Vulture Christians
Scripture: Matthew 8:21-22; 10:33; James 2:17; Psalm 121:1-2
The title of my message this morning is “Vulture Christians.”
Have you considered how often we compare people to members of the animal kingdom? At some point, most of us have compared people we know, and even some we don’t know, to animals. We contrast a person’s physical features and how they act in situations to those of animals. For example, we may find ourselves referring to a man with little moral fiber as a dog. We might look at someone’s nose and say they have a nose like a hawk. When our kids make a mess at the table, we sometimes say they eat like pigs. We also compare them to pigs when we look at their cluttered bedrooms and tell them they are living in a pigsty. Likewise, when we see someone who cannot be trusted, we call them a snake. And then there is the name for those who constantly “mooch” off someone else – we call them a leech or tick. Finally, there is the most famous reference of all – the chicken. When we are baiting someone to do something that they are afraid of doing we tell them that they are a “chicken.” These are just a few of the examples of how we compare one another to animals or insects in the world around us. This morning, I want to examine the vulture and some of its traits that, when you look closely, are evident in how some Christians live. As I go through this message this morning, I want you to ask yourself, “Am I living like a vulture?”
First, let’s talk about vultures and what they do. A vulture is a large bird of prey with a head and neck bare of feathers. In different parts of the world, and depending on the species, vultures may also be called buzzards or condors. Vultures have an excellent sense of sight and smell to help them locate food, so much so that they can find a dead animal from a mile or more away. Because of this, vultures often have large territories and spend a lot of time soaring in the air to locate their next meal. It is a myth that vultures circle dying animals waiting to feed. These birds are powerful fliers and soar on thermals (columns of rising air) while they look for food, but they cannot sense when an animal is dying. When they locate a carcass by smell, sight, or the sound of other smaller birds feeding, they approach it quickly before other predators find it. While vultures eat mostly dead animals, they are capable of attacking and will often prey on extremely sick, wounded, or infirm prey. This is more common if food has been scarce and there are no carcasses nearby. When threatened, vultures vomit to lighten their body weight, so that they can escape more easily into flight. Vomiting also serves as a defense mechanism to deter predators that may be threatening them. Now, with this background in mind, let’s discuss some of the traits in more detail.
The first trait I am going to examine is: Vultures love the dead. Unlike other animals that hunt their food, kill it and eat it, most of the time, vultures eat what has been killed by something else. They are not as equipped to be hunters like other birds of prey. But, if food is scarce, they can hunt small animals like rabbits, etc. Vultures can fly around for hours, without even moving their wings, just floating on the air, searching for something dead to eat. Vultures prefer others to do the work of killing the prey and then they come along and help finish the job by eating the leftovers.
How does this trait relate to us as Christians? How does it identify a Vulture Christian? Vultures love the dead; they feed on the dead. We have established this. Now you might be thinking, all of us, when we eat, we often feed on food from animals or fish that at one time were alive but are now dead. Well, that is true physically. But I want us to look at this from a spiritual perspective. There are Christians who are spiritually feeding on the dead – dead works, dead faith and dead actions. Do you remember the story about the young man who had the opportunity to follow Jesus but requested to remain behind to bury his father? Turn to Matthew 8:21-22. It states “(21) Then another of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ (22) But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’” (Matthew 8:21-22) When I first read this years ago, I thought Jesus’ response was a little cruel. I mean the man’s father was dead and how could the dead bury their own dead? How cruel was it to deny a man the right to bury his father? It just did not seem like an appropriate response from Jesus. The truth is I did not understand the situation. The man’s father was not dead at this time, but he was requesting to be able to stay with his father until his father died. In other words, he wanted to follow Jesus, but he was not ready to leave his home, his father, or his comfortable surroundings to do so. Jesus was offering the young man life, so His statement about the dead burying their dead now seems appropriate. Those who were not following Jesus were dead spiritually and were not seeking life. Although this young man believed in Jesus – remember the verse said he was a disciple – he was not ready to give up all for Him. Do we not see this same attitude and behavior in some Christians today, especially when it comes to their willingness to make sacrifices for Jesus? One more point about loving the dead. A Vulture Christian will often take on some of the characteristics of the dead that they are spiritually feeding off of. The person who is spiritually dead does not speak faith and life to their situations. Instead, they speak defeat, doubt, and death to their situations. A Vulture Christian speaks like the spiritually dead. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” If you are speaking doubt, defeat and death to your situations, maybe, just maybe, that spiritually, you are walking the path that will lead you to becoming a Vulture Christian.
