Tag Archives: Jesus

His Disciple: A Table for Sick Sinners

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

Close your eyes and imagine the scene. It’s ok, just play along with me. Close your eyes. What do you see?

I see a table full of people I probably wouldn’t spend time around. I see the people our society hates, the ones we turn away from, the ones our religious spirit avoids.

And at the head of the table I see Jesus. Laughing, passing the green beans, telling stories. Loving the ones in front of Him because He knows how desperately they need what He has come to give them. A way out. Stripped of their filthy rags and given clean garments. Life. Love. Freedom. Redemption. Forgiveness.

It’s what we all need, but for some reason, the ones who have already had their time at the table of sinners with Jesus resent the ones who are drawn to that same table. And when the religious spirited people have the boldness to ask His disciples about it, Jesus slaps back with what we all need to hear.

I came for these. For sick sinners. I didn’t come for anyone who is already healthy. Do we get what He was saying? Maybe this will help us pick up the sarcasm in His voice – “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

The only difference between us and the sick sinners around us is that we came to the table before they got there. We sat with Him, just as sick as they are, and found healing, forgiveness, and eternal life – all the things they need. The table for sick sinners is as much our table as it is theirs.

We are His disciples. The ones who get to watch Him heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry, and offer forgiveness to all of them, because we watched Him do it in us. Let’s choose to watch with joy, gratitude, and fascination rather than with scorn. Let’s invite sick sinners to the table, instead of questioning why they’ve come and why on earth is Jesus sitting there with them. Let’s get over our indignation that Jesus loves them the same way He loves us.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Ps. 23:5)

Father, forgive us for when we choose to bow to a religious spirit rather than to You. Teach us how to invite others to the same table where we found forgiveness and eternal life. Give us eyes to see people the way You see them instead of the way we see them.

His Disciple: Teachable

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He taught them. He didn’t send them to the Pharisees, to Rome, or to any other source to learn how to be His disciple. Instead, He called them to Himself and then He taught them. And much of the time, He was quoting the Old Testament.

And then they wrote down His teachings, and they taught others, and then the others taught even more others. But the reason there was something to teach, is because Jesus taught teachable disciples.

Today, we have so many sources of teaching, and I wonder if it’s made us lazy. It’s so much easier to be taught through listening to a podcast than to sit down and open our bible. A whole world of teachings is available at our fingertips, and it is enticing. But so very much of it is simply untrue and, unfortunately, because we are not actually reading our bibles, we are drawn in by what sounds good to our ears, perhaps unaware that it contradicts the Word of God.

Only the Scriptures will teach us what is true and if we don’t believe that, we are starting from a deficit. Without a plumb line, everything will be skewed.

There are good sermons, good books, good podcasts, good voices out there who are teaching good theology, grounded in scripture. But there are also plenty who are teaching a “different gospel, that is no gospel at all.” People who don’t like what the bible teaches, so they’ve decided it’s not true, and they’ve made up their own truth. They twist the bible to fit what they believe, rather than allowing what they believe to be formed by the bible. It’s not a new thing. It was actually happening in Jesus’ day, Paul’s day, and every “day” since. It’s no less dangerous now than it was then.

The problem is not that we aren’t teachable, it’s who or what, we allow to teach us.

A couple of lines from John, chapter 6:

“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

 “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

They didn’t like what He taught, so they walked away, much like so many people are doing today. He didn’t chase after them to try to convince them, and He never once apologized for the truth. He gave us free will, and He allows us to use it. But what we can’t do is reject His Word and still claim to be His disciple. It just doesn’t work. If we attempt to separate Jesus from the whole of the scriptures, we only end up with a god of our own making.

Listen to this interaction out of Matthew 16:

 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

Many people said (and say) many things about Jesus, and those many people were wrong. But Peter knew the truth, and I believe it is because He was with Jesus, following Him, learning from Him. He was teachable to the truth because he was following closely to the One who is truth.

We are not told that we shouldn’t listen to other teachers. The scriptures tell us that God gave teachers to the body. But there is a way we are to listen to others who are teaching us.

