people aren't ready to receive it.

If someone isn't ready, the Gospel can seem irrelevant, uninteresting, or even offensive. And when that's the case, we should never force our faith. It's not their time. Move along.

CONUNDRUM

(Raising questions skeptics might be asking)

Hey Jesus, aren't you being insulting to nonbelievers? Calling anyone a dog or a pig seems a bit beneath you. What gives Jesus?

CONTEXT

(What’s going on before and after this passage)

Taken on the surface, this bit of advice from Jesus seems obvious and unnecessary. You may have a lovely pet dog and/or pigs on your farm, but have probably never tried to feed them pearls for dinner.

This single verse parable is challenging to interpret for a couple reasons:

1. We don't know if this saying is tightly tied to its immediate context. In other words, is Jesus referring to the plank-eye process he has just talked about? Is he specifically telling us not to practice wood chip removal with people who won't appreciate it? Or is this a more general aphorism about life simply inserted here by Matthew?

2. More puzzling, Jesus gives no explanation for any of the elements in this saying: "what is holy", "dogs", "pearls", and "pigs". The memorable imagery makes for a pithy saying, but not necessarily the clearest. Even for his first listeners, this saying may have seemed provocatively obscure. Now, separated by two thousand years of history, in a different culture, speaking a different language, we are left to figure it all out.

   
   

Let's address the first problem of context here, then the meaning of the elements below.

As we have seen in previous studies, there is a thematic flow to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. So we should be open to seeing this verse as part of a whole before assuming it is Matthew's random insertion of a morsel of Jesus' teaching.

In fact, this what is holy-dogs-pearls-pigs teaching fits the context as a warning that what Jesus has just been teaching is meant for Jesus People and not for nonbelievers. Indeed, for a Christian - even a humble Christian who has gone through their own plank-eye process of self reflection - to keep offering nonbelievers help in removing their specs, something they might not even agree is a problem, makes us more irritating than helpful.

And beyond its immediate context of the plank-eye process, this saying applies to the entire teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Recall as we discussed at the beginning of this series, that Jesus addresses the entire Sermon on the Mount to his disciples only, while the larger crowds listen in.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. (Matthew 5:1-2)

In the pearls-to-pigs principle, Jesus is reminding us all that this sermon is kingdom teaching for kingdom citizens.

CONSIDER

(Observations about the passage)

What is holy. To be holy means to be set apart as special. It is the opposite of being mundane, common, or ordinary. This Greek wording (to hagios, the holy) may refer to: a) what Jesus has just taught - the plank-eye process b) the entire Sermon on the Mount c) all of Jesus' New Covenant teaching, that is, all the red letters

d) the Gospel, the Good News of the Kingdom

e) the Church as we engage with and embody the Jesus Way

f) all of the above

More about these options in the Commentary section.

Pearls. Pearls denote something exceedingly precious across cultures. While the above theory "e" of pearls referring to people themselves is helpful to keep in mind, most often in ancient writings the symbol of pearls refers to wise teaching. In Job 28:18, wisdom is compared to precious jewels (likely pearls). We still use phrases like "pearls of wisdom" or "Dude, you're spitting pearls". Oher ancient Jewish writings use pearls as a symbol for excellent teaching. This Jewish connection of pearls with wisdom was cross-cultural. The 16th-century Chinese thinker Li Zhi used the phrase “spewing jade and spitting pearls” as a symbol of, not only wisdom, but genuine, sincere, and emotionally vulnerable speech. Jesus uses the image of a pearl only one other time - in Matthew 13, where he is referring to the Kingdom of the Heavens. So here Jesus is likely using what was already a Jewish symbol for important and wise teaching to refer to his own teaching about the Kingdom life for Kingdom citizens. His teaching is precious and is meant for a particular people. When this Good News Kingdom teaching interacts with a community of people who experience, embrace, and extend it to others, pearls are formed. This is a beautiful image of a beautiful reality, and yet, we cannot force it on those who are not ready. Animals cannot digest pearls. They are of no use to them, and in fact could irritate them if they mistake them for food and bite or swallow them. Force feeding the Gospel to anyone will turn the Good News into bad news for everybody involved.

Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. ~ JESUS (Matthew 13:45-46)

Dogs/Pigs. Who are these animals? As discussed in more detail in the Commentary section below, one common theory is that Jesus is referring temporarily to Gentiles because Jews were meant to be the focus of his message until after Pentecost. It may seem unkind or insulting (even racist?) to call Gentiles "dogs" and "pigs", but using animal imagery was common for ancient people (e.g., Proverbs 11:22) and Jesus does not shy away from using strong imagery elsewhere (Matthew 12:34; 15:26; 23:13, 33; Luke 13:32). Yet, as these examples show, Jesus also used strong animal imagery for fellow Jews, and the apostle Paul calls religious Jews "dogs" when they try to import legalism into the Gospel of grace (Philippians 3:2). So it seems more likely that Jesus is not referring to non-Jewish people specifically as dogs/pigs, but to any individual, Jewish or Gentile, who is unready to hear the Gospel. This is a lasting principle we can all apply today. And we should remember that these images are meant to be analogies, not insults. We can all be a little "piggish" at times or like "a dog on a bone" when we stubbornly stick to our pet ideas and refuse to consider new perspectives. The apostle Peter applies these animal images to false teachers infiltrating the early Church, which may well have been Jewish religionists trying to sway the new grace movement back into becoming religiously law abiding. About them he says:

Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to wallowing in the mud.” ~ The apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:22)

Trample/Tear. Upon first reading of this passage, it may seem like the pigs do both the trampling and the tearing to pieces. But the structure of this saying is a chiasm, also called inverted parallelism, an A-B-B-A format (see more on this below). This means that the pigs trample and the dogs tear apart. They "bite the hand that feeds them", as the saying goes. Dogs in Israel at that time were usually wild and roamed the streets in packs. Being torn apart like a burst wineskin (same verb used) was a vivid and unforgettable image. Jesus, it seems, was not shy of violent imagery if it made a point more memorable (Matthew 5:29-30; 22:1-14; Mark 12:1–12; Luke 12:45–48; 19:27). Jesus has already talked about the possibility of persecution for his disciples in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:10-12). He was not suggesting that being pushy with the pearl of the Gospel would always get a disciple physically attacked, but we can find our souls, and the Gospel message itself, trampled and torn if we are not wise as serpents along with being innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). Now here is the ABBA chiasm:

A) Do not give what is holy to the dogs,  B) nor throw your pearls to the pigs, B) lest they trample them under their feet, A) and turn and tear you to pieces. 

Not that kind of "ABBA".

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse. Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. ~ King Solomon (Proverbs 9:7-8)

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. ~ JESUS (Matthew 10:16)

"Pigs cannot digest pearls, cannot nourish themselves upon them. Likewise for a dog with a Bible or a crucifix. The dog cannot eat it. The reason these animals will finally 'turn and rend you,' when you one day step up to them with another load of Bibles or pearls, is that you at least are edible." ~ Dallas Willard (The Divine Conspiracy)

COMMENTARY

(Thoughts about meaning and application)

What was Jesus' intended application of this pearls-to-pigs principle? It is the nature of poetic and proverbial sayings that they invite multiple applications, and that is certainly the case here. It is also true that these different interpretations and applications are more complimentary than contradictory. They all offer a different perspective on the same multi-dimensional, multi-applicable reality.

The oldest known interpretation is recorded in the Didache, our earliest known church document outside of the Bible itself. Apparently the Christian community who produced the Didache applied this teaching of Jesus to the Eucharist. They believed Jesus was saying that nonbelievers should not be invited to participate in the Lord's Supper.

"But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs." ~ The Didache (9:5)

A fragment of a first-century papyri of the Didache. What an amazing piece of history.

Being the oldest known interpretation doesn't necessarily make it the best. The early Church got some things wrong right from the start, which is evidenced in Paul's letters. But it it does show a clear example of the variety of interpretations of this teaching throughout history. We can acknowledge the partial validity of this interpretation while still moving on to see what more we can discover.

Today, commentators are divided into three main camps of interpretation about this passage. Again, these may all be true from a particular angle. They are complimentary not contradictory perspectives:

1. Jesus is warning his Jewish disciples against going to the Gentiles prematurely. This would later change after Pentecost.

2. Jesus is teaching his disciples an enduring principle of not forcing their faith on uninterested individuals, no matter what group they are a part of.

3. Jesus is telling the Church not to give up on their fellow sisters and brothers when they fail because they are precious and should be protected.

Let's break each of these theories down further...

1. A TEMPORARY TEACHING ABOUT THE JEWISH FOCUS OF JESUS' MISSION

   
   

About the first interpretation, scholars note that during his lifetime, Jesus put the emphasis on reaching out to Jewish people first. When sending out his disciples on their first mission, he instructs them:

Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ~ JESUS (Matthew 10:5-7)

Jesus seems to follow this same pattern in his encounter with a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28. He tells her that, at that point, his mission is focused on Jews. He even refers to Gentiles as dogs in that conversation. And yet, because of her faith, he grants her request.

The most compassionate illustration of this conversation can be viewed in the Vision Bible's Gospel of Matthew. It is a word-for-word screenplay of the NIV text. Actor Bruce Marciano's portrayal of Jesus is one of the best ever. Watch from the 2:04:30 mark.

This more narrow focus of Jesus' ministry on Jews was temporary, giving God's people first right of refusal before opening up his mission to all people after Pentecost.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. ~ JESUS (Acts 1:8)

If this is the right interpretation, we cannot limit it to this. Jesus himself will break this rule in Matthew 8:5-13 when he heals a Roman centurion's servant and praises the centurions faith. So we could say that keeping the scope of their ministry focused on Jews for this first stage of ministry is part of the point of this principle, but there seems to be more going on here.

2. A TIMELESS TEACHING ABOUT NOT FORCING THE GOSPEL ON DISINTERESTED PEOPLE

Yes, Jesus did strategically limit the focus of his earthly ministry until after his death, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost. But Matthew's Gospel also takes time to emphasize how the coming of Christ and the New Covenant was the unifying force that finally removed all barriers and continues to draw together separated groups and even waring factions. Matthew includes Gentiles in Jesus' genealogy beginning with Abraham, then tells the story of the Magi invited by God to honour the new King, and finally he ends his gospel with the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.

Jesus himself lives a life full of exceptions to the rule of "only go to the Jews". Although for a season he does not pursue evangelizing Gentiles, he is always open to anyone who shows curiosity. During his ministry, Jesus willingly opens up to Samaritans and Romans about the truth of who he is.

Supporting this view, while he reveals his true identity to Gentile and Samaritan people, like the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus also refuses to engage stubborn Jewish people who are not open to his message. Three examples...

First, in the same passage where Jesus tells his disciples to go to the lost sheep of Israel exclusively, he says:

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. ~ JESUS (Matthew 10:14)

Here we see Jesus teaching his disciples to apply the pearls-to-pigs principle to their mission to Jewish people. Jesus encourages his disciples to offer the Gospel freely to all, but to always keep a discerning eye open to who shows interest and who couldn't care less. If they aren't interested, we move on. There should be no arm twisting in evangelism.

Second, later in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem, the religious leaders ask him about his authority. Rather than respond as though they are asking a sincere question, Jesus tests them to see if they are just wanting to argue. When he discerns they are not genuinely open to learning, he refuses to engage. It's worth reading the full exchange in its entirety. Here is the pearls-to-pigs principle on full display:

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." (Matthew 21:23-27)

It would have been easy for Jesus to simply respond to the initial question of "By what authority are you doing these things?" with a straightforward answer: "God," or, "My Father." But instead he uses questions to learn where their hearts are really at. Their question is just a setup for an argument, maybe even a trap. If he answered them, they would use whatever answer he gave as a basis for more questions, leading to an eventual verbal attack or trap.

