An Encounter With The Risen Lord

In fact, Paul, who did pray every day and who did read and study the Holy Scriptures regularly and who did perfectly keep the Law, came to one conclusion about all these things, which he gives in vs. 7+8:

7 I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ

So, then if simply following the ritual doesn’t bring the satisfaction, then maybe it is a problem of the heart. Maybe like the contrast between my prayer of obligation as a child and my prayer from a heart of devotion is the answer. How about when we don’t follow the rituals out of a sense of obligation, but with a passionate heart we go to church, with a passionate heart we pray and read the Bible, and with zeal we follow God’s ways? Is the answer that we have to do all of these things from a committed heart? The answer must be a resounding NO, because Paul himself confessed in vs. 6 that he was a zealous follower of the Law. He zealously kept his rituals. But they still brought him nothing but emptiness.

Earlier this week I went to New York City with my brother for the 9/11 observances. While we were there we wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. He was willing to pay $8.00 to go to Liberty Island, but as usual, I was too cheap and I decided to take the Staten Island Ferry instead. The Staten Island Ferry had a big sign at the entry point that said, “The Staten Island Ferry is free, but does not stop at the Statue of Liberty.” I knew, however, that it does pass close to the Statue so you can see it up close.

Now let’s imagine for a moment that I was a foolish person. And I decided that I would step more passionately on the Ferry. I would really feel in my heart to go to Liberty Island on the Ferry. Indeed, I might even make an impassioned plea to the captain to stop. But no matter how passionate I am about getting to the island, unless I jumped off the Ferry and swam to shore, I wasn’t getting to the island from that ferry. If I was so zealous that I rode back and forth all day, I would accomplish nothing more than discovering that None of the Staten Island Ferry boats stop at Liberty Island. My passion would be wasted. My zeal would go unrewarded. Why? Because I was on the wrong ferry.

Now, if I was so unpassionate that I didn’t even really want to go to Liberty Island, but I got on the $8.00 Statue of Liberty boat, I would have gotten there, whether I was zealous about it or not. Because passion and zeal doesn’t determine where you’re going at all. It only determines how passionately you’re going to get there.

Religious ritual is a ferry that simply doesn’t stop on Fulfillment, Peace, or Joy Island. It doesn’t reach the shore of the Promises of God. Religious ritual only leads to Empty Island. And if you’re zealous or passionate about religious ritual, you’ll end up passionately on Empty Island. Maybe you know that Staten Island is NYCs trash dump. And that’s exactly where religious ritual will get you, is the trash dump of the Island of Emptiness.