Acts 17:11: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.“

They eagerly listened to the teachings of Paul, but then they verified what he taught by searching the scriptures. Sadly, many today use their feelings as verification of whether something is true or not. How it makes them feel, and whether or not it lines up with what they think should be true. Truth is now subjective to each person and their viewpoint, their feelings, their experience, and their trauma. And when you have a generation of people seeking to have their feelings validated, it is guaranteed that there will be a multitude of people willing to step in and do that as a means to build their own platform, bank account, or kingdom. God help us.

I am asking myself what may seem like simple questions, ones I’d like to answer quickly, but I know that it requires an honest look at my life:

Am I still teachable? Who is teaching me? Do I verify what I’m hearing by going to scripture? Am I willing to learn hard things from the Bible?

Lord, forgive us for what we’ve done with Your Word. I pray for a revival of the holy scriptures in me, and in Your Church today. I pray for a great thirst to come over us, a thirst for Your truth, found in Your Word. I pray that the heart of the Bereans would be in me, and that Your Word would be my plumbline, always.

His Disciple: Surrendered

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.– Matthew 4:18-20

To follow a rabbi… meant living with the rabbi, sharing life with him and taking part in the rabbi’s whole way of life. A disciple might accompany a rabbi on all his daily routines: prayer, study, debating other rabbis, giving alms to the poor, burying the dead, going to court, etc. A rabbi’s life was meant to be a living example of someone shaped by God’s Word. Disciples, therefore, studied not just the text of Scripture but also the “text” of the rabbi’s life.” – Edward Sri, Into His Likeness: Be Transformed as a Disciple

The life of an early disciple was a life of following close, not at a distance. They weren’t part of a crowd of onlookers. They wore the dust of their rabbi’s feet, and in order to do that, they had to leave their own lives behind.

Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! – Matthew 19:28

I see it when I read the gospels, and again when I read Paul’s letters to the churches. There is a leaving that must happen in order to follow Jesus; a surrendering of my plan for my life, in favor of His. There is no way to read the New Testament and come away thinking that we still get to call the shots. That we decide the when, the what, and the where for our lives. Not if we’re His disciples.

What have I left in order to follow Jesus? This is the question, and part of it I can readily answer. My right to choose where I live and work has been surrendered so that He could put me where He wants me. My desire to walk away when something became too difficult, too painful even, so that I could let Him transform me through the difficult and the painful thing. To teach me to love difficult and painful people (and to realize that sometimes, I am the difficult, painful one). I forgave people I didn’t want to forgive, remained where I didn’t want to be, and left when I didn’t want to go.

But there is always more leaving to do. The temptation to take the reins is ever present, breathing down my neck. The desire to do what I want to do with my remaining years, which would involve laying on a beach everyday, mostly in silence. The thought that I could pick when and where I retire, or whether I even get to retire, is a wonderful thought indeed. But that’s not how following Jesus works.

He leads, I follow, and in that, my heart must reach the place of surrendering all the ‘I wants’ and ‘I needs’ that keep calling for me to do it my way. Surrender, not control, is what I signed up for. A life that pleases Him more than it pleases me.

If it weren’t for my desire to remain close to Him, I would not have made many of the choices I made in my faith journey. I would have lived where I wanted, worked where I wanted, kept only the relationships I wanted, walked away when it got hard, set way more boundaries around me… all of it. But I wanted to follow at His heels, not at a distance. I wanted proximity to Jesus, not just the identifier of “Christian.” And this is still my greatest want. To be near Him. To follow Him, even when it’s hard. He has become and remains my greatest obsession, worth every bit of leaving and surrendering and hard thing I’ve had to do.

Today, I am challenged to look at my life again and ask Him where I am still trying to maintain control. To assess whether I’m still following Him, or if I’ve veered off to follow the many voices I have access to in this life, or even if I’m just simply following myself. Am I still His disciple, or am I just a Christian in the crowd?

It is good to look around at our lives and figure out if we are still following Him, or just acknowldging Him.

