Through the water of your baptism and the power of God’s Word, He changed your route. The highway no longer takes you to the hell you deserve. And in this life you no longer wind your way through the self-serving twists and turns. The map doesn’t point to you. Thank the Lord for that! It points to him. He remains your true north now and always.
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they orient their map. That's because our minds have a habit of finding their way onto the map. The layout of the map then becomes a sort of reflection of the mind.
Think of it this way. How do you orient your map on your phone? Does that map turn when you and your phone turn? This could be called the egocentric perspective. It means the world moves with you. North isn’t a fixed place on the map. It spins around you. If you use Apple Maps, then you are familiar with how this works. The only fixed point on this map is your location. You are the center.
The other way to orient the map on your phone is to keep north as a fixed point. The map doesn’t spin; it stays stationary. Your cursor spins. This is called the allocentric perspective. It means the world stays put. North is a fixed place on the map. You are the one spinning. If you use Google Maps, then you are familiar with how this works. You aren’t the fixed point. North is.
Neither way of using the map is wrong. But it can sometimes reflect how we view the world. Do you see the world as fixed around you? Then you are mentally fitting yourself into it. I suppose it takes a certain type of cognitive humility to admit that you aren’t the center of the universe — even on a map. Do you see the world as fluid around you, and you are the center of it? Then you are operating with an intensely individualistic view of yourself and the world around you.
I suppose it all comes down to this question: Are you the center of the world or merely a part of it?
Odysseus wouldn’t have even thought twice about his answer. The world of the Odyssey completely spun around him. He was the center. All the other parts and characters simply served his story.
He says so himself. In the ninth book of the Odyssey, Homer suddenly shifts his epic narration. He hands the mic to Odysseus and asks him to recount the events of his odyssey. It was a gripping story. After he helped defeat the city of Troy, Odysseus and his men set sail for home. But the wind had other plans. It blew them to the city of the Cicones. Immediately, Odysseus and his men sacked the city and took whatever they wanted. But when Odysseus called for his men to leave, they refused. Another Ciconian force arrived to take back their city. They mounted a deadly counterattack, beating Odysseus and his men all the way back to their ships. A number of men died, and they quickly sailed away; the map was spinning around Odysseus.
Then the winds blew them to an unknown island. They soon found out it was the land of the Lotus-eaters. Going ashore they gathered provisions. Deceitfully, the locals offered them lotus to eat. Slowly, the lotus took away the men’s desire to return home. They wept and wept when Odysseus forced them to return to the boats; the captain remained true north.
Sailing on, Odysseus and his men landed on an island of the monstrous one-eyed Cyclopes. The luscious grapes of the fertile land drew them ashore. Exploring the area Odysseus found a huge cave. He and his men entered, finding racks of cheese, vessels of milk ,and flocks of sheep. Then the cyclops entered.
Rolling a massive stone in front of the entrance he trapped everyone in the cave with him. Angry that the men were in his home, he grabbed some of them, killed them and ate them. In that moment Odysseus realized he and his remaining men were in a cruel situation. They wanted to kill the Cyclopes, but only the Cyclopes could roll away the stone.
Once again Odysseus realizes that the route on the map was stuck unless he could come up with a solution. Eventually he did craft a clever strategy. He fashioned a heated stake. Then he convinced the Cyclopes to get drunk on wine. When the Cyclopes fell into a deep sleep, Odysseus plunged the stake into the Cyclopes’ eye with the force of a blacksmith plunging an ax into cold water to temper it.
All at once the monstrosity awoke in a rage, screaming for vengeance. He moved to the door, blindly groping with his hands to make sure none of the men would escape. So Odysseus devised another scheme. He and his men clung to the underbellies of the sheep as they walked out in the morning to graze outside the cave. As they passed the cave entrance, the Cyclopes touched the tops of the sheep to make sure the men weren’t leaving. Quietly Odysseus and his men made their way to the boat and sailed away.
But just to show everyone that the map revolves around himself, Odysseus yelled back from the boat to the Cyclopes on shore, “Cyclopes, if anyone asks you who put out your eye and ruined your looks, say it was the brave warrior Odysseus, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca!”
Yelling his name in victory, Odysseus epitomizes the epic hero.
Absalom would have loved Odysseus. Like the man of many twists and turns, Absalom wanted people to know his name. While his father David sat on the throne, Absalom was politicking. Whenever someone from the kingdom entered Jerusalem to ask for King David’s judgment, Absalom would catch them at the gate. With the smooth talk of a politician, he would convince the person that the justice of Absalom would be far greater for them than whatever David could promise.
Person by person, clan by clan, Absalom hypnotized the people of Israel under the spell of his sweet-sounding words. Men gathered to his cause. Slowly the map shifted. True north didn’t point to God anymore. It pointed to Absalom and his cause. And that was the point all along. With his newfound force, Absalom did what men with power often do. He marched to the capital. He was going to take the throne for himself.
When he heard of his son’s plot to usurp the throne, David’s heart broke. Many still faithfully stood behind the king. They were ready to fight against Absalom, brother against brother, house to house if necessary. Everyone in Jerusalem was ready to shift the map to their true king, David.
That is, everyone but David. As the storm clouds of rebellion gathered in the south, King David made a very un-kingly decision. He gathered his servants and said, “Get ready. We must flee” (2 Sam. 15:14). His troops were shocked. Flee? Why not fight?
Then came Zadok the priest. He was ready to accompany David out of the city, continuing to serve him as his true king. To accompany the flight of the king, Zadok brought out the very ark of the covenant. David was flabbergasted. He told Zadok, “Return the Ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back” (2 Sam. 15:25).
The people of Jerusalem didn’t understand. Shouldn’t armies rally around their king? Shouldn’t the ark of the covenant travel with him for protection? Why didn’t David want this? Because the true north of David's map wasn’t himself. It was God. Even in defeat, it wasn’t up to David to pull God the way he wanted God to go. That’s what Absalom was doing. Odysseus would have done the same thing. Not David. He left the battle to the Lord.
Surprisingly, so much of King David’s flight from Jerusalem points ahead to his promised descendant, the coming Messiah. During Jesus’ ministry he refused to pull the compass away from his Father. Jesus wasn’t earthbound to force his will on the map of salvation. He came to fulfill his Father’s plan perfectly. That meant following the path laid out for him. Fittingly, that path took Jesus through the Kidron Valley and up through the Mount of Olives, the very path King David took on his way out of Jerusalem. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
The will of the Lord took Jesus into the hands of the mob. It routed him to his nighttime trial before the Sanhedrin and before the judgment seat of Pontius Pilate. For the final portion of the route Jesus carried the cross that should have been marked with our names. Nailed to the wood, Jesus took upon himself your sins of map manipulation. He paid the price for all of our self-centered plans and desires.
At the end of it all, when victory was won, Jesus didn’t cry out his own name. He declared the will of his Father complete. He cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
In that moment he shifted your map. Through the water of your baptism and the power of God’s Word, He changed your route. The highway no longer takes you to the hell you deserve. And in this life you no longer wind your way through the self-serving twists and turns. The map doesn’t point to you. Thank the Lord for that! It points to him. He remains your true north now and always.
