God the Sinner

In a world built on cultivating "likes," it can be easy to fall into the trap that we are what we appear to be. 

We are whatever everyone else thinks we are, whatever they interpret us to be, whatever it seems on the surface. It doesn't matter what our real intentions are; it only matters how they are perceived. It doesn't matter what's in our heart; it only matters what it looks like. It doesn't matter how diligent we are in projecting exactly what we want to project; it only matters how someone else sees it. We are who others think us to be. 

And so, of course, we do our best to cultivate the image we want them to have of us. 

Not so, fortunately, with God. 

Jesus was always doing stuff that nobody would have ever expected a Messiah to do. Not even a Messiah, but just a regular ol' faithful guy. Just a good Jew. Just someone who actually loved God would not do the things that Jesus did. 

It was why there was so much tension between Him and the Pharisees. They couldn't believe there could be anything good about a man who associated with sinners, who touched the unclean, who broke the Sabbath, who spoke perceived threats against the temple, who blasphemed - He claimed to be God, for crying out loud. 

The Pharisees did everything they could to convince the crowds that this was no "good teacher" they were following; this sinner was going to lead them astray. 

Lead them right away from the hundreds of man-made regulations the Pharisees had imposed on them. 

The question is put poignantly in John 9, when the Pharisees are yet again determining that Jesus can't be any kind of a good or holy man because He doesn't even keep the Sabbath (which He seems to have broken, again, by having compassion on someone). 

Then others start asking, rightfully so, "But could a sinner do these miracles?" 

Could a sinner give sight to the blind? Could a sinner make the lame walk? Could a sinner heal a bleeding woman? Could a sinner cleanse the unclean? Could a sinner cast out demons? 

Say what you want to about the Guy, but there's no denying that the craziest, most dangerous man in the entire region is sitting "clothed and in his right mind" at the feet of Jesus. 

Could a sinner do that? 

Still today, we are debating such a thing. Still today, we are trying to figure out how Jesus would truly respond to the events of our times - we are declaring that one way is His way and might be righteous, and we're arguing over whether another way might not be. We're trying to figure out what the "image" of God is supposed to be and cultivate that...for "likes," of course. For a little bit more, maybe. For the same reasons as the Pharisees, probably. 

But God still doesn't care. He does the right thing and the righteous thing, the compassionate and merciful thing, the beautiful and holy thing, the unquestionably loving thing. 

And if we think that scandalous, if we think that unclean, if we think that backward, if we think, then, that He must be a sinner to do such a thing as this, well, then...we wouldn't be the first ones. 

But it won't stop Him from doing it. 

God's Confidence

One of the things that I love about Jesus is what I will loosely describe as His confidence, although it's something quite more than that. 

Over and over again during His ministry, He runs up against folks who have other plans for Him. They want Him to be a political revolutionary. They want Him to stop teaching or healing. They want to capture Him and do...whatever they want to do to Him. They want to keep children from coming to Him. They want to silence blind men crying out from the side of the road. 

And Jesus, calmly and coolly and totally collected, just says, "Nah. That's not the plan." 

There was even a time when they were trying to capture Him and He just slipped quietly through the crowd and walked away. Like "Nope. Not today. That's not the plan." 

In John 7, they are really trying to capture Him. There's all kinds of hubbub over who He is, whether He's the Messiah, what the crowds are saying about Him, how much trouble He's causing for the Pharisees by being greater than them - more loving, more generous, more forgiving, more gracious. For making God accessible to the people again. For going against the "custom" in favor of something greater. 

So they send the Temple guards to arrest Him, and He looks them right in the face and says, "Yes, I'm here, but I won't always be here, and when you look for me, you won't find me." 

And they don't arrest Him. 

Because how do you arrest a man who is standing right in front of you telling you that you can't find Him?

Brothers, it is not the time. 

Listen, they could have reached right out and touched Him. They could have put their hands on Him right there. They could probably smell the remnants of the fish He had for lunch on His breath. And yet, He just stands in front of them without any fear at all and says, "Now is not the time for that. That's not the plan." 

And then He just walks away. 

This is truly the greatness of God - to be able to set the time for things and to not get distracted by what men think. To not be troubled by what the world is trying to do. To not worry about what looks like a plan falling apart because He knows, without a doubt, that's not the plan. 

The plan is the plan is the plan and it's not changing, as men change, for God does not change His mind. 

To be honest, I'd love to have that kind of confidence. 

But I'll settle for a God who is just that great. 

God of One

If you have ever wondered whether God truly knows you, you need look no further than the Gospels to discover a resounding "yes!" 

As Jesus traveled through the region, teaching and preaching and healing, He was often pressed by the crowds. He was often surrounded by masses of persons. The disciples often commented that He didn't have time for them or He couldn't possibly have noticed them, as they did when they told the blind men to stop screaming from the sides of the roads and as they chastised Him for saying something so silly as "someone touched Me." He knew. They didn't. 

Jesus not only saw, but stopped for, every blind man. Every deaf man. Every lame man. Every child possessed by a demon. A bleeding woman (who should have been unclean, by the way). He recognized a man who had climbed a tree just to get a better look and called out to that man by name before anyone in the crowd even really noticed him. Jesus spent His ministry engaging the one. 

Perhaps the greatest example of this, though, comes in John 5. 

There is a man who has been waiting by a pool of healing waters for a very long time, but he never seems to get to the waters fast enough. Jesus comes by, sees the man, starts a conversation, and heals him. Then, John tells us, Jesus disappears into the crowd before the man even has a chance to thank Him. Jesus has again stopped for the one. 

But it doesn't end there. 

Later, we are told, Jesus saw this man in the temple and strikes up another conversation. You look well. See how much better you are now? Live into this. 

Jesus, who stopped in the middle of a crowd to heal a man the world had looked past for far too long, sees that man again later in the temple, recognizes him, and stops to talk again. 

He didn't just heal a man; He knew the man He had healed. He could pick him out of the masses. He could see him in all the places where he was "just" a face, just a number, where the world was still looking right past him. 

He does the same for us. 

Isn't it so cool for you to know that Jesus can pick you out of a crowd? That when He sees you across a room, He recognizes you? That He knows your story together, what He's done for you, how you believed in Him, without even having to think about it? 

Our Lord is the Lord of All, but He is also the God of One. Of you. Of me.

That's so cool.