Father, help us be honest with You and with ourselves. Turn us, if we have veered off. Call us up if we have fallen behind. Remind us that You, not this earthly life, are our greatest reward, and that You are worthly of our lives laid down. Help us become people who are fully surrendered to You and not to this world or our flesh.

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

His Disciple: The Search & The Priority

Intro

There is a narrow path and a broad path, of that, I’m sure. Not just because Jesus told us so, which would have been enough for me, but because I see these paths. I see what leads to life, and what leads to death. But through the blurry vision of just past middle-aged eyes, I see something else and it stirs emotions in me that I haven’t been quite sure how to manage.

I see those who chose the narrow road now attempting to widen that road. Cutting away things that make it harder to walk, things that make the narrowing. Redefining sin. Cutting out whole parts of God’s words. Twisting what is left to fit nicely over flesh that wants control of the ship and I am grieved somewhere deep and wondering if I too have a machete in my hand.

So I am doing the only thing I know to do. I’m going to search the scriptures for what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus. A follower who walks a narrow road behind the One who walked it first. I’m doing this for two reasons: to let God uncover my own heart in this matter, and to know how to pray for others who are widening what must remain narrow.

Let’s Go

We hear Him speak for the first time when He was twelve, after a frantic search by His parents found Him in the temple courts “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Other versions say “My Father’s House.”, but in either version I see the same thing:

Jesus was, and is, always about His Father’s business (and personally, I think the Father’s business is His house, which is His Church). Regardless, what Jesus is not always about is our business. Our agenda. Our vision. Our dreams and goals and ideas. Listen to what He said when Peter attempted to rebuke Him for saying He must suffer—

“But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)

Strong statement made to someone Jesus loved. But let this sink in: Peter thought he had in mind the right thing. He knew in part, saw in part, but thought he understood in full. We are Peter’s brothers and sisters, cut from the same cloth. I just don’t know that very many of us would admit to it.

From the first recorded words of the Son of God we get our first glimpse of His priority, and that priority never changed.

“ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” (John 12:49)

“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)

 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)

If I desire to be His true disciple, my priorities must align with His and that, dear friend, is easier said than done. As much as I wish it were not true, self-interest runs deep through my heart, filled with my preferences, my assumptions, and my wants. Oh, they aren’t presented that way. No sir. Sometimes they’re labeled as my calling, how I’m wired, my giftings, my mission.

So this is the first stop on my search for true discipleship. To wrestle with my own heart and what it wants and why it wants it and most of all, is it willing to give all of that up for what He wants? To let Him strip away the stuff that gathers over time that tends to make me forget what I know to be true: The whole world and everything in it is about God. The wide road makes it about us.

Lord, have Your way in me. Let something shift in me that brings down the idol of self-interest, self-priority, and self-preservation. I want my heart to align with Yours, so Jesus, show me Your heart.

We’re just getting started. Thanks for reading. See you next time.

Exodus 12: the beginning

” The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,  “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” (v. 1)

He gave them their beginning, marking their rescue as the start of their year for the rest of their days. A reminder, always, of when God took them out of slavery and into freedom.

My date is today, April 2nd, and I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t always think about my rescue when this date rolls around each year. But, the memory of it is embedded in me all the same. The date, the place, the sounds going on around me as I physically sat in a chair repeating a prayer while also, somewhere in my soul, falling in a broken heap at the feet of Jesus. That’s when He gave me my beginning.

This conversation God had with Moses in chapter 12 is almost like an artist painting on a canvas, telling the story of thousands of years. The Israelites, and you and I, escaping death through the blood of a perfect, unblemished lamb.

God marked the day for them, and for the generations to come. “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.” (v. 14)

In other words, this day is worthy of remembrance for you, and for those coming after you. Make much of it.

The blood of Jesus was applied to my life on the second day in April 1989, and on that day God marked my beginning. The generations that come won’t see my years of slavery. They won’t be witnesses to the darkness of my oppression, but instead, they will know the testimony that His blood has put on my life. Thirty-six years ago Jesus rescued me and in doing so, He changed the course of not just my life but the lives of my family.

This chapter in the book of Exodus, which I have read at least a dozen times if not more, hit me different this time, as I realize that God marked out their beginning, and told them to celebrate it for all time.

