Healthy Choices

Making small but significant decisions to follow Jesus

04/12/2017

Matthew 26:14-25 One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me." Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?" He said in reply, "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born." Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" He answered, "You have said so."

          A friend of mine explained recently the secret to successful dieting. She said that losing weight is not about making one, big decision not to eat an entire pizza, but rather about a million small decisions every day to make healthy choices. After school you’re hungry – or “hangry” because your hunger makes you angry – and so you eat a cheeseburger on your way home from school every day. Or, before you go to bed you watch your favorite T.V. show and eat a half gallon of ice cream. Or, and this is my favorite, people will order a double cheeseburger, large fries and a milk shake but say, “Oh, and a diet Coke because I’m on a diet.” Sometimes, Mike Charlton will bring us breakfast sandwiches for our morning meetings. But I’ve noticed that Dr. Hollenbeck does not eat the top half of the bread of her sandwich. So, I ask her if I can have it! That’s why Dr. Hollenbeck has a doctorate and I don’t. She’s smart, and she knows that successful dieting (or any other kind of success) depends on a million small decisions, not one big decision.

          In today’s gospel, we hear about the success of Judas, or rather his lack of success as an apostle, really about his failure. That is, he chooses to betray Jesus at the Last Supper. We would be completely off-base, however, if we thought Judas’ betrayal of our Lord was just one big decision out of the blue. When in reality, he had been “betraying” Jesus with a million small decision for years. What do I mean? On Monday, we heard from John chapter 12 that Judas “was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions” (John 12:6). In John 6, Jesus teaches his apostles they must eat his body and drink his blood, but that Judas did not believe that (cf. John 6:70-71). In other words, Judas didn’t just wake up one morning and make one, big decision to betray his best friend; he had been betraying him daily in millions of small ways. Judas failed to be a successful apostle because he did not know the secret to a successful diet, which is the secret to all success, namely, the value of millions of small but significant decisions.

          Boys and girls, today I want you to think about the choices you make. And don’t only focus on the big decisions: like where you will go to high school, or what career you will choose, or who you will marry (hope you’re not thinking about that yet!). Instead, think about the millions of small, seemingly insignificant choices you make, like telling the truth (even though you might think, “who cares??”), or stealing a pencil (even though some say, “no one will miss it!”), or talking about others (thinking, “they deserve it anyway!”), or not doing your homework (figuring, “I’ll just Ace the test!”), or being friends with the lonely (rather than saying, “I want to hang with the cool kids!”). All these small choices will make you successful at Trinity and successful in life.

          And by the way, don’t get too discouraged if you make a mistake – like fail a test, or try alcohol, or blow off band practice, etc. – not that I’m saying do any of these things! But we all make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them and avoid them going forward. One mistake will not ruin you. Judas did not fail as an apostle because of one, big mistake, but because of a million small mistakes he never learned from. Do you know a man named Sam Fiori? He’s one of the most successful businessmen in Fort Smith. I asked him one day, “Sam, how have you become so successful?” He said, “I always tried to learn from my mistakes. I try not to make the same mistake twice.” Sam knows well that success in business, like success in dieting (or any other kind of success), depends on a million small, but healthy choices.

          Boys and girls, at the end of our life, we will all step on to the scales, not to weigh our bodily weight, but rather to weigh our spiritual weight. And the same thing will make you smile as you look at the results of both scales: not having made one big decision, but rather having made a million small, healthy and holy decisions. That is the secret to success in this life, and in the next.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!