Whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Luke 20:18
The late Peter Orasuk told in one of his Gospel messages an account of two men who he saw appear in court, charged with the same crime. One of the men defiantly pleaded not guilty despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt. Even when found guilty, he stubbornly defied the judge and refused to apologize. The judge wasted little time in sending that man off to a federal prison for a lengthy term. The other man responded just the opposite. Standing shaking and bowed low in the prisoner’s dock, he kept repeating, ‘I’m guilty, Judge, I’m guilty’. In a sincere and pleading voice, he told the judge, ‘I know I deserve to go to prison, but I am throwing myself on your mercy, your honour. Is there any mercy with this court?’ He found mercy; the judge agreed to let him go free with strict but fair probation conditions. On an earthly plane, those two men represent what the Lord Jesus was speaking about in today’s text.
Every knee will bow to acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ as Lord, no exceptions (Philippians 2:10,11). But as our text declares, there is a tremendous difference in the outcome, depending on when the knee is bowed and when the tongue confesses. The first group, those who are broken when they fall on the rock, are the penitent sinners, those who acknowledge their guilt and their helplessness, those who are broken in repentance to fall on Christ to find mercy and forgiveness. The second group, those who refuse or neglect to seek repentance will also be broken. But they will not find mercy or forgiveness, either in time or in eternity. Forever, they will be ground to powder beneath the judgment for their sins, beneath the folly of failing to fall on the Rock that was available to them. It’s all a matter of pride.
As Christians, we find our greatest failing to be pride. With our lips we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, but in reality, we see ourselves as self sufficient and capable of guiding our own lives along our own pathway. Because of our pride, we miss out on the joys of a life of devotion to our Lord. We fail to receive all that is the best for us, as we fail to daily fall in weakness on Him Who offers us His strength and guidance. But even in our failings, we rejoice that we have escaped the wrath that we deserved. We rejoice that we are not numbered with those who will be ground to powder because their pride kept them from God’s mercy.
May God keep us humble in our brokenness before our Lord, that we might appreciate we are debtors to mercy alone. -Jim MacIntosh