My rescue is no less worthy of remembrance, and neither is yours. He wants His people to celebrate what He has done for them, to remember it, talk about it, so the generations to come will know.

This was the beginning.

Naked & Ashamed

I was sitting at a table lost in thought, minding my own business, when a woman walked by right as I looked up from my bible. Her body language, the hair she used to obscure her face, the sweater pulled around her, I noticed all of it in a nano second as the Holy Spirit whispered “she is ashamed and afraid of being exposed.” And that began thirty minutes of playing connect the dots until what God wanted me to see began to emerge. So hang with me and I’ll see if I can re-connect them here.

Shame…

  • Genesis 2;25 – “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
  • Genesis 3:7 – “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Sin had opened their eyes to their nakedness. They had always been naked, but they had neither the realization of nakedness, nor the shame of it. This was now the condition of their disobedience. Naked and ashamed.

  • Daniel 12:1-2 – “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Shame will be the condition of every person who is bound for an eternity without God (hell), because the condition of Adam & Eve’s disobedience now follows their children.

  • Romans 10:11 – “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Shame wants us to hide, not just ourselves, but hide our sin.

So I speak to the Beloved, to the children of God – shame has no part in you. Guilt, ok. Conviction, absolutely. These things will move us toward God, toward repentance.

  • 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
  • James 5:19: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

Confession is a weapon against the feeling of shame. It isn’t easy by any means. Hard stuff to come out of hiding and let our sin be exposed, but that is where the cleansing comes, where we find healing.

There just isn’t any other way but His way, and everything is so much better His way.

Naked…

  • Zechariah 3:4 – “Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
  • Galatians 3:26-27 – “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
  • Revelation 7:9 – “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

So to the one who is head down, face covered, trying to disappear in your shame – Jesus covers you. Clothes you with clean garments, robes of His righteousness; in fact, you are clothed with Him.

  • Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

He has not left you naked and ashamed, He has made you covered and forgiven. Walk in the truth, my friend.

The Fig Tree and the Church

Matthew 21

“Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!”  Immediately the tree withered.”

He cursed the fig tree and I found that curious. But He and His disciples moved on, so I went with them and left that figless tree standing there, cursed and withered.

A few days ago I came across it again and this time I studied it. Squinted long and hard until my vision cleared and now I have to get the words out before they drift away.

The fig tree had leaves, and from a distance it looked like it was a good tree. But when Jesus moved closer to the tree, it became apparent that the tree had no fruit. No figs on the fig tree is no bueno. But why?

Leaves on a fig tree appear with the fruit, or shortly after the fruit. If the tree has leaves, it should have fruit. So the tree had the appearance of bearing fruit from a distance, but there was no fruit. And that is what preaches in this story.

In John, chapter 15, Jesus told His disciples that every fruit bearing branch would be pruned, but branches that did not bear fruit would be cut off. He also told them that bearing much fruit would glorify God and prove they were His disciples. And finally, He said He had chosen and appointed them to bear fruit that would last.

Our fruit bearing is connected to our prayer lives, to God’s glory, and to the authenticity of our relationship with Him. I dare say, fruit matters.

But I keep coming back to one thing: the fig tree had the appearance of bearing fruit, because it had the leaves. But when Jesus drew near, fruitlessness was obvious. Nothing can hide from Him.

And now there are questions scrambling around in me.

What are the leaves that give the appearance that I am bearing fruit? The things that make me look good, but aren’t bearing anything of value? What glorifies me from a distance, but doesn’t actually glorify God?

But it isn’t just me. It’s all of us. The local church that makes up the global Church. Can we ask the same questions as a congregation? Are there leaves, but no fruit? Are we busy doing things that have no impact for the Kingdom? Do we look the part, but Lord help us if Jesus comes near?

The fig tree is but one of a number of lessons Jesus taught regarding outward appearance with no inward substance. In one in particular, He didn’t speak in a parable, didn’t use a word picture. He said what He said.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:22-23)

Pleanty of leaves, but no fruit.

Father, forgive us. Have mercy on us. Heal us.