As I continued to sort and toss this week, I came across a short article about “ever notice”…..? I found it quite amusing. Here is part of what was so amusing.
Ever notice—that the best acting at award ceremonies is done by the losers congratulating the winners? ….that the weaker the arguments, the stronger the words? …..how quickly “pay later” comes when you “buy now”? ….that the first piece of luggage out of the baggage claim carousel never belongs to anyone? ….that the shortest checkout line becomes the slowest line once you choose it? …..that the last key in the bunch usually opens the lock? ….that the first person who gets off a crowded elevator is always standing in the back? ….that immediately after you buy an item, you find the coupon for it?
That was when I started thinking about other words and phrases that we often hear. They are part of a word group that has the name Oxymorons. I have to confess that the word oxymoron was new to me just a few years ago. I kept hearing it without knowing what it meant. I’m a bit smarter now since I think I know what it means. Oxymorons are figures of speech that have two words together which seem to contradict each other. An oxymoron is a figure of speech consisting of a short phrase that combines contradictory terms for rhetorical effect. There are many that we often use without even thinking about having used them. I get amused by oxymorons. Here are some commonly used oxymorons that you may encounter in everyday speech and writing:airline food, brotherly love, Hell’s Angels, jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly, rap music, sensitive guy, and short sermon. The word sermon does not usually give me the idea of being short! And how does being a shrimp imply that it can be jumbo in size? How can a pretty girl still be ugly? I do sort of understand that some art can be ugly and almost pretty—sort of! Then there are accurate estimates, and we can be alone together. No mathematician will agree that an estimate is ever accurate! If I am together with my husband, there is no way we are alone! A small child really can be awfully good! There is deafening silence, you can be clearly misunderstood and now we have virtual reality. I still have trouble understanding that concept. People are passive-aggressive, seriously funny, act naturally, be living dead or walking dead, and be part of a small crowd. There is bittersweet chocolate, and open secrets, old news, exact estimates, random order, and original copy. We can climb down (I don’t know how though!). We have close distance, we grow smaller (I wish! Grow larger is more like what happens!) We often have minor crises! However, my minor crises don’t seem minor when they happen. It wasn’t minor to me when this week I poured chicken broth and water and seasoning on top of the brown rice to cook it in my instant pot, only to realize I put it all in the shell of my IP and not in the cooking vessel! The sound of dripping liquids flowing through the base and off the cupboard and onto the floor made me realize I had a “minor crisis” that seemed pretty major! I was “pretty frustrated, mad at myself and mad as a hornet, upset as my stomach with the norovirus…. Then I had a “solo cleanup” party, well that’s not quite true—my husband heard my distress and brought me rags and helped mop up the floor. Most solo parties are for extreme introverts. Various writers have used oxymorons in their writings. There is “Sweet sorrow” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet), “Cold fire”, “Wise fool”, “I must be cruel only to be kind” (Shakespeare, Hamlet), “The sound of silence” (Simon & Garfunkel lyric), “Dark light”, “I like a smuggler. He is the only honest thief.” —Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic; “The silence of the forest was oppressive and overwhelming. It was a loud silence that seemed to envelop the world in a cloak of quiet.” —Jack London, The Call of the Wild; “Parting is such a sweet sorrow.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet .
When I explored this subject on the internet, I found even more oxy’s—working vacation, tight slacks, same difference, definite maybe, pretty tough, larger half, unbiased opinion, constant change, freezer burn, almost done, passive resistance, sanitary landfill, exact replica, artificial intelligence, social distancing, user-friendly error, old news, and Civil war. I can see the humor in several of those. If something is slack, it sure can’t be tight even though my older boys did wear slacks with very tight legs! And if we have news, then it can’t be old and you can’t be done and almost at the same time. And, how on earth can we be civil and still have war? We can be seriously funny, be in a tragic comedy, clearly confused, have an only choice, an exact estimate, be living dead or walking dead, found missing, have perfect imperfections, and cruel kindness. OTHERS–same difference, passive aggressive, advanced beginner, oddly familiar. A sign once announced they had “new antiques”. Really? I suppose I have always remained a beginner in swimming even though I have somewhat advanced.
My interest in the everyday oxymorons led me to think about the oxymorons found in my Bible. Oxymorons are so common in everyday speech and also in the Bible. This was true when Jesus was speaking. Maybe Jesus appreciated them as much as me! At first, we might be perplexed by Jesus’ oxymorons, but we can soon see that His words are for life. In Matt 5:1-12, I read about the Sermon on the Mount—that is maybe the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who has ever lived. The disciples then came up to listen to Jesus and He taught them because he was preparing His disciples for leadership in His future kingdom. Those who exhibit the characteristics in Matthew 5:3–12 might not get honored on earth, but their eternal reward will be great. There will be a sense of joy and satisfaction that will fill their lives even here on earth. The beatitudes are intended for every disciple, not just the “spiritual elite.” We can’t pick and choose which ones we want to fulfill—the beatitudes are a packaged deal. There are not eight separate groups of disciples, some who are meek and others who hunger for God. It’s a mistake to say, “I’m just not merciful” or “I’m just not a peacemaker.” We can’t pick the easy ones and ignore the difficult ones, the ones like being pure and the one being prepared for persecution. Each beatitude is for me! And for you! He told us that the poor will inherit the earth! They will be rich poor!
