A couple of weeks ago at Rockbridge I was talking with a student who was struggling with her churched upbringing. She was particularly frustrated with the fact that the church seemed so apathetic towards the things that seemed to really matter. So many people there seemed to be so cold and lifeless. She still liked Jesus, but was really unsure about the church as an institution.
I pointed her to a parable that Jesus told. A man plants wheat in his field. An enemy comes along and plants weeds. His servants realize what's happened and they ask the master if they should pull up the weeds. Don't, he says. You'll accidentally pull up the wheat, too. Let's wait, let them grow up together, and we'll separate it out at the end.
This is the church.
Of course, it was like this from the very beginning. Jesus picks twelve. One of them is a traitor. He was a hypocrite--the gospel writers record that he kept the treasury and would regularly steal from it. You wonder if anyone inside or outside of the company of the apostles knew about Judas' thieving habits. You wonder why Jesus would suffer to be associated with such sleaze. Doesn't he have a reputation to uphold?
Judas and the disciples grow up together. And in the end one of them plunges into the darkness to betray the Lord of the cosmos.
If Jesus had a hypocrite in his company from day one why do we expect our experience of his people to be any different?
1 comment:
We have lots of discussions along these lines over here in Carrboro, so when Amanda and I read this last night, we really appreciated it. We'd never heard this parable told this way!
We all decided you should write a book. Then we remembered that you are. ;o)
Thanks for sharing.
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