The Deeper Jesus – Part 3
January 25, 2004
Dear Friends,
So what do the rich young ruler and Mary anointing Jesus’ feet have in common? Radical faith and overwhelming commitment.
Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell everything he had. Do you realize what kind of faith this would have required on the part of this young man? It would have required the faith of Abraham who was asked to leave his home and go out to a place where God would show him. It would have required a faith that said emphatically to this young man that nothing – NOTHING – was too great of a request by Jesus.
As Mary poured a year’s worth of wages on Jesus’ feet, she showed exactly that kind of radical, sell-everything-you-have, go-into-a-country-I-will-show-you faith. Nothing was too great for her Lord. Jesus was not impressed with the monetary value of the spikenard. Jesus was moved by the faith that allowed her to give it so freely. Like the poor woman at the temple that gave her mite or as the Scriptures records it — “all her living” — Mary did the same. She gave what she had — everything.
Jesus said and did a lot of things that were unsettling upon which we have touched upon just a few. Inevitably it seems, almost every time Jesus had a crowd of people around him, he said or did something that confused or offended a portion of the crowd. He told them to eat his flesh and drink his blood. He spoke in parables so that the crowds would not understand. He healed on the Sabbath. He said things like “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” He challenged people in ways that seemed harsh such as when he responded to his would-be disciple who wanted to bury his father — “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” All of these things tug at our conscience. What would we have done had we been there? Would we have followed him?
I used the term “radical faith” above concerning Mary. It makes me wonder really how radical her faith was. Was her faith so radical by Biblical standards? Have we watered down faith so much that faith has now been redefined? Are we “faithful” if we just show up to worship on Sunday? Are we “faithful” if we open our Bibles once in a while? Are we “faithful” if out of our overabundance of wealth and prosperity we throw our “mite” into the till? Our society has so watered down Christianity that perhaps we can have some sense of smugness by comparing ourselves among ourselves. As Islip Collyer said “It is always difficult to resist fashions, whether in clothes or theology, and when we think we are quite unmoved by the stream, it often only means we are lagging a little way behind.”
Look, this is not to make everyone feel guilty. It is just asking an honest, but sensitive, question. Are we like the Laodiceans who are oblivious to our plight? “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) When we ponder the deeper Jesus — the Jesus that asks us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor — do we find ourselves fumbling for an excuse or trying to dismiss the true import of those words? In all honesty, I do.
“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” (Mt 11:6)
Have a great week!
