Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 06 March 2022 by Captain Michael Ramsay
To read the original Toronto July 2016 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2016/07/genesis-119-121-matthew-5-means-are-end.html
We
have done some long driving tours before covid-19 struck. Hopefully sometime
soon we will be able to go see some places again. Travelling reminds me of the
Old Testament. There is a lot of travelling in the Pentateuch.
When
God calls Terah, he travels 950 km from Ur of the Chadeans to Haran en route to
Canaan (Ur to Haran is about the same distance as from the Valley here to
Banff). Terah doesn’t exactly take the most direct route either; if you look at
the map Haran really isn’t on a straight line to Canaan and he never quite
makes it to Canaan, Terah stops in Haran (present day Turkey).
Then
God calls Abram to continue his father’s journey to Canaan, but God doesn’t
take him on the most direct route either.[1] God takes Abram all the way from
modern day Iraq on the east of Palestine through the Promised Land all the way
to Egypt which is to the west of the Promised Land before he comes all the way
back east to settle in Canaan. This journey on foot is around 2000 km (which is
about the distance from here to Indian Head, Saskatchewan, just east of Regina).
A
generation or two later God takes Jacob all the way from Canaan to Mesopotamia
(Iraq) and back to Egypt where he dies.
Then, of course we know the story of Moses: instead of walking straight from Egypt to Canaan, the Israelites do laps around the desert. They even get right to the border of the Promised Land where God and Moses say, ‘no you can’t go in’; so they spend 40 years doing laps, wandering around the desert.
God
is with all His people in the journey: Terah, Abram, Jacob, Moses and more. It
is that time spent with God that we know about much more than what the destination
looked like because the journey with God is so important.
The
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. points out that life is not as much about the destination
as it is about the journey. In much of
his writings there is a related point the reverend keeps coming back to that
really resonates with me. His opponents accused him of being a communist. Of
course, in the USA during the Cold War this was often an accusation rich people
would toss out at civil rights activists because Americans were genuinely
afraid of communism – every time they turned around it appeared one country
after another was throwing off the yoke of imperialism; they were afraid a worldwide
revolution might strike America.
Martin
Luther King Jr. did come in contact with many people who were instrumental in
liberating their countries from capitalism. He fought for a lot of the
communist-embraced values to which the US at that time was opposed: equal
rights for women, equality for ethnic minorities, significant economic reform...
[3] When people pointed out to MLK though that, as far as the USA was
concerned, these were communist ideas; MLK would reply that he differs from the
communists in one key way. “Lenin” [Vladimir, not John], he said, “believed
that the end justified the means.” As a Christian I can never believe that the
ends justify the means because God reminds us that the means are the end – what
you do on the journey reveals who you are in the end. This is true. Do the ends
justify the means? No, never. That is not even possible because the means are
the end.
For
example, if we want to end excessive incarceration and violent oppression by
violently throwing off our oppressors and incarcerating them then–
intentionally or not- we will naturally find ourselves becoming the violent
oppressors.[4] Anyone who has ever seriously studied patterns in world history
will note that this is true whenever a remnant survives. This is one reason why
the Middle East is in tumult, and this is one reason why the US is in so much
turmoil that countries with large black populations even prior to covid were
officially warning their citizens not to travel to the USA.[5] Look at Ukraine
today. Violence breeds violence. The ends do not justify the means. As Gandhi,
whom MLK loved to quote, said, ‘an eye for and eye makes the whole world
blind.’ Do the ends justify the means? No, the means are the ends [5.5]. If we
want the world to see the truth, then we need to help our adversary see! Not
pluck out his eye! For if we pluck out his eye; as he is able, he will do the
same to us and then we will be left as a couple of blind bullies. Gandhi, like
Tutu and Mandela after him, is a great example of helping our adversary to see.
A society at peace with its former oppressors was created in a way it never
would have been through violence. The means of violence always brings the
result of violence. The means of peace is what brings the result of peace. And
Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
Do
the ends justify the means? No, the means are the ends. Oswald Chamber says,
‘God is not working toward a particular finish - His purpose is the process
itself.’[6] Returning to one of our examples from the Pentateuch where God is
walking miles upon miles with people who never reach their destination: The
Israelites of Exodus. They whine and complain a lot about their travels. They
want a different means to achieve their ends. They want the direct route.
Sometimes they get so upset at the means by which God is leading them that they
just want to abandon God’s means and ends altogether because it is too hard,
they think, to achieve His ends.
Do
we remember Numbers 14, the story of the Israelites right on the precipice of
the Promised Land: it was theirs for the taking?[7] God had provided the end.
God just wanted them to join Him in the means. The Israelites refused the
Lord’s means. God responded, therefore, Verse 30: ‘Not one of you will enter
the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of
Jephunneh and Joshua...
There
is more to this story too. After they reject God’s means to the end of the
Promised Land, the Israelites attempt to obtain that very same end, by their
own means, without God. Numbers 14:41:
But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not
succeed! Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated
by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because
you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you and you will fall
by the sword.” And they did. The end in and of itself, even when it is
God-ordained like here, is not by itself the important part; an important part
is the God-enabled means. Matthew 16:26: “What good is it for someone to gain
the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:26, Luke 9:25). Do the ends
justify the means? No. The ends are the means.
Jesus
tells us very much the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. To transliterate
through the lens of means and ends the pericope we read earlier, Jesus said,
You
all know the goal, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be
subject to judgment.’ But let me tell you about the means to that end: don’t
even walk down that road; anyone who even gets angry with a brother or sister
will be subject to judgment.
And
you all know that, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone
who even starts to explore those means by so much as looking at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
You
all know about an ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not
resist an evil person. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour
and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you. This is the means by which you will rid yourself of your enemy.
If you act like an enemy, you are an enemy. If you act like a friend, you are a
friend. The ends don’t justify the means. The means are the ends.
You
all know the end ‘Do not break your oath but fulfill to the Lord the vows you
have made.’ But the means here is the important part: you should not even need
to swear an oath. You should be honest
in every part of your life so that whatever you say - whether you say ‘yes’ or
‘no’ or anything else - it is just as good as an oath even on the Bible or on
your mother's grave. The person who tells the truth is an honest person. The
person who does not is a liar. Do the ends justify the means? No, the means are
the ends.
If
we walk along the path of sin hoping to reach holiness we will be sadly
disappointed. Conversely if we never walk towards sin, we will never arrive at
sin. Do the ends justify the means? No. The means are the end. Oswald Chambers again: ‘God is not working
toward a particular finish - His purpose is the process itself.’
He
who walks in the darkness does not see the light and she who walks in the light
does not get lost in the darkness. Do the means justify the ends? No. The means
are the ends.
This
is true in our daily lives with each other, and it is just as true with our
relationship with God. Jesus and Salvation aren’t about a destination, an end
of going to heaven when we die; Salvation is the means of how we live with God
from today unto eternity. Salvation isn’t an end, a destination to arrive at;
it is a means, a way of life. So, can we do evil as a way to try to enter
heaven? No. Do the ends ever justify the means? No, the means are the end. The
means, which is ultimately our very relationship with our neighbour and our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is all that matters. He is with us and He wants
us to walk with Him and talk with Him both now and forever. And that is the
means by which you and I can live the most blessed life both for now and
forever.
Let
us pray.
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