The Deadly Sin Of Sabotage
Sermon
AS THE SHADOWS LENGTHEN
Sermons Preached On Special Occasions
A Lenten Sermon Written but Never Preached
Though they are nowhere specifically mentioned together in the Bible, traditional theology has long maintained that there are seven deadly sins. Just to refresh your memory, these seven sins are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Sabotage is not one of these seven sins, and, in fact, the word "sabotage" does not even occur in the Bible.
I maintain, however, that sabotage is deadly to the souls of the perpetrators as well as to the victims. Gamaliel said to his colleagues in Acts, "... you may even be found fighting against God!" You can't do that and win! Sabotage can also be destructive, even devastating, to victims, which includes worthy causes. Such can cause good people to wobble in their trust in God and sometimes even fall into disbelief. Not a few of us have sometimes been guilty of committing this deadly sin, and not a few of us have also been victimized by it. Thereby our spiritual well--being has been cast into jeopardy. If we, therefore, can honestly face these hard facts, perhaps we can find some remedies for this sin. Without apology, therefore, I title this sermon, appropriately, "The Deadly Sin Of Sabotage."
Understand at the outset that I am not referring here to wartime sabotage. That is an altogether different subject. I'm referring rather to the kind of everyday sabotage which is pervasive in society and even invades the Church which is the subject of the sermon that follows. Many of us have had to face this "deadly sin," sometimes with agony of heart.
Webster's third definition of sabotage - not the first - is as follows: "the deliberate obstruction of or damage to any cause, movement, activity, [or] effort...." Broadly speaking, again according to Webster, sabotage is "any act or process tending to hamper or hurt." It is, as other students of the word's meaning have suggested, the undermining of a cause or person, the underhanded interference in a process, the attempt to damage something or somebody from inside the organization, the effort to cripple a worthwhile cause or to do a person in, the disruption of something that can well be good. This is serious stuff which we dare not brush aside. The weapons of the saboteur are such things as deliberate deceit, smiling and being pleasant while figuratively stabbing someone in the back, letting the ego's desire run rampant to the detriment of others, ruthlessly trying to get the upper hand at all costs, undermining someone or something in every way possible, talking out of both sides of one's mouth and/or lying through one's teeth. Never mind that sabotage is sometimes done unconsciously. It still hurts! It is still damaging! And it can still be as deadly as a serpent's tooth! I almost dread to make this meaning of sabotage as clear to you as it is to some of us who have been wounded by it personally and who have seen the things to which we have given our lives severely damaged by such underhandedness.
When some years ago I first discussed the possibility of a sermon on sabotage, my dear wife said to me in essence, "But, husband, dear, there is nothing in the Bible about sabotage." With all due respect to my beloved wife, it is just not so. The more I have read the Bible the more examples I have found of precisely what we are thinking about here. In fact, biblical instances of sabotage are legion.
In the Old Testament, for example, there is the sad story of David the King and his son Absalom, who, envisioning himself in his father's place, devised plans to usurp his father's throne. Succumbing to insatiable ambition: that is frequently a component of sabotage! A handsome young man without blemish from "the sole of his foot to the crown of his head," Absalom went out of his way to steal the hearts and loyalties of the people of Israel. Rising early in the morning, he would stand at the gates of Jerusalem charming the people, giving them what they wanted and telling them what they wanted to hear, while at the same time, he was plotting against his own father. His underhanded sabotage resulted eventually in outright civil war with his father the king in which Absalom himself was killed. That, the ultimate price, was what he paid for this deadly sin. But do hear also the deep agony of soul in King David as he wept bitter tears upon losing his son even as he thought about what might have been. In one of the most poignant outcries in the entire Bible, David cried out from the depths of his innocent suffering, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" You see, both David and Absalom suffered much because of this deadly sin.
Again from Scripture, there is neither space nor time here to tell the full story of the sabotage of the great prophet, Jeremiah, whom God Himself had sent to rescue the Children of Israel from their waywardness. Note the sabotage as his adversaries began to resent the truth the prophet was called upon by God Himself to proclaim. Consequently, his enemies were out to get him. Listen to the prophet as he begins to see what was going on, "I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes ..." (19). That from the eleventh chapter of the book that bear's the prophet's name, this now from the eighteenth chapter: Then they [his enemies] said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah" (18). Conceiving of a plot: this is often a component of sabotage! And this was done to one whose mouth had been touched by God and to whom God had said, "Now I have put my words in your mouth" (Jeremiah 1:9).
