“If
I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come
upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his
goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he comes upon him and
overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides
his spoils. He who is not with me is against Me, and he who does not
gather with Me scatters.” Luke 11:20-23 NKJV
There
are few among us who consider ourselves “against” Jesus and the Kingdom of
Heaven any more than we would consider that we “despise” The Lord or “abhor”
His judgments and statutes (Leviticus 26:15). That is, we would
find it difficult to believe we “hate” The Lord in any way. Yet when we
are challenged by the Scriptures and by the world (and we are!) to show what
our love for the Kingdom looks like, that is quite a bit more difficult because
Jesus expresses nor offers any “middle ground”. There is no gray area or
third choice when it comes to defining who we are as the people of The Lord,
the people of The Church, the very Body of Christ in the world today.
The
challenge for us, then, is not to prove we do not “despise” The Lord;
rather our sanctification depends upon our willingness, our eagerness to show
to the world why Love is worth the trouble.
Jesus
could have very easily faded into the culture and assimilated Himself in such a
way that no one would have even noticed Him except to maybe refer to Him as a
“good ol’ boy”. He could have tried to make changes from within very
quietly, very moderately, and few would have noticed. Yet The Word Made
Flesh cannot – must not – be so ambivalent. The very nature of the Gospel
itself defies everything we have been socially conditioned and taught to
believe; i.e., “just be a good person”. Unlike the Good News itself,
being a “good person” is arbitrary and completely subjective.
So
it is not about whether we hate The Lord or simply refrain from
committing evil acts (being more mindful of social consequences rather than
spiritual ones); it is entirely about whether we love The Lord and are
willing to stick our necks out for the sake of the Good News. Jesus did
precisely this while He was being followed and observed so those who would
follow would learn and eventually hear that “he who does not gather with
Me scatters”.
A
quote attributed to Billy Graham pretty much sums up what it means to be a
“social” Christian: “We are much more afraid to offend our neighbor than we
are to offend The Lord”. I think, however, that if we are more
diligent about what it takes to Love The Lord by “loving our neighbors as
ourselves”, we will find our neighbors much more receptive to our
“gathering” rather than the world’s “scattering”.
Therefore
Jesus asks, “Who is with Me?” The Church responds, “We are!” The
world will respond, “MYOB (mind your own business)”.
Blessings,
Michael
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