Paul Walker, “Gnats, The Law, Jack, and Jesus”

  We are going talk about the 10 Commandments this morning, but first we really need to start with the gnats. Not the Nats as in the Washington Nationals, but gnats – G N A T S – the miniscule pests that can ruin any outing.  Who doesn’t hate a gnat? They get up all in your face, hovering in clouds. You swipe your hand, your hat, your handbag at them, and yet, still they hover. They get in the corner of your eye, and you can’t get them out. They get up your nose and get lodge up in your sinus cavity.  For such a small creature, they make a sunset picnic a living hell. Gnats!

     Why have I come to church to hear about gnats, you might ask? Well, the gnats are the backstory to the 10 Commandments. Before God revealed His Law on Mt. Sinai, His people toiled as slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh’s cruel regime. They cried out to God and God heard their cries and determined to deliver His people from slavery to freedom. So, He appointed Moses to be His mouthpiece. 

     Although, Moses is an odd choice because he has a terrible stutter. Moses argues with God, explains to God all his insufficiencies (as if God didn’t know them.) God says in exasperation, “Look, who has made man’s mouth!? Is it not I, the Lord?”  Then, Moses delivers one of the best lines of all the bible’s call stories. He pleads with God, saying, “Oh, my Lord, PLEASE send someone else.” So good. Who can’t relate?

     So, fast forward to the gnats. God wins the argument, (shocker) although He does let Moses’ brother Aaron be his talking head. Moses goes to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to free the Israelites, who are currently a huge source of free labor for Pharaoh. Pharaoh is not a huge fan of this plan. (another shocker) Hence, the 10 plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians to change Pharaoh’s mind.

     Well, here’s the funny part. In the first plague, Moses turns the Nile into blood. Fish die, water sources dry up. Women doing their washing come back with all red clothes and sheets. But, no big deal, the Egyptian magicians say. We can do the same thing. So, they do. 

Then, Moses unleashes a plague of frogs. Frogs are everywhere – in houses, beds, ovens, and kneading bowls. Disgusting, right? But the magicians say, “whatever” and make their own frogs.  

     But then come the gnats. As the scripture says, “There were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.” Here’s the thing – the Egyptian magicians couldn’t produce gnats? Blood, yes. Frogs, no problem. But gnats – no way! We give up! We can’t do gnats! I mean, isn’t the Bible funny?

     7 plagues later, the Israelites leave Egypt, complain a lot, cross the Red Sea, complain a lot more, wander in the wilderness, complain some more, wish they were back in Egypt, eat manna, complain about that, doubt that God is with them even though He delivered them out of Egypt via the gnats, et. al, dried up the Red Sea, made water spring from a rock, gave them bread from heaven, every day, and went before them in a visible pillar of cloud.  You’d think that would be sufficient prove God’s existence.  Finally, they arrive at Mt. Sinai. Now – here’s another comic line in the bible. 

     Before the Law is given, God warns the people to obey His statutes. And despite their ridiculous track record cited above, “All the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Really? Of course, they will do the opposite. Just like sitting, sitting is the opposite of standing, they will NOT do any of the what the LORD says. They are like King Lear who hath but slenderly known himself. But are we any different? Or do you think you are like the rich young ruler who told Jesus that he has kept all the commandments since his youth? Or do you think, I’m not perfect but I’m not as bad as that guy.

     The 10 Commandments are the gold standard of human morality. And they are meant for human happiness. And yet we break them – over and over and over. This is presaged by Moses coming down from the mountain with the stone tablets newly etched by the finger of God, seeing the Israelites worshiping a golden calf, having a bacchanalian rager, “his anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.”

     Whether we recognize it or not, our failure to live by God’s Law undoes us in all kinds of ways. It is God alone who satisfies us and gives us life; false gods – wealth, prestige, self-aggrandizement – leave us grasping, hungry, angry, divided against our very selves. Then you throw in the gnats of our lives. The problems of being human, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the difficulties faced in a harsh and judgmental world.  What’s a person to do?

     Speaking of, what is God to do when He sees these awful people that He has chosen? (People like us, BTW). He has made a covenant saying that if they will obey His commandments then He will be their God. Them obeying His commandments is clearly not off to a good start. And it would get worse. Until finally, God solved the problem once and for all – He sent Jesus to fulfill the Law for us. That’s what we mean we say Jesus lived for us. And He sent Jesus – the one sinless man – bear the consequences of our law breaking. That is what we mean when we say Jesus died for us. That, friends, is the gospel.

     Here’s an illustration. Jack is a college student. After his first year in college, he worked as a camp counselor. He had a cabin full of 9 year old boys for 2 weeks. That’s a big ask, in my opinion! After the first night in the cabin, Jack noticed that one of the boys had wet his bed. You can imagine how that boy felt. You can imagine the shame and horror of having the other boys find out. And the problem was that this boy wet the bed every night.

     So here is what Jack did. Every day he went quietly to the laundry room in the camp, and he got a set of clean sheets. Every morning he set his alarm for 5am, well before the boys were awake. And every morning he changed the sheets on that boy’s bed, taking the dirty ones away to be washed so no one would have to know. He removed that boy’s shame.

     That is what Jesus does for you. He takes your shame. Your sheets are clean. You can go out and enjoy the day ahead. I had a conversation with a 97 year old this week. After telling me her life story, I asked her if she was afraid to die. She said yes. When I asked why, she said, “We’ve all got a reckoning coming to us. And I haven’t lived a spotless life.” Well, that’s true of all of us. 

     But here is what is even truer. The Judge, the Reckoner, is none other than Jesus, the friend of sinners. And that reckoning has already happened on a cross 2000 years ago. So there is no need for fear. There is only trust in Him. There is only gratitude for Him. There is only love for Him who has taken away my shame.

     Amen.