Truth in Advertising
Ps. 89:1-18, Micah 7:1-7, Romans 6:3-11, Matt. 10:34-42
Some years ago there was a film about a group of crazy people – I think that was the title of the film: Crazy People – in which a group of patients in a mental institution began to write advertising. As I recall, the writing of ads was supposed to be therapy, but somehow their work got out of the institution and into the market place.
What made their ads so successful – in the film, that is – is the wildly comic notion of telling the truth about the products advertised. One ad, for example, for Volvo automobiles, had this headline: Volvo: Boxy but Good!
The one that always stuck with me was this ad copy for Metamucil:
“Metamucil: it makes you to go the toilet. If you don’t use it, you’ll get cancer and die!”
Now, the premise of the film is that advertising is almost never candid about the nature or purpose of the product or service being offered. At our house, in those rare times when we watch television, we have often played a game we call “What Are They Selling?” It makes a good game, because television commercials very frequently show us images and sounds and messages which have almost nothing at all to do with the product or service being advertised.
So, we think it hilarious when we are presented a film in which the advertising is candid and straight-forward. We’ve probably seen ads for Volvos – and in those ads they are as boxy and stodgy and ugly as they always are, but nothing is ever said about this. And, the ads for Metamucil – well, the ones we see on television or in magazines are full of elderly people in smart casual sports clothing, playing croquet or golf, or strolling through parks, with huge smiles on their faces, and some voice-over announcer talking about active lifestyles of carefree fun. The closest these ads ever get to candor is when some oblique reference is made to avoiding bloat, cramps, and gas.
Well, if I could avoid bloat, cramps, and gas, I’d smile too, wouldn’t you?
I don’t think Jesus’ disciples were smiling when they heard what he had to say in the gospel appointed for today. These words are part of Jesus’ commissioning the original Twelve to go out among the Jews and to proclaim the gospel. We looked at some of these words last Sunday, and here are some more of them today. Like that advertising in the film, Jesus’ words are startlingly candid, but they’re not all that funny, unless we find ourselves chuckling in ironic amazement.
What we find here would come near the top of a list with the title “Difficult sayings of Jesus.” But, they are not really difficult to understand. They are quite clear and to the point. What makes them difficult is that we do not often wish to hear them. But as they are the conclusion of Jesus’ first commissioning of his disciples, we should heed them, and our first effort in this direction should be take them seriously, as applying as much to ourselves as to those original twelve disciples.
What many do not recognize is the context in which Jesus uttered the warnings that begin in verse 34.
34"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35For I have come to "set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36and "a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’
I trust that you will recognize in Jesus’ words here a clear allusion to the OT lesson we heard read a while ago, from Micah chapter 7. In that passage of Micah, the prophet pours out a lament about the pervasiveness of corruption and degradation that has infected Israel.
2The faithful man has perished from the earth, And there is no one upright among men.
They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net.
And, on he goes, until he reaches this conclusion:
6For son dishonors father, Daughter rises against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
Jesus’ point in making this pointed allusion to the prophet Micah is to tell his disciples that this is the kind of environment in which they are going to commence their preaching ministry. And, of course, the picture we get in the gospels about the spiritual climate of Israel in the First Century is pretty much as Micah was complaining about.
Are all times like these? No. There have been periods of history when Christians have definitely not faced the kind of rotten situation that Micah describes. There have been times of relative peace, relative righteousness – not absolute spiritual perfection, of course – but certain times when the mind of this culture or that culture was relatively sound and healthy. In those times, the preaching of the gospel did not face the kind of opposition, it did not generate nearly the intensity of hostility that Jesus is describing here.
Are SOME times in history like what Micah describes? Most definitely yes. Micah’s day was not unique. Jesus faced something very much like it himself, and that is why he alludes to Micah when commissioning his disciples. And Christians in other eras have faced the same thing. Indeed, in some places of the world today this is what Christians are facing – in many Muslim dominated areas of the world, in many places where the faith is preached to a culture that is pagan, or so secularized that any religious interest is mocked and persecuted.
