“I’ll Take ‘Fear’ for 1000, Art”

Being ‘Pampered’ by the Pole

Standing still and staring straight up, I scratched the back of my neck. About a dozen guys stood behind me muttering the same question. “What is this thing?” A feminine voice approaching from a distance answered, “That’s the Pamper Pole.”

We were at our Church’s annual Men’s Weekend Retreat. This new retreat venue had a ropes course. Part of, but separate from the course, was this event that was affectionately called the ‘Pamper Pole”. Don’t be fooled by the name. This event was not a day at the spa being pampered. I assume that the name was derived from the possibility that when you do the event, the fear may be so great that you might wet yourself and thus the possible need for a diaper.

It is comprised of a 40-foot telephone pole that stood isolated and therefore appeared much taller. Handholds going up led to a tiny platform on top that was only slightly bigger than the circumference of the pole.

The only girl staff to be found in Men’s Weekend came up and handed me the rigging saying, “Here, you’ll show them how it works.” Great! – Not!

As I began to put on the harness vest I asked, “Can you give me a quick idea of what I’m doing?”

“Sure. You climb to the top, stand up and dive off trying to hit the Frisbee dangling about 10 feet away from the top of the pole.” I looked up and thought, I don’t want to do this! Why? Because, I was filled with fear. I would be needlessly putting my life in Jeopardy – not just danger but “Grave” danger. (I can hear Jack Nicholson’s voice from A FEW GOOD MEN, “Is there any other kind of danger?”)

Now, the reality is, that the harness had a thick safety rope attached to it with the other end of the long rope going up to a tackle high above and down tethered to a block where the girl stood to catch my weight when I fell. (So reassuring as she looked all of about 75 lbs)

When I grabbed the first handhold it confirmed what I already knew, I really didn’t want to do this!

A memory of an incident as a 10-year-old grabbing onto the handles of a monorail ride that ended with me waking up in the hospital flashed through my mind. But, I decided to just face my fear. I began to climb, not looking down. I reached the top and looked back down. It appeared to be more like 100 feet. The idea of now struggling to manipulate my body up over this little platform and then force my way up to a standing position was terrifying. I decided I was going to bail out.

But, when I looked back down and there was this teenage girl who had probably done this dozens of times. My ego kicked in. I just didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of the only girl in the place. I know – pretty pathetic. So, through weak, wobbly knees I pulled and twisted and turned until I got my feet on the platform. I slowly stood up as my quaking legs shook the entire pole. I did it!

Still, I kept telling myself, I really don’t want to do this. If I could’ve figured out a way to climb back down that was less dangerous, I would have. Could I finish it? 40 feet up and just diving off into nothing? Everything in my being said not to do it. But, really, there was no other safer way down.

It was strange. There was something about the consuming ‘fear’ that caused the knowledge of the truth that I was safely secured to something to vanish. Each step along this journey I had to keep reminding myself that I was tethered – reminding myself that if the rope had failed before, this event wouldn’t be here. (BTW – I don’t know why, but the event is no longer there.)

I stood, rigid, on top of the pole. I said a quick prayer and was totally prepared to meet my maker. I sincerely had a “this is it” feeling of resignation.

I dove off and made a half-hearted swipe at the Frisbee as I closed my eyes. Now, falling laying horizontal to the ground I knew it would be quick with little pain.

But then the rope caught. I opened my eyes and found myself dangling while being slowly lowered to the ground.

Hmmm? That wasn’t so bad.

---

Fear of Circumstance or Fear of Jesus?

As a part of a study in the Gospel of Luke I encountered 2 episodes in Luke Chapter 8:22-39 where Jesus displays unearthly power by miraculously overcoming great (grave) danger. The first, by calming a sudden and fierce storm that was certain to destroy them, and second by driving away a legion of demons occupying a man, filling him with rage and super-human strength. Both very scary scenarios.

