Pushing God

I sometimes ask myself a question. How am I pushing God out of my life? I grew up in a middle-class home. There was always food on the table and a roof over our heads. In all reality, my life has been easier than many in this world. 

However, having enough hasn’t always been enough. There have been times when I wanted to do more and succeed in providing even more for my family. My first job out of college was in IT as a network administrator; then, I shifted to becoming a network engineer (a promotion). I viewed each of these jobs as places God called me to minister to others and share his kingdom. My mission field was crawling in ceilings and crawl spaces to run wires, install access points, and diagnose network issues. You don’t know an upset person until someone with authority, like a lawyer or banker, doesn’t have internet or server access. I knew God called me to love every client I interacted with as He loved me, but it didn’t stop my focus from slowly shifting to my finances or status within the companies I worked for. Over time, I began to see the blessings of these jobs as the result of my work, not acknowledging that God had called me to that mission field and helped equip me to work in it. 

The scriptures we read over the last two weeks open with Jesus announcing his death (Mark 8:31, 9:31-32, 10:32-34) . This week isn’t much different, though it seems more hidden than the previous two times (Mark 12:1-11). This time, Jesus mentions his death in a parable. Mark has told us multiple times that the parables were used to, in some sense, mask what Jesus was teaching. This time, the religious leaders are starting to catch on, but not in a positive way. They realize that Jesus is speaking poorly of them in His parable. We then also read the first of three passages. In each of the following passages, the different sects of religious leaders take on the goal of challenging and trapping Jesus. They are so mad that they are working on finding a way to get rid of Him. The parable that Jesus uses has imagery familiar to the religious leaders. Isaiah used the vineyard image to describe the relationship between God and Isreal before, and Jesus brought some conclusions to this image as they listened. 

The image Jesus uses paints a terrible picture of Israel’s leaders. They had failed to fully tend the garden properly and were hostile toward God. The leaders liked their power and were blind to the graciousness of the owner. The farmers in Jesus’ parable are focused on maintaining their power and gaining more. They refuse to give the owner his payment because, ultimately, they want total possession of the land. This doesn’t end well for them because they eventually must face the judgment of the owner, and they will be killed, and the land will be given to others.

Their choice of test is ironic (Mark 12:13-17). They try to trap Jesus by asking about taxes, further emphasizing Jesus’ teaching. They can either trap Jesus by Him putting the Roman government above His faith in God or create a situation where the Roman government can come after Him. In either case, the religious leaders are sure they have caught him. In a twist of events, Jesus asks for a coin to look at, and someone has one to give Him. As he looks at it, he notes the image on the coin and declares that they should provide the coming that has Ceaser’s image back to Ceaser and give God what is God’s. What is God’s? We are, of course. Genesis claims that God made man and woman in His image. God requires much more than our religious actions and finances. God requires our entire being to be surrendered to Him, including all the peripheral things we can think of. 

I had to start asking myself the question this post opened with because I realized I was pushing God out and didn’t want to anymore. So, how might you recognize that you are pushing God out? Are you holding on to some form of power, security, or experience in your life that you don’t want to release if God calls you to surrender it? For me, in one season, it was the ability to have more money and a better title. What might it be for you today?

You can read the entire passage (Mark 12:1-17) HERE.