The second trait I am going to look at is: Vultures have limited vocalization abilities. Now why is this important? Vultures, unlike other birds, cannot make loud noises. They can only hiss and grunt. So, you will never see a vulture flying around making a lot of noise, and unless you look up and see them flying about, you will not know that they are there. Again, how does this trait relate to us as Christians? How does it identify a Vulture Christian? There are many Christians who are like the vultures in their limited ability to speak, or in this case, their limited willingness to speak. I am not talking about physically speaking in general, but physically speaking for Jesus. I am talking about sharing our testimonies, our love for Jesus, and why we choose to serve Him. Whereas vultures can only hiss and grunt by design, many Christians have lost their voices, choosing to remain silent while the world speeds towards hell. We do not speak up any longer for what is right. We have chosen to hide behind “the live and let live” mentality. We have chosen to ignore what is going on around us as long as it does not affect us personally. I am not talking about being on soap boxes and yelling at the top of our lungs that everyone is going to hell. I am talking about our refusal to stand for Jesus in the everyday conversations that we have with people that could a difference in their life. You see, it’s those one-on-one conversations that we really have the ear of the person. Those are the times when we must be bold and ready to tell others about our faith – about Jesus and why He died for all of us. Jesus said in Matthew 10:33, “But whoever denies Me before people, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” I do not want to be denied!!! In our quietness lies our denial.
A third trait that is important about vultures: They are extremely non-aggressive and non-confrontational. When the vulture is compared to the hawk or other birds of prey, there is really no comparison. Vultures do not have the physical abilities to be as deadly, so they generally mind their own business unless provoked. How does this trait relate to us as Christians? How does it identify a Vulture Christian? As with the vulture, many Christians are non-aggressive and non-confrontational. People use the excuse that Jesus was peaceful and loving and never offended anyone. I do not see this Jesus in my Bible. But this is why some believe that their main goal in life is just to get along with everyone else. When we read the Bible, we see that Jesus responded to situations that needed His response. Jesus did not avoid confrontation when it came to speaking the truth and He was not too concerned about whether or not He hurt people’s feelings in the process. We see an example of this in Matthew 23. I encourage you to read the chapter, but we are only going to read one verse, verse 13. “But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Jesus did not hesitate to address a situation that needed addressing! But, when doing so, He also did not try to force people to believe Him – He gave them the opportunity to choose. But here is the difference, and we just read an example of it in Matthew 23: Jesus took a stand on His Father’s word! When questioned, He did not back down. He spoke the truth and was not ashamed of it.
In addition to losing their voice, many Christians are also losing their ability and willingness to confront evil and/or injustice because those doing so, in their minds, are so vile in how they are doing it that they do not want to be associated with them. In other words, they don’t see Jesus in how those Christians are confronting evil or injustice. You will often hear them say “It goes against what I believe” without identifying what it is they believe and why what they believe should matter. And then there are those who take on the belief that if it’s not affecting them, then it’s not their problem. Sadly, many in the Church have turned their vision inwards to only dealing with things that affect them while leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself. But this is not what we have been called to do. Paul told Timothy, “(24) And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, (25) in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, (26) and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” (Second Timothy 2:24-26) What would your record in heaven show if you stood before God today and He opened your record containing all the opportunities you had to stand for Him and chose not to? Would there be one page, two, a hundred, a thousand?
The fourth trait about vultures is its defense mechanism – vomiting on their aggressors. As I said earlier, because of their limited ability to fight, when provoked, a vulture’s primary means of self-defense is to vomit on their aggressor. This vomit is very foul smelling and deters most creatures and if gotten on the aggressor's face, it will sting and burn. So how does this identify a Vulture Christian? A Vulture Christian will use words as vomit when they feel threatened, especially if they have to defend a belief about a stand they are taking. Have you ever heard the expressions of someone “vomiting hatred” on someone else with the words they use? We do not always use the word vomit, but the meaning is the same. When a Christian "goes off" on someone because they feel threatened and/or defensive, they are acting like the vulture. James said, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” (James 1:26) A Vulture Christian will not restrain themselves when they feel threatened or are angry. They will open their mouth and let it all come out. And what is so sad about this is that, like the vulture, they will feel good and satisfied after they have done it. When Christians do this, they ruin their testimony for Jesus. Does this sound like anyone you know? Does it sound like you?