So, thinking about Biblical oxymorons sent me back to the internet. I found some interesting examples. Humble Christian—that shouldn’t be an oxymoron, but for the world watching a stage performance with glitter and gold, it probably is. Many professed Christians are not so humble even when they profess humbleness.
Jesus is calling us to live within His Kingdom, of which He is the King! So, if He’s the King, what does that make us? Using our powers of deduction, that makes us His followers and actually subjects of the King in the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God in the Bible is like a puzzle that needs to be put together or a puzzle to solve. But its center thought is about King Jesus and His subjects. We were born into the Kingdom when we surrendered our life to our King Jesus. It’s not a common sense way to live and makes complete non-sense in today’s world. In the world of Jesus, the Poor are Rich—“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 . And then there is this idea from Martin Luther (1438–1546) who once said, “God created out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”
Many Bible lessons revolve around Gain through Loss. “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8. I can remember watching a TV evangelist many years ago. Jimmy Bakker had it all—television show, ministry, money, family, fame. But his world crumbled around him when he was convicted of rape with his secretary, and fraud. For all his preaching, he seemed to have never read the entire Bible. God gave him plenty of time in prison to think about the words he had passed over. Jimmy said: “The more I studied the Bible, however, I had to admit that the prosperity message did not line up with the tenor of Scripture. My heart was crushed to think that I led so many people astray. I was appalled that I could have been so wrong, and I was deeply grateful that God had not struck me dead as a false prophet”!
Another important Bible oxymoron is Honor with Humility. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James. 4:10 If you are like me, it’s so tempting to blow our own trumpet, especially when we hear a story that reminds us of the time when something special happened to you/me. We get so tempted to focus on ourselves. My advice to myself is to stay humble, because if I wait for others to make me humble, that’s called humiliation. And being forced to eat large slabs of humble pie, while nutritional, doesn’t taste very good. I have learned that lesson the hard way. It’s not a fun lesson to learn.
Jesus gave us another oxymoron lesson in Winning by Losing. “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16 I have read stories of track races where one of the participants fell, injured and another racer stopped to help. Neither won the race but in God’s book, they both were winners. When individuals are prepared to lose, the community wins. Other oxymorons to think about are Strength in Weakness—“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10. Josh began attending church and was listening to the speaker calling them to use their gifts and talents for God. But Josh felt he had no gifts or talents to give to God. His past was a mess, and he felt a failure. So he said to God, “I only have weakness. But I will give all my failures to you to bring you Glory. Every breath I breathe will be to serve you Lord.” This guy’s full name was Josh McDowell and he authored 127 different books, in 50 years gave 24,000 talks to over ten million people in 125 countries.
Freedom through Bondage—“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” Romans 6:22 Ask a two-year-old strapped in his child’s seat whether he is stuck. He’d say yes and scream at you for restricting his movement and freedom, but it’s the harness that brings true freedom. Life through Death—“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25 Jesus willingly died at 33 and rose again with an incorruptible new body.
These let me see the lifestyle that Jesus wants us to live in His Kingdom. Was King Jesus’ life consistent with his own values when he came into our world, even though He was King? Remember this (not my words)—”He was born among smelly animals. He didn’t live in a palace and wasn’t treated like royalty. He didn’t make the front page of the newspaper when he started in His mother’s preschool. He tripped around the countryside on a donkey, not a horse drawn carriage with golden twirls and spring suspension. He was judged by a kangaroo court. Sentenced to death like a criminal. And what about His coronation at the cross? He chose a wreath of thorns that gouged into his skull over a golden crown. He was adorned with crimson blood instead of a royal garment of purple. His throne was a wooden cross, not a seat of human power. The banner bearing his title was a crude sign hastily nailed to His cross, stating ‘King of the Jews’. The acclamation of the crowd was jeers and sneers, spit and hate. There was no fanfare of trumpets, shouts of victory or peals of bells for the King. The celebration wasn’t man made, but God did put on a supernatural display for the King: The world was shrouded in complete darkness, the sun stopped shining, the earth shook, rocks broke open, the temple curtain was torn in two, and dead bodies came back to life. So much that was not representative of a King”—our King.
Jesus gave his messages in cryptic puzzling ways to draw out those truly looking for Him, this world has the message of a hidden spiritual world. So when our physical world doesn’t make sense, and seems to be an oxymoron, where injustice seems to win and wrongdoing is rewarded–-this is not the end of the story. It isn’t finished. My own story isn’t finished. There’s more story to come! Death is just the comma not the period. It’s the beginning of eternity. YAY!!!! What great news!
We know Christianity’s best-kept secret—JESUS is returning! He will draw back the spiritual curtain and appear in person to me. And when He does, He’s making and giving me a new heaven and new earth. This time Jesus shows up with a whole new attitude. The first time, Jesusyielded his power. The second time he is wielding it.
He comes as a conquering King, on a horse, ready for battle. He has a sword and Heaven’s army with Him, ruling with an iron scepter. And He wants subjects that can rule and reign with Him. The people who actually subjected themselves to His Kingship while living now and here. Subjects, who didn’t abuse their power, who didn’t take advantage of people and trusted God even though their circumstances were screaming opposite. Just as God tested Abraham’s faith, this world is a test of faith for us.
So when we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and struck down we can look to heaven and, like Stephen, see the glory of God and Jesus sitting at His right hand. Only then can we live the ultimate oxymoron, to celebrate suffering.
I want to learn how to celebrate suffering during the troubles that come to me each day!