41 45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
The words of Jesus that he spoke to the Jewish leaders on the Sabbath were pretty stern. On reflection of these words spoken we can see that unbelief was the main issue Jesus was dealing with. For these leaders taught and lead their nation supposedly on the values of godly living. They followed Moses's law to the to the letter but broke many commandments by their heart issues not aligning with God's heart. They sought their own glory as it says above. From today's perspective, we also have sought our own glory and have neglected many of the teachings of Jesus who in fact represented all there was to be represented of God's glory here on earth. Healing, he did it. Raised people from the dead, he raised his friend Lazarus. And when the rulers found out they tried to kill him! (Lazarus) He Spoke like no other with an authority many were confounded by, yes. But still we in this country are gravitating dangerously to the left of common sense in issues that will usher in a morality that is not Godly. We can already see weakening in our Churches with issues of morality that should not be there. Major institutional Churches are being split down the middle because of Orthodoxy, those who would follow it and those who would allow for a looser interpretation of scriptures. The Catholic Church reels from hidden sins now open and those leaders too afraid to let the light in are now indicted for their actions, of actions done decades ago. Why? It is because of deafened ears. The once minority of those with moral standing at question are now becoming the majority and those who still stand on God's word now are swimming against a tide of acceptance not only in politics but in activist churches that win out over what should not be won. Especially in the realm of the Church. And when I use the word Church I "mean the called out ones." Those who follow Christ and not necessarily the institutions that have been around for centuries. Like the Jewish leaders of Christ's day we have become a religious people standing with fingers in our ears and have let the word of God become of none effect. When we begin to bend the word to our own hurt then we must stand back and look again at what we are doing. We must have compassion, love, and a joy to give to those who are seeking answers in a confusing time. To those who would say that we are becoming a more "open society" then take a look back at some of the world's greatest cities that have fallen because of their sins. The word sin merely means, "missing the mark, like a sharpshooter misses his target. We miss what God had intended for us.
To become the people that we read about in the NT early Church, those who died during the first persecutions against them we must look at the joy and the perseverance they had and emulate them. When we become Christians and also non-judgemental, picky and or disputatious against others of the Christian faith then we can move in the direction our Lord wanted us to. To become servants and not "greater than the master as Jesus had said and to become last and not first and to allow for differences of opinion without attack and allow for God himself to intervene through our prayers and through our reflections of our God himself in us. The intensity Jesus had or should I say "zeal for his house" often got him into trouble, he did not pull his punches and neither should we. If we have crossed from death into life, and from a darkness into light, then we should be reflective of the one who gave us that standing. It is not a boastful standing as Paul contended with those who accused him of but of solid ground on the one he trusted as well. Remember he was a murderer before he was a follower. Then any one can be too.
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