More Than Any Myth
Remember Achilles, the mythological warrior famous for his strength, stamina, and fighting skill? He was, in Greek mythology, the greatest warrior to have ever lived. And while I was required to read Homer’s, Iliad and the Odyssey during high school literature class, little of it remains in my memory banks. However, there are a few key characters and events in that tale of old that stuck, and Achilles is one of them. His name is easy to remember since we bipedal people have two body-parts that carry his name. If we have two legs, two ankles and two feet, we also have two Achilles tendons. But for Achillles the Greek warrior, it was this very body part that was his downfall.
A brief history reminder will help us grasp the fullness of this week’s reach for more of our Father. For it’s quite the old tale that oddly can still fit in the personal story of your own life even today. While Achilles was a myth — you are not — and yet, his story can help us — reach for more of our Father, the real GOD.
In 1st century AD, Statius, a Roman Poet, told the mythological tale of Thetis, the mother of Achilles, holding her baby boy by the heel and dipping him into the dark waters of the Styx river. The Styx river held mystical powers, in Greek tales, so Thetis hoped this dipping of her son would give him great power. As the tale goes, it worked. Achilles grew up to become the greatest warrior ever to have lived — until his weakness was found. All of his body had been dipped into the power-giving waters except the foot and ankle his mother held in her hand, and this, therefore, was the very part that remained humanly-weak.
No matter that all the rest of Achilles was warrior extraordinaire… the one small weakness was all that was needed to bring him down… and end his life.
And there is the cross-over-connection to you and me.
We’re not a myth tucked in a dusty old tale with super powers and mysterious abilities. But…
If you are a child of the King — you’re royalty in a foreign land.
If you carry Jesus in your heart — you’ve been washed by the blood of the One who died to make full payment for you…restitution for your sins… redemption for your humanness.
If you reach for more of Jesus and want less of all else — then you have a commonality with Achilles you might not have fully grasped.
For you are a warrior on a field and you, unlike Achilles, have the complete equipping to be victorious. The field you are on is the struggle between Heaven and hell, good and evil, right and wrong — it’s the “field” between God and satan.
We can’t see the magnitude of the battle that rages around us on this field. But we know it is there as we learn from God’s Word — “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
So — either we’re warriors or watchers. Either we’re standing or running (or laying down). We’re not here for all that the flesh side of us craves. It’s not why we were created. We were created to worship God, love Him, and show His love to others. But if we dare reach for that level of living, the dark side will resist our efforts and work to stop us. Period. It’s a reality we might not see with our eyes from our comfortable homes… but it’s a reality we come to know if we step outside our comforts and lean into the work of, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
The enemy of Heaven DOES NOT WANT Heaven, not in Heaven and certainly not on earth. That enemy does not sleep. He fights. In dark places and in dark ways, he fights. On a sunny day… he brings a darkness to the battlefield trying to prevent Heaven’s ways from coming here on earth. Oh but… God never stops bringing the Light. HE IS the commander of the Angel armies and the Equipper of the saints.
You and I, we are similar to Achilles — but we’re not a mythological story. We’re created by the Creator who sent His son to die for our sins and who fills us with power from the blood of the Lamb. We are capable of more than Achilles ever dreamed possible. The MORE we reach for and the MORE we carry within us is far greater than Achilles ever conceived of.
We have been given m-o-r-e by the King of Kings, the Lord.
It’s a powerful story with you woven in the unwritten pages.
Achilles mother dipped him into the mystical waters of the river Styx. But the one part that didn’t go into the waters is the one part where his weakness was found.
What of you? What of me?
When Jesus died on the cross to make full payment for our sins, He gave us so much. IF we have asked Jesus to save our souls, then His Heaven-touched power fills us, flows through us and brings victory in us. We’re “dipped” head to toe, through and through, with nothing left out. It’s a thorough washing.
It’s everything we need — it’s the “equipping of the saints”. Paul said it this way in Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV) *emphasis added by me
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
If I lay the TRUTH over the myth of Achilles — then I can ask this fair question of us — Is there any part of your life that you have not allowed the healing, redemptive blood of Jesus to wash over and strengthen?
Is there a string of “words” that too often flood your thoughts and remind you of a weakness you carry inside you? Words someone spoke over you? Words you spoke over yourself? Words you have no idea the origin of but you know that when times get tough and you feel tired… those thoughts carry you to places of death (even though you’re still breathing).
But if you can identify the string of words in your head that bring you down just as sure as an arrow through a warrior’s heel — then you can put your finger on the weakness that has resisted the flow of healing from the Savior who gave HIS ALL so you could be “equipped” in every way. He knew what you would need. He gave it. If He lives inside you, it’s already within you. But it must, must, must be applied to every area. No weak places allowed to dangle in the wind. No vulnerable tendons left exposed.
What does it look like to apply the Blood of Christ to weak areas?
It looks like choosing HIM
instead of what comes naturally, easily, comfortably.
It looks like obedience to His Word
instead of surrender to common-thoughts.
It looks like reaching for more of Jesus
and less of what is not His way.
It looks like becoming what HE dreamed for you
instead of sinking in the quagmire of lies.
Apply the blood of the Holy One to the area you know the enemy will go for in the thick of the battle. Then rise and rise again. For you have been fully, thoroughly, and completely washed in the Blood. You are way better than any old myth.
