In England in 1535, King Henry VIII condemned Thomas More to death for treason, mainly for refusing to say that the king was the head of the Church of England. More was imprisoned, waiting for his capital punishment.
More’s friend came to persuade him to say what the king wanted him to say for survival. More refused because it was against his beliefs. His friends pleaded him, “You don’t have to believe it; you just have to say it.” Thomas More refused to compromise his integrity and paid the price with his head.
What would you do if you were in such situations? Would you compromise your integrity to save your life? Or would you betray your conscience for survival?
Do you know Americans lie on average 11 times a week? That’s according to APA (American Psychology Association). No data shows how many lies people from other countries tell, but I believe Americans are more honest comparatively.
Many immigrants say Americans are pretty naïve. They are so easily deceived. American tourists are the easiest targets for scammers worldwide because we trust people readily. That may be because Christian values govern our way of living. “In God, We Trust” is the slogan on our currencies.
Still, research shows Americans are not 100% honest. Lying seems like part of life, and we often make excuses to justify lying. The Burmese say,
“Without lies, words are not smooth.” (mutha maba, linga machaw). ~Burmese Proverbs
It means that without lies, it’s hard to make your speech interesting, poetic, or persuasive. It also means you need a little lie to get your message across. It seems to glorify lying as an art. No wonder we call scammers “con artists.”
In English, we also have the term “white lies.” It means a type of lie that does not harm anyone. Is it true that a white lie does not hurt anybody?
After some research, I’ve discovered that every fib harms the fibber. Every lie we tell lies to ourselves. According to Akira Kurosawa, the maker of Rashomon,
“It’s human to lie. Most of the time, we can’t even be honest with ourselves.” ~Akira Kurosawa
A white lie may not harm others, but it does compromise the liar’s well-being. Studies have shown that a person’s integrity can affect their immunity. After the pandemic, we have learned the value of strong immunity—physically, psychologically, or spiritually.
According to biologists, the moment someone lies, their brain releases stress hormones, such as cortisol, weakening their immune system. We often say, “Lier, lier, pants on fire!” Their pants might not be on fire, but their immunity is on fire.
That’s how lie detectors work. The machine can sense the subtle signs of stress on our nerves when lying. Some people can cheat the lie detector, but they cannot cheat their health. So, honesty is truly the best policy not only for our character but also for our well-being.
It proves that we are not created to lie. We are created in God’s image. When we lie, our body resists it, feels uncomfortable with it, and punishes us for it by degrading our health.
There are two kinds of stress—overt and covert. Overt stress is obvious; you know it when you have it. But covert stress is more insidious. We might not feel it, but it silently kills us from the inside. It will eventually show up on our lab reports during a checkup. Sometimes, it could be too late to reverse it.
Lying is just one of many things that compromise our immunity. Anger, grudges, guilt, discord, manipulation, and other things the Bible calls sin can stress our systems and compromise our integrity and immunity.
It seems we don’t even need God to punish us for our sins; our body is punishing us already. If it is human to lie, how do we redeem ourselves? However, Jesus said that what’s not possible with humans is possible with God. He said,
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:17).
The truth is that Jesus did not come to punish us but to save us from our plight. The immunity boost is just a fringe benefit once we take care of our integrity by confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. Then, our bodies stop rebelling.
We are on the Second Sunday of Advent. Advent means coming. So today, let us explore how to prepare the way for Christ’s coming into our lives by optimizing our integrity and boosting our immunity based on this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!
The scripture lesson for today is from the Gospel According to Luke 3:1-6. [Listen to the Word of the Lord!]
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” (Lk 3:1–6).
[Blessed are those who delight in God’s Word! Thanks be to God.]
Luke was both a physician and historian. He had never met Jesus, but he was a disciple of Paul. Through Pual, he met many disciples of Jesus. Using that privilege, Luke interviewed the eyewitnesses of Jesus and wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts.
In this passage, Luke introduced the context in the first two verses, which might trigger many emotions in those who know the history.
First, he mentioned the Roman Emperor Tiberius, which makes you think about a time of foreign occupation. It makes you feel a sense of enslavement, having to pay taxes to a foreign government.
Then Luke mentioned the local iron fist of the foreign occupation, Pontius Pilate, who compromised his integrity to maintain his position. His job was to prevent insurrection and ensure that enough taxes were collected and sent to Rome.
The Israelites could have ignored the foreign power if their leaders were reliable. Then, Luke mentioned King Herod, who was supposed to take care of the people and country, but he was a puppet of Rome and a tyrant who was not reluctant to slaughter little boys to secure his throne.
The high priests Annas and Caiaphas were supposed to be the nation’s spiritual leaders, but their hearts were rotten inside behind the façade of their supposedly holy offices. They were corrupt leaders functioning as another layer of oppression and manipulated the system even to crucify the Son of God.
You can summarize that the rulers of the time had no integrity and cared only about securing their own positions. What’s the difference between then and now? How satisfied are you with your government? Do you want to change it? WWJD, What would Jesus do?
Luke said that God’s word came to John the Baptist at that time, and John left the wilderness to deliver the message. The message was to prepare the people instead of changing the government. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once said,
“It is not our mission to change the government, but our mission is to prepare the people because if the people are ready, the government cannot stay the same.” ~Norman Vincent Peale
It implies that we have a government we deserve. That is a bitter pill to swallow because it demands that we take responsibility for our government. Does blaming the oppressed for the oppression sound harsh? Shouldn’t we remove the oppressors first?