Many Bible scholars agree that both were attempts by Satan to use his power through the physical realm and then through the spiritual realm to destroy Jesus along with His ministry and mission. Jesus easily dispatched both attempts with a yawn and a wave of His hand. The ease and power with which Jesus performs these miracles is not what strikes me most from the story – after all that’s what Jesus does.

What struck me most was the “fear” ascribed to the disciples and then to the townspeople. The different Greek words that the writers used to describe the fear found in the Gospel of Luke and the other Synoptic Gospel versions.

Luke uses the Greek word Kinduneuo – ‘Jeopardy’ or ‘grave danger’ to describe the boat in the storm. Here, he sets the stage that what was happening was something to be genuinely afraid of.

There is a final scene in the movie The Perfect Storm that captures what I would consider one of the most frightening of circumstances. In the film, much like the scene set in Luke 8 a fishing trawler is besieged by a huge storm generating mammoth waves. The boat is flipped over and driven to the bottom of the deepest ocean with all trapped inside – all except for 1. The one sailor escapes to be left helplessly bobbing in the raging sea with no hope for survival. To me that is scary stuff.

In the storm, what were the disciples afraid of? Dying? Drowning? Unknown and unexpected dangers below the surface? Their world suddenly spinning out of control? A tragic ending? The realization that who they had put their faith and trust in was not going to prove to be trustworthy?

The disciples had done all that they could to rescue themselves. Finally, they cried out to the sleeping Jesus and say they are Apollumi – ‘drowning or perishing.’ The word conveys that their fears are real and that they really are in the process of being destroyed.

Jesus gets up bleary eyed, shaking his head. He waves his hand at the storm and basically says, “Stop already.” And the storm immediately stops. Maybe you can hear the irritation in his voice when he then turns to his disciples and says, “Where is your faith?” or “How small is your faith?” before climbing back onto his comfy pillow.

Can you hear the irritation and disappointment? How many times have I heard that echo in my head when my faith has proven to be so weak? But, hold on. Let’s take a closer look at what Jesus said and why.

Didn’t the disciples do what we as Christians are instructed to do? Why were they chastised? They were experiencing very real danger – the sudden storms of life. They believed they were going to die. What did they do? They cried out to Jesus – the miracle worker and asked him to save them. Sounds like something we, as Christ-followers are encouraged to do and yet Jesus seems to be is acting as though they did something wrong. Did they?

Measuring Faith in the Jelly Bean Jar

What was Jesus saying, “Where is your faith?” Now, personally, based on my own study of “how” Jesus spoke, I don’t believe Jesus was chastising the disciples. I believe he was still instructing and challenging the disciples. He simply asked, “Where about is your faith?” The Greek adverb translated as ‘Where’ is Pou – and the original meaning has to do with estimating something – ‘somewhere about’. (When asked to guess the number of Jellybeans in the jar, you respond with, “Hmmm? Somewhere about 250”)

Jesus seems to be asking the disciples to consider “Along the continuum of faith, where about is your faith?” or “Where would you estimate your faith to be?” (from “no” faith to “my” faith) Where is your faith? He is not deriding them for their lack of faith but asking them to consider how deep is their faith.

Still, why is he asking them that? Didn’t their faith bring them to Jesus? I believe most people think that in this case Jesus is addressing their fear. If they had true faith, then they wouldn’t have been experiencing fear. This might be true but I’m not sure that acting in great faith is at the exclusion of experiencing legitimate fear of circumstances. Acting out in great faith will often spring from our fears. Our Pastor Steve is currently preaching on the great Biblical heroes of our faith who being mere mortals and often in the midst of fearful and inhospitable circumstances exorcised great faith.

