Lyle, a Montanan through and through, recalled a story from when he and his twin brother were boys. His pastor visited their parents, saying: “I don’t want your boys to come to church!” What?!
A Back Story with Three Acts
Act One: When Lyle and his twin brother were born, the doctor announced: “Now, you have double trouble.” Over the years, the brothers did their best to live up to that prediction!
Act Two: The brothers heard that if you pick up a skunk by the tail, it could not spray you. Then they saw a skunk. One brother distracted it while the other snuck around and picked it up by the tail. They were delighted – it did not spray them.
Question: We’ve heard of having a tiger by the tail. But what do you do when you have a skunk by the tail?
Act Three: Seeing their pastor’s car nearby, they opened the trunk and threw the skunk in! Now, you know the rest of the story.
An Application
Sometimes we refer to toddlers as “little stinkers.” We mean it as a term of endearment. But, what if their stench is particularly putrid?
Let me abruptly jump to our stinky spiritual nature. God’s sense of smell is not desensitized; he smells our pollution. To proud religious hypocrites, he says: You “are smoke in my nostrils” (Isaiah 65:5). According to Revelation 21:8, third on the list of eight behaviors that exclude sinners like us from heaven is being “vile” – “corrupt” – “detestable” – “abominable.” In its simplest form, the Greek word means: “to break wind quietly” – “quietly!” Even when we try to cover up our corruption by “putting it in a trunk,” it stinks.
We often miss our stench because – Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We forget that the world (systems opposing God and his ways), the flesh (our rotten sinful old nature putting up such a good front), and the devil (the one accusing us and seducing us) are our great enemies. Deeply deceived, we live at the putrid garbage dump and don’t even know it. God’s common grace often shields us. We assume all is well. We flaunt our participation trophies – a trophy body (which undoubtedly will face real diminishment) – or our trophy spouse/children (in their brokenness, they will certainly challenge our brokenness). How did a sweet child grow up to be like this? We had hoped for so much more. Eventually, apart from God’s grace, the aroma becomes unmistakable – like a skunk in a trunk.
Pondering Who We Are
Scripture is emphatic; God made us in his image. There is no skunk there. But, due to the rebellion of our first parents, we are spiritually dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). In his Narnian adventures, C.S. Lewis has the great Christ-figure/Lion, Aslan, declare: “You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. That is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth” (“Prince Caspian”).
Ponder these Scriptures: Romans 8:7,8: “The sinful mind is hostile to God…those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Ouch! Ephesians 2:4,5 – “But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” What good news for stinking sinners like us.
Believing that good news gives us space to look at our old nature and see it for what it is – always promising to be better but not having any power to do so. Always promising to connect with God or others, our old nature alternates between habitual withdrawal, shallow tolerance, or overpowering aggression.
When the Word became flesh, he did not stutter. The first word of his public ministry is – “Repent!” – Matthew 4:17. He’s looking for leaders in repentance. “Heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head and sadly need mending” (“Moby Dick,” Herman Melville).
Repenting for How We Think about Who We Are
Christian and those who will follow Christ, consider your redeemed soul – that part of you that connects you with God and others and is responsive to him – responsive to what he has done for you and others – and responsive in authentic ways to others. Let’s distinguish your redeemed soul from your natural self – the part of you that disconnects from God and others in substantial ways.
Using those definitions of soul and self, only four worldviews are possible. First, naïve humanism suggests: “Love both your ‘self’ and your soul.” Secondly, pessimistic cynicism counters: “Neither your ‘self’ nor your soul is worthy of love.” Christianity teaches us: “Love your soul and deny your ‘self.’” Modern culture – denying that God made us in his image – after all, descendants of apes have no soul – leaves us with: “Love your ‘self.’”
In “Christianity for Modern Pagans,” Peter Kreeft evaluates these four options. Only Christianity is wholly true. Humanistic idealism and pessimistic cynicism are half true. Only modern culture is wholly false. And we are entirely surrounded by modern culture! “The world thinks people are good and saints are better.” Scripture shows us that “we are sinners and saints are miracles” (p. 43).
A Pleasant Aroma to God
Fellow miracles, we who have a skunk in the trunk, through Christ’s fragrant offering of himself, are now a pleasant aroma to God. Amazing! 2 Cor 2:15, 16 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?”
