 |
| (Thank you Google for your image) |
Pull up a chair. Butter your popcorn. And watch. Watch while men get out their tool belts. The nails. The hammers. Watch as they use those tools to fasten His flesh to a piece of wood. He can't hardly breathe. He is tired. He is humiliated. He is scared. He hurts.
And you're just sitting there. Watching him. Like it's a baseball game. Like you're at a movie theater.
I've been so bothered and convicted by the way I view Jesus. The way the American church views Jesus. Acting as if we were called to this life as spectators. To watch. To not be transformed. But to conform. As if the price was cheap. As if it costed nothing.
Grace. Justice. Forgiveness. It was all very expensive. And we get the "all-expense paid" gift.
Yet, we live our lives as if we can go on doing whatever we want. Feeding our own desires. Living our lives with no sacrifice on our part. Hoping to get the best of both worlds.
When Jesus came, He came from heaven. He left a place where there are no tears, no ridicule, no wars. And He stepped into that very thing.
It would be like a super rich man, living the high life in a deluxe apartment in the sky. Driving a Rolls Royce. Wearing a Rolex. And deciding to give it all up to trade places with the bum sleeping in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk. Only the analogy falls apart. Because the sacrifice was so much greater.
I read the website of a nearby church the other day. On the website it explains their sunday service,
"There is a live band that will lead us in 3 songs (you can either sing along or just listen to the music) Someone will pray and say "hi" A pastor will give a message that is relevant to your life ...and the whole thing will be over in about 70 minutes".
It's like a fast-food dinner...but, church. Fast- church. We don't want to take up your time. And you are offered the opportunity to be a spectator. To sit in your seat and watch, instead of entering into His presence on holy, sacred ground.
( Side note: I know the Lord can work in any situation, and maybe this is a marketing tactic to get people who would otherwise not come to church, come, and have their lives changed.)
But, it seems like we are saying to the world that everything should fit around your schedule and your lifestyle, and be of NO COST to you.
He paid a high price for your life.
He was born in a barn.
His bff denied even KNOWING who He was. He felt the weight of rejection.
He pleaded with God to not have to go through with this.
He was terrified.
He was cursed.
And beaten.
He was murdered.
But, He asked that we would be forgiven anyways.
The cost was not cheap. The cost was a perfect life.
We have been called to 'no longer be conformed by this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind'. And yet we are conforming. Placing our importance on staying cool instead of allowing Him to change us.
We are finding it acceptable to come as we are, but to then just stay as we are.
Romans 12:1-2 in the Message says it very clear
"1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
It's one thing to read a blog about someone's life and to know what they are up to and to never have met them. It's quite another to talk to that person. To have a relationship with that person. To not just sit back and observe what their life is like. But to actually be a part of it.
I'm tired of us treating Jesus like a blog we're following. Knowing the stories that have been told, but not taking the time to get to know Him.
The importance is not on the knowledge of His existence, but on the relationship with Him. A relationship that orders change. To be more like Him, and less like you.
We need to stop taking lightly the freedom we've been given,
we couldn't have afforded this freedom on our own, had we tried.
It's time to start living,
like a high price was paid.
Because it was.
A very high price was paid on Calvary,
while we sat back and watched.