Still again from the Old Testament, there is the story of Nehemiah who set himself to a most worthy task, that is, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem a century and a half after they had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Nehemiah's problem was that he was succeeding at this noble task, something that almost always generates enemies, for there were those who did not want the walls rebuilt. Those who wanted to keep the city in disgraceful ruins watched intently for any chance to thwart his efforts. They "mocked and ridiculed" his efforts. In fact, so it stands written in the book of Nehemiah, "They were very angry, and all plotted together to come and fight ... and to cause confusion" (4:8). Engendering confusion: that is not at all an unusual component of sabotage! They threatened him and tried to trick him so they could kill him, but Nehemiah boldly answered, "Should a man like me run away?" (Nehemiah 6:11). Then they sent letters deliberately crafted to intimidate him. In every way they knew how, they tried to sabotage Nehemiah's efforts, but nevertheless, the job was done in the amazingly short time of 52 days, and the walls were properly dedicated.
Crossing over into the New Testament, we find many more biblical examples of sabotage. The most important examples, of course, are found in the passion story which led to the crucifixion of Christ. We will return to this pivotal thought before we are finished with this lengthy sermon. Executing a plan to do someone in: that can be a primary component of sabotage! But New Testament sabotage by no means stops with this.
Stephen, for instance, who was to become the first martyr of the Church, was "full of [so much] grace and power," so we are told, that "they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:10). That was a formula for opposition and trouble. So what did his enemies do? They sabotaged him, that's what! "They stirred up the people" and when they brought him before the council, "They set up false witnesses." Getting people steamed up about the wrong things: that is a common component of sabotage! In the end they did him into death, but what they did against this good man from start to finish was an act of sabotage. Let us frankly call it what it is. Moreover, except for the notable example of Saul of Tarsus, there may well have been others there that day casting the stones who simultaneously cast their souls into hell.
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul was sabotaged in many ways by many people. Paul, as you will remember, began his first missionary journey by preaching and witnessing to the people in Galatia. He was then followed around that province by the so--called Judiazers, those Jewish Christians who so wanted to preserve Jewish customs that they did their level best to undercut the truth which Paul had proclaimed so compellingly about the gospel of Jesus Christ and Christian freedom. Subverting the truth: that is a paramount component of sabotage! Those Judiazers bent their wholehearted efforts to sabotage the good work the apostle had done. Listen, therefore, to the response of Paul writing to the Galatians in blistering sentences: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another gospel, but" - I'm still quoting the Bible here - "there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!" (Galatians 1:6--8). Hard words, these, written in white heat by Paul who, for Christ's sake, had felt the bitter sting of sabotage. And through it all the very salvation of human beings was at stake!
Before we go on to consider the devastating effect of sabotage in the modern Church, which is where this sermon is heading, let us consider two examples as to how this deadly sin works its way out in everyday life.
Sabotage surely shows its ugly head in the world of business and commerce. A friend of mine, let's call him Jeremy though that is not his name, built up a very successful commercial office supply business. Because he had business acumen and worked exceedingly hard, he was making significant money as the business grew and prospered. Jeremy then hired two men to work for him who came to the business with appropriate backgrounds and skills. He paid them both good money and added to that exceedingly generous benefits. They even received a Christmas bonus and also a profit sharing check in the spring. So to speak, Jeremy was the goose that laid the golden egg as the business continued to prosper. Business was, in fact, unbelievable! So what? So these two salesmen, for their own gain, began to sabotage him, that's what! Putting selfish gain front and center: that is a fundamental component of sabotage!
