Your own Jesus
This week is on Luke 4:42-44:
This is a funny little story. Jesus stays an extra day in a city he preached at, and the people want him to stay with them forever. They want to make him their Jesus and not anyone else's. There's power in being the only people with access to the Messiah. It's convenient to have him within your city walls, a short walk from everyone inside, a long walk with entry tariff for everyone else.
Throughout history there have been periods where the church has tried to get Jesus to stay inside. For centuries the church kept the Bible hostage, actively trying to keep it out of the hands of ordinary people. There's power in that. It's like controlling the food or the water, or rationing the air. It's convenient for the priests: If you want Jesus, stop on by the cathedral and pay your tithe, otherwise you can go to hell.
Other times, even in modern times, various sects and denominations have produced wicked doctrine that tells the people in their church that theirs is the only way to God and the other Christians aren't really Christians. Somehow Jesus is their Jesus and nobody else's. That's not to say that some people who claim to be Christians aren't misguided or filled with bad doctrines of their own. It's just that Jesus doesn't set up camp in one building or one town or amongst one ethnic group and forsake all the others.
We get spoiled and we don't think there's enough Jesus to go around. With our actions we tell him "Don't go and give those other people you love the same gifts you've given us." It's selfish and it's stupid. Do we worship a God who lives paycheck to paycheck, who can't afford to support his family? Do we think he'll give the best to the other churches and leave us destitute and ruined?
We fall in love with the exclusivity of our arrangement with him. We want others to be envious more than we want them to be blessed. We want them to say "Oh, those are the people Jesus lives with. How special they must be to have him dwell among them. If only we could be so lucky." Is heaven a place of people patting themselves on the back while others burn in agony?
Jesus came for everyone. That's the good news. The only people who miss out are the people who never knew and the people who knew but didn't care. Any one of the places Jesus stopped would have been a great place to settle down and start a family. He still went and preached in the other synagogues in Judea. If we're his ambassadors, what does that mean for us?
It's great to be happy about what he's done for us and what that means. What about the people outside the walls who don't know about Jesus or care about what he did? Are we going to make them come and beg for what we've already received freely? Are we going to just settle in with him, and do our best to make happy music to drown out the cries from outside? The real Jesus was on the move. Can we follow him by standing still?
Are we ready to go outside the walls with Jesus? Are we willing to give freely like he did? Is it possible that other places draw him like ours did long ago? What kind of ambassadors stay home all of the time? Let's let him complete what he was sent to do and quit getting in the way.
At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
This is a funny little story. Jesus stays an extra day in a city he preached at, and the people want him to stay with them forever. They want to make him their Jesus and not anyone else's. There's power in being the only people with access to the Messiah. It's convenient to have him within your city walls, a short walk from everyone inside, a long walk with entry tariff for everyone else.
Throughout history there have been periods where the church has tried to get Jesus to stay inside. For centuries the church kept the Bible hostage, actively trying to keep it out of the hands of ordinary people. There's power in that. It's like controlling the food or the water, or rationing the air. It's convenient for the priests: If you want Jesus, stop on by the cathedral and pay your tithe, otherwise you can go to hell.
Other times, even in modern times, various sects and denominations have produced wicked doctrine that tells the people in their church that theirs is the only way to God and the other Christians aren't really Christians. Somehow Jesus is their Jesus and nobody else's. That's not to say that some people who claim to be Christians aren't misguided or filled with bad doctrines of their own. It's just that Jesus doesn't set up camp in one building or one town or amongst one ethnic group and forsake all the others.
We get spoiled and we don't think there's enough Jesus to go around. With our actions we tell him "Don't go and give those other people you love the same gifts you've given us." It's selfish and it's stupid. Do we worship a God who lives paycheck to paycheck, who can't afford to support his family? Do we think he'll give the best to the other churches and leave us destitute and ruined?
We fall in love with the exclusivity of our arrangement with him. We want others to be envious more than we want them to be blessed. We want them to say "Oh, those are the people Jesus lives with. How special they must be to have him dwell among them. If only we could be so lucky." Is heaven a place of people patting themselves on the back while others burn in agony?
Jesus came for everyone. That's the good news. The only people who miss out are the people who never knew and the people who knew but didn't care. Any one of the places Jesus stopped would have been a great place to settle down and start a family. He still went and preached in the other synagogues in Judea. If we're his ambassadors, what does that mean for us?
It's great to be happy about what he's done for us and what that means. What about the people outside the walls who don't know about Jesus or care about what he did? Are we going to make them come and beg for what we've already received freely? Are we going to just settle in with him, and do our best to make happy music to drown out the cries from outside? The real Jesus was on the move. Can we follow him by standing still?
Are we ready to go outside the walls with Jesus? Are we willing to give freely like he did? Is it possible that other places draw him like ours did long ago? What kind of ambassadors stay home all of the time? Let's let him complete what he was sent to do and quit getting in the way.
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