Jesus is teaching us the importance of not investing our precious time and energy, and the precious message of the Gospel itself, into people who don't want to hear it, even if they are initially pretending to be interested. Often when we are not sure, asking questions to learn more about where the questioner is coming from is the best place to start.

For our third example, notice that when the religious leaders ask Jesus why he is hanging out with sinners, he responds:

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. ~ JESUS (Matthew 9:12-13)

In other words, "I'm not here for you." We know that Jesus thinks the Pharisees are far from righteous (Matthew 5:20). But if they think they are, if they don't think they are sinners in need of God's forgiveness (like many people today), that is, if they are filled with self-righteousness, Jesus doesn't try to convince them. They are showing that they are out of tune with their own hearts and with the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8; Romans 2:14-15). Jesus doesn't preach the Ten Commandments to try to provoke their awareness of sin (this is often called preaching Law to prepare people for the message of grace and it is a common evangelistic tactic in some circles today.) No, Jesus says, if you see yourself as completely healthy spiritually, then I'm not here for you. Not right now anyway.

All this to say, it would seem Jesus' pearls-to-pigs principle cannot be limited to Jews vs Gentiles. Rather, it can be applied to all of us who should be practicing discernment between the spiritually curious vs the disinterested.

Sometimes Jesus punctuated his teaching with this telling phrase:

Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. ~ JESUS (Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35)

This suggests that at any given time of teaching, Jesus was aware that some people listening might not have ears to hear. And he wasn't speaking to them.

The Catholic writer Richard Rohr sums it up simply:

"There is no point in giving wisdom or truth to people who physically or spiritually aren't ready for it. That may seem like a harsh statement to us, but it's utter realism. Sometimes when we offer truth too early, people write off the whole message because the heart or soul isn't ready for it yet. Then they are worse off than when we started."

~ Richard Rohr (Jesus' Alternative Plan)

We might have fewer arguments and more peace if we learned to apply this ears-to-hear/pearls-to-pigs principle in all our spiritual conversations.

The wise King Solomon knew this:

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words. ~ King Solomon (Proverbs 23:9)

And the apostle Paul encouraged Christians to be wise in how they invested their time and energy:

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of the time. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. ~ The apostle Paul (Colossians 4:3-6)

When we pray for God to open a door for our message, we should remember that we are not just praying for opportunities to talk, but opportunities to talk with someone who cares. And we should always be discerning the difference.

3. A DEEPLY PERSONAL TEACHING ON SEEING PEOPLE AS PRECIOUS

   
   

Both of the first two camps of interpretation view the holy and precious pearls as the teaching of Jesus, specifically the Gospel of the Kingdom, and only differ on what it means to toss that teaching to the dogs/pigs. But there is a third camp of interpretation that comes at this saying from a different angle.

According to this third camp, the "holy" thing that is pearl-level precious is not the teaching of Jesus by itself but the people who are trying to live out his teaching. It is the combination of the Way of Jesus lived out in the community of Jesus. For instance, in Matthew 13 Jesus doesn't say the pearl of great price represents his teaching about the Kingdom of the Heavens, rather it represents the Kingdom of the Heavens itself. Or more specifically, a person finding the pearl. It is that interaction, that discovery that moves us to give up everything else without regret - that is the Kingdom.

Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found a priceless pearl, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. ~ JESUS (Matthew 13:45-46)

One Anabaptist scholar who holds this view, Richard B. Gardner, suggests Jesus is using "what is holy" and "pearls" to refer to his teaching embodied by the Church, being worked out together. This includes but is not limited to the plank-eye process Jesus has just covered in the preceding verses. Gardner recalls that one of the evidences that helped the apostle Paul identify the immaturity of the faith of the Corinthian Christians was them turning to secular courts to handle their judgements against one another (1 Corinthians 6:1-8). Civil suits between Christians - that is not the Jesus Way. Perhaps that is what giving what is holy to the dogs looks like, or any form of being overly critical of one another in a public fashion or forum. So he suggests paraphrasing Jesus here as saying:

"Do not condemn one another in the midst of a hostile world, lest the world turn on you and take advantage of your weakness." ~ Richard B. Gardner (Believers Church Bible Commentary).