As owner and benefactor of these employees, Jeremy started to hear from his loyal customers that he should watch the business ethics of these two particular employees. What one of the salesmen did was to sell the product to a customer and then take it to a competing firm and tell that company that Jeremy was so busy he couldn't handle the work. In the process this saboteur salesman bragged that he was making more money than he knew what to do with because it was coming from two directions: his boss and the other company in which, for a price, he was secretly placing some of his orders. He was found out and summarily fired. The other salesman clandestinely took another job where he worked part-time simultaneously while supposedly working full time for and being paid generously by Jeremy. He also stole from his boss a new kind of product, which was Jeremy's financial mainstay, thus taking both a good idea as well as stealing some of Jeremy's customers in the process. He also plotted to take away three of Jeremy's other employees along with him when he made the full jump to the other company. This salesman, who was quite a thief, even stole copies of Jeremy's price book. Of course, this second salesman, when found out, was likewise fired. Ironically both of these devious, unethical, disloyal saboteurs were very active - not just ordinarily active, but very active in their respective churches even as all this underhanded and dishonest work was unfolding.
And what happened to Jeremy, the good guy in all this? The toll he paid for his subordinates' misbehavior was devastating! He literally stopped sleeping for months, and almost every night, sick in heart and body, he would rise just to walk around the house and often to vomit. My friend told me the psychological and emotional pain he suffered was the worst of all. He also took a big hit financially. Because of his good reputation, however, Jeremy recovered after some months, but he had to cut his prices in the process, and he had to work twelve hour days, seven days a week, just to survive. As my friend, Jeremy, was telling me this sad story across his dining room table one evening, he said he just couldn't believe that someone could be so cruel that he could do such things to another person. Don't you see how deadly sabotage can be? It is ruinous to the saboteur, but often and sadly sabotage takes a huge toll on the victim as well.
Sabotage also rears up its ugly head in the political arena. As a case in point, when the Civil War was eating the life out of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, this great President in our history had something else to contend with: sabotage within his own cabinet. Lincoln had as the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, known as the handsomest man in the cabinet, who had had presidential aspirations all the way back to 1856 which then came to a head in 1864 as he again thirsted for the presidency and thus hoped to displace Lincoln to become the president himself. Wallowing in a cesspool of lies, Chase foolishly thought himself to be a better man than Lincoln. In the words of Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln's old friends from Springfield and then secretaries in the White House, Chase "held so poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character in comparison with his own, that he could not believe the people so blind as deliberately to prefer the President to himself." Still later these two friends and secretaries agreed as to Chase, that "there never was a man who found it so easy to delude himself." Falling into the trap of self--deception: that is an essential component of sabotage!
Put an oversized ego together with self--deception and then couple these two things together with a lust for power, and you have the formula for devious sabotage. According to Lincoln's biographer, Carl Sandburg, "In scores of letters written to politicians, editors, ministers, Chase over a two--year period sought to spread the impression that in the midst of incompetents he was the one man who would know how if given the power." Along the way, this political saboteur mastered the art of speaking out of both sides of his mouth, sometimes seeming to support Lincoln but more often lamenting (according to someone's contemporary diary entry) "the President's want of energy and force, which he said paralyzed everything. His weakness [is] crushing us." Even as Chase was supposed to be tending the Treasury in support of a major war, he was spending half his time nursing along his high political ambitions, thus draining away time and strength from his appointed responsibility. Lincoln was a mighty big man even to be able to put up with this as long as he did; even though in the end a humiliated Chase had to withdraw his candidacy and was forced to resign his cabinet position, Chase succeeded through his sabotage in making a lot of Republicans bitterly unhappy with President Lincoln and causing them to grumble on about his supposed crass ineptitude. People, there is pain here both in a bitterly disappointed Chase and in a heartbroken Lincoln, which is one of the things that makes the deadly sin of sabotage so deadly. More often than not, it cuts both ways.
Which brings us to the sorrowful example of the sabotage of our Lord Christ. As I write these words, it is Good Friday. This morning in my devotions I focused on the Cross on which our Savior, Jesus Christ, died for us. This afternoon I will go to our church where the congregation will ponder again the Seven Last Words of Jesus spoken even as his life was draining out of him. I can hear my Master say, "This I have done for you. What have you done for me?" If somehow I can douse the flames of some sabotage in this world and in the Church of Christ, the writing of this sermon will not be in vain.
Though Calvary was God's plan from the beginning, it still needs to be faced that there were many saboteurs along the way who, in effect, pounded the nails through the flesh of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. From early on, according to John's Gospel, "... the Jews were looking for a chance to kill him" (John 7:1 NEB). I think we would all have to admit that in our lives we, too, have pounded some of those nails through the hands and feet of our Lord and thus sabotaged at least some of the things he was born into this world to do for us and for all humankind. Face the truth, folks! The most poignant way I know to put this is simply to quote a few of the verses in the New Testament - there are many more - that clearly illustrate how the deadly sin of sabotage led up to the crucifixion. Ponder anew the agony of the Cross as you hear these words, all of which occur in the Gospel narratives of Holy Week.
... the chief priests and the doctors of the law were trying to devise some cunning plan to seize him and put him to death. (Mark 14:2 NEB)
Then the Pharisees went away and agreed on a plan to trap him in his own words. (Matthew 22:15 NEB)
So they watched their opportunity and sent secret agents in the guise of honest men, to seize upon some word of his as a pretext for handing him over to the authority and jurisdiction of the Governor. (Luke 20:22 NEB)
... they conferred together on a scheme to have Jesus arrested by some trick and put to death. (Matthew 26:4 NEB)
... many came forward with false evidence. (Matthew 26:59 NEB)
... the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. (Mark 15:11 NIV)
Need I go on? These are actually just a few of the verses, but were we so inclined, we could go on quoting verse after verse from all four Gospels, not only toward the end of Jesus' life, but throughout his ministry in which his enemies were, in a sly manner, continually turning their thoughts and efforts toward ridding themselves of Jesus of Nazareth. I suggest you notice this in your own Bible reading.
If, though you were blind to begin with, now you are able to see some sabotage all around ... if you are now able to acknowledge that sabotage is indeed deadly for both perpetrators and victims ... if you are willing to concede that the Bible has many examples of sabotage on its pages which you never noticed before ... if by looking around in life you notice perhaps for the first time how pervasive sabotage is in our society ... if you with sadness of heart are able to notice how sabotage threatens many an innocent person in a world like ours ... then, certainly, you must know that sabotage has also invaded the precious Church of Jesus Christ. So, therefore I invite you now to read on further into the next sermon which addresses this specific subject.
Though they are nowhere specifically mentioned together in the Bible, traditional theology has long maintained that there are seven deadly sins. Just to refresh your memory, these seven sins are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Sabotage is not one of these seven sins, and, in fact, the word "sabotage" does not even occur in the Bible.
I maintain, however, that sabotage is deadly to the souls of the perpetrators as well as to the victims. Gamaliel said to his colleagues in Acts, "... you may even be found fighting against God!" You can't do that and win! Sabotage can also be destructive, even devastating, to victims, which includes worthy causes. Such can cause good people to wobble in their trust in God and sometimes even fall into disbelief. Not a few of us have sometimes been guilty of committing this deadly sin, and not a few of us have also been victimized by it. Thereby our spiritual well--being has been cast into jeopardy. If we, therefore, can honestly face these hard facts, perhaps we can find some remedies for this sin. Without apology, therefore, I title this sermon, appropriately, "The Deadly Sin Of Sabotage."
Understand at the outset that I am not referring here to wartime sabotage. That is an altogether different subject. I'm referring rather to the kind of everyday sabotage which is pervasive in society and even invades the Church which is the subject of the sermon that follows. Many of us have had to face this "deadly sin," sometimes with agony of heart.
Webster's third definition of sabotage - not the first - is as follows: "the deliberate obstruction of or damage to any cause, movement, activity, [or] effort...." Broadly speaking, again according to Webster, sabotage is "any act or process tending to hamper or hurt." It is, as other students of the word's meaning have suggested, the undermining of a cause or person, the underhanded interference in a process, the attempt to damage something or somebody from inside the organization, the effort to cripple a worthwhile cause or to do a person in, the disruption of something that can well be good. This is serious stuff which we dare not brush aside. The weapons of the saboteur are such things as deliberate deceit, smiling and being pleasant while figuratively stabbing someone in the back, letting the ego's desire run rampant to the detriment of others, ruthlessly trying to get the upper hand at all costs, undermining someone or something in every way possible, talking out of both sides of one's mouth and/or lying through one's teeth. Never mind that sabotage is sometimes done unconsciously. It still hurts! It is still damaging! And it can still be as deadly as a serpent's tooth! I almost dread to make this meaning of sabotage as clear to you as it is to some of us who have been wounded by it personally and who have seen the things to which we have given our lives severely damaged by such underhandedness.
