I'm doing a dangerous thing. I'm attempting to read Matthew's account of Jesus' life and ministry with fresh eyes. I'm trying to trick my brain into imagining that this was the first time I've discovered him, like some buried treasure I just found in the back yard and I'm lifting the lid for the first time.You'd think I would be excited but instead I've come to see why Jesus wanted to slap a warning label on his ministry. Rather than passing out Bibles I'm left to wonder if the contents aren't so disturbing that we shouldn't duct tape them shut and write, "Do not enter" on the cover. In the 8th chapter he does the most intriguing thing and actually discourages men from following him. Just think about that for a minute. When is the last time you heard a pastor give a reverse altar call..."there's the exit, last chance."
Part of the reason this is striking to me is because if I've heard it once I've heard it a hundred times. The saying goes that people today "like Jesus but it's the church they can't stand." The implication is that if we were a little more like Jesus both Jesus and the Church would get a big thumbs up from society, shame on us but yay for him. On the surface it sounds good, I've even said this myself. And to be sure, much of the criticism of the Church is fair. But Jesus was under the impression that neither would get a thumbs up and they would BOTH get a thumbs down.
In Matthew 10:22 Jesus said, "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Really? What is it about this message of love, grace and redemption that would lead Jesus to instruct the 12 that "when you are persecuted in one place, flee to another (v.23)"? Why? I thought we were dispensers of hope! It gets worse, our Good Shepherd said that there are those you can't trust from within the flock, there are wolves that dress up like sheep...people who call him "Lord" but it's an empty word (7:15-23). In other words, authentic followers experience friction from those inside and outside the church. The absence of heat, in fact, may indicate something other than a life lived like Jesus.
John's gospel has a very simple but sobering explanation for why friction is to be expected, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19) The love of God is rejected because the heart of man is twisted.
I'm the kind of guy that sits in my study and imagines what it would be like to live in a world where there is no suffering, where power is used for the benefit of others not for the abuse of others, and where the Kingdom of God is established behind every front door. I like envisioning a world where Jesus' prayer has been answered that God's kingdom "has come on earth as it is in heaven." Imagine Salem being a slice of heaven on earth. However, these words of Jesus are like an alarm going off in the middle of my dream and it awakens me to the cold hard reality of this mission. Any Jesus that wins the popularity contest most likely isn't the Jesus I'm reading about in the book of Matthew. Yes, he is full of grace...thank God. He is the God of the underdog, friend to the forgotten. But the Bible also tells us that he is full of truth and therein lies the rub. The truth hurts.
So I'm going to continue reading through Matthew, I think I know where the story is going. I still think that anybody that doesn't want to know Jesus and follow him is nuts...and I still think that his greatest creation is this beautiful thing called the Church, a collection of "new creations." I give them both two thumbs up. But in these days the Lord has reminded me that this empire of darkness is strong. Let's not be naive. The allegiance of men has been stolen from the true King and we have enthroned ourselves. But fighting in the shadows is a counter-rebellion of light, and that light has changed my life when I was the one walking in darkness.
