I have a confession: It turns out
I’ve gotten it wrong for the last 30 years.
Christianity, I mean.
I thought I had the basic
principles down, but just found out that I may have been missing something. It
all started recently when I had some conversations with fellow World Racers.
They made such statements as,
“The funny thing
is— I didn’t even know the World Race was a missions trip when I applied. I
wasn’t even serving the Lord at the time…”
or
“What church did I go
to? Actually to tell you the truth…before the Race I hadn’t gone to church in
over ten years”.
Hold up, Whhhhaat? This is something I cannot even begin
to relate to.
I have been a card-carrying
Christian since birth. I like to joke that ‘I came out of the womb and joined
the worship team”.
Let’s review the facts. I
was born into a Christian family…went to Christian school, Christian high
school, Christian college, and went on to become a pastor. Like the apostle
Paul I thought I had all the credentials of heaven. “If anyone thinks he has
reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth
day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in
regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for
legalistic righteousness, faultless”. -Phil.3:4-6
Suddenly I noticed myself
getting jealous of people who were being blessed by God and didn’t do anything
to earn it. “Wait just a minute …they haven’t been serving you
faithfully like I have! They go out partying, sleep around, don’t even go to
church…they think they can just show up out of nowhere and be friends with
you? “
Uh oh.
That same day I opened my
Bible to Luke 5:31 where Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance”.
Just a few pages later I
find the story of a ‘sinful woman’ who wipes Jesus’ feet with her tears and
anoints them with perfume. The Pharisee who invited the Lord to his house is
upset so Jesus tells him the story of two men who owed debts to a
moneylender-one owed a great deal and the other just a little. Neither of them
had the money to pay him back so he canceled the debts of both.
Jesus asks, “Now which
of them will love him more?”
“I suppose the one who
had the bigger debt cancelled”, replied the man.
Jesus says, “You have
judged correctly… Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not
give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped
them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss but this woman, from the time I
entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but
she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have
been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves
little”.
Dang, Jesus, you don’t mess
around.
A few chapters later I am
led to the story of the Lost Son. The Pharisees are once again upset that Jesus
is hanging out with ‘sinners’ so he tells them this parable, often known in
Bible Story Time as the Prodigal
Son. I always thought that the word ‘prodigal’ meant someone waywardwho returns home but it
actually means ‘recklessly spendthrift’, like someone who squanders all their
money at once. (In the story I guess the term could apply not only to the lost
son but to the father as well— who gives everything he has, without question,
to his returned son).
If you haven’t read the
story in a while, let me give you a quick refresher:
A man had two
sons…the younger one decides that he wants to take his inheritance and
bounce. He goes and blows all of it— livin’ the Vida Loca— and then realizes, “Oh crap…
what did I do? I am completely broke. I’m sitting here with these pigs and even
they have better food than me… maybe my father will take me back as a
servant”. He returns home expecting to get the cold shoulder but instead
his father runs to him with open arms and decides to throw the party of the
century in his honor. The elder brother is ticked. He says, “What the
heck, dad? I’ve been stuck here obeying you faithfully and I don’t get squat.
I’m not going to your stupid party”. The father pleads with his
eldest son to come into the party but still he wants nothing to do with it.
He
thought that because he had ‘followed all the rules’ he had the right to
control his father. Jesus doesn’t finish the story, but leaves it open-ended
for a reason.
So the question is, which
brother are you in this story?
To be continued…