Ouch. That hits home.

Another commentator, David Orrison, pushes this theory one step further, suggesting that both "what is holy" and "pearls" refer to individual believers themselves who are set apart by God as precious. People are what is holy. People are precious. People are pearls. So, throwing them to the dogs/pigs means giving up on a sister or brother, because of their sin or poor theology or other signs of spiritual struggle. Orrison paraphrases Jesus as saying:

"Don't push your brother to the street. Don't reject him so that he becomes prey for the cruel and abusive people out there... Don't throw these precious lambs of God to the pigs." ~ David Orrision (The Sermon on the Mount).

Another gut punch.

This theory fits with what Jesus will later teach in Matthew 18 about prioritizing the search for the one lost sheep. And if the apostle Paul refused to give up on the Corinthians or Galatians who were mired in permissive sin and/or religious legalism, we should not easily give up on one another.

Recall that Paul felt that even the final stage of the church restoration process (what some people call the "church discipline" process) should be a temporary time out that should be enough to cause reflection but not despair (2 Corinthians 2:5-11).

The good news is, if we have already thrown what is holy and precious to the dogs/pigs, it's not too late to do some repenting and retrieving.

CONFESSION

(Personal reflection)

I confess that I have often missed the practical importance of this one-verse proverb. Too often I have given holy and precious pearls to people who did not want them and were not ready for them. And I have been both torn to pieces by dogs and politely shamed by pigs who simply walked all over my best evangelistic efforts.

When I was a young adult in my teens and twenties, I was zealous for my faith. I wanted to evangelize the world. I helped lead our youth group Bible studies, organized the first Christian club at our high school, sang in a Christian rock band, went on a handful of missions trips, spent many weekends street preaching in downtown Toronto, and did plenty of door-to-door evangelism as well. (My opening line was: "Hi, I'm not a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, but I still would love to talk to you about my faith.")

And all this time, I was a talk-at person more than a talk-with person. After all, I had the truth! What did they have? Nothing but a cross-shaped hole in their heart that only Jesus could fill.

At least, that's what I thought.

So I encouraged person after person to quickly pray the sinners prayer so they could be saved, and I invited many of my friends to high pressure evangelistic events where I hoped they would respond to the altar call and give their life to Christ. And here's the thing: many of them did. They responded to the high pressure, the spiritual sales tactics, and they "got saved". There was no counting the cost, no thorough investigation of Jesus and his narrow way, no understanding of what it means to live as a citizen of heaven here and now. There was only a quick prayer to make sure they could go to heaven and avoid hell when they died. So, after a while (sometimes the next morning), when the emotions wore off, many of my friends gave up or lost interest or wondered what the heck they were thinking in the first place to have made this crazy commitment to Christ.

And the end of it all was that my friends were left more resistant rather than more receptive to the Gospel going forward. If anyone ever said, "Try Jesus. He will change your life" they could respond, "I did. And he didn't."

In my zeal to see my friends become "born again" I was actually performing spiritual abortions, yanking them out of the womb of the Holy Spirit prematurely, on my timetable not God's. And as we all know, premature births have a lower survival rate.

Eventually, after a few well-deserved trouncings and tramplings, I finally woke up to the importance of the pearls-to-pigs principle. I became convicted by the words of James:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. ~ The apostle James (James 1:19)

I learned to talk with people and not just at them. I became spiritually curious about what other people believed, not just eager to share my own beliefs. And I learned that asking questions is one of the best ways to discern if someone is at a point in their life where they might be interested in the Gospel. If not, I was still happy to learn and grow and maybe plant some seeds along the way.

Asking questions from a point of genuine spiritual curiosity, mutual respect, and a genuine desire to learn is a loving way to accomplish great things. When we ask questions about another person's beliefs:

1. We demonstrate honour for that person.

2. We position ourselves to learn something, about the topic and the person.

3. We discern where the other person is spiritually, and whether or not we should continue to talk about spiritual things.

