I was thinking about the fact that Jesus, when addressing broken sinners had, and still has, one advantage that we, the modern church, do not. Perspective. He knew every person's heart, their story, their pain and suffering. He knew all about the woman who the people were about to stone for adultery...her circumstances, her pain, her life.
When He spoke to the prostitute at the well, He knew she had had many husbands and told her so before she could even confess. Only God knows a persons heart, his story, his pain, which is why we are not to judge, only to love and through that love to build relationships. God uses relationships to restore people when necessary. He really doesn't need our help...we are told to preach the Gospel and to love God and our neighbors. If He needed our criticisms and judgements to get the job done, then He wouldn't really be a very powerful God.
Jesus was never hard on the broken people. His harshest words were saved for the religious Pharisees. This I believe was because the Pharisees based all of their judgements upon strict interpretation of the law....which would be fine provided they had been able to keep the law themselves and to teach others how. As it was, however, they used their positions to gain power and respect and heaped laws upon others that they themselves had no intention to follow. In effect, they did not know the people whom they pointed their collective fingers of judgement at. They knew only the law.
I submit that the same is true in the the modern church to some degree or another, particularly where it applies to homosexuality. The church seems fixated on the activity of the gay community, yet seldom mentions that a large percentage of its own congregation views porn, is divorced, commits adultery, cheats on tax returns, gossips...etc. I myself dare not even look at a stone, let alone pick one up.
Lets face it, what comes out of the pulpit eventually ends up out in the community. The question is, does it help or hurt? Since MOST people do not know a gay person, pastors included, they simply lack the understanding necessary to show love or compassion. This is a problem because 1 Corinthians 13:1 states:
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. "
Without the love and compassion necessary to foster good relationships with the gay community, are we possibly just sounding like a cacophony of clashing cymbals? How many times do we get in God's way with thought less comments? Worse yet, hateful ones?
It always boils down to relationships. The reason we need Jesus in the first place is because no one can possibly follow the Ten Commandments on his own. Prior to Jesus' death on the cross, there was no relationship between God and Man, outside of ritual sacrifice. But when Jesus died, He became the final sacrifice, establishing the ability to approach God once and for all. It is when we develop this relationship with Jesus, that we are adopted as sons of God and welcomed into the fold. And there it is again...RELATIONSHIP.
Our relationship with Jesus, His relationship with God. That's how it works. I am able to love because He first loved me.
When I realize just how much I do not deserve God's love but receive it by grace because of Christ, I am finally released to love others. Of the woman who poured perfume on His feet, Jesus said in Luke
7:47
"Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
It is when we truly realize just how much we have been forgiven that we are able to truly love others as Jesus commands us to. The Pharisees just didn't think they were all that bad. This allowed them to point the finger at others.
Are any of us guilty of that behavior today? If we find that we love some people and not others, then the answer would be yes.
