Litmus Test

I remember my high school chemistry class.
Litmus paper was used to test the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.
Even though I did not like chemistry, testing the pH of a solution was so interesting to me.
Much later, I came to realize that a “litmus test” is a colloquial term for a crucial and revealing test in which there is one decisive factor.

I never quite understood what a litmus test would look like in real life.
I will never forget something my mother said.
If children and dogs like you…you’re OK…they can always tell the real you.
This was her litmus test.

I have found that to be true, and actually a very good test…if truth be told.
Dogs can smell fear, insincerity, general dislike of animals…and they react accordingly.
Children can sense when a person just doesn’t like children.
They can sense hypocrisy…even if they can’t name it.

You can’t fake it around a child or a dog.
I think my mother was right in her assessment.

You are like white washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead man’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
(Matthew 23:27,28)

First century Jews whitewashed their tombs so that people would not stumble over them.
Drawing too near a tomb would render them unclean.
The purity laws of the Jews said that the inside of the tomb was defiled.
The whitewash made the tombs look beautiful on the outside.
However, death was on the inside.

Jesus was not only talking about tombs.
Jesus was making a point about people who wore a mask of piety and righteousness on the outside, but on the inside, they were corrupted.

A hypocrite was an actor…one that wore a mask in the Greek theater.
The audience never knew the true person behind the mask.

Jesus had high regard for children…and no time for hypocrites.
The disciples tried to stop the children from coming to Jesus.
They rebuked the parents who tried to bring their children to Jesus for Him to bless them.

Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. (Luke 18:16,17)

Jesus’ litmus test.
Come to the Kingdom as a child.
Don’t come as a stuffy adult who needs empirical evidence in order to believe.
Don’t come with cynicism and unbelief.

Children are trusting.
They are in awe of the simplest thing.
They take things at face value…and just believe.

Children will climb into their Father’s lap.
Children will talk endlessly about everything…knowing that their Daddy is listening.
Children don’t care what other people think.
They will wear cowboy boots and a pink tutu with a plaid shirt.
They know they are beautiful…because their Father said so.

Adults are guarded.
They don’t always say what they mean.
They wonder what their Father would think if they told Him THAT!
They care very much what other people think.
They wear perfectly matched clothes…in the right way…for the right occasion.
They don’t think they are beautiful unless the general consensus says they are.

Masks.
After a while, even the actor doesn’t know who he really is.
Playing a part…chameleon.

Tiring…exhausting…unrewarding…fake!
Exactly the king of people children and dogs would stay away from!
They know the real thing.
So does Jesus!

The beauty of the Gospel is that even the hypocrite, the fake, the unrighteous, the cynic, the stuffy adult looking for empirical evidence…can come to Jesus.
In fact, they are just the people He welcomes with open arms.

There is one condition.
They must come in repentance and faith in who He is.
They must come believing that He sees under their mask and loves them anyway!

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

Come to Him as a child…not a play actor.
Remove the mask!
Hold the mask out to Jesus…allow Him to take it.
In that moment, an exchange is made.
Your mask…for a crown!