by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
“…the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.” (1 John 2:18)
No, this isn’t the beginning of a late Halloween article. It’s something more sobering about our faith. Throughout the 1980s, the word, “antichrist,” was distorted by Protestant “End Times” sensationalists, exploiting world-news stories to try and make predictions about the last supreme villain—someone opposed to Christ, who was being groomed by the devil to usher in The Tribulation. In their end times scenario, this would set off the 2nd coming of Christ in what they called “the rapture,” to save all the Christians from having to live through the antichrist’s horrors. In ancient Greek, the prefix, “anti-” didn’t mean to be against, or opposed to something the way we Americans normally think of anti-slavery, or anti-bacterial. In biblical Greek, the prefix, “anti,” meant “instead of.” That’s why the Theologian John, says that, “even now, many antichrists have come.” He’s talking about all of the things in this world that we let creep into our lives instead of Christ, to fill up the parts of our lives that are supposed to be filled with our Lord. They aren’t necessarily sinister things. They may even be respectable things, like our professions, or simply trying to pay our bills, or the devotion we give to our families. But, instead of those things being filled with Christ, used to fulfill His ministry, they become things in and of themselves, often fragmented and compartmentalized away from Him, so that He can no longer distract us from what we are really trying to accomplish. And we forget just who and what it is that makes us truly live, replacing Him with a counterfeit. It all happens very gradually, so we don’t even realize it’s happening. But that’s why St John warns just a few verses before he begins talking about all the antichrists, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in them” (1 John 2:15). The more we try to live our lives in ways that are compartmentalized away from the Father’s love, it kills us, little by little inside, just a bit more every day.
illustration by Steve Robinson
There’s a great scene from Harry Potter, where young Harry has been sitting in front of the “Erised Mirror” gazing endlessly into a virtually live scene of him being sweetly embraced and loved by his parents, who died when he was just a baby. When Dumbledore sees Harry spending hours, endlessly enraptured by that scene of his parents, he explains to Harry exactly what the mirror does and the danger of its deceits. “The mirror merely reveals the deepest and most desperate desires of the one who gazes into it” …which for Harry, is the intimate love of his departed mother and father. But Professor Dumbledore warns Harry of a sobering observation he’s made, “Men have wasted away and even gone mad in front of it.” Then Dumbledore makes a profound statement, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” And for us too, what may have started as a harmless and even virtuous dream, has caused us to start chasing our tails. Why? Not because we’re horrible people, but rather, because we lose track of how our lives are supposed to be ordered to bring life to us—ordered so that *everything* about us is filled with…and transfigured by…Christ’s will.
These days, it’s remarkable how many ways people’s lives are almost entirely consumed with pursuing things other than Christ…instead of Christ. All around, there are fairly affluent folks, good people who earn pretty decent incomes with fairly good benefits, but who have very little bandwidth left for anything else. They spend long hours in commutes each day, and then after an exhausting day at work, carry their jobs home with them via their electronics. They work in what some would consider to be dream jobs, and yet it’s so compartmentalized, so as not to have any distractions, that it could easily be said that “it requires their soul.” And whether we realize it or not, it’s slowly killing us inside….and likewise, killing every other part of our lives.
In this Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Luke 12:16-21)—the story of the rich fool—Jesus gives us a picture of a man who’s neglected the reason God put him on the earth with so many abundant blessings. Somehow, he’s lost track of how his life was supposed to be ordered. He was probably admired by people as a pillar of the community. He’s probably worked very hard all his life and likely, could be just as exhausted as many of us feel…maybe even burned out…feeling like he’s truly earned a good rest. However, he’s forgotten to fill everything he does with God’s two greatest commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart strength and mind…and love your neighbor as yourself. It seems that he’s gotten into the habit of only thinking of himself. His first problem is that God has no part to play in his business. He’s failed to realize that, more than anything he’s done himself, this bumper-crop is primarily a gift from God. Thus, he has no thought of thanking God, nor seeking to offer a portion of his crop to God in worship and almsgiving—sacrificial giving to the poor and needy. Forgetting that everything he owns belongs to God, to use to accomplish God’s purposes, this rich man is a bad steward…and thus Jesus calls him a “fool.” This affluent man doesn’t take seriously his calling to faithful stewardship of God’s gifts to him. He mistakenly believes that the crop really belongs to Him instead of God and his neighbor. And continuing down the path of all this foolish, ignorant thinking, this wealthy man decides to build bigger barns so he can be wealthier and more comfortable. When it comes down to it, that’s his reason for getting up every morning, his WHY.
Remarkably, this is the only time in all the Gospels where Jesus calls anyone a fool. Why does Jesus hold this particular man up as the ultimate example of what a fool looks like? Here, it’s especially helpful to remember (Psalm 14:1) where King David says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God.’” This is exactly what the “rich man” in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading says by his actions. Even though he never actually says the words, “There is no God,” what he’s doing speaks so loudly, we can’t hear anything else he’s saying. You see, it isn’t the words of this man that are saying, “there is no God,” it’s his heart that’s missing God in his actions. His actions are saying, “there is no God,” therefore, Jesus says he’s a fool.
And so, Jesus emphatically warns all of us, “don’t be like this foolish rich man,” because when we “lay up treasures for ourselves, where God isn’t the reason behind our actions, we’re not being rich towards God.” In other words, when we let our lives fall into such disorder, where parts of it are done without being filled with God, whether we realize it or not, we too are becoming self-absorbed, building-up and storing-up things for ourselves—instead of giving of ourselves to God and our neighbor—then we’re essentially saying to the world, “there is no God.” Because of this, each of us is more like that rich man in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading than we realize. It’s that simple.
As we’re about to enter the first Sunday of the Nativity fast, our Gospel Reading about this rich man gives us this sobering reminder. God, in His grace invites us to repent—so every part of our lives may become like Mary, the Theotokos, pregnant with Christ. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, let’s examine and adjust every other part of our lives so that they are no longer antichrist, no longer requiring our soul, no longer killing us little by little…so that our Lord, Jesus Christ will fill them with His life—just as He fills Mary’s womb. Let’s reevaluate how many parts of our lives are missing the two greatest commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind—and love your neighbor as yourself.” And by God’s grace, let’s make that the purpose of everything we do.