Putting Up with Our Ridiculousness

Last night at church, we gathered in small groups to pray. One of the people in the group I was in prayed the most beautiful prayer I've heard in a while. The words have been on my mind ever since.

"Thank you for putting up with our ridiculousness."

Those words resonated in my heart, and they continue to do so this morning, for God certainly does put up with our ridiculousness. 

Just to be sure we're on the same page here, the dictionary definition of ridiculous is "absurd, preposterous, laughable." This is not a complimentary word. It doesn't bring laughter in a good way. 

My grandmama would have called it "foolishness".

During a recent discussion of things Jesus said for us to do, someone flatly announced, "I'm not doing that." Those words sent chills through me. Jesus said to do it and this person had not only chosen to refuse to obey but had opted to announce it to any who would listen, yet they expected to be blessed.

I hear that a lot about following Jesus. "I'm not doing that." 

Whether it be fasting or loving those who are different, or embracing the lost, the followers of Jesus need to do what He did.

Jesus fasted.

Jesus spent hours in quiet prayer and meditation with His Father.

Jesus loved sinners like me.

Jesus embraced the lost and the prodigals and called them to come home to their Heavenly Father.

Jesus loved and spent time with thieves and drunkards and people who had spent years in horrible sexual sin. He loved them and, after they'd gotten to know Him, He told them to stop their sin, and they did. 

Why did they change? Because they knew they could trust Him. They knew He loved them as they were but wanted more for them. He inspired them to be better than they were and He helped them to change. 

You know who didn't change? The Pharisees. 

It was the people who were a part of the church establishment who heard Jesus' words and said, "I'm not doing that." 

They didn't want to love the lost. They didn't want to embrace the unlovely, or spend time with the people trapped in a lifestyle of sin. 

It turned out the Pharisees were the ones hopelessly trapped in a lifestyle of prejudice and hate and unrepentance.

I do not want to be a Pharisee.

I want to be the follower who says, "I'll do whatever you say, Jesus." 

There was a time when I was the person trapped in a sinful lifestyle who couldn't figure out why I wasn't happy. People probably didn't want to spend much time with me, either, for fear my sin would rub off on them.

Praise God someone cared enough to point me to Jesus and He saved me. I shudder to think where I'd be if there hadn't been a follower of Jesus who loved sinners like me. 

So, today, let's remember what Jesus said, and let's do it.

"Love your neighbor as yourself." (Even if they do things you don't like.) Mark 12:31

"Take up your cross and follow Me." (Even if you don't like where I'm going.) Luke 9:23

Being a disciple is not about what we want. It's about Jesus and what He wants. So let's abandon our ridiculousness and embrace our Savior who loves us all.

Let's trade "I won't" for "I will" and follow Him.

Then He said to the crowd, "If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me." Luke 9:23 NLT

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In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: The Value of a Life: We Are Deeply Loved
 #disciple #Jesus #obedience #Pharisee #sin

Choosing our direction

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table.

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (Luke 11:37, 52-54 NASB)

The trouble started in the most innocent of ways. Jesus had spoken to a crowd. One of the Pharisees was present and invited Jesus to have lunch with him. At that time, Jesus was wildly popular, gathering huge crowds everywhere He went. Having Jesus to lunch was a little like winning a prize, I imagine, and the Pharisee invited some of his friends to join him and meet Jesus.

From the start, there was conflict. The Pharisees were unhappy that Jesus did not obey the laws about ritual cleansing before meals. Jesus quickly explained that there was a difference between cleaning the outside of our bodies and allowing God to cleanse our hearts. The Pharisees had been so intent on obeying the rules of law (especially the manmade ones) that they had missed the Spirit of the law. They were like dead men walking, leaving the odor of death everywhere they went.

The lawyers present quickly complained. "You're talking about us, too." Jesus agreed. Yes, He was talking about them, too. The lawyers not only weighed people down with unnecessary rules that they did not follow themselves, but they had the key of knowledge that could have unlocked the kingdom of God. They had studied the Scriptures since childhood, knew the Messianic prophecies, yet refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. They actively prevented anyone else from knowing Him.

After Jesus left the luncheon, the Pharisees and lawyers began to be hostile. The wording implies that they weren't hostile while He was present. After He left, the enemy found a foothold and stirred up trouble. They seethed about the confrontation with Jesus, simmering like a pot of soup. Seething led to plotting. Plotting led to schemes, then, eventually, to murder. 

When God confronts us with our sin, we have two options. We can embrace His truth and allow Him to cleanse and change us or we can respond as the Pharisees did, with hostility and anger. Neither response is the end, however. When we respond with hostility and anger, rather than allowing Him to change us, it is only the beginning. Anger begets action. Action birthed in such inauspicious beginnings is never good, and it will take us places we never wanted to go. 

Our other option, the one I want to choose, is to embrace His truth and allow Him to change the broken parts of us. That response is not the end, either. When we allow God to change us, He makes us into something better. Someone more like Christ. That change, too, can allow Him to do things with us that we never imagined. 

Every day, we stand at a decision point that will bring us closer to Jesus or take us further away. We need to keep our goal in sight. If what we want is to spend eternity with our Savior, our goal should be to steadily draw closer to Him. Every decision we make should be made with that goal in mind, especially when our own sin is concerned. 

Let's do what the Pharisee did. Invite Christ to spend some time with us today so we can get to know Him better. If He shows us something about ourselves that we didn't want to know, (and He almost certainly will) let's embrace His truth and allow Him to make us what He meant us to be, then allow Him to do more than we ever imagined with our lives.