The Spirit of the Thief

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy" -John 10:10a

This ever-frequently shared tiny bible fragment is so poignant with meaning. But the idea on a literal sense is some what odd. What does it really mean to be a thief? What does it mean to kill? And what is destruction? Is this thief a real person? This is what happens with Christ's teachings. His use of parables, images, metaphor and stories rarely provide concrete answers but instead direct his students/listeners/readers/followers to think about and ask more questions. But with these word, the first thing I thought about was complete devastation. The thief's action encompasses the idea of the image of physical, violent loss, death and destruction that is shown above. The thief's actions if unchecked would lead to complete ruin... Still, it goes deeper than rubble like in the picture above.

In John 10, Jesus also uses the Good Shepherd metaphor. It's a Bible passage I always seem to come back to, because the idea that God would choose to be like shepard is astounding. He could be a king and he chose to be like a shepherd. Shepherding sounds like an awful job. Sheep smell bad, they can't defend themselves and some breeds of sheep literally need to be sheered or they fail to function properly. The weight of John 10 is found in the juxtaposition of the thief and the shepherd. Their attitudes reside on opposite poles of perspective.

Still, what triggered this thought-scape was the idea that there are simple facts of life that are the embodiment of this metaphorical thief. First, back in December I stumbled jogging into work at hit my head on the concrete. It wasn't terrible, but  I was diagnosed with a minor concussion and missed a day of work. Nonetheless, brain injuries, however small, can be life changing and are always to be taken seriously. Second, my brother in law recently received another all clear after his battle with cancer. He's been cancer free and well for quite sometime now, but it was still a striking reminder of how a healthy person could suddenly become so inexplicably ill.

There's a concept in Christian thought that the truly awful things of this world: pure evil, natural disaster, cancer, traumatic brain injuries, sickness and ... sometimes anything that may make some individual Christians uncomfortable... are the direct results of sin in the world. To say the least, this isn't my favorite way of thinking about bad things, because it's frequently followed by a sins of the fathers type idea, or statements like "this hurricane is happening because society is veering away from traditionally Christian morals". In my assessment, Christians shouldn't be saying these things because they could be down right, flat out, and our right false. Instead of theorizing about what evil deed resulted in a specific bad thing, I posit that diseases, injury, natural disasters and bad stuff, are all about good things having become twisted. These things are evidence that God's "Garden of Eden" created order has been stolen away, that pure and right relationships have been killed, and that perfectly good creation has been subject to destruction. Bad stuff happens because bad stuff happens. The fall happened. There was Eve, there was free will, and their was a serpent...

So there appears another common explanation in Christian thought for why bad things happen. Some equate them to the tangible acts of Satan upon the world. While it's not theologically false per-say, I think I've found a much more life guiding and productive way to think about it. Sometimes, if we think of the bad things, the evil things, or the ugly things of this world, as the work of Satan (or as previously mentioned, as consequences for the past sins of humanity) it suggests that its all of our hands. We can't free ourselves from sin. We can't dodge evil or bad things. This is true, but that doesn't mean confront them or mobilize against the phenomena. For that reason I find it more helpful to think of the evil, and bad things of the world as evidence of the spirit of the thief. This allows us to think of how we can combat that spirit. We can defend ourselves from the spirit of the thief and work in the Holy Spirit to fight against it. Since, the work of this thief is so at work in everyday life on earth, we as Christians must resolutely reject the spirit of the thief. Humans are sinful and have evil thoughts, that is not be argued against. But Christ has also one the war against sin, death and Satan and we have His Spirit within us to guide us and help us live a life in His strength where we are fruitful by His design for His purposes. To be a fruitful branch, the implication means we must reject the ways we choose to steal, kill and destroy and instead aim to do the opposite.

So that brings us back to that shepherd. Jesus, who is traditionally said to be the good sheperd incarnate. says in Matthew 5:22 "but I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Fool!' will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, You moron!' will be subject to hellfire." This of course comes right after Christ upholds the law as governing, saying of course it is wrong to murder. Still, with this quote Jesus brings to light a higher standard. It's not only our actions point to our but our attitude. So it's not only our actions in the spirit of the thief we have to avoid but our attitudes as well

The attitudes behind stealing are vast. I hit on one idea here on this blog in the post Stealing from Our Creator. The idea being, by personally neglecting our spiritual growth we are stealing from God, because he has promised us that he will equip us for work in the kingdom. So an attitude of worry or selfishness or laziness could create the spirit of the thief. I think of work too. I once read a lent devotional by Dietrich Bonheoffer where he attested that there is a time for work and a time for prayer. Many time I find myself distracting myself from work by taking time to pray. This is a spirit of stealing from my work. This issue also applies to relationships. When we prioritize self or isolate ourselves, we are not only stealing from our own social well being but that of our friends and family.

Christ's words in the fifth chapter of Matthew hit directly on how the idea of killing can be extrapolated into the realm of attitude. When we curse others, wish them harm or experience rage, it's not much different. Curses, and anger directed at someone are as good as murder by Christ's explanation of the law. This attitude could also be extrapolated to other facets of life. Killing productivity, cutting off productive conversations, the concept is almost endlessly applicable. The attitude of destruction follows suit. We can sabotage, or tear down the work we are doing in the Kingdom with destructive attitudes. In short the thief steals away fruitfulness, kills our livelihood (spiritual or otherwise), works to destroy whatever we have built. These attitudes can be directed at ourselves, at God, or at others, and do nothing but inhibit our efforts toward sanctification and the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The attitudes of the thief are completely anti-kingdom. We all face them daily, if not ever few minutes, and we must be mindful to catch them before lead to actions. There is a sickeningly pleasant feeling that we can get when we get wrapped up in the attitudes of the thief. These attitudes taste sweet to us. When we indulge in these attitudes it can fill us up, we think only of ourselves and our desire, we feel powerful, we feel rich. Christ never thought of himself once. He laid down his life. All the time he was looking away from his self interest. He looked only to God and only to his fellow humans. When he did feel the fear and the weight of death in the garden of Gethsemane he feel on his knees in prayer, again looking only to God. Christ lifted petition to God in the garden of Gethsemane, but it was still in the heart of submission not out of self interest.

Let us remember the selfless work of the shepherd. The down and dirty effort to care for the flock. Let us not savor the sweet taste of the attitudes of the thief, but spit them out when they touch our tongues. The world holds enough of that attitude within itself to allow it inside of us. This year, as a type of new year's resolution, I aimed to make an effort to be more mindful. That can be a touchy subject in Christian circles because some mindfulness techniques are based off of eastern meditation, or new age theory. Still, I am a firm believer that humanity can teach us a lot about how, as Christians, we can relate to God. It's helped me. Simply making an effort to be more aware of what I feel is key to knowing what's really going on inside of me. It has seriously helped shorten the effects of the bad attitudes I get trapped within.

But now as a month and a half have gone by, I need more. I need more than just to be mindful. I need to be prayerful. I need to be aware of what I feel and be bringing it constantly to God. How can we be like the good shepherd and combat the attitudes of the thief? We must seek the source of all good in the world. We must be alert to the spirit inside of us and be mindful not only of our emotions, sensations and actions, but also our attitudes. From that mindfulness, we must practice to turn it into prayer. With this mindful+plus+prayerful attitude, we can open ourselves up to hearing from God and relating to God more like Jesus did. Without it, we are constantly susceptible to the ways of the thief who wriggles and worms his way into our process to steal, kill and destroy. With it we can do the opposite. We can provide for people, share, heal, encourage, build up and cultivate. This can help us to become a fruitful branch.