Theology Made Simple

The Concerns of Jesus, Part 6

At the beginning of this study we noted that the concerns of Jesus were quite other than the concerns of the religious leaders of His day, those of His parents, and even those of His disciples. However, this is only of historical significance for us. The salient point is, how different were His concerns from the concerns of the church today, and the concerns of individuals who claim to be followers of Christ?

In recent years, church leaders and preachers have become increasingly interested in appealing to the masses. The mega-church is the symbol of success today, and it is argued that the more people we can get into our churches the more we can bring
to Christ. Sounds good, but how valid is it? A careful study of the Sermon on the Mount finds Jesus warning His disciples that following His concerns will alienate them from the world, and perhaps even lead to persecution. His words were, "Blessed are you when people...persecute you...because of Me".

It is hard to reconcile this with the "feel good, solve all your problems, turn to Jesus and get rich" philosophies so popular today. Jesus went on to say, "...in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you". Why were the
prophets persecuted? Because they preached a message of repentance and rejection of the world's ways in favor of God's ways". This does not track with the religious spin doctors, who have their fingers on the pulse of people to find out what they want, and strive to accommodate it with the doctrines they preach.

However, in this class we are less concerned with corporate religion, and the way it is moving, than we are with our own personal relationship with God. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth". He did not say, "You have the salt, go out and save people with it". He said, "You are the salt"! Our job is not to sell the product of Christianity, in competition with the salesmen of appealing products in the marketplace. Our job is to be the product! Paul worried that after preaching to others he might be a "castaway" himself. You are not one of His professionals out doing a job for Him. You are a soul He wants to save, and that makes it a very personal thing. That is His concern. We can only tell the story of Jesus to other people effectively, when we are so convinced of it ourselves that we live it.

In this same context Jesus talks about the law. We do not have a legal relationship with the Father. Our justification does not depend upon our keeping all the rituals and rules correctly. However, we do live by a moral law. This law does not pertain to rules and rituals but to the inner motivations of the mind and heart...the soul and spirit that makes us what we are. Jesus said, "I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it". In other words, He came to make us into the kind of
people God wanted us to be: morally pure, lovingly kind, penitently humble, and gratefully worshipful to a loving Father. That's the moral law, and it will never be abolished. It is the way the Father's children behave...the way Princes in His house conduct themselves. Jesus' concern was making it possible for us to attain that exalted position for all eternity. A quick look around will tell us that this is quite different from the concerns of people, even religious leaders, in our world today.

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