How can we Properly Respect the Lord?
Meditation for the week of March 11, 2012
Mark 12:6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, “They will respect my son.”
Respect is something that is hard to come by in our day. We are told that it is earned, but often it is given to those who are in the right society or who are wealthy or powerful. We often do not respect those that God tells us to respect, and sometimes we give our respect to those who are completely opposed to all that is good and right and reverent.
In our story, a farmer’s son was slain rather than being shown respect. The farmer was an absentee land owner, and he had sent servants to collect his rent which the tenants wouldn’t pay. So he sent His son, thinking that surely they would respect him. But instead, they killed him thinking that they could then have his inheritance for themselves. What the tenants thought of the son was apparently what they thought of the owner of the property.
Obviously, the farmer represents our Father God who is in heaven. The servants represent the old testament prophets. The tenants represent Israel and the son represents the Lord Jesus. Instead of receiving the Lord Jesus as their Messiah and worshiping Him, Israel as a nation rejected Him. As a result they were destroyed. Titus, the Roman general, destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. And the people of Israel that didn’t die when Rome defeated the Jewish nation were dispersed into all the nations. The Jews had their minds made up as to what their Messiah should look like, where He should come from, and how He should act. The Lord didn’t live up to their standards, and they missed the blessing that could have been theirs. The Jewish leaders were also afraid that if they gave the Lord respect, they might lose their positions of authority. Even Pilate knew that when the Lord was being charged with blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God that the Jews had really delivered him out of envy (Mark 15:10).
Is it any different today? The Lord who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8) is still despised and rejected of men (Isaiah 53:3). His name is used as a curse word by many. People don’t use the names of Presidents or heads of state or corporate C.E.O’s as curse words, instead they use the name of the Lord. They don’t even use the name of the god’s and prophets of other religions. Rejecting the Lord and His claim to be the Messiah and the Savior of sinners is not enough for many. They must also show their utter rebellion and disrespect for Him.
But we also have many so-called good people who do not respect Him. It is obvious that they have a way that seems right to them, but they are headed down a path that leads to utter destruction (Proverbs 14:12). Their conversation is filled with self-righteousness not with a love for the Lord. They tell us about their good works or church membership or baptisms rather than telling us how they needed to be saved and how they are depending on the Lord alone to save them. Their Gospel is not good news at all, but it is a Gospel that deals with moral evil without offering the proper solution. Their self-righteous solutions have nothing to do with respect for the Son.
How can a person properly respect the Lord? This is a matter of attitude and of the heart. A person who has never fully understood that they are sinners that have offended God will never humble themselves to see their need of the Savior. Whenever we make the Gospel something that we do instead of Someone we trust, we are not respecting the Lord. The Lord doesn’t HELP US to get saved or delivered from the penalty that our sin deserves. He DOES ALL THE SAVING. We must do the trusting.
Those of us who have been made to see the value of the Son to the Father, the value of the Son in the plan of salvation and the value of the Son to us personally can say like the bride in the Song of Solomon 5:16, “Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, And this is my friend”
A person who is saved and who knows it and who gives the Lord all the credit for his or her salvation is the only one who has given the Lord, the Father’s beloved Son, the respect that He deserves.
Bruce Collins