THE GOOD: I am like Jesus in that I have a heart for those Robin refers to as “riff-raff” (see first blog post if you don’t get the reference). I can love the woman at the well, I can love the tax collector, I can love the prostitute—read I can love the homeless, I can love the homosexual dying of AIDS, I can love the prostitute. I am like Jesus in that the Pharisees of the world tick me off. I get irritated with those who think they have all the answers and come down with wrathful judgment on those who they perceive do not have the answers. In those ways I am a Christian.
THE BAD: I am unlike Jesus in that I don’t reach out to the modern day Pharisees with love. They may have angered Jesus, but he always made time for the Nicodemus’ of the world. Jesus may have pointed out the errors of their ways but he took time to walk with them. Jesus may have been disappointed in what they were doing, but he still saw value in them. In those ways I am not a Christian.
THE UGLY: I feel hostility towards the modern day Pharisee which is neither Christian nor loving. I commit the very act of self righteous judgment on them that they do on those that I define as the least of these. I don’t want to be around them. I don’t want to value them. In those ways I am a hypocrite.
THE HOPE: That I will learn to love as Jesus did…unconditionally and with reckless abandon. I am learning that for each of us “the least of these” means something different.
one of my greatest shocks was when I was learning about the importance people in the time of Jesus. It meant that you were accepting the person when you had a meal with them. I was good with that until I read (seemingly for the first time) that Jesus accepted dinner invitations from the Pharisees, too.
ReplyDeleteMay we all seek to be more like Christ.
Humility, a process of a pure relationship of equalization. You point out a difficult challenge, and yet if we keep hate out...all of it...then each of us does benefit inside to just feel love and good. Considering how great that sounds...it is a challenge still to actually 'do it'.
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