Unfortunately, life does not work that way. Changing the government and expecting society to change automatically is a quick-fix mentality. The easier way is to blame the leadership and the rich for our plight.
The truth is, if people are not ready, removing the government does not work. But that was what the Israelites wanted. They asked for a Savoir to save them from tyranny.
If changing the government could improve the country, God would not have sent Jesus but an army of angels to wipe out corrupt governments and solve all the problems.
However, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart, so Jesus came to fix hearts. Like a head nurse, John set up the operation room for the heart surgeon, Jesus, to come. The change begins within ourselves. It’s a slow and painful process, but it’s a sure one.
As mentioned, our hearts are overloaded with overt and covert stresses due to the lies we tell, the grudges we carry, and the manipulations we scheme. So, we need forgiveness of sins so that our bodies will stop punishing us.
“He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Lk 3:3).
Notice that “repentance” and “forgiveness of sins” go together. The word repentance is translated from Greek, μετᾰ́νοιᾰ (metánoia), meaning “changing the way of life.” Many people think repentance means “regret.” No, regret is only half of repentance because people can regret what they do and refuse to change. For example, John said a few verses later,
“Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Luke 3:8).
It means if a person does not bear the fruit, they are not repenting; they are just regretting it. That triggers the age-old theological question, “If we work on changing our lifestyle to be forgiven, then how can we say that we are saved by grace, not by work?”
That mystery was explained in my message last week. Like electricity, grace runs on two wires—grace in and grace out. The output of grace is our fruit, and the input of grace is the blood of Jesus Christ. We know grace is free but not cheap. Without the output of grace, we have “cheap grace.”
Then, using Prophet Isaiah’s message, John said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” (Luke 3:4)
Again, this profound mystery can be explained by a light bulb analogy—it needs both the inflow and outflow of the current to shine. God expects us to be not only recipients but also carriers of grace. So, we must make the path straight to allow the grace current to flow smoothly.
How do we make the path straight? It’s by optimizing our integrity. How does grace have anything to do with our integrity? It’s simple. If you have grace, you don’t want to lie. If you have grace, you don’t hold grudges. If you have grace, you forgive. And so on.
Grace is love in action. The moment you show grace, you understand Jesus’ grace deeper and experience his love. As I have mentioned before, your brain will secret oxytocin, the healthiest happiness hormone.
Oxytocin not only makes you happy but also heals your body. A Harvard research study shows that some people can work in a high-stress environment and still live a healthy life because they release oxytocin, which quickly heals the negative effects of their stress before harming their health.
Don’t just take my word for it. When you make the path straight for grace to flow through, you feel well-being and experience a profound state of healing.
Then John said,
“Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;” (Luke 3:5).
These metaphors are rich! What are the valleys of your heart? The valleys are fears, the chasms we are afraid of crossing. We fear the repercussions of our honesty. Sometimes, telling the truth can cause a backlash. Paul taught us to speak the truth with love, which means we can speak the truth with grace.
What mountains and hills need to be made low? The mountains are a metaphor for difficult tasks. Sometimes, we need to go the extra mile to fulfill grace.
For example, the Gift of Life program our church works with requires a lot of arduous procedures to bring a child with a heart condition from a third-world country to provide them with heart surgery. It involves a lot of paperwork, resources, and negotiations. Only with grace can we take down those mountains.
Personally, what are the mountains in your life you need to bring down now?
How about the metaphor of the crooked paths? They are defensiveness, denials, and delays in distributing grace. We all know that the straight path is the shortest path. If we can do something today, don’t meander to tomorrow.
Some time back, a postman said he drove his postal truck not straight to the destinations but meandering around the town, so he couldn’t finish his delivery and got to work overtime and get overtime pay.
He said it proudly, thinking he was smart at making more money. However, because he compromised his integrity, his overtime pay might have ended up on his medical bills later. Was it worth it?
Integrity means “integratedness,” having your body, mind, and spirit in one accord and behaving according to your beliefs. When that happens, we have a straight path to prepare the way for the advent of the Savior.
John ended the quote by saying:
“and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Lk 3:6).
When you make the path straight, all flesh will see God’s salvation because, as I said last week, grace is what fuels your light, and people will see your light shining bright and broad. Not all flesh may accept salvation, but God wants them to know its availability.
The salvation of God is our ultimate freedom from this stressful, fallen world. We will all end up in a place where there is no more pain, tears, sickness, or suffering but eternal love, peace, and joy in the presence of the Lord of Grace.
The good news is that salvation benefits us not only on the other side of eternity but also gives us a clear conscience in this life. Knowing that we are forgiven allows us to start over with a clean slate to rebuild our integrity and strengthen our immunity.
John said that Jesus is the embodiment of “grace upon grace.” As we wait for Christ’s coming, let us make our path straight so that his grace can flow through us. He will be proud to see that we are also like him, radiating “grace upon grace.”
That’s it for today! Until we meet again, keep your light shining brighter and broader, and harvest the fruit of profound felicity, freedom, and fulfillment.
Amen!
Bye now!