Is it possible that Jesus was continuing his teaching as the ‘The Rabbi’ who the disciples follow to learn from every word and movement he makes and to mimic it all? The Jesus that continually filled himself with the Holy Spirit and always relied on the Father for everything he did, was trying to teach his disciples to do the same thing? That they could have prayed to the Father directly and had God respond to their own prayers to save them? (This way Jesus could have continued to snooze)

Pastor Dan from our church recently completed a sermon series about hearing God’s voice. I agree with his conviction that part of Jesus’ salvation work was to re-establish our lost connection to God the Father, not only to gain heaven but for here on earth. He came to model and encourage us in our direct relationship with God the Father.

Would Jesus actually expect that his disciples could do the things Jesus did? In John 14:12 Jesus is responding to Phillip, when he says just that – you can do what I do and even greater things. Why and how? Just before that Jesus states in verse 10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” In other words, all the things Jesus did were actually done by the Father through Him.

I have previously done a study on what the ‘Greater Things’ are that Jesus refers to in John 14. However, just recently I wondered about the 37 recorded miracles of Jesus. Is there within the Biblical record, examples of others doing similar and ‘even greater things’ than what Jesus did? Surely, mere mortals couldn’t do what Jesus did? Well, actually I discovered that with every miracle of Jesus I found some other figure who did something similar and on occasion in a “greater” way.

Examples of Jesus “things/works” done by others:

• Jesus healed the sick and infirmed – In Acts Peter healed wherever he went.
• Jesus healed a blood flow by his cloak – Peter healed by clothes he had touched and by his shadow
• Jesus turned water into wine – Moses turned the Nile River into Blood
• Jesus calmed the sea – Moses divided the Red Sea
• Jesus calmed the storm – Elijah (a human as we are) held back the rain for 3.5 years
• Jesus healed the lepers – Elisha healed Naaman of Leprosy
• Jesus had a coin delivered by a fish – Jonah was delivered by a fish
• Jesus withered a fig tree – Joel declared “All the trees of Israel withered”
• Jesus raised people from the dead – In Acts Paul and Peter did that too
• But wait, Jesus walked on water! No one’s ever done that! Oh, that’s right, Peter did

Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t mean to belittle who Jesus is and what he did. Jesus is the magnificent eternal Son of God! The Savior! We will never be greater than Him. It is only through him that we could do what he said we could do, the things He did and “even greater things” on earth – as a church body and maybe even as individuals.

Looking more closely at these 2 scenes in Luke 8, it’s not surprising that the disciples and the townspeople were rightfully scared by the demonic circumstances. BUT, what is more amazing to me is that it appears from the wording used that they were even more scared of something else. Of what? – Of Jesus!

Based on the circumstances in the boat, the disciples said that they were perishing. In the Gospel of Mathew Jesus asks them – “Why are you fearful?” using the word Deilos to describe their fear as being timid. But, after Jesus performed His miracle, the disciples were described as Phobeo or terrified. They asked, “Who is this guy?”- that he can do these things but even more terrifying that he would expect that they could do these things!

While on the land after Jesus exorcised the demons from the possessed man, the people who had come to live with this crazy and dangerous man were now described using the words, Sunecho Megas Phobos – “Seized with Great Terror.” By what? By Jesus. So much so that they begged him to leave.

Is All Fear Bad?

Make no mistake the Bible clearly identifies that there are very healthy elements from fear. Proverbs 9:10 says that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The rewards of developing the fear of the Lord are emphasized throughout Scripture. In fact, all the things a person would hope to find in the proverbial pot of gold come with humility and the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 22:4 states that “by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life.”

But fearing Jesus for the good works he does? What is that all about?

I ask you to consider what it was that the disciples and the townspeople feared about Jesus and his power? And then consider if you might share some of the same fears.

I have to admit that I do.

As you ponder this remember 2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

---

Pastor Kevin Merritt has asked me to come share more on this topic this coming Sunday (February 24) 10am at Stepney Baptist Church in Monroe, Ct.

Come for a visit and enjoy this wonderful Fellowship

You’ll find my concluding comments from the Sermon by clicking on the SUNDAY STUDY NOTES tab above.