The last trait we are going to discuss is this: Vulture needs room to fly. One of the most important facts I want to share with you in this message is that vultures require 10 to 12 feet of running space to get up the speed to fly. This need causes problems. Because they must have so much room to fly, they are often killed by oncoming cars when they are eating road kill. They also become the victims of other predators because of their inability to take off without enough running space. Now here is where it gets interesting. If you put the vulture in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, despite its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. Without the space to run, as is its habit, the bird will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
New Light, how does this trait relate to us as Christians? How does it identify a Vulture Christian? The unique and most troubling aspect of the vulture is their inability to fly without running 10 to 12 feet. As I stated before, this causes them to fall prey to cars and other predators. But it also causes them to be in prison within a pen that other birds would not have a problem flying out of. The vulture has been so conditioned to need that much room to take off and fly, that they do not consider that maybe they can fly without needing 10 to 12 feet of running room. With all the open space above their head, they continue to look at the ground and the pen thinking that it is impossible to fly.
In many ways some Christians are like the vulture. They have things that have been conditioned within them so that they act in certain ways regardless of the situations they find themselves in. Like the vulture, they limit their ability to fly. When they are faced with harsh situations, they look at the ground, they look at the confines, yet they fail to look up. David had it right when he said in Psalm 121:1-2, “(1) ….I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help? (2) My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” The vulture spends its time in the pen looking at the confines and the fact that it is too small to get a running start. He never considers the other possibility that maybe he can take off within 7 feet. His habit of doing something one way cripples him to the possibility that there could be another way of getting the job done. When Jesus walked the earth, He constantly had to deal with people like this, those that would not accept Him or His teachings because of their traditions. These individuals were often the religious leaders who did not want to lose their authority and/or traditions in their religious activities. So threatened were they that they finally caused Jesus to be crucified.
Are you confined to a pen? Are you conditioned to such a point that you need a lot of room to leap out in faith? Can you jump and fly, or must you run long distances in order to build up the speed to jump into the air and flap your wings. The disciple Thomas was like the vulture, but Jesus commended those who would just jump. In John chapter twenty, verses 24-29 the following is recorded: “(24) Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. (25) The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ In Thomas words we find the vulture. Thomas needed some running space, some proof with his own eyes before he was willing to believe that Jesus was alive. He refused to accept the words of his fellow disciples; he had to see for himself. Thomas stated that he would not believe unless he could physically see Jesus and touch Him. Thomas could not exercise his faith until he had some proof that he could accept, and the words of the other disciples did not constitute that proof. Let’s continue reading.
“(26) And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ (27) Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ (28) And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and My God!’ (29) Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” Eight days later while the disciples were gathered together, Thomas was with them when Jesus appeared. Jesus told Thomas to do exactly what he had said he wanted. Jesus called Thomas out for his unbelief without physical proof. Because we believe without physical proof, we are part of those who are blessed for believing even though we have not seen Him face to face. Thomas, who had walked with Him, could not step out in faith unless he could see for himself. Are you living like Thomas?
There will be times when we face situations that will require us to act on our faith without having time to process how we would like to do it. During those times we will not have the opportunity to get a running start, we will have to act immediately. Our ability to act in faith is directly tied to our knowledge and understanding of the One who sustains us. So, the question is “Are we able to act immediately or must we have time to get our faith up for the situation?” Are we so conditioned by our traditions that we cannot act differently from the way in which we were trained, or are we able to look at alternatives? Remember this point, the vulture's inability to fly without having 10 to 12 feet of a running start makes them vulnerable to cars and other predators. Their lives are at risk because they need a running start. It is the same with us, Satan can attack quickly and if our faith requires a “running start” for it to be activated, then we too can become a victim of the enemy’s plots and devices.
The vulture is a unique creature that has created a way to survive based on its own attributes. But we can learn from the vulture. Whereas they cannot change their situations, we have the ability, opportunity and resources to change ours. The vulture feeds off the dead, but we must choose to feed spiritually off the living. Those who are alive in Christ should be the ones we allowing to sow into our lives. The vulture has limited vocal skills, we do not. We have a voice! We can shout. Jesus said when He was asked to quiet the people praising Him, “….I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40) We cannot allow the stones to testify in our place. The vulture is non-aggressive and when confronted will vomit on its aggressors in defense. We must be able to stand, to be confrontational if required, but also never defensive to the point where we vomit on those coming against us. We must be secure in our knowledge of our faith and not be shaken when pressed on what we believe and why we believe what we do. Finally, keep your faith at the ready. Do require a running start to activate your faith. If you are in a pen and do not have the room to get a running start to exercise your faith, learn to take off from a point of standing still. Strive for the point where you can take off in faith without running at all, where your faith is always active and ready to go. Are you living a Vulture Christian life? We all have room to grow as Paul instructs us in Romans 12:2: “Be not conformed to this world (for this message – be not conformed to the life of a vulture) transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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