Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Walking a Greased Track

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching.  The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction.  Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them.  They were delighted, and they promised to give him money.  So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around.  Luke 22:1-6(NLT)

Steve Brown is a Presbyterian preacher who is fond of saying, God greases the tracks in the direction you want to go.  That was intriguing to me the first time I heard it perhaps twenty-five years ago and is no less a wonderment to me today.  At the risk of putting words in another preacher’s sermon, what I think Steve means is that we all have that desire inside us to do certain things, and that stuff eventually works its way to the surface, showing up in our actions, conversations, and understanding of our purpose in life. 
The “grease” on the track of our lives comes from God in the sense of liberty – free-will, if you will.  That slick track gives us the freedom to choose the direction those deep-down values and desires hold, good or bad, obedience or rebellion.  In whatever ways God uses to help us find Him, there is allowance for us to go down greased tracks to find Him there, or not! 
God is always in favor of our earnestly exploring His universe and finding His hand, His love, His way.  But in the matter of free will, he permits us to go the wrong way…all the time inviting and calling us back to where He is; sometimes he uses extraordinary means.
Scripture is replete with bad choices that had bad outcomes.  King David made more than a few of these.[ii]  In the case of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and Judas Iscariot, God greased their track, and evil came to the surface.
Jesus was problematic for the religious leaders who chose to kill Jesus.  This was something keepers of the Law of Moses were well aware was evil.  They knew Genesis pictured Cain’s jealousy and eventual murder of his brother as a “track” that was all wrong.  Even if they’d missed Cain and Abel in Sabbath School, there was a strict prohibition of murder in Exodus.  And they knew it!
Judas also managed to ignore a clear commandment as he bore false witness against his Master, Jesus.  Betrayal, no matter how many silver coins might be in the purse, put Judas on the greased tracks to the gallows.  And his legacy is that no parent in his or her right mind names his child after Judas.
All this season of Lent we spend time examining our actions, attitudes, and motives.  If we are serious about this process, and diligent to dig deeply in these weeks it reveals the direction in which our tracks are greased and calls us to examine that direction.
For You Today
If your greased tracks are not headed Heavenward, you don’t have to stay on that train!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   via Pixabay.com
[ii] See here:  Overwhelmed

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