We have a cat that the kids named Molly. I just call her cat. During the day she is outside and comes in at night. Recently she climbed up in our carport where she was stuck. I thought, she climbed up there, she has to know how to come down. That was not the case.
I ended up having to get a ladder out, climb to the very top and grab her to bring her down. In the process I was scratched by her and my jacket received some nice new holes from her claws.
I needed to intervene.
The word “intervene” means to take action to improve the situation.
Intervention is Needed
Like my cat, we have found ourselves in a dire predicament. I am not talking about just making some bad decisions. I am talking about a spiritual condition that has left us unable to save ourselves. We need an intervention.
A book that I would recommend to read more than once would be Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. It is a classic with so many metaphors for the Christian life that is so relevant for us today.
There is this one particular moment where the main character, Christian, is trying to get the burden off his back. He runs into a man named, Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Christian wants to go to the path to remove his burden and go to the Celestial City. Mr. Worldly Wiseman is asking why he would want to go that way:
Mr. Worldly Wiseman says, “If you continue in this direction, you are likely to experience wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, and who knows what else.”
Christian responds, “Why Sir, this burden upon my back is more terrible to me than all these things which you have mentioned.”
The Burden
Christian understood that the burden on his back was worse than the dangers that were ahead. He would be willing to endure those terrors in order to be relieved from his burden.
This is so insightful for me because many times we want relief or intervention from our problems. This is not a bad desire; I want that at times. But if we misunderstand that there is a greater danger, a heavier burden, that we face besides trials and tribulations which is sin than those trials and tribulations will be unbearable.
I have to understand that sin is worse than trials or tribulations. Sin is worse than the dragons according to Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress. Sin is worse than sickness or disease even. Sin is an eternal problem. A weight that is incomparable that every human being bears (Romans 3:23).
We may ask for intervention/help from those trials and tribulations. Sometimes that happens and sometimes not. If intervention happens for those than it is just for a time. We still are in a dire predicament. For the believer it is very important for us to understand that the great intervention did take place.
Sin has been paid for. The burden can come off. This is better than even healing or relief to come temporarily because there is eternal healing and eternal relief that is in Christ. Just like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress who understood that the burden coming off meant more than the dangers he would face on his journey.
Friend, the burden can come off, Jesus paid the price by giving his life. Turn to him, call on his name to be saved (Romans 10:13).