When some years ago I first discussed the possibility of a sermon on sabotage, my dear wife said to me in essence, "But, husband, dear, there is nothing in the Bible about sabotage." With all due respect to my beloved wife, it is just not so. The more I have read the Bible the more examples I have found of precisely what we are thinking about here. In fact, biblical instances of sabotage are legion.
In the Old Testament, for example, there is the sad story of David the King and his son Absalom, who, envisioning himself in his father's place, devised plans to usurp his father's throne. Succumbing to insatiable ambition: that is frequently a component of sabotage! A handsome young man without blemish from "the sole of his foot to the crown of his head," Absalom went out of his way to steal the hearts and loyalties of the people of Israel. Rising early in the morning, he would stand at the gates of Jerusalem charming the people, giving them what they wanted and telling them what they wanted to hear, while at the same time, he was plotting against his own father. His underhanded sabotage resulted eventually in outright civil war with his father the king in which Absalom himself was killed. That, the ultimate price, was what he paid for this deadly sin. But do hear also the deep agony of soul in King David as he wept bitter tears upon losing his son even as he thought about what might have been. In one of the most poignant outcries in the entire Bible, David cried out from the depths of his innocent suffering, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" You see, both David and Absalom suffered much because of this deadly sin.
Again from Scripture, there is neither space nor time here to tell the full story of the sabotage of the great prophet, Jeremiah, whom God Himself had sent to rescue the Children of Israel from their waywardness. Note the sabotage as his adversaries began to resent the truth the prophet was called upon by God Himself to proclaim. Consequently, his enemies were out to get him. Listen to the prophet as he begins to see what was going on, "I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes ..." (19). That from the eleventh chapter of the book that bear's the prophet's name, this now from the eighteenth chapter: Then they [his enemies] said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah" (18). Conceiving of a plot: this is often a component of sabotage! And this was done to one whose mouth had been touched by God and to whom God had said, "Now I have put my words in your mouth" (Jeremiah 1:9).
Still again from the Old Testament, there is the story of Nehemiah who set himself to a most worthy task, that is, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem a century and a half after they had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Nehemiah's problem was that he was succeeding at this noble task, something that almost always generates enemies, for there were those who did not want the walls rebuilt. Those who wanted to keep the city in disgraceful ruins watched intently for any chance to thwart his efforts. They "mocked and ridiculed" his efforts. In fact, so it stands written in the book of Nehemiah, "They were very angry, and all plotted together to come and fight ... and to cause confusion" (4:8). Engendering confusion: that is not at all an unusual component of sabotage! They threatened him and tried to trick him so they could kill him, but Nehemiah boldly answered, "Should a man like me run away?" (Nehemiah 6:11). Then they sent letters deliberately crafted to intimidate him. In every way they knew how, they tried to sabotage Nehemiah's efforts, but nevertheless, the job was done in the amazingly short time of 52 days, and the walls were properly dedicated.
Crossing over into the New Testament, we find many more biblical examples of sabotage. The most important examples, of course, are found in the passion story which led to the crucifixion of Christ. We will return to this pivotal thought before we are finished with this lengthy sermon. Executing a plan to do someone in: that can be a primary component of sabotage! But New Testament sabotage by no means stops with this.
Stephen, for instance, who was to become the first martyr of the Church, was "full of [so much] grace and power," so we are told, that "they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:10). That was a formula for opposition and trouble. So what did his enemies do? They sabotaged him, that's what! "They stirred up the people" and when they brought him before the council, "They set up false witnesses." Getting people steamed up about the wrong things: that is a common component of sabotage! In the end they did him into death, but what they did against this good man from start to finish was an act of sabotage. Let us frankly call it what it is. Moreover, except for the notable example of Saul of Tarsus, there may well have been others there that day casting the stones who simultaneously cast their souls into hell.
