Roots

Warm Up: Matthew 15:1-20

The first couple of times I came home from college everyone in my family was happy to see me. My mom did my laundry, she cooked me whatever I wanted, and my bed had been made! As the year went on, however, this warm welcome became less exciting. Don’t get me wrong, they were still very happy to see me and missed me when I was away, but gone were the choice meals and personal laundry service. As the months and years went by, I had the joy of being welcomed by a new tradition: yard work. It seemed like every time I came home there was something new to do. If you have never done yard work in the South, than you have never really done yard work. There is nothing like working on hot summer days when the humidity is pushing 100 percent. Your entire body is covered in dirt that sticks to the sweat emitting from every gland in you. At the end of the day, I would sometimes think I had a nice tan, but was disappointed when I hopped in the shower and discovered my “tan” was just cakey dirt and washed away. But the work still had to be done; otherwise the yard would become a weed jungle.

I like to get things done the quickest and easiest way. Most young people in America are like that I suppose; we’ve all grown up on microwaves and high speed Internet. When I am pulling the weeds around our house, however, this modern approach does not work. The easiest and quickest method for removing weeds is using little clippers and cutting them at their base. When I did this, the weeds would disappear for a week or two and then return. But, the clipping method did at least make them go away for a little while.

I should clarify something by saying that we are not talking two inch tall weeds around my house, some of these babies reached four or five feet! And you thought I was joking about the weed jungle. The easy method of weed removal is especially nice when dealing with thorny weeds because I could avoid being hurt by them. But, like I said, clipping them did not solve the problem for very long. I soon discovered I needed to pull the weed out by the root, otherwise they would continue to grow and threaten to become a mini-rainforest.

Getting the weeds out by the roots is always more difficult and time consuming then the quick fix of clipping, but the results are so much better. It is never fun, I have to get even more dirty and usually end up being covered in scratches from thorns. But I know that I need to take the extra time, energy, and sometimes pain in order to rid the yard of weeds. Otherwise, the weeds will never go away and they will constantly give me trouble.

My sins are a lot like weeds. I do not want them there, they are ugly, they usually have thorns, and if I do not do anything about them they can spread and grow into a massive jungle that chokes my life away. Just like weeds, sin is not taken care of through a quick fix, but rather, sin needs to be addressed and taken care of at the root level. This is almost never easy, and sometimes it can even hurt, but it must be done in order for my relationship with God to grow and thrive.

Sometimes determining the root of a sin can be very difficult. It may take weeks, months, or even years. To really find the problem we have to get dirty and start digging into our own hearts, and sometimes I think we are afraid of what we will find. The anger someone unleashes on a roommate, for instance, could be rooted in many different things. It could be a wound from youth, it could be selfishness, it could be pride, it could be a desire to fight people, or it could be a combination of many things. The bottom line is this: the only way to find the root is to start digging.

Other times figuring out the root is easy, like when I tell a friend he is an idiot in order to hurt his feelings, the root of that sin is probably my ridiculous pride. In order to resolve that issue I could go for the quick fix and promise myself I will never call anyone an idiot again. But if I do that, there is no heart change. I will still be thinking my friend is an idiot and that I am better than him. I will quickly forget about my quick fix promise and call him he an idiot again after a few weeks. Just because it is easy to identify the root of the sin does not mean it will be easy to remove it. If you have ever had chores, then I am sure you have heard your parents say something to the effect of, “those weeds are not going to pull themselves!” Over the years, I have learned that I, just like the yard, am incapable of really pulling my own weeds out. I need help, and God is the only person who is able to take care of the problem.

There is an amazing scene in C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In the scene, a boy named Eustace has been turned into a dragon. For obvious reasons, Eustace wants to turn back into a human kid. One night he was approached by Aslan, the lion who is the Jesus of the Narnian world, and told that if he wants to become a boy again he must tear off his scales. Eustace attempts to do this and it hurts, but every time he pulls off some scales he sees there are more scales to be dug out. Finally, after peeling away three layers of skin and scales, Aslan tells Eustace something like, “I will have to do the work for you.” Eustace allows the lion to use his huge paws to remove the skin and scales, and it hurts him even more. Aslan is able to reach deep down into the skin and cleanse Eustace, and so He restores the boy to his former self.

Just like my yard needs me to pull the weeds and Eustace needed Aslan, I need God to remove the sin in my life from deep down at the root and heart of my sin. In order for this to happen, I must be humbled and it can hurt like crazy. Once the sin is off my back, however, I am able to stand up and breathe freely and not feel choked in my relationship with Him anymore. When I am willing to get dirty and figure out what the roots of my sin are, I persistently ask God to pull them for me and to make me more like Him by whatever means necessary. The temporary pain of Him changing my character and the extra time required to fix a sin at the root is so worth the wait. When sin is pulled up at the root, we can know that it will not be returning next week. There may be random reoccurrences, but if the root is gone the sin will be more easily dealt with and show up much less frequently.

It is comforting to know that even though I must endure pain to have my sins removed, Jesus has felt an even greater pain by removing them. Like I said, weeds often have thorns. And who knows? Perhaps it was no coincidence that Jesus had to wear a crown of thorns when he was crucified. It is a great testament to his love for us and his desire for people to connect with him and have no sins or weeds between us. Having that freedom to connect with him and not be stifled is such an amazing gift, and even though it often hurts to get there, it is so worth it. Jesus cares about the state of your heart. And to deal with your heart, you must dig deep.