Our guest pastor today was from a church called "The Alley". His ministry is to drug addict, alcoholics, street children, and ex-felons. He tends to stop into bars and play a few licks with the band because, as he says, he goes to his congregation rather than waiting for them to come to him.
John the Baptist, as the son of a priest, was supposed to wash frequently, wear clean white linen, and show up in the temple to offer sacrifices in the prescribed way. He did none of those things. John wore camel's hair and leather. He ate locusts and wild honey. He preached to Romans and the backwash of the people until the scribes and Pharisees came down to see what he was up to. And then he told them what he thought of their "establishment" ways. He baptized people in a big muddy river. He did not do "what he was supposed to do".
Jesus was the same. If he was supposed to be the Messiah by "churchy" standards, He certainly didn't live up to their their expectations. His first miracle was turning water into wine to keep the party going. He hung out with tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, and other disreputable folks. He was three days late for His best friend's funeral. He took for disciples the unlearned (by the religious people's standards), a liar and at least one thief. James and John, the sons of thunder, today would have been part of a motorcycle gang. It seems as if Peter and Andrew had some kind of running feud going - "How often do I have to forgive my brother? Up to seven times?" What a bunch to have to deal with on a day-to-day basis!
Yet Jesus loved them all, struggled to show them how to love, how to forgive, how to be forgiven. He never tired of giving them God's best. He told them stories that they could relate to in simple terms. He could have commanded the king's palace, yet He slept on the ground, bathed in streams, wore homespun, and smelled like the ordinary people who gathered around Him.
It doesn't hurt us church folk to remember how our Teacher loved the unlovable and reached out for them to snatch as many of them from the enemy as He could. God looks at the heart. We shouldn't decide how to treat people by what their outsides look like.
God help us all to be more like Jesus.
John the Baptist, as the son of a priest, was supposed to wash frequently, wear clean white linen, and show up in the temple to offer sacrifices in the prescribed way. He did none of those things. John wore camel's hair and leather. He ate locusts and wild honey. He preached to Romans and the backwash of the people until the scribes and Pharisees came down to see what he was up to. And then he told them what he thought of their "establishment" ways. He baptized people in a big muddy river. He did not do "what he was supposed to do".
Jesus was the same. If he was supposed to be the Messiah by "churchy" standards, He certainly didn't live up to their their expectations. His first miracle was turning water into wine to keep the party going. He hung out with tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, and other disreputable folks. He was three days late for His best friend's funeral. He took for disciples the unlearned (by the religious people's standards), a liar and at least one thief. James and John, the sons of thunder, today would have been part of a motorcycle gang. It seems as if Peter and Andrew had some kind of running feud going - "How often do I have to forgive my brother? Up to seven times?" What a bunch to have to deal with on a day-to-day basis!
Yet Jesus loved them all, struggled to show them how to love, how to forgive, how to be forgiven. He never tired of giving them God's best. He told them stories that they could relate to in simple terms. He could have commanded the king's palace, yet He slept on the ground, bathed in streams, wore homespun, and smelled like the ordinary people who gathered around Him.
It doesn't hurt us church folk to remember how our Teacher loved the unlovable and reached out for them to snatch as many of them from the enemy as He could. God looks at the heart. We shouldn't decide how to treat people by what their outsides look like.
God help us all to be more like Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment