Must

 Two words in the Bible are hard to stomach for the name and claim, decree, declare, and speak into existence universe creators in Christendom, and they are if and must. In fact, that’s putting it mildly. The words if and must in the Bible are to the ‘my will supersedes God’s will’ crowd as garlic, and holy water are to the vampires in the movies. You knew it was bound to come up. I’m Romanian. I come from the land that birthed the legend. I had to analogize it at some point.

When it comes to the word must, Jesus uses it sparingly, but He uses it nevertheless. The first time is when He speaks on what is to become of Him, saying that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed, and be raised on the third day. All these things had been foretold and prophesied, and as such, they must come to pass.

There was no olive branch offered as to these things being circumvented in any way. They were set in stone, immovable, unchangeable, and necessary. Why so? Because to get to the next stage, a previous event must take place to trigger it.

When I wake up, I get out of bed, make some coffee, write a bit, open the front door, get in my car, start the engine, and drive to work. I know getting dressed is supposed to be in there somewhere, but you get the gist. Every one of those actions is a must, except, perhaps, for the coffee, to lead to the next thing. If I don’t wake up in the morning, I don’t get out of bed. If I don’t get in my car and start the engine, I don’t drive to work.

The second time Jesus uses the word must is regarding the last days and the events thereof.

Matthew 24:4-6, “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

Most Christians react one of two ways upon reading the words of Jesus whenever He employs the word must. They either accept it at face value, come to terms with the inevitability of these things coming to pass and prepare themselves for the eventuality thereof, or they pull a Peter.

It didn’t even register to Peter that Jesus had just confirmed He would rise on the third day, or what that meant in practical terms. His first reaction was to take Jesus aside and rebuke Him for saying He must do certain things that Peter disagreed with.

The same can be said for how some react to Christ’s Olivet Discourse. They get so flustered about the trials and hardships that they ignore that Jesus said they would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great authority.

Peter reacted in the moment without thinking things through. I’m sure it came from a good place. “Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Peter states emphatically, even though Jesus said it must.

Christ’s answer to Peter wasn’t one of sympathy or acquiescence; he didn’t say, “Peter, buddy, I get it, you love Me, and you’re scared, and your response comes as a reaction to My future suffering. I acknowledge and validate your feelings, Peter.”

Matthew 16:23, “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’”

I knew someone who said they’d try that response the next time their wife asked them to take out the trash. Two months later, I found out his wife left him; I guess he did try it after all. The point is that some things must come to pass. There’s no way around it. There’s no amount of prayer chaining, declaring, or commanding that will make it not be so.

Certain markers along the road toward the end will be because they must be, and knowing that they must, will save us from wasting our time on wishful thinking or exploring other potential, hypothetical outcomes.

The modern-day church is still in the first of five stages of grief. It’s still in denial pretending as though Jesus didn’t say what He said or that there was some way of circumventing it.

As the first stage begins to near its end, the second stage will replace it, which will be anger. Yep, I know, we’re back to a whole mess of disenfranchised people who thought that simply saying something goofy and umbilical made it so, then getting angry when what they declared did not manifest. See, I even know the lingo. Scary, isn’t it? Knowing your enemy isn’t just a suggestion, at least not if you want to make it through this.

Are you saying some who call themselves believers are the enemy? If they’re trying to convince me to believe them over the Word of God, you betcha.

The bargaining stage should be a doozy, in any case.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.