“Those are nice things you’re saying, but there has to be some behavior changes.
God does not just accept anybody without a change in behavior.” One of the women added after I’d finished giving a
message.
I just happened to be giving this message at a local correctional center, we were in Luke 7, one of my favorite stories
in the bible about the woman who washed Jesus feet with her hair. I told them what a spectacle this must have been
in the home of Simon, a Pharisee, who was appalled at the sight of this despicable outcast touching Jesus. The
moment in the story where the Son of God met the eyes of this precious woman the bible says was known as a
"notoriously wicked sinner" moved many of the ladies in the group to tears.
Bringing this story alive touched many of these women, most of who have been “named” by the courts, family,
boyfriends, husbands and society as too much trouble, a problem, a mess, trash, of no value, worthless and
insignificant. Just like the woman in the story, I could see in some of them that the Holy Spirit was giving them a
glimpse of their true value, which is clearly seen in what God in the flesh, was willing to do to bring us home.
What, I wondered, were “some of the nice” things I’d said? Maybe how Jesus had to go through mental and emotional
torture as well as the physical pain of the cross. How the Son of the Living God willingly and voluntarily went through
the anguish of being misunderstood and betrayed by his closest friends. How about the agony He experienced when
He was abandoned by everyone who should have been there and even betrayed in the deafening silence of John,
His beloved disciple, when a witness was called for his defense. Have you ever been betrayed in the silence when all
you wanted was a touch from someone you thought loved you and they told you to go away? I asked the girls. Were
those the “nice things” the particular young lady was talking about?
Obviously concerned, she continued telling me “They need to read the bible and know how Jesus treated people with
kindness and how he had respect for women and his mother. They have to change their behavior. We have to learn
to be like Him.”
Really??? In my wildest imagination I can’t conceive of willingly submitting myself to the mockery and suffering that
Jesus Christ would endure in His last hours on earth. Punched, slapped and humiliated with a mock crown of thorns
shoved brutally into the skin of his forehead. Made to walk around with a robe and scepter, some twisted, sick
soldiers would get some sort of cruel pleasure out of shaming His claim to be King of the Jews. They would go on to
shred His skin, whipping Him with shards of glass and bone, pull out His beard, strip Him of His clothes against His will
(and shoot dice to see who took them home) and nail Him up on a cross on display for all to laugh, spit and jeer at
Him. The very ones who represented God on earth would approve of the entire thing with smug satisfaction. And what
did this God Who many say “requires our good behavior to accept us” think of this behavior? He said “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do”
I understand what she’s saying though. What she was really telling me is this; I know these girls…really know them.
And you don’t. I know how they act, I know how they treat each other and now…you’re telling them that God loves
them and they definitely don’t deserve it! It’s not fair!
And she’s so right! It’s not! It’s not fair! In our worldly system and way of thinking! But, Jesus didn’t say He came to
make us play nice and be moral upstanding citizens, He said “I come to bring life” In other words, Jesus didn’t come to
make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive! And that makes a lot of people very, very angry. Not
unlike the Pharisee in the very story we were reading, who was disgusted that Jesus would look at this low-life outcast
of society with regard for her value.
Jesus talked of a new system, a brand new way of operating. In fact, His parables were like explosions, decimating the
old way of looking at God, life and love. Over and over again, as in Matt 20, He would answer to the unfairness of
God’s system. This parable about the workers hired at different times of the day speaks loudly about this very thing.
“Now when the first came, they supposed they would get more, but each of them also received a denarius. And when
they received it, they grumbled at the owner of the estate, saying, These men who came last worked no more than an
hour, and yet you have made them rank with us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day. But
he answered one of them, Friend; I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what
belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this man hired last the same as I give to you. Am I not permitted to do what
I choose with what is mine? (Or do you begrudge my being generous?)
Then of course, there is the older son in the story of the prodigal son who refuses to join the party for the younger
brother because he was angry that the father would forgive the boy who’d been in pig squalor. You know what’s sad?
There is no record that the older brother ever did come in and celebrate the younger boys return. That is how angry
it makes human beings that God would freely love and forgive someone they feel doesn’t deserve it. But this is the
truth; none of us deserve it. As Christians, we would agree. We say that and even quote Isaiah that the best we have
to offer God is as “filthy rags” but, when it gets really personal and someone close seems to receive grace and mercy
when in our eyes they don’t deserve it, we don’t like it. Not one bit. The closer they are, the worse it gets too.
So, we protest, scrutinize, analyze and ‘get concerned’ over someone who seems to be offering God’s full and
magnificent pardon in Jesus Christ to those we feel don’t deserve it. Love the outcasts, the “sinners”? Yes, but love
reasonably and with good common sense! But, this is human love. This is operating out of the old system with no
trust in God, and it is actually leaning on our own understanding. God is LOVE. He is the meaning of love. Without
Him and what He did on the cross, you and I don’t have a clue what love really is. We don’t! God’s love is extravagant
and excessive. Jesus said only He knows what God is really like (Mt.11:24) and says God is like a father who held
nothing back, but outrageously and wildly loved a son who’d taken everything the father gave him and wasted it,
squandered it on what we would call selfish and disgusting living. Not only does this boy not get what he deserved,
which was stoning in those days, he gets cut off when he tries to tell the father everything he’d done and is
immediately and entirely embraced and reinstated into the family as a true son. There is no probation, no trial period,
no wait and see how he does…no chastisement or even a question as to where he’s been or what he’s done. Of
course, the older boy sees things much differently and we do too.
How very freeing it would be to completely love with abandon and forgive those who we don’t think ought to be loved!
To leave all the scrutiny and analyzing and criticizing up to God! But, I guess that would take an incredible belief that
He’s really there and that He’s as capable and as wise and compassionate as we are. To release our fear that
someone might be loved without getting the punishment they deserve is very threatening, but it’s also very freeing.
Control, manipulation, judgment, are all burdens we were never meant to have and you know what Jesus says about
burdens; Come to Me, all you who are burdened, heavy and overwhelmed with life. Come vulnerable and come
helpless …I want to and I will give you rest!
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