Some miss the point

Friday, July 07, 2017

Love creates. Love heals. Love redeems.

Love reaches deep down into the hurting places.

Love reaches down into the sin-filled places.

Love heals. Love redeems.

Jesus looked upon Matthew the tax collector, a man lost in an unjust and dishonest political and economic system, a man who was a great sinner, and Jesus called him and then went to his house to eat with him, and many other sinners with gathered together for the meal. (Matthew 9:9-13)

The righteous religious looked askance at what He was doing and couldn’t understand how Love would have fellowship with such sinners, but Jesus would not allow Himself to be affected by their scorn and judgmentalism. In fact, Jesus used it as a teaching opportunity and explained to them what God was really like—this God who existed apart from their code of rules and dogma, this God who is so much greater than the narrowness of their half-blinded vision. And Jesus taught them that Love seeks out the sinner and remains with him even in the midst of his sinfulness. Jesus explained to them that God was about mercy, not One who demanded sacrifice. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

There was a hidden message there, an irony which eluded His critics. All are sinners, and it says that in the very psalms that they prayed every day. What Jesus refers to when He speaks of the “righteous” were those who mistakenly thought they were righteous on the basis of some defined code, but who were actually sinners who were unable to recognize themselves as such.

This is true today as well. There are strident voices within the Church today who continue to inflict codes of conduct on others and who forget about the most important aspects of True Religion: mercy, love, healing, redemption. Those who are experts about the sin of others, who are passionate in pointing out what they consider to be sin, and who have constructed complex systems of thought to justify their own hatred and scorn so they can rest in their own sense of superiority, but who cannot recognize their own sin. Such folk, sadly enough, deprive themselves from tasting the incredible richness of their own religious heritage. I know people like that and perhaps you do as well. Give them little heed and return your attention to God’s love for y-o-u.

But God is love.

Love is about mercy.

Love redeems.

Love touches sin and some extraordinary cosmic explosion takes place which often takes a lifetime to work out. Just be patient.

And notice, perhaps that the story of Matthew’s redemption is written in the Gospel of Matthew.

If you were to write a Gospel of Love in your name, what tales would it have to tell? Think about this.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.