Masks

I am sure that each of us has been trick or treating in the past.  There is just something freeing in being able to dress up and pretend to be someone else for an evening.  I have been a princess, a girl from days gone by, a devil, a witch and many other characters.  I have always enjoyed make believe and dress up.  

I am sure that most of you, if not all of you can see where this is going.  I would venture to say that everyone sitting at this table is wearing a mask of some sort, hiding something of who they are.  However, we decided from the beginning that we wanted to reach that Lovers stage, to become intimate with God.  We read in 2 Peter chapter one that we should be making every effort to become REAL (make effort to add to your faith goodness, or the state of being good-valid, genuine, REAL) we touched on how that meant not hiding our hurts, our faults, our imperfections.  Then we turned to our relationships with our spouses and learned that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt 12:24), that sometimes our words unmask our true feelings.  Today, we are going to talk about unmasking our hearts.  

⁸And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”    Genesis 3:8-10

We all know this story.  Eve is tempted by the serpent, eats the fruit, Adam eats the fruit and then they realize they are naked.  Now, when we read the word naked we tend to focus of the physical nakedness.  Before this moment they had no thought of clothes.  But today let us look at a different kind of nakedness.  One definition of nakedness is to be devoid of concealment or disguise.  In other words, to be without a mask.  Adam and Eve were suddenly aware of the fact that they could not hide what they had done, what had happened.  But what did they do?  They attempted to hide anyway.  They both tried to blend into the background and hoped they would be invisible.

Fastforward about 4,000 year and we see Jesus entering Jerusalem.  He goes to the temple that evening but it was late so he went with the 12 to Betthany.  Let’s pick up with verse 12 of Mark

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it…… ²⁰In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

I admit this story confused me.  Why curse a tree because it didn’t have fruit.  The more I thought about it the more I began to think that not having fruit wasn’t the problem, or at least not the main problem.  The problem was looking like it should have fruit.  Notice it wasn’t the season for figs in verse 13.  It was to early in the year for figs to be in fruit.  In fact, the fig trees should just be beginning to sprout leaves and yet this tree was in leaf and must have looked as if it would have fruit, why else would Jesus have approached it searching for fruit.  It was being deceptive by it appearance, looking as if it had something exceptional (early fruit) when it fact it was all show.  Jesus examined the tree, exposed its falseness and prevented it from continuing the façade.  

The tree was able to fool passersby for a while.  But when examined closely it became obvious that the tree wasn’t as good as it appeared, it was hiding also, only it was hiding in plain sight.

We are like this today also.  We are ALL hiding sins, whether by trying to be invisible and lost in the background of the garden, or hiding in plain sight trying to appear to be something we are not.  These sins keep us from becoming close to God, from being Real.  You can choose to continue to wear your mask, or you can take it off and begin to be real.  That is your choice when it comes to dealing with others.  However, you can’t wear the mask with God.  He is El Roi, the God who sees.  Even the depths of death and destruction are known by the Lord. How much more does He know the human heart! (Prov 15:11)  Just like Jesus saw the fig tree for what it was, He sees us for what we are also.  He sees us putting on our mask and because He loves us He provides us opportunities to take it off, to claim our sin and accept the gift of forgiveness.  He tells us in James 5:16 to confess these sins to each other so that we can pray for each other so that we may be healed.  I am not going to force anyone to confess openly.  But I am going to ask that if you feel led to, tell us how we can pray for you.