Least in the Kingdom

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Matthew 11:11

Let this sink in!

Jesus was saying that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet of the old covenant. John alone had the unique privilege of preparing the way for the Messiah. The great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel could only prophesy about the coming Messiah. John the Baptist actually got to usher in the Messiah. And like the rest of the prophets (and some of the kings) of the old covenant, the Holy Spirit rested upon him.

Yet, Jesus declares, even the least in the new covenant is greater than John the Baptist. Those of us who have entered this new covenant by putting our faith in Jesus have the unbelievable privilege of having the Spirit dwell within us and rest upon us. We have the breath of God within us and the wind of God blowing through us. As temples of the Holy Spirit, we are indwelled with the Presence of God (1 Corinthians 6:19). As the Body of Christ on earth, we are clothed with the power of God (Luke 24:49). We have the unique privilege of being so empowered by the Spirit of God that we actually get to do the ministry of Jesus on the earth (1 John 4:17).

After Jesus sent out the 72, they came back talking about the miracles they had witnessed. “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name‘”(Luke 10:17). And after some instruction, Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it“(Luke 10:23-24).

All the great men and women of the Old Testament longed to see what we see, hear what we hear, know what we know, and experience what we experience. They would have loved to have access to the indwelling Holy Spirit. They would have loved to walk in the delegated authority of the Messiah as we do. They would have loved to be named the “ambassadors of Christ” on the earth (2 Corinthians 5:20). They would have loved to be conduits of God’s miracles as we are.

Every single believer in Jesus now has access to the authority necessary to cast out demons. Every single believer now has access to the power, through the Holy Spirit, to see healings and miracles (John 14:12). Every single believer now has access to prophetic gifting (1 Corinthians 14:1) and the other miraculous gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Every single believer now has access to the unlimited grace of God through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

With access to all of this authority, all of this power, all of this gifting, all of this grace, what are we doing with it? What would the great men and women of the Old Testament say about our lives as Christians today? We have been given everything they longed for! What are we doing with it?

As a follower of Jesus, what you have access to in Christ and through the Holy Spirit is greater than the greatest prophet of the Old Testament!

Are you experiencing all that you have access to in the new covenant?

Overcoming Unbelief

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Matthew 11:2-6

Remember that John the Baptist was one of the first people to announce that Jesus was the Messiah (Matthew 3; John 3:22-36). John was the one who baptized Jesus in water, saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Him, and heard the voice of the Father speak words of love and identity over Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17). John the Baptist is the one who saw Jesus and declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!“(John 1:29).

But we also know that John the Baptist was persecuted by Herod the tetrarch because John spoke out against Herod’s unlawful marriage to Herodias–his brother Philip’s wife (Matthew 14:3-12). John was stuck in prison and probably expecting his impending death. John was having a moment where he was struggling to believe in the calling on his own life and the truth about who Jesus was. Even after all that John the Baptist had seen and heard from the Lord, his difficult circumstances were causing him to wonder if Jesus really was the one they were all waiting for. Doubt can creep in like that!

Has anyone ever been there?

Notice Jesus’s response. He doesