Greeting readers – sorry I missed posting last week but I ran into a health challenge in the family that took priority over most everything else, but, by the grace of God, recovery is in process and I’m back to gcmatrix . . .
Yesterday I was in a meeting with other regional leaders of an organization with which I serve, and the meeting began with a devotional that really grabbed my attention. Here’s the text:
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” Luke 7:31-35
Our devotional leader made a striking point – he noted that the religious leaders of that day shunned those who were considered “unclean” because they didn’t want to be defiled. In other words, when they, who were ceremonially clean, came into contact with someone who was ceremonially unclean, they also became unclean. Jesus, on the other hand, was perfectly clean in every way, and when He touched someone who was unclean, they became clean and whole. When Jesus touched a leper, the leper became clean. When Jesus confronted someone who was possessed by a demon, the demon was cast out. When Jesus came upon a dead body, He brought that body back to life. What a contrast!
Here’s where it gets interesting. We’re told in Scripture in the words of Jesus that we will do even greater things that these by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Being transformed from unclean to clean, from guilty to forgiven, from spiritually dead to spiritually alive, is the heart of the Gospel message, and we are called to deliver that message. I wonder, though, if we hold back from mixing with the “unclean” for fear of contamination when we should be bringing the washing of the Spirit as Jesus touches others through us?
Sharing the Gospel can be a messy business. Are you – am I – ready to get our hands dirty?