Is OUR time like this? I don’t think it is even close to what Micah describes, at least not locally. There is still quite a lot of what I’d call “momentum” from the Christian culture of the past century that still affects a lot of the action here in our own town. But, as we digest the currents in the media in our land, it appears that our own national character is heading toward something that Micah describes.
This, then, is the first step in taking Jesus’ candid comments seriously: to understand that as they were given, the climate for Christian service was pretty prickly. I do not think it is nearly so prickly yet; but it could easily become that way within our lifetimes, and looks to be more than a possibility for our children.
So, do we all throw dirt on our heads and eat worms? No. Jesus gave a warning and two promises of encouragement to the original Twelve. They are warnings to us as well, and they are promises of encouragement to us as well.
First the warning:
37He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Jesus says there are two things that will test a disciple’s allegiance to Christ. The first one is competing allegiances. Jesus mentions the family allegiances that everyone acknowledges are the strongest – the one between parents and children. But, of course, these are not the only allegiances which compete with a disciple’s allegiance to Christ. One’s affinity to one’s friends is often strong enough to mount a challenge to an allegiance to Jesus. Christian students face this in high school or college, for example. Or the longing for a mate – as, for example, when a Christian finds himself very strongly attracted to an unbeliever as a potential spouse. Professional associations and allegiances many times are strong enough to compete successfully with a commitment to follow Christ.
As a college student, I saw this kind of dynamic in the experience of a man in our church who was head of the pathology department at a local teaching hospital. Dr. Moore was an orthodox, Bible-believing Christian and he did not shirk sharing his faith with his colleagues, including his immediate supervisor in the hospital administration. He told me, once, about the conclusion of a long conversation he had with his supervisor about the Christian faith. The supervisor candidly told him that he could not embrace the message Dr. Moore offered him, “because to do that,” he said, “would amount to a repudiation of everything I have stood for in my profession for the past 30 years; and, I will not do that.”
Dr. Moore’s faith was tested subsequently, for he was later told by his supervisor that his scientific credentials – and therefore the reputation of the hospital – were threatened by Dr. Moore’s faithful confession of his Biblical faith. And, so Dr. Moore was let go from his position in the hospital.
Now, this happened 30 years ago, in a town known as one of the Buckles on the Bible Belt. So, yes, even in these kinds of environments, Jesus’ warning applies. In their service to Christ, Christians will find themselves tested.
But, Jesus offers two promises for disciples who are beset with these kinds of tests. The first one is in verse 39: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is found in the experience of martyrs, such as Stephen the first Christian martyr, and in the lives of all the martyrs down through the centuries.
But, there is a second promise Jesus offers in order to strengthen the resolve of his disciples : disciples who suffer loss for his sake will find themselves recompensed.
40"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."
This promise isn’t one of those fulfilled only in heaven, though its greatest fulfillment will surely be there.
In this life as well, there is hope of recovering one’s life that is lost for Jesus’ sake. In Mark 10 and verse 39 Jesus said “"Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life.”
That film I mentioned a while ago was funny BECAUSE truth in advertising is pretty much an oxymoron. We know to expect anything but the candid, complete truth in the advertising we see, and so advertising that is truly candid and complete is funny.
Jesus’ words to his disciples, and to us, are just as candid and complete as those ads in the film. But, we don’t find them funny? Why not? Well, the premise is wrong. From Jesus, we expect only the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth.
If Jesus’ words disturbs us, then we have some problems to solve. If Jesus’ words encourage and motivate us, this happens because we have faith in his truthfulness. And, within that truth is a warning about the testings and trials Christians inevitably face in their service to Jesus – for, after all, he faced them, and so, therefore, we will too. And, within the truth Jesus speaks there is great encouragement – that no one who serves him will lose anything, for all that we lose in this way we regain and more.
May the Holy Spirit enable us to see how Jesus’ warnings and promises apply to our lives, and may we find our service to Christ emboldened by Jesus’ promises, to the end that his will in our lives may be done, and that we may find him faithful to his promises.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
