One
day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were
sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all
Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was
strongly with Jesus. But the Pharisees and
teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is?
Luke
5:17, 21
Detractors will always show up where God’s harvest field
is ready…but Gods power will show up even greater.
What if Jesus had given in to the pressure and standards
of the religious elite of his day? Think
of all the people recorded in the Bible (and today) that would never have been
touched, healed, delivered or given hope. You
and I would never have been offered a taste of grace because Jesus mission of
why he came would never have been filled.
There will always be well meaning friends and even
coworkers within the religious establishments of our day that will try to
convince us to stay within the norm, warn us to be careful or not understand
our choices or decisions.
Where is it
written we must be careful of Jesus calling to “go into all the world and make
disciples?” Where is it written we will
never have to give up our lives for the sake of the gospel? Where is it written we will not be
misunderstood or abandoned by others because of our choice to be a follower of
Jesus Christ?
Yes, I agree some
persecution we hear about today is brought on because of foolish actions. At the same time true persecution will always
be on the heels of total abandonment of self in order for Gods work, his
Kingdom (not ours) to be advanced.
Our standard and foundation must always align with what
Jesus taught. That in itself will be at
odds with not only the world view but that of the established religious
communities view. Do we really want to
live and be as Jesus set the example for us?
I grew up with ‘be a fisherman
for Jesus’ but with the warning ‘don’t
go into certain establishments because you wouldn’t want people to think poorly
of Jesus.’ Do fishermen wait for the fish to jump out of
the water or do they go where the fish live?
Didn’t Jesus go into homes and the marketplace to eat and drink with the
those people
of his day who were searching and disenfranchised with lifeless religion?
Today, don’t
those people also deserve to hear, and more importantly, see the grace of
God? And would those people
actually feel welcomed in our religious establishments today? According to the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life only 39% of Americans attend a church service once a week yet 92%
believe in God or a universal spirit. [i] Those
people are clearly not coming
into the church building. They are not
interested in a building; there is no power in a building. They are
interested in someone walking grace with them, not condoning or condemning them. When we, the body of Christ, move out of the
building and show them Jesus rather
than just telling them Jesus, grace begins
to grow.
What Jesus was accused of as blasphemy was the very avenue
for forgiveness and healing to occur.
His actions caused those around and usually those outside the religious
elite to be gripped with great wonder
and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”
Luke 5:26
Jesus not only spoke grace he lived it. He requires no less from us as his followers.
I have not yet arrived but am trying with his help to
walk in grace every day. Some days I
stumble a lot. What about you, want to
walk grace together?
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