Webster defines "abortion," as a medical procedure to abort or remove a fetus from the womb before it is fully developed, prior to birth. The word "abortion" is not in the Bible because it does not support God’s command to man, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Abortion is a direct violation against God’s purpose for man to manage the world. Abortion is not an act of love, but an act of hate for oneself, and for the gift of life bestowed upon man by the Creator.

Blessed (makarios) is that servant whom his Lord finds at work when he returns” (Mt. 24:46). Man is in search of self-assertion. He measures his self-worth by the number of men he commands or the responsibility he delegates. It was at an early age that I aspired to be a cub leader. And when I was set over two troops, I felt rather important. However, I felt not as important as my neighbor who was leader over all the cub groups in the district. In order to acquire more skills to command others, I even was sent away to a training camp. That was and still is the way the world looks on those who serve and those who are being served.

How could one be blessed who followed a man who had no place to lay his head, and that no one regarded that any one good could come where he came from? What did Jesus show these men that made them stay with him who had little to offer here on earth, but suffering, sorrow and even death? God gives eyes and ears to those who are willing to sort what is right from what is wrong. Man’s eyes and ears are the doors to their mind. It is the mind that controls these receptacles. Like a door, the mind can open or close a person’s eyes. It is unfortunately that the mind does not always do its job of filtering the information. Jesus made this curious statement: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; now that you say ‘we see’ your sin remains” (Jn. 9:41). “The eye is the lamp of a person’s body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (Mt. 6:22-23). One of the saddest commentaries on human receptivity comes from the Prologue of the “Gospel of John.” The author stated, “Light into the darkness shines, and the darkness does not receive it.” Jesus was that light and his own people rejected His message. They preferred to live in darkness; rather, than open their minds or hearts to the Good News Jesus was offering. It was when the public had refused His message that Jesus turned to his disciples and made this statement, “Blessed (makarioi) are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see and did not, and to hear what you hear and did not” (Lk. 10:23-24).

We are not told how thick Simon’s head had swollen, but whatever Peter thought Jesus meant was soon shattered. Jesus did not need a rock to defend him, but one that would lend support to his followers. Thus, when Jesus began to tell his disciples that He will have to be handed over, that He will suffer, and that He will die; Peter took Jesus aside and determined not to let this happen to his beloved Master. What a shock it must have been when Jesus compared Peter to Satan, and that in front of the other disciples. It must have been unreal to hear Jesus say, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to me, for you do not consider the things of God but those of men” (Mt. 16:21-23). Apparently, this humiliation for Peter was brief. Jesus must not have been in one of his better moods. After all, how could one be blessed and rejected at the same time? According to Luke, all the disciples had risen above reality, and they required some rude awakening. Jesus stunned them by saying, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” They were about to step on snakes, Satan’s territory; but Jesus gave the disciples strength to overcome Satan’s trickery. Jesus told the disciples that they should not glory in their success, but that they should glory in the fact that their names would appear in heaven (Lk. 10:18-20). With Peter, Jesus was even more specific. When the big fisherman persisted with the notion that he could love Jesus more than the other disciples (Jn. 21:15), and that he would not deny his Teacher but prefer to die with Him if necessary; Jesus shocked Peter again by declaring, “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has sought to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you come back (from your fall), strengthen your brethren” (Lk. 22:31-32). Of course, Peter kept on denying that such things could ever happen to him. Here, too, we could identify with Peter. Satan will spend most of his time on people who try to imitate Jesus and try to be “Makarioi.”

There were twelve disciples, but only one was called “blessed” or “makarios.” It was Simon, son of Jonah, who showed the potential of becoming a “makarios.” Simon was renamed, “Peter.” Jesus singled Peter out for leadership. What was there about this man that attracted Jesus to him and many others throughout history? In retrospect, we can find many outstanding qualities that many of us would desire. Historians have a tendency to make small people great and great people small. If we had met Simon on the day Jesus met him, would we have seen in the man what Jesus saw?

Hatred clouded the Pharisees’ minds. They were wrong in assuming that there were no rulers that believed in Jesus. We know that there was at least one young ruler that had gone to Jesus and even called him a “good teacher” (Lk. 18:18). There were at least two Pharisees, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus that believed in Jesus. The Pharisees, themselves, admitted when they saw the crowd following Jesus, “Look at it, the world has gone after him” (Jn. 12:19). People from all over the inhabited world had come to the feast of the Passover and they were welcoming Jesus as the future king (Jn. 6:15). The Greeks desired a special audience with Jesus (Jn. 12:20-21). The people were not the cursed. They were reaping the blessings because of the hope Jesus had brought when He entered Jerusalem on a baby donkey. It lasted only one day, but there was none like it since the days of King David. That was the reason the crowd shouted, “Hosanna to the son of David!” (Mt. 21:9). To the leaders, it too was an insult.

A blind man was carrying a lantern. When he was asked for a reason, he replied, “I carry a lantern to keep people who can see from bumping into me.” In our world, we constantly bump into others or they bump into us. We are all quite clumsy at this and we are quick at feeling hurt. From the cradle to the grave, we tender our feelings. When I asked my five - year old granddaughter what was bothering her, she said, “You hurt my feelings, grandpa.” And after determining the cause, it was actually grandpa’s feelings that were hurt. She was covering up her own little blunders.

Jesus himself set the example of being a doer and He expected no less from his followers. “Do not presume that I have come to free you from the Law and the Prophets but to keep you bound to them. Heaven and earth will pass away before a single dot of the Law can be changed. Therefore, whoever disobeys the smallest fraction of the Law and has others follow him, he will amount to very little in the kingdom; but those that preserve it will play a huge role in the kingdom” (Mt. 5:17-19). “Blessed (makarios) are those that know and obey the words of prophecy and do what is written in it” (Rev. 1:3). This is what the Greek text says to me and I am persuaded that the “makarioi” understand it.

A lady went to the Sultan of Turkey and complained, “I fell asleep robbers came and stole my belongings.” “Why did you fall asleep,” asked the Sultan? “I fell asleep because I believed you were awake,” was the astonishing reply. The Sultan compensated the lady for her loss because she had trusted in his protection. Believing in people is all about trusting in them and what they can do for us. Someone said, “Faith never stands around with its hands in its pockets” (Kn. 115). In other words, we do not merely believe, but we also are being believed in. Ben Franklin had it right, “Trust thyself and another shall not betray thee.” We can betray ourselves in thinking that all we have to do is simply affirm that we accept God, Christ or any of His miracles. We would, if there were no doubts. But since we live in doubt and are surrounded by it, we must give evidence of our belief. And that brings us to our encounter between Jesus and Thomas. Jesus used faith to turn his people into “makarioi” or “blessed ones.”

This brings us to what actually should identify us with Christ. To paraphrase Jesus, “Believe not in me for who I am but for what I am doing” (Jn. 10:38). Jesus saw Himself in the light of Isaiah 61:12. Luke summarized it as follows: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to announce deliverance to the prisoners of war and restore sight to the blind, I was sent to set free the oppressed, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (4:18-19). The same assignment went to Jesus’ followers. Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (Jn. 20:21-23). The world regards this lifestyle as weakness; Christ regarded this life style as strength. The world seeks to subdue their fellowmen; Christ uplifted man in a peaceful way. Life is more precious than the entire world and man gains nothing when he dies over perishable things. It is a puzzle to the world that more can be gained by turning the other cheek and walking the second mile than by resisting evil (Mt. 5:38-42). Being ridiculed is painful, but being dead is worse. In order to remain as witnesses in the world, Christ’s servants must choose the lesser of the two evils.