When I was in 8th Grade, I was awarded the “Math Student of the Year” medal. I was the recipient of many scholastic certificates when I was growing up, and this unwittingly prepared me for the quid pro quo nature of academic “awards” where the Intellectuals take turns passing around a community chalice of GroupThink-flavored Kool-Aid. My disillusionment with this frivolity has likely forfeited my chance of ever “earning” an Honorary Doctorate from the Establishment…darn!
But the funny thing about this Math Student of the Year Medal was that I really wasn’t that good at math, but our Algebra teacher that year decided we were going to spend most of the semester WRITING ESSAYS ABOUT MATH. Meanwhile, my friend, who was an actual Math Wizard, went to church with the English teacher and I guess she liked him. And our English teacher wasn’t a huge fan of the continual liberties I took in spicing up her otherwise insipid assignments. So in a hilarious twist, we both received awards that we didn’t deserve. Academia, here we come!
And as we went through High School, every time we would have a Math Test, I would wear my 8th Grade Math Student of the Year Medal and reassure my teacher that, regardless of whether I had studied or actually knew anything, I was practically immune to failure because of my “hard earned” trinket. I thought it was hilarious!
But what’s not quite so hilarious is when people think that symbols, accolades, or rituals actually confer protection against the tribulations of life. We see several examples of this in the first few chapters of 1 Samuel. In a series of events that would be comical if they weren’t tragic, the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle with the Philistines…and subsequently got destroyed. The Philistines then kept the Ark as what they thought would be a Good Luck Charm…and then played “Ark Potato” after being struck with various plagues before eventually sending it back to Israel.
And people wear crucifixes and go through various sacramental procedures under the delusion that these things, which are merely symbolic, are actually substantive and efficacious in and of themselves. We live in a society that swears on the Bible and completely ignores its admonitions. God doesn’t care about your external accoutrements or list of accomplishments; He cares about your heart.
Even if you were wildly successful by the world’s standards and maybe even Math Student of the Year at one point, none of that is going to matter in the end. When you stand before God after all is said and done, the only acceptable attire in that courtroom is a cloak of humility, knowing that your only hope of eternal glory is because of His grace.
Matthew 7:21-23
