Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 18, 2021
A Jesus that Makes Us Uncomfortable
Matthew 11:20-26, CEV - In the towns where Jesus
had worked most of his miracles, the people refused to turn to God. So Jesus
was upset with them and said:
You people of Chorazin are in for trouble! You people of
Bethsaida are in for trouble too! If the miracles that took place in your towns
had happened in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have turned to God long
ago. They would have dressed in sackcloth and put ashes on their heads. I tell
you that on the day of judgment the people of Tyre and Sidon will get off
easier than you will.
People of Capernaum, do you think you will be honored in
heaven? You will go down to hell! If the miracles that took place in your town
had happened in Sodom, that town would still be standing. So I tell you that on the day of judgment the
people of Sodom will get off easier than you.
At that moment Jesus said:
My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that
you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary
people. Yes, Father, that is what
pleased you.
When we began this study of
Matthew, I initially thought that it we would take selected passages of Matthew
and move at a steady pace through the Gospel.
You might have noticed (since we are only on Chapter 11 two and half
months later) that I was led early on to deal with every passage and skip
none. My primary reason for making this decision
was that I did indeed feel that God was leading me to do so. Along with that though, was a recognition
that I needed to resist a tendency I have to skip over passages that are hard
to comment on and uncomfortable to hear.
The above passage for today is one of those. Reading and hearing this particular passage
is important because it speaks directly to the resistance in us that tends to
only pay attention to Jesus when his words are comfortable to hear.
As Jesus traveled the Galilean
countryside preaching, teaching, healing, and performing other miracles, some
places were very receptive to his ministry and they turned wholeheartedly
toward Him and the Kingdom He proclaimed.
This turning toward also implies a turning away from the way things were
– this simultaneous turning away from and turning toward is the core definition
of repentance. The people who embraced
Jesus’s kingdom saw their lives transformed.
This was Jesus’s intention for them and, by the way, it is still Jesus
intention for us.
But there were other towns, like
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, that may have enjoyed Jesus’s miracles, had
their ears tickled by His teaching and may have even believed that Jesus was
who He said He was, but there was no substantive change in their lives as a
result. They did NOT turn away from
their old lives and they did NOT turn toward Jesus’s kingdom. They may have enjoyed Jesus’s performance,
but they were unchanged in any significant way.
It's here where Jesus’s words get
uncomfortable. Judgement is coming for
the those who do not turn away from their wickedness and lest we think that
judgement is no big deal, Jesus recalls three cities whose terrible fates
(Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom) will be better than the unrepentant cities he visited.
Tyre and Sidon were conquered and
destroyed; Sodom was completely burned to the ground and wiped from the face of
the earth. All three cities were implored by the prophets
to repent but did not prior to their destruction. Like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, they
were unchanged by God’s word and works towards them. Jesus emphatically proclaims there are dire
consequences for making that collective choice.
My pastoral instinct is to try and
soften Jesus’s words here – to offer some explanation for this harshness from
the mouth of our Savior. But to do so
would be an attempt to “domesticate” Jesus, to make Him and His message
something less jarring. But the truth is
that Jesus intends for His message to be jarring. People do not change their ways when they
are perfectly comfortable with their present ways. There is no repentance (a simultaneous
turning away from what was and a turning toward what is coming) in people who
like what was just fine.
So instead, my invitation today is “sit
with” the discomfort of Jesus’s words above (and elsewhere). Let that discomfort permeate your defenses and
unsettle that in you which needs to be unsettled – those things in you that
need to change. Because Jesus proclaimed
these warnings to whole cities (large groups/systems of people), I also invite
us to let Jesus’s words unsettle in our own groups/systems of people that which
needs to be unsettled – those systemic changes that need to happen in order for
our cities to be aligned with the Kingdom of God.
Tomorrow, we will hear the Jesus we
like to hear, a Jesus who is “humble and gentle at heart” and who offers to
lighten our load. But today, we need to
sit with the Jesus expects us and our cities to be changed by His words and warns
us of the dire consequences coming if that change/repentance never comes.
Question: What is something that would have to change if you
were to turn toward Jesus even more than you have at this point in your life?
Prayer: Investigate
my life, O God, find out everything about me, Cross-examine and test me, get a
clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything
wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life. (Psalm 139:24-25, The Message)
Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for specific places/situations of injustice that you are aware of right now in
our world.
Song: Lord Have Mercy
- Michael W. Smith ft. Amy Grant
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