Empty Jars

John 12:23-35

Nothing is worse than sin, that separates us from God, that encapsulates us and tempts us day after day. Nothing could be worse… right? And yet in the sight of salvation which removes us from this horrible sin, we still hesitate to do what we must to earn it.

God does not ask for much. Carry your cross and deny  yourself daily; follow the instructions set by the bible in your life and you will gain eternal salvation. For the world, its problem lies in the difficulty of forsaking all the pleasures that it provides us and burdening ourselves with the heavy cross. The world does not understand that its burden is much greater than the yoke of Christ.

For Christians however, those that have already believed, there is something much worse preventing them from salvation. An empty religion. Religion that is self-sustaining and self-providing. Religion that has burdens no more light than that of the world. In fact, a burden that is heavier. This is the greatest tragedy, more so than sin itself.

Satan manipulates and he does it well. Even those who have supposedly given their life in surrender to Christ are tricked by him more often than not. Add to the notion that God's way seems too painful for us and Satan's whisperings become delightful music in our ear. We are convinced that we can live by our own way while being spiritual and appear spiritual to others. Deep inside, we follow our own rules, dictate our own actions. We take the throne away from Jesus. All the while, we try to put up the masquerade of being a good disciple.

It is in such a case that going back to the world would be no different from staying in the church. We have sealed ourselves up. We are essentially the world, merely staying in church and giving ourself more burdens to keep up the charade. After a while the lie gets tiring and drifting away, we return to the world that we forsook, which happily takes us back.

We do not see how sad we are. How powerless. If we were to see the truth, we would gladly do whatever it takes to obtain power, by any means that God dictates. Only when we are sick of our nature and willing to surrender does religion become something of worth to us. Empty jars are useless if they remain empty after all. They are merely pieces of furniture that look good but take up too much space. When you fill them with the oil of Christ, that is when they truly serve a purpose. This is why Christianity is built upon the church. It is not a one-man job to live as a Christian. No, humans are way too flawed to do so. If it were so, Jesus would have no need to form the church. True, we have a personal relationship with God, but no matter how strong those bonds are, the world pulls back the other direction with the same amount of force. Newton's Third Law of Motion. Yet while the world is concentrating on our bond with God, other disciples come and pull us in another direction, still towards God. The world does not know which to go against and it cannot exert as much as the combined force. It has lost the battle once we understand that.

Today, stay connected, pray to be surrendered and understand that you are weak alone. United we stand, divided we fall. And most important, don't try to live your life as an empty jar. You might as well have never taken them up in the first place. Fill your jar with something spiritual. Then it will have serve its true purpose.