No Neutral Ground

In my blogpost, Ready to Die, I discussed Simeon’s response when he saw and held Jesus Christ. When he said, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace” (Luke 2:29), he was basically saying that he has seen the One his heart has been waiting for, and so he was ready to die any time. Like Simeon, because we already encountered Jesus Christ, our attitude about life and death should be different. We consider meeting Christ as the greatest joy and privilege in life.

Simeon regarded meeting Christ as the greatest thing in life, but his next statements say something quite disturbing. He said to Mary (quite insensitively, I would say): “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34-35).

The next words of Simeon do not seem to fit his initial assessment of the coming of Christ in the world. He was like: “This is great! I love this guy! He is the one I have been waiting for my whole life. Now that I have seen him, I can die! Ah! By the way, he will be reason for many terrible things to come.” Simeon rings a rather gloomy note. According to Simeon, Jesus will be the reason for many to fall and rise in Israel, He will receive opposition and bad mouthing, and even his own mother Mary will suffer.

What does this mean? Why would the coming of Christ bring about negative things? Later in the life of Jesus, he admitted the same thing about his ministry in Matthew 10:34-40:

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
³⁶     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

³⁷ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.³⁸ Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.³⁹ Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. ⁴⁰ “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me.”

These passages tell us that the coming of Christ cannot be overlooked. Jesus Christ is not like a stranger on the road. He is not like a street vendor. He is not a sales representative. He is not a tele-marketer. He is the Lord and Creator of the universe. We do not have the right to ignore Him. We do not have the right to pass by Him. We do not have the right to avoid Him. He has all the rights in the universe.

And because He has already come, He demands that we make a decision about Him. He invites us to be forgiven. He invites us to be His followers. He invites us to be His worshippers. He invites us to be His servants.

And because we are asked to make personal decisions, the whole world is now divided between those who love Him and those who reject Him, between those who follow Him and oppose Him, and between those who are sheep and those who are goats. We see the divisive character of the coming of decisions for Christ especially in Muslim countries, where converts to Christianity are either killed or denounced by their families, friends, and neighbors.

There is no neutral ground any more. Those who are non-committal will have the contents of their hearts revealed. In the presence of the Jesus Christ, how we respond to Him and His call will reveal the genuine contents of our hearts. We are either for Him or against Him. Those thing they are neutral by not making decisions are to be classified among the unrighteous. As Alan Torrance once said, “to be neutral before God is to be hostile against God.”

This is where even Christians have problems.

First, we do not want to take a side. We do not want to be identified as a conservative or a liberal. We stay in the middle and congratulate ourselves because we do not have the fanaticism of the conservatives and the immorality of the liberals. We want to be nominal in our faith: we do not want to be identified as someone very committed but we also do not want to be known as a backslider. To these people is a relevant warning: “Because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:16).

Secondly, we have become ignorant to the real meaning of knowing God. To know is to be transformed. Knowledge of people either deepen or break relationships – but we are unresponsive. The truth must be that those who truly encounter Christ must be humbled by His birth (Luke 2:6-7), must be encouraged by His growth (Luke 2:40, 52), must be challenged by His ministry (John 13:14-15), must be convicted by His death (Mark 15:37-39), must be comforted by His resurrection (1 Cor 15:54-58), must be charged by his ascension (Acts 1:4-8), and must be confronted by His coming again (Matt 24:3-38; Rev 16:15).

No one is exempted from making a personal decision. Even Mary will need to make a decision: “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35).

The characters of the story of Christmas are from different generations: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna are old. Mary and Joseph are young. This is the nature of the coming of Christ. It is never too late or too early to obey, follow, and be used by God for His purposes. We must make a decision now. There is an urgent call. The words of James are wise for us:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that...”  ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them (James 4:13-17)