Oh man, another random thought. Woohoo

Jesus was all about the Law. He spent a good part of his time correcting people who were violating one of the 613 mitzvot (rules) in the Old Testament and laying down a clear cut, rigid set of guidelines to model our lives after. He gave the people do's and don't's, and spent time pointing out to them that they did not measure up to His extensive list of what a holy life should look like. Jesus was also about ritual. He liked everyone to pretty much fit the same general mold that a typical religious person looks like. He wasn't a fan of the outliers, or the questioners. Doubters went down as those who incited dissent. He observed strict religious practices and rituals that had been instituted for thousands of years and did not resist the institution. He handled the sinners as little sick children who have the plague and made sure He avoided the really overwhelmingly hopeless cases. After all, some people just don't want to be saved. And why would you waste your time on someone who so obviously is not going to be saved? And, speaking of time, He really wasn't a kid-person, you know? I mean, kids are great, but they don't do much, and they certainly don't understand much. Their elementary level of comprehension renders them obsolete, so please, make your child is seen, not heard. Jesus kind of has more important things to accomplish, I mean He's gotta save the world here. He's the Son of God, He's got a tight schedule. God's gift to the world and all. Psh. Please. You don't waste the time of God's gift to the world.


And when I say "Jesus", I really mean "Christians".
And when I say "gift to the world" I am really referring to the fact that we think we are.
And when I say everything else about what we have come to model our little lives after in hopes that this created picture of what we think holiness is will get us some type of benefit, I mean it.
And when I say I mean it, I mean I have observed it time and time again.
We are good at knocking down the doubters, the haters, the questioners, the sinners, the young, the different, the every other normal person who is so freaking tired of trying to live up tho this standard that only one Person ever attained. That one Person who was crucified on a trash heap between two common criminals. Yeah. Him.



But we are pretty bad about doing the one thing that Jesus modeled more than anything. We are pretty terrible at actually representing what we were told defines us and set us visibly apart from anyone else in this entire world. We kind've suck at ascertaining the intention of Jesus through the stories of Him, and we're pretty adept at picking the mechanics apart, and focusing on the external and skipping over the heart of what matters the most.


A washed up woman, divorced 5 times and sleeping around. A humiliated prostitute. A homeless, blind beggar. A rich young snob ruler. Some snot nosed kids. A stature-deficient, big wig tax collector. Some blue-collar fishermen. A desperate woman with a blood disease that is willing to do anything, even stalk you in the streets so she can touch you, to be made well. A random high ranking army official who works for an unpopular government. A criminal. A hot headed follower who'd hack off people's ears for you and then deny you as they drove spikes through your wrists. A man so sick that his friends would chop a hole in the roof and push him through for a chance at healing. This cross section of humanity are the people Jesus came to, and came for. And that factor that defines the entire being of Jesus? Love. He loved people. Overarching every story is the binding theme of complete, compassionate love for the hurting, the fallen, the broken, the doubters, the angry, the ones that got up every single day only to fall short in the end.


To love people where they're at. Not fix them or correct them or parent them or appease them or condone. To discover what love really means, and to realize that it is very different than what Christian sub-culture says it is. To stop parroting answers that come from a textbook belief system that men have created and instituted, and to start seeking your own answers, and discover what God speaks to your heart when you finally lay it all down and are silent. To allow God's truth to penetrate every definition of every word you ever thought was so firmly defined. To let your life be turned upside down, and shaken out, and remolded and shaped into something that has not yet been created.


To learn how to love people. This is where the heart of Jesus stayed, and its from here our hearts have strayed. If we cannot love the person before we ever open our mouths to speak into their lives, we are not emulating Jesus. We are emulating what most people know as the church. It's time we take back the definitive characteristic that we never should have traded in for rules and guidelines and power points of steps and methods to being better Christians.



We've got to learn to love