Emptied to be Filled: No Time for Shortcuts

     A. G. Hartman tells the story of when his neighbor called the electric company concerning a malfunctioning street light on his corner.  “It shouldn’t take too much to fix it,” he said, “all I have to do is kick the pole and it turns on.”  The utility foreman responded, “I’m not really sure just how soon we can get a repair crew out there, but I may be able to get you on the payroll if you’ll just go out every evening and kick it.”  Shortcuts!  Our society today is so inundated with them, we hardly even know another way.  From fast food to quick, easy fixes, our lives today are based on them.  In fact, if you were to believe much TV, you would think every problem known to man could be fixed in thirty minutes.

     As this attitude has spread into the “church,” the true Christian should be very concerned.    Today, many understand Christianity to just be a matter of church attendance or giving mental assent to the fact that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again.  Many others have boiled the Christian faith down to the saying of a short prayer and pronouncing the whole thing to be a “done deal.”  This is not Christianity at all!  They are attempting to hold on to their own lives, while adding a little Jesus—at best, nothing but a shortcut.

     Recently, during a Children’s Sermon, as I asked for a definition of a shortcut, one boy was very prompt—“a long, grueling trip through the wilderness.”  Obviously, a reference to the fact that so-called shortcuts, intended to take less time, often take far longer.  Especially with regards to spiritual things, there is indeed no time for shortcuts.  This past Easter Sunday, as I was preaching, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart—not just concerning the fact of resurrection, but the “why” of it.  Why was the cross now empty?  And the tomb?  Simply this—that we might be filled with Him.  If He had remained on the cross or in the tomb, He would not be able to live in us with the power of God—the cross and the tomb would be filled with Him, and we would not.  There is no time for shortcuts.   Mark 16: 9-14 tells us, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.  And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.”  Mark also tells us that they didn’t believe the two returning from Emmaus, either.  Verse 14 paints this dark picture rather vividly—“Afterward, He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen.”  Can you picture it?  The loving Jesus took their unbelief and beat them over their heads with it.  Yes, He did!  In the Greek, it means to disgrace them—railing, chiding, and taunting. No shortcuts—unbelief cannot be tolerated.   The followers of Jesus needed to be emptied of something before they could truly be filled with Him and His Holy Spirit.  Obviously, “self” was still at work and a work of God was desperately needed.  A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us.  It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction.  There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free.  We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us, and bring our self-sins to the cross of judgment.”  Obviously, there is no time for shortcuts.

     Throughout the centuries, many, including so-called Bible scholars, have tried to take a shortcut—even here, with this very text.  Many try to circumvent all of this embarrassing initial unbelief by suggesting that those verses are not the original ending of the gospel, and therefore, don’t need to be taken very seriously.  No, in fact, we had better take them very seriously, for these God-inspired words reveal what the Church needed to be emptied of before it could move forward.  This can be illustrated in the very first one to see the resurrected Lord—Mary of Magdala.  When we first meet her in Luke 8, we find her linked to Joanna and several other women who followed His ministry and supported Him.  Beyond that, we know that Jesus cast seven demons out of her—a fact that is mentioned many times.  In the Jewish mindset, “seven” is a number of fullness and completion.  In other words, Mary had been freed from ALL satanic influences, and it wasn’t through an assortment of shortcuts and Band-Aids, like self-help groups and 12 step programs.  He didn’t fill her head with ungodly and unbiblical “prosperity gospels” or lead her through some visualized journey or experiment with some other mind-emptying New Age therapy.  He didn’t coach her in yoga or immerse her in relaxation techniques.  He didn’t help her find her “center”.  He did, rather, by the power of God, empty her of all other influences and filled her with His love, mercy, and grace.  This subsequent filling is absolutely crucial—it isn’t enough to just be emptied of something.  In Matthew 12, Jesus says, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked then himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”  The goal is not just to be emptied, but to be filled—not with the world’s religious hocus-pocus, but with the reality of His resurrection life.

     But what about Mary?  Is it all a “done deal,” with Jesus desiring to do no more in her?  I mean, after all, He had already cast out the demons—what more could He do?  Plenty!  Jesus is not just interested in emptying you of your blatant sin for the purpose of seeing you in Heaven someday.  Once you are His, He wants to inhabit every aspect of your heart and life—not just for future residence with Him, but to be a temple of the Holy Spirit right now (1 Cor. 3:16).  He not only came to “seek and save that which was lost,” (Luke 10:19) but to also, “baptize with Holy Ghost and fire.” (Matt. 3:17)  Just look at John 20: 11-18.  Mary had been the first to find the tomb empty.  After she ran to tell the disciples her witness of the missing body, she returned to the tomb and wept.  As she looked into the opening, two angels asked her why she was weeping.  After she told them about her dead Lord being missing, she turned away and was face to face with Jesus Himself.  Not recognizing Him, she thought He was the gardener and asked Him to show her where Jesus was.  Then it happened—“Jesus saith unto her, ‘Mary.’  She turned herself, and saith unto Him, ‘Rabboni,’ which is to say, ‘Master.’”  Wait a minute—“she turned herself?”—but she was already turned towards Him!  Obviously, somewhere in between, she had turned away from Him.  This is what needed to be emptied.  No longer should her yearning be to have a “dead Lord.”  No, He was “Rabboni,”— “My Great Master”.  Yes, she had had seven demons cast out of her, and that was a spiritual picture of the fullness of salvation, but Jesus never wants His people to settle in with a  “done deal” mentality.  The Christian walk is just that—a walk, a moving forward and growing spiritually—saved AND baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Mary’s problem is, perhaps, most clearly seen in what Jesus says next—“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.”  In the Greek, it means that she was not to bind herself to Him for the purpose of influencing and shaping Him.  She was now emptied of her own version of unbelief—trying to influence and shape Him, making Him be what she wanted Him to be.  Now she was filled with the desire to be fully influenced by Him—My Great Master.   

     Shortcuts will only cut you short.   There is no time for them, and they wouldn’t work anyway.  Kick the pole all you want—it won’t be fixed until it is fixed—and that takes a work of God.  Invite the Cross to do its deadly work within you and bring you beyond just following and serving Him in your own understanding, for that will be nothing but a long, grueling journey in the wilderness.  Let Him bring you all of the way to truly being surrendered to the One you follow and serve—let Him be Your Great Master.