A Hot Potato

 

B

aked potatoes may be one of man’s greatest inventions.  Now I know I’m treading on thin ice here.  First of all, man didn’t invent the potato; he did, however, figure out what to do with it.  Bake it in an oven, add butter, chives, cheese, salt, pepper, and of course sour cream, and you have a culinary masterpiece no matter what else is on the plate! 

I was reminded of this fact one evening when a friend of mine from the seminary joined me for dinner.  We decided to eat steak and when it came time to choose between steamed vegetables and a baked potato, well let’s just say the choice wasn’t very difficult to make.  In fact, it was a no-brainer!  When the waiter asked me if I wanted the potato with everything on it, I stared at him in disbelief.  Is there any other way to eat one?  Not in my book!

A few minutes and a dinner salad later, our steaks finally arrived.  The potato was wonderful, baked to perfection and scrumptious to the taste.  I marveled at how tender the potato was, given the fact that when these things are pulled from the ground, they are anything but soft and tender. Instead, potatoes are rock hard, dirty, and anything but appealing to the taste.  I have heard of some people who like to eat them raw but this was never an option for me.  Baked, fried, or mashed, these are the only ways for me to eat a potato.

I want us to think about that baked potato for just a few seconds—not as something to eat but as a lesson from God’s word.  In order for the potato to become soft, it must be placed into heat.  Once it exits from the flame the potato is forever changed.  It is no longer hard but rather is soft and very appealing. The potato cannot do this on its own; it must enter into the fire in order to be changed into a form that is suitable for enjoyment.

The book of Hebrews is a wonderful reminder of just how much Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary’s cross.  The writer goes to great lengths to point out that Jesus is superior to the angels and to Moses.  Christ’s sacrifice was also superior to all the sacrifices required by the law.  The giving of his life resulted in the removal of sins, not the covering of them.  Jesus died once for all whereas under the law, the high priest had to sacrifice once a year to cover the people’s sin.

Now back to the example of that potato.  In Hebrews 3:7-8, we read the following warning against unbelief, “So, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.”

The writer warns us against hardening our hearts to God’s forgiveness and mercy.  He reminds his readers that their forefathers tested God by refusing to enter the land promised to Abraham.  They hardened their hearts and refused to let God work in their lives to give them all the blessings he had in store for them.  Because of this hardness, because they refused to believe God’s promise, they could not enter into his blessings, mercy, and grace. They wondered in the desert for forty years until all those who left Egypt died in the wilderness.

What are our hearts like today?  Are they hard?  Are they closed to God’s message and his love?  Do we hear him calling us to service and are we refusing to follow him?  If this is the case, our hearts will always be like that potato pulled from the ground, hard, cold, dirty, and unsavory.  However, if we hear God’s voice and obey it, if we accept his free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, then our hearts will be changed.  They will become soft, tender, and a source of nourishment, providing an inviting aroma for all those we meet on a daily basis.  So, could you be considered a hot potato today?