For instance, if someone tells me early on in a potentially spiritually engaging conversation that they don't believe in sin and see themselves as basically a good person, I have now learned not to push the point. I take my cues from Jesus in Matthew 9:11-13 and either drop the conversation on the spot or might say something like, "I'm glad for you. As for me, I'm messed up and need help. But I don't want to heap that same trip onto you. I think its great that whatever you've found is working for you. For me, Jesus is what's working for me, with me, in me." (That sounds a bit churchy, eh. It doesn't usually come out quite that way, but I'm not going to try to replicate the exact conversation. You get the point.)

Otherwise, if my response to their claim of not believing in sin or being a sinner is to try to persuade them otherwise, then I am now in the losing position of trying to convince them of the bad news rather than the good news of the Gospel. I may think I'm preaching law to get them ready for grace, but the conversation will likely never get to grace because they aren't ready to accept the law making us conscious of sin bit first (Romans 3:20).

In my stubbornness masked as religious zeal, I end up preaching sin, guilt, shame, and condemnation rather than forgiveness, cleansing, healing, and freedom. Instead of offering them the Living Water of the Spirit to quench their spiritual thirst (John 7:37-39), I'm cramming saltine crackers down their throats to try to provoke their thirst. Jesus rebukes any approach that turns his Good News message into bad news badgering.

We all need God's Living Water, not more religious guilt trips.

And thinking about the third interpretation above (see the Commentary section), I have not just tossed the pearl of the Kingdom message to people who were not asking for it, I have, to my shame, tossed the pearl of Kingdom people to a world ready to crucify them. At least in my mind I have. I don't know about you, but when I have heard about a fallen pastor or disgraced evangelist or exposed Christian musician, my primary thoughts tended towards: "that bum" not "How can I help". I might even think "I should pray for the people they hurt" but have no thought whatsoever about the redemption and healing and wholeness for the Christian leader and his or her family who did the hurting. About failed and fallen Christian leaders I have tended to think "good riddance" rather than "God please comfort, help, and heal them".

Reacting with judgement against the leader while holding sympathy for others is an understandable emotional starting point, but it is not an acceptable ending point for any follower of Jesus.

Any philosophy, society, or religion can motivate people to help the hurting and write off those who did the hurting. That's called stone cold justice. But it takes a Gospel-saturated soul conditioned by grace to quickly ask, how can we also minister to the person who has fallen? (I talk more about this in my recent "Bruxy's Blurbs" article on Righteousness > Justice.)

If that third interpretation above is correct - that the holy and precious pearls Jesus is talking about are people that we throw to a condemning world for their cancellation and crucifixion - I am left wondering why it has taken me so long in my life to learn the way of nonjudgmental gentleness.

Why has it taken me being on the receiving end of people's snap judgements, condemnatory impulses, misinformation musings, and partial-knowledge pronouncements to finally realize my anti-gospel bias in the past? Why, even though I grew up in the church learning from the best Bible teachers, am I only now realizing that the one lost sheep of Matthew 18 and Luke 15 is the shamed sinner we are meant to pursue, rescue, and restore?

And why did that one sheep run away in the first place? My guess it has something to do with their failure and the rest of the sheep's judgement. When the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to go find the one, I imagine him telling the flock: "You stay here. You've done enough damage already."

I wonder what damage I have contributed to, not just through my moral failing, but through my religious judgmentalism of others' failings. Thank God he has driven me back to Jesus to finally see what I should have always seen. I suppose better late than never.

The church may toss fellow sheep to the animals, but Jesus is always coming to rescue us.

One more confession, just for fun...

I confess that I can't read this passage without fondly remembering my favorite 80s Christian punk band, One Bad Pig. Oddly, I often used their music for my daily devotional time. Their rendition of Isaiah 6 became my theme song as a young adult for fervently asking God to use me. (I also loved how verse 3 in the song, while having a coal from the fire placed on his tongue, is all screaming. Ah, classic.)

