For a few, the Pattern is discussed in terms of what the church is to practice on Sunday mornings for an hour; the music style, the worship correctness, etc. But this focus is merely a distraction from the real authenticity that the Son of God reveals. He...not our arrangements, not our preferences...Jesus is the Pattern. When we imitate him, we are stepping into the footprints of fundamental productivity which thrills both the receiver and the giver.
The Pattern? We are to die to our wishes, wants, and will that others be blessed. Church-walk is anything but convenient. It is to be the duplication of the very heartbeat of Jesus. This is to be both seen and heard by our communities who so yearn for hope. So are we called to religious chatter? Nope. We are called to not get our own way if such would mean another could find hope.
Why do you think God asks us to pick up our crosses and follow Him? It is because true Life is a gigantic struggle and no one can attain it on his or her own will-power. And what do crosses mean anyway? These hold us to unfair treatment that presses, even breaks, our hearts. Being treated unfairly is the rejected rub that even church people have with the call to be Christian. Thus, we abort our calling at the very center.
We are called to partake with the hurting, the devastated, the confused, the crushed...by being ourselves hurt, devastated, confused, and crushed by life...so that we might understand better how to be a genuine help. Society needs our help; deeply so. But it will not receive it if we merely shout out directives from the balconies of our safe-place, no-harm-no-foul towers.
Since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham (Hebrews 2:14-16).
- Jesus became human to understand what we go through. Father, this is what it is like to be a created person.
- He came to knock out death; to make it temporary by pulling the plug on its assumed permanency.
- The help comes to us who are no angels; but are recipients through the human channel of birth.
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17).
- Jesus had to be human from birth to the grave in order to really understand with sympathy our various stages of plight.
- Rejection (that offense that cuts us so deeply) was his assignment...and he pulled it off.
- And we are called to walk in his sandals that by our being unfairly treated and even crucified, at the office or within the family, that we could be merciful to all others who encounter similar treatment.
Church isn't about sitting in rows and behaving ourselves for sixty minutes. It is about learning that our mistreatment at the hands of some are personal training that we might learn endurance and meaning in these very moments. Friend, we are wasting our lives wishing and fretting troubles away when these are of the very intentional and Holy Pattern to help us live with our neighbor in sympathy and understanding. As long as we run for relief, we will never have relief to offer another because we refuse to go to school during these recurring hard times.
To take up our crosses and follow him is not intended to be a quarterly study in Sunday School. We are expected to live (and die) from there so that even offenders might encounter relief and hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment