It is beyond appalling to see the way many churches today-- even more so individual Christians-- treat those outside the church. How often do churches now view themselves as these weird little museums of ultra-righteous-saints, when they should ACTUALLY be hospitals for the sick and hurting? How often do churches see the people around them as their enemies, when they should be seen as their mission? Have we completely forgotten EVERYTHING Jesus taught us during His earthly ministry? Who did Jesus spend all His time with-- the self-righteous religious leaders, or the tax collectors, the crippled, the poor, the hated? On the contrary! Jesus was constantly REBUKING the self-righteous, self-sufficient religious leaders. How come? They put laws and rules above loving God and loving people, which is really what it’s all about. Take a look at this passage from Mark 2:15-17:
“And it happened that (Jesus) was reclining at the table in (Matthew’s) house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?” And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” This of course, is just one instance out of many, in which the religious leaders throw a hissy-fit over the fact that Jesus is ministering to basically the outcasts of society. And again, it’s tragically the same issue we see plaguing many churches today, this disgusting contradiction of everything God taught His people, and modeled perfectly through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. See how Jesus reached out to these people, how He ministered to the sick, the hurting, the brokenhearted! Meanwhile, the religious leaders cared more about their rules and traditions, thinking themselves to be righteous by their own works, condemning all of those around them. Many, unfortunately, are raised up in religious households where the parents display this exact hypocrisy, resulting in their children to grow up hating God, and cringing even at the mere mention of any “religion.” So sadly, it’s no wonder everyone is so against our great and wonderful God-- my generation especially-- because of this rampant, disgusting religious hypocrisy that has dominated many churches. I can’t tell you how often I am grieved just thinking about my generation and how horribly misled they are, how hypocrisy, misunderstanding and lies have totally ravaged their view of God. The countless friends I have known who have just grown to despise God and His followers entirely. This horrific misconception has pushed so many away from God, despite the fact that He’s the only one who can help them, who can save them. It’s also exactly why the Apostle Paul wrote that because of such religious hypocrisy, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2:24). And how true that is. When addressing the Pharisees and their hypocrisy, Jesus even once referred to them as whitewashed tombs that looked beautiful outwardly, but inside, were full of dead people’s bones. They looked all holy and righteous from the outside, but inside they were full of hypocrisy, lawlessness, sin. And that’s what Jesus came to show everyone, that sin comes from within us, that WE are the problem, it’s not about just trying to act better. The problem starts in the heart, and then reveals itself in our actions. Jesus came to show us that we are helpless by ourselves, and can’t save ourselves, that we can’t be “good enough” to go to heaven, so that we would realize we are ALL sinners in desperate need of a savior– JESUS. He came not only to expose our main issue, but to offer a solution as well: Him. So you see, because of the utter hatred, the hypocrisy, the cruelty many churches display today, people are driven away from God, and grow to instead hate Him, not knowing how much their Creator actually truly loves them, and is yearning for them to return back to Him, how He “wishes that no one should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And no place is His amazing love made more clear to us than in the Person of Jesus, who is literally God in the flesh– coming down from all His glory in heaven to be born in an animal stable of all places, to live the perfect, holy and righteous life you and I never could, suffering the brutal fate we deserve on the cross, and then rising from the dead on the third day. Can you see the love? The humility of our great God? He is literally our Creator, the King of everything, deserving of all our worship and adoration, yet we are told in Philippians 2:6-7 that “(Jesus), though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” You’ll see this clearly displayed in the Gospel of John, as well as in all the other Gospel accounts. If only we Christians would read the Bible and take it seriously, truly taking the time to seek God and allowing His Word to transform our hearts, our lives. If only we would truly live what we preached, really walked-the-talk. This world doesn’t need more empty religion, it’s certainly already full of it! What it really needs is JESUS. It is not our job to go around judging and condemning people, but to spread the Good News of the Gospel to all we possibly can. Jesus Himself said in John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” More than ever, people today need to know that there IS hope, but it’s not in this ever-darkening world, it’s not in money, or relationships, or careers, fame, hobbies, media, drugs, entertainment, etc. This world merely offers temporary and circumstantial happiness, cheap thrills and distractions. Only Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, can offer eternal hope that is not shaken by life’s constantly changing circumstances, and this world and its fluctuating culture. Let me close with Mark 3:1-6. Again, see the love, the compassion of Jesus, as contrasted by the stuck-up religious leaders. See how the God of the universe in human form treats people, versus the religious elites of His day. “(Jesus) entered a synagogue again; and a man was there whose hand was withered. And they were watching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. [[So they basically set up this crippled man as “bait” for Jesus, how cruel can you be?]] He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might put Him to death.”
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