For whoever is ashamed of Me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His...’” (Mark 9:1).
I told my children the classic story of the Emperor’s New Clothes the other day.
And the story goes like this… There was once an emperor who was very very vain. A couple of tailors came into the kingdom, and seeing the emperor’s vanity, they offered to make him clothing of the finest materials. And they promised that the clothing would be unlike any other clothing that anyone had ever seen before. The tailors (who were thieves and swindlers) promised the emperor that everyone who saw him in his new clothes would marvel at their beauty, and only those who were truly stupid would fail to see the clothes.
And so, the tailors were paid great sums of money and they sat, day after day, pretending to sew these marvellous clothes. Then, on the day of a big parade, the emperor was put into his clothes by the lying tailors and went about the kingdom in his underwear. Because people were afraid of being called stupid, everyone in the kingdom pretended to marvel at the wonderful clothes, until a little boy who did not care about being thought stupid announced that the emperor was naked.
And this story is a bit of a parable. It teaches a lesson about going against the grain and standing true to our own values. That little boy did not care that everyone else was doing the thing differently. He did not care that everyone else might have thought he was stupid. He cared about the truth…
And that reminds me of Christ… “And He called to Him the multitude with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’” (Mark 8:34-9:1).
And I have been reflecting on that today, as I feel shame or embarrassment for acknowledging my Lord and God. Because in this world it is often very difficult to speak the truth simply because I am afraid of what others might think of me. They might think that I am stupid, or bad, or un-welcoming. In a world that has taught us that inclusion is key, I have become lost in the myriad of lies that markets the inclusion of SIN as good and the exclusion of SIN as bad….
And that makes me think… If I am unwilling to acknowledge my Lord and God today – in front of anyone – even at the risk of being called stupid, how could I ever ask Him to acknowledge me on the day of Judgment?
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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