Reniniscere A LINE IN THE SAND II Timothy 4:10

Desertion is a capital offense in the military. There are two reasons for this. One is to deter soldiers from deserting in order to uphold unit morale. The other involves a kind of purging, a purification of the regiment from the disgrace brought on by desertion. We do not want to remember deserters. We certainly don't want our children to admire or imitate them. We want to forget them.

There is one deserter whose name will always be remembered, because his misdeed has been forever recorded in the New Testament. His name was Demas. He deserted the Apostle Paul. We don't know very much about Demas, in fact apart from Paul's letters we would not know his name. To the Colossians Paul sends greetings from Luke and Demas. In the letter to Philemon, Paul sent the slave, Onesimus, back to his master with a greeting from Demas, whom Paul calls his fellow prisoner and laborer. Paul assumes that Philemon and the Colossians know who Demas was, had met him at one time, and are glad to hear from him. There the matter rests until we come to II Timothy, Paul's final letter, where he calls Demas a deserter. He wasn't sick. He wasn't assigned to another field. He loved the present world.

What do the Scriptures say about the world? Jesus tells us in John 15 -- If the world hates you, know that it has hated me first. If you had anything in common with the world, the world would love you as its own. But you're different. I chose to separate you from the world. Now we have Paul's words in Romans 12 --Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The same Apostle in II Corinthians 6 urges us -- Come out from among them. St. John in his first letter warns us --Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. The meaning of all this is very plain. Jesus has drawn a line in the sand. Consider that image for a minute. For the student of ancient history it recalls the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, standing frustrated in the Egyptian desert as the Consul, Lucius Aemilius Paulus, drew a circle in the sand around him and told him not to leave it until he agreed to withdraw his army. For the American history student, it presents the tall figure of Colonel William Travis of the Texas Militia, drawing a line in the sand inside the Alamo, inviting his men to cross it if they meant to fight to the death, but dismissing without dishonor any who would remain on the far side of it. As I said, we do not draw this line. Jesus has already drawn it. His kingdom and this present world get along like oil and water. If you belong to the kingdom of the Triune God, you see the world as something to be subdued, disarmed, and conquered. The world sees the church as a terrible threat, to be isolated, demonized, and silenced. In spite of this, the entire history of the church is a record of its treaties and compromises with the world. After each of these covenants with death, the Holy Spirit has provided a Reformation. This tension has been in the church since the beginning.

The institutional church needs to be sanctified constantly. We don't want to make little of this. But the point here is that the line in the sand is there for each individual Christian. It was drawn for Demas, who would not cross it. By contrast it was drawn for Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. The king of Babylon threatened them. When you hear the music, you have two choices -- bow down to my idol or be thrown into the fire. That was a line in the sand. What would Demas have done? Would he have asked something like Just once, O king? He would have tried to make a deal, to sell as little of his soul as possible. Not so the three martyrs. They did the right thing. If they had been the main characters in a modern "action" movie, they might have given the king a Bart Simpson kind of answer. If they had, they would have deserved to die, because kings deserve respect. These three were respectful, but firm in refusing to bow down. The king did what he threatened, but the Lord delivered them from the fire. We see the contrast. The question is, what did they know that Demas didn't?

When you start selling pieces of your soul, how can you be sure the Lord still owns a controlling interest? Not by running away. Not by living in perpetual retreat. Yes, seclusion is a retreat, a running away from the battle. We have to interact with the world around us. God has put us here to enlighten it. Jesus warns us not to hide our light under a bushel. As we interact with the world we must not conceal what makes us really different. Are you dressed so modestly that the world knows you aren't flirting? Is your conversation so free from smut and swearing that the world thinks you're straight-laced? Do your unbelieving friends think your level of Christian giving is foolishly generous? Do people admire your patience with your children, your elderly relatives, your employees? The line in the sand has been there, and you have crossed it. The world will hate you. If you are growing holier by the day -- and please, don't think this means being more religious; you can be very holy without being religious -- you are constantly crossing that line in the sand. If you clearly belong to Jesus the Messiah, then you clearly do not belong to the Prince of this World. He knows you for an enemy, and so does his world.

Do you think "hate" is too strong a world? The world really is that evil. If you don't think it hates you, then maybe you aren't holy enough. The world does not begin with hate. It tries at first to patronize us, to make its various deals. If it succeeds, it will never go on to hate. But if we are too honest to be bought, too brave to be bullied, and too wise to be deceived, all the world has left is anger and resentment. No, we can't just all get along. The world's resentment of the true Messiah goes to its very heart. So look at the cross of Jesus and see what the world thinks of holiness. The loving and saving act of redemption, the cross which is our very life, offends the world. Now, however, look at the resurrection and see how little the world's opinion really counts. Jesus crossed the ultimate line in the sand for all of us, fought to the death, and won. There is no better holiness than the holiness of the cross.

The world has nothing to teach us. We have everything to teach it. God protects those who belong to His party in the cosmic conflict. In the end He will vindicate you and me because of Jesus' victory. His forgiveness makes us holy. His Word feeds and nourishes us, His promises sustain us. That, my friends, is what Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego knew but Demas didn't. They were not perfect, and neither are we. But they were redeemed as we are. We are reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus. As was the case with the Apostle Paul, our own blood may be mixed with His before all is said and done. God has paid the terrible price. The Prince of this World knows his time is short. That means ruin for him. But for us, the before and after is much better, because after the cross comes the crown. AMEN.