My sleep was shattered by blinding light

High and lifted up upon His throne

Was the great I AM and me alone

Jehovah's glory was all about

All heaven shook with the angel shout:

"Three times holy is this God of might"

Here am I - send me

Here am I - take me

Here am I - use me

Here am I - spend me

Send me, take me, use me, spend me, I am not my own

His righteousness screams that I have sinned

Holy conviction rips me apart

A coal from the fire burns through to my heart

Clean was I by the holy King's choice

Then all was still except for his voice

"Who will go for us? Whom shall i send?"

Here am I - send me

Here am I - take me

Here am I - use me

Here am I - spend me

Send me, take me, use me, spend me, I am not my own

Here am I - send me

Here am I - take me

Here am I - use me

Here am I - spend me

Send me, take me, use me, spend me, I am not my own

HERE AM I!

~ One Bad Pig, Isaiah 6

One more of my favourites - You're A Pagan...

Feel real low, smoke a joint

Cuss real loud, make your point

Rock 'n' roll's all you play

Always getting your own way

Where you goin', where you been

Your cruddy heart is full of sin

In the words of Kenneth Hagin

Face the facts, you're a pagan

Chorus:

You're a pagan, with a capital P

You're a pagan, full of idolatry

You're a pagan, that is what you bee

There's no fakin', fry like bacon

You're a pagan

You're a man whose out of shape

But before that, you were an ape

In eons past, you were a worm

Not long before, you were a germ

Where you goin', where you been

Your cruddy heart is full of sin

Like Charlie Darwin and Carl Sagan

You've evolved into a pagan

You're a pagan, with a capital P

You're a pagan, full of idolatry

You're a pagan, that is what you bee

There's no fakin', fry like bacon

You're a pagan

Sunday morning, go to church

Every Monday, fall from your perch

Wednesday prayer fill your cup

Every Friday, throw it up

Where you goin', where you been

Your cruddy heart is full of sin

Hear the charge that I am makin'

There is no doubt, you're a pagan

You're a pagan, with a capital P

You're a pagan, full of idolatry

You're a pagan, that is what you bee

There's no fakin', fry like bacon

You're a pagan...

~ One Bad Pig, You're A Pagan

Being a young adult in the 80s was good times.

CONCLUSION

(One last thought)

Recently, while still working on this article, I drove past a bus stop where a bunch of people were waiting for the next bus while a young man with a loudspeaker was loudly preaching to them. I had three thoughts in rapid succession...

1. A captive audience. He's smart.

2. Poor people. They're trapped.

3. I just felt sad. And yet I had to admit, I do like the way he is evangelizing better than the way I don't.

Dear Jesus, give me the courage and also the curiosity to engage people around me in spiritual conversation. But not like this...

CONTEMPLATE

(Scripture passages that relate to and deepen our understanding of this topic)

Matthew 21:23-27; Colossians 4:3-6

CONVERSATION

(Talk together, learn together, grow together)

1. What is God revealing to you about himself through this passage?

2. What is God showing you about yourself through this passage?

3. How are you doing with "nonjudgmental gentleness"? What scenarios most tempt you to offer unsolicited unproductive judgements?

4. What is one thing you can think, believe, or do differently in light of what you are learning?

5. What questions are you still processing about this topic?

CALL TO ACTION

(Ideas for turning talk into walk)

1. Pay attention. Be intentional about noticing your internal emotional reaction to news about the failure of others, especially fellow believers. How did or do you now react when hearing about the moral failing of people who disappointed you? (Some names to jog our memories include: Ravi Zacharias, Bill Hybels, Jean Vanier, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Jimmy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Martin Luther King Jr, Lonnie Frisbee, and the list goes on).

2. Apologize. Have you ever been pushy about the truth of the Gospel with people close to you? It might be meaningful for them, and for you, to apologize for trying to make something happen on your schedule rather than give them the space to have their own journey with God and his timing.

3. Meditate on the Golden Rule. Read Matthew 7:12 and ask God to help you apply it to the issue of how you talk to others about Jesus. Use your imagination to envision a better way of living and loving your friends, family, and neighbours.