And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:12)
Something that should always be part of the thinking of inviting people to the Kingdom, is that this is a place of healing and wholeness. I’m not sure if our approach to faith leads us to those places.
It is almost as if we forget that Jesus came for the sick. So if we are beneficiaries of what Jesus has done, it makes sense that we’re part of the sick – sin-sick if we cannot think of anything that we need healing from. Paul in Corinthians would list some of the ailments we suffered from until the Great Physician applied the only cure. To be healed from that should leave us in a position of gratitude, but should also inform the nature of our mission.
Rather than spend our time pontificating about the evils and ills, we need to be out there to see if we can apply the radical cure that was applied to us. That means getting involved. That means associating, engaging and interacting with those just as much in need of the cure as we are. Experience has shown a two key obstacles that prevent people from getting this part of the good news mission.
Ghetto Mentality
This comes to our whole thinking of salvation. One perspective says ‘Thank God I’m saved and now the places I used to go I will go there no more, there’s been a great change, since I was born again.’ Here once people jump through the hoops and join the church the mentality heightens how different we are to everyone else. To retain that difference there is a separation made. A clear and distinct separation.
Although in daily life it’s acknowledged that we have to mix with those ‘in the world’, to save them from contaminating us, we’ll keep it cordial unless we scent an opportunity to invite them to a church event so that they can get their lives right, or read a pamphlet to do the same thing. Beyond that we’ll live for those moments when we’re with the rest of the holy people and get together in holy huddle, cheer each other up with good time songs and listen to someone give us a pep talk of how we stay separate to be holy and then put on the gas masks on again to stop us from being contaminated from the world out there.
A bit exaggerated? Maybe. Enough of a truth in it to suggest that Jesus’ methods and mission would not just be alien to this concept of Christian life, it would cause some to have a spiritual (and possibly physical) hernia. Funny isn’t it. It would find itself in the same position as the very scribes and Pharisees that Jesus address in this scenario. The very people who had the key to know better, being the very people to be ignorant of it.
Don’t get me wrong. I think this ‘holier than thou’ attitude is easy to adopt. Remember the great things that you are now that you’re in Christ. If you take those to your head and not your humility then it can be the basis for a pride and superiority complex. One that would not see it as desirable to ruin it by knocking about with people who don’t align themselves with the truth as I know it.
It should also be evident, however, that this is as anti-Jesus as it’s possible to get when you read the Gospels. Sometimes it appears Jesus has more time for the devils that he commands out of people than he does for the religious folks clogging up the way to the kingdom with their anti-Kingdom attitude.
Assimilation Mentality
As ever in these cases we as humans are likely to go to extremes. In this case rather than being ghetto minded, the other danger to be only too aware of is being so assimilated to the culture around us and be so intent to reach people at any cost, that we actually forget that you’re only knocking around with sick people in the hope that they’ll get well.
This is almost like the ethos that says the customer is always right, and so we entertain and pull out the stops to provide services, and accommodate cultural tastes and values, and slowly but surely compromise the essence of the Kingdom for the sake of getting more people into the club. In all the hurrah, the point of the Kingdom is missed completely. that the good news of the Kingdom is blind seeing, those bound set free, etc.
All of that is centred around Jesus and acknowledging a real sin-sickness that needs healing and leads to a radically transformed life. Yes a life that doesn’t see an aloof holier than thou attitude going on, but likewise a life that is distinct from the life of others and eager and desperate to see others engage with the Great Physician.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 