I wonder why the gospel message doesn’t “up end” our world like it should. What are we missing? Why doesn’t the radical message of a new and different order, an order that Jesus announced, lived, died for and was resurrected, doesn’t impact us in a deeply personal way?
I wonder if we have so compartmentalized our Christianity that we end up seeing Jesus' teachings through the lenses of our current Christian life and church experience. Instead of challenging that life style we end up reducing the message to something that sees it justification in our current religious activities. Or even worse, we have decided to legalize and ritualize his words to the point that they lose their life and meaning. The light and life become darkness and death, a burden to bear. We then find ourselves having a hard time agreeing with John that God’s commandments are not burdensome. The yoke we bear is a mixture (which is never good) of our current religious life and an attempt to follow the commands. One is holding us back, the other calling us forward into life, real life.
The call to biblical Christianity, to live in and serve the king and his kingdom, will have a hard time finding its fulfillment in our current structures. They are too tight, to constricting. They lack creativity and life. It is like doing the same thing only with a different look. Is it lipstick on a pig? I don’t know. But there is a risk when we decide to communicate and release God’s people to move beyond, to embrace the gospel message of the kingdom of God. If you sow the seeds of life, you have to expect they are going to sprout up in ways that you don’t expect. But, if the Holy Spirit is at work in the Word given, if his breath is breathing on those listening, than we have to expect growth, change, and above all Life. Jesus made it clear to Nicodemus the unpredictability of the Holy Spirit’s work. He said you don’t know where it came from or where it is going, but you will see evidence in the wind blowing through the trees. The evidence of the Holy Spirit at work is seen in the world, God’s creation. How it happened and where it is going from there, only God knows. Is the church willing to lose its life, or will it attempt to save it?
I wonder if when we read the scripture that we find ourselves reading it through the lenses of those who considered themselves “IN”, not “OUT”. By “IN” I mean those who thought they had figured it out, who had in some sense arrived, who considered themselves the protectors and communicators of God’s ways and laws. They could recite the 10 commandments, knew all of the rules, could recite clearly all of the current doctrines and ensure all of those in the synagogue, at least outwardly, conformed to them. They had all of the words and terminology down pat. Their subtle and at times deceptive self-justification rested on the fact that they were the defenders of the faith. The “IN” didn’t like there service disrupted, their conventional wisdom challenged, and the security of their lifestyle, taught and imposed, challenged. Their way of living was clear cut. Very little faith and a lot of conform. Those who were considered “IN” were clearly seen and those who were “OUT” were also clearly seen. A nice arrangement which kept the leaders in control and those both “IN” and “OUT” in their defined roles.
The back drop of much of Jesus teaching is to reach those who were not “IN” but “OUT”. He challenged the “IN” in their way of thinking, to see that their world view was clashing with God’s ways. That in reality they were “OUT”. To those who were “OUT” Luke writes this about Jesus,
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
The “OUT” were clearly on Jesus’ mind. His identification with the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed were on His Father’s mind. I am not sure this was on the minds of those who were in the synagogue.
Those who were “OUT” certainly saw this as good news. Those who were “IN” would see this message as disruptive to their world view and they would do whatever was needed to preserve that order. Even to the point of killing Jesus. Think of it: Healings on the Sabbath! Healings in the synagogue! Parties with sinners! Forgiveness and Grace versus condemnation and isolation! Certainly disruptive!
Why am I saying this? I want us to grasp the reality of Jesus message. To see the Gospels in a fresh way. To quit placing Jesus words in the context of a self-justifying religious belief that sanitizes and moralizes the words of Jesus to the point of obscurity. To get us to see that in many ways we are the “IN” that are really “OUT” and that the “OUT” are really the “IN”.
I probably could have said all of this a lot better. I don’t know. Hopefully you will get the heart of it and not just the words. I am challenged to follow the Christ of this kingdom. I don’t want to be “OUT” because the “OUT” is the new “IN”. I want, like Paul, to say, “That I might know Him”. And where ever that leads me well…I wonder!