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul was sabotaged in many ways by many people. Paul, as you will remember, began his first missionary journey by preaching and witnessing to the people in Galatia. He was then followed around that province by the so--called Judiazers, those Jewish Christians who so wanted to preserve Jewish customs that they did their level best to undercut the truth which Paul had proclaimed so compellingly about the gospel of Jesus Christ and Christian freedom. Subverting the truth: that is a paramount component of sabotage! Those Judiazers bent their wholehearted efforts to sabotage the good work the apostle had done. Listen, therefore, to the response of Paul writing to the Galatians in blistering sentences: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another gospel, but" - I'm still quoting the Bible here - "there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!" (Galatians 1:6--8). Hard words, these, written in white heat by Paul who, for Christ's sake, had felt the bitter sting of sabotage. And through it all the very salvation of human beings was at stake!
Before we go on to consider the devastating effect of sabotage in the modern Church, which is where this sermon is heading, let us consider two examples as to how this deadly sin works its way out in everyday life.
Sabotage surely shows its ugly head in the world of business and commerce. A friend of mine, let's call him Jeremy though that is not his name, built up a very successful commercial office supply business. Because he had business acumen and worked exceedingly hard, he was making significant money as the business grew and prospered. Jeremy then hired two men to work for him who came to the business with appropriate backgrounds and skills. He paid them both good money and added to that exceedingly generous benefits. They even received a Christmas bonus and also a profit sharing check in the spring. So to speak, Jeremy was the goose that laid the golden egg as the business continued to prosper. Business was, in fact, unbelievable! So what? So these two salesmen, for their own gain, began to sabotage him, that's what! Putting selfish gain front and center: that is a fundamental component of sabotage!
As owner and benefactor of these employees, Jeremy started to hear from his loyal customers that he should watch the business ethics of these two particular employees. What one of the salesmen did was to sell the product to a customer and then take it to a competing firm and tell that company that Jeremy was so busy he couldn't handle the work. In the process this saboteur salesman bragged that he was making more money than he knew what to do with because it was coming from two directions: his boss and the other company in which, for a price, he was secretly placing some of his orders. He was found out and summarily fired. The other salesman clandestinely took another job where he worked part-time simultaneously while supposedly working full time for and being paid generously by Jeremy. He also stole from his boss a new kind of product, which was Jeremy's financial mainstay, thus taking both a good idea as well as stealing some of Jeremy's customers in the process. He also plotted to take away three of Jeremy's other employees along with him when he made the full jump to the other company. This salesman, who was quite a thief, even stole copies of Jeremy's price book. Of course, this second salesman, when found out, was likewise fired. Ironically both of these devious, unethical, disloyal saboteurs were very active - not just ordinarily active, but very active in their respective churches even as all this underhanded and dishonest work was unfolding.
And what happened to Jeremy, the good guy in all this? The toll he paid for his subordinates' misbehavior was devastating! He literally stopped sleeping for months, and almost every night, sick in heart and body, he would rise just to walk around the house and often to vomit. My friend told me the psychological and emotional pain he suffered was the worst of all. He also took a big hit financially. Because of his good reputation, however, Jeremy recovered after some months, but he had to cut his prices in the process, and he had to work twelve hour days, seven days a week, just to survive. As my friend, Jeremy, was telling me this sad story across his dining room table one evening, he said he just couldn't believe that someone could be so cruel that he could do such things to another person. Don't you see how deadly sabotage can be? It is ruinous to the saboteur, but often and sadly sabotage takes a huge toll on the victim as well.
Sabotage also rears up its ugly head in the political arena. As a case in point, when the Civil War was eating the life out of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, this great President in our history had something else to contend with: sabotage within his own cabinet. Lincoln had as the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, known as the handsomest man in the cabinet, who had had presidential aspirations all the way back to 1856 which then came to a head in 1864 as he again thirsted for the presidency and thus hoped to displace Lincoln to become the president himself. Wallowing in a cesspool of lies, Chase foolishly thought himself to be a better man than Lincoln. In the words of Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln's old friends from Springfield and then secretaries in the White House, Chase "held so poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character in comparison with his own, that he could not believe the people so blind as deliberately to prefer the President to himself." Still later these two friends and secretaries agreed as to Chase, that "there never was a man who found it so easy to delude himself." Falling into the trap of self--deception: that is an essential component of sabotage!
Put an oversized ego together with self--deception and then couple these two things together with a lust for power, and you have the formula for devious sabotage. According to Lincoln's biographer, Carl Sandburg, "In scores of letters written to politicians, editors, ministers, Chase over a two--year period sought to spread the impression that in the midst of incompetents he was the one man who would know how if given the power." Along the way, this political saboteur mastered the art of speaking out of both sides of his mouth, sometimes seeming to support Lincoln but more often lamenting (according to someone's contemporary diary entry) "the President's want of energy and force, which he said paralyzed everything. His weakness [is] crushing us." Even as Chase was supposed to be tending the Treasury in support of a major war, he was spending half his time nursing along his high political ambitions, thus draining away time and strength from his appointed responsibility. Lincoln was a mighty big man even to be able to put up with this as long as he did; even though in the end a humiliated Chase had to withdraw his candidacy and was forced to resign his cabinet position, Chase succeeded through his sabotage in making a lot of Republicans bitterly unhappy with President Lincoln and causing them to grumble on about his supposed crass ineptitude. People, there is pain here both in a bitterly disappointed Chase and in a heartbroken Lincoln, which is one of the things that makes the deadly sin of sabotage so deadly. More often than not, it cuts both ways.
Which brings us to the sorrowful example of the sabotage of our Lord Christ. As I write these words, it is Good Friday. This morning in my devotions I focused on the Cross on which our Savior, Jesus Christ, died for us. This afternoon I will go to our church where the congregation will ponder again the Seven Last Words of Jesus spoken even as his life was draining out of him. I can hear my Master say, "This I have done for you. What have you done for me?" If somehow I can douse the flames of some sabotage in this world and in the Church of Christ, the writing of this sermon will not be in vain.
Though Calvary was God's plan from the beginning, it still needs to be faced that there were many saboteurs along the way who, in effect, pounded the nails through the flesh of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. From early on, according to John's Gospel, "... the Jews were looking for a chance to kill him" (John 7:1 NEB). I think we would all have to admit that in our lives we, too, have pounded some of those nails through the hands and feet of our Lord and thus sabotaged at least some of the things he was born into this world to do for us and for all humankind. Face the truth, folks! The most poignant way I know to put this is simply to quote a few of the verses in the New Testament - there are many more - that clearly illustrate how the deadly sin of sabotage led up to the crucifixion. Ponder anew the agony of the Cross as you hear these words, all of which occur in the Gospel narratives of Holy Week.
... the chief priests and the doctors of the law were trying to devise some cunning plan to seize him and put him to death. (Mark 14:2 NEB)
Then the Pharisees went away and agreed on a plan to trap him in his own words. (Matthew 22:15 NEB)
So they watched their opportunity and sent secret agents in the guise of honest men, to seize upon some word of his as a pretext for handing him over to the authority and jurisdiction of the Governor. (Luke 20:22 NEB)
... they conferred together on a scheme to have Jesus arrested by some trick and put to death. (Matthew 26:4 NEB)
... many came forward with false evidence. (Matthew 26:59 NEB)
... the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. (Mark 15:11 NIV)
Need I go on? These are actually just a few of the verses, but were we so inclined, we could go on quoting verse after verse from all four Gospels, not only toward the end of Jesus' life, but throughout his ministry in which his enemies were, in a sly manner, continually turning their thoughts and efforts toward ridding themselves of Jesus of Nazareth. I suggest you notice this in your own Bible reading.
If, though you were blind to begin with, now you are able to see some sabotage all around ... if you are now able to acknowledge that sabotage is indeed deadly for both perpetrators and victims ... if you are willing to concede that the Bible has many examples of sabotage on its pages which you never noticed before ... if by looking around in life you notice perhaps for the first time how pervasive sabotage is in our society ... if you with sadness of heart are able to notice how sabotage threatens many an innocent person in a world like ours ... then, certainly, you must know that sabotage has also invaded the precious Church of Jesus Christ. So, therefore I invite you now to read on further into the next sermon which addresses this specific subject.
