The Ox Is in a Ditch!

 

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. (Luke 14:1-6 ESV).

 

I have heard and used the phrase “my ox is in a ditch.” You may not be familiar with that common idiom. It is chiefly used in the southern United States, though as our culture has become more mobile it can be heard all over the states. It means that there is a pressing problem, an emergency, that has developed that must be dealt with immediately. I have had a number of those moments in my life.

 

One in particular stands out in my memory. One Sunday afternoon during the years I was the pastor of Southern Oaks Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, one of my friends called and somewhat panicky asked me if I could come help. It was explained that he and another friend had gone to a local catfish farm where we had been given permission to hunt the feral hogs that were damaging the holding ponds. The problem with that was the reticence my wife had to “working on the Sabbath.” “Work” meant anything other than church related activity or relaxing at home. In our discussion while I was grabbing my rifle and rushing to their aid, I simply said, “Sugar, they’ve got their ox in a ditch and really need my help.” The short version of the ending was I did go out to the fish farm and found them standing over an abandoned well with no hog in sight. Curious, I asked, “Where’s the hog?” One of them pointed to the well and said, “Down there.” Well, we did manage to get the hog out of the well and to the butcher, but we were all sweaty, dirty, and muddy. Arriving at home, I was greeted with a skeptical look that said, “I told you not to go.” I did clean up and make it to church on time, but barely. (By the way… for my Tyler friends who may doubt the veracity of this story… talk to Ron Skinner or Jerry Billups)

 

The comparison to our spiritual lives was inescapable. We are severely mired in sin and troubles. Some of us may seem upright; others are obviously bent; still others seem irreparably damaged. Our sin has different faces, yet we all need help. I could have declined to help, though that seemed the worst decision at that moment. Notice the reaction of Jesus in our story. There was no hesitation. He took the greatest risk and plunged into the deepest ditch to rescue us. He did not merely extend a long arm that we could grab on to. He came down, slipped underneath us, lifted us up, carried us to safety, and sent us on our (his) way.

 

Lent is a good time to thank Jesus for coming to our aid even when we find ourselves in the worst of circumstances!