In the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, Indy and the Nazis are searching for the Holy Grail. The legend holds that knights have been protecting this cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper. Anyone who drinks from it, will gain eternal life.
They finally find it and force Indy to go through 3 trials to get to the cup. He gets through and the Nazi follows. He looks over 20 or so cups and picks the most lavish. It’s gold plated, adorned with rubies and sapphires. He drinks and, as the knight said, choose poorly. He picked a cup for for a king of THIS world.
Indy looks at the cups and finds a cup that is plain. He reasons this simple cup, is more like something a carpenter would have used. He drinks and lives!
Set aside the idea that drinking from this cup will bring eternal life (Jesus said He is the Living Water, with no requirements for a cup), this highlights a problem in our society.
Christians for generations have wrapped the Bible in tradition, misinterpretation, and boiled it down to slogans, bumper stickers and t-shirts. We have provided a false narrative to this generation about what Jesus promises us. He promised to walk with us in trials and tribulations, not to walk around them. He sees us in the eternal, not just the temporal.
Like Jesus, Paul and other Apostles, they looked past this life and saw the Glory of God. How else could they endure? Our lives, in the US, are comfortable, so when we build up a false sense of what Jesus promises, the first sign of hardship, we are threatened and feel like He has abandoned us.
I urge my brothers and sisters to read the scriptures. See James telling us about joy in trials, not absent of them. Look at Paul, maintaining his faith, knowing certain death was to follow. And look at Jesus, willing to endure unspeakable pain and suffering, both physically and spiritually.
What they saw was the Eternal, so when the temporal became hard, they endured. We should strive to strip away the traditions and opinions, and simply speak of the Hope Jesus promises. It’s more powerful than anything we can come up with, yes, even that cool coffee bar!!
Peace.