Read Matthew 11:30 and Luke 5:1-11
I have always thought that God chose people like Peter and Matthew and his motley crew of disciples to show that he could do great things with people who were inadequate. Or at least ordinary. You have Peter with the hot temper, John grabbing for power, Matthew is a betrayer of community, Thomas is a doubter.
More and more though, I wonder if their supposed inadequacy in the eyes of the world for what God was asking them to do was actually their strongest qualification. Maybe their Humpty Dumpty lives is just what God needed, not people who have everything put together all over again. Maybe if he had more qualfied people by more traditional means they never would have got it, would have completely missed the boat, and never been faithful to the radical message of Christ. Just a thought.
Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." A yoke was a set of teachings by a rabbi. Maybe part of what Jesus is saying is, "You got it all wrong. You have made things too complicated. Be my friend. Love God. Love others. Live life."
And maybe the disciples he chose were chosen because they were broken, rough around the edges, and simple enough that eventually they could get that.
Maybe sometimes we make Jesus too complicated. We try to make him about a set of political beliefs, or a list of this or that that is more about us than about him. And which speaks more to our thinly vieled inadequacies and hang-ups than it does about Jesus.
What do you think?
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1 comment:
I think you are exactly right. Christians today need to spend less time with their noses in the air and more time on their knees. They should spend more time looking into the eyes of others and saying the Jesus loves you just as much as he loves me. No one is perfect. I think the people who "have it all together" are scariest of all.
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