For some reason while I was reading today's passages a nursery rhyme came to mind. Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating a Christmas pie. Stuck in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and said, "What a good boy am I." Look at the plums Samson pulls out of the passage in Judges, breaking his vows, using deceit and murder to accomplish his goals. Look at the plums the Galatians tried to pull out, finding justification in their good deeds rather than Christ for them.
So why Jack Horner? Jack Horner was the steward of the Bishop of Glastonbury, whose monastery was going to be taken over by Henry VIII. Apparently the bishop sent Horner with deeds to several valuable properties as a bribe to the crown. Horner, knowing the bribe would be ineffectual took at least one of those deeds for himself, the deed to the "plum" (should we call it a "peach"?) of a property, on which his descendants lived until the 20th century. Horner ended up sitting on the jury which condemned the Bishop to die an ugly death.
We may say, hopefully rightly, that we have not done something as deceitful and treacherous as either Samson or Horner. But what treachery and deceit have we engaged in? Have we sought to push our own agenda to accomplish our glory and gain praise for ourselves? Have we pursued righteousness in the Law and tried to ignore transgressions, saying they are not serious? As Galatians 3.12 says, "the one who does [the works of the law] shall live by them" (ESV). But the one who fails to do the works of the law will die by them. What do we see in verse 13 (ESV)? "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." Though Jesus kept the law, he nevertheless died for our transgression.
When we stick our thumb into a pie we don't pull out a plum. We pull out something which is disgusting, dead, rotten, and festering. Time to throw away the pie and look at Christ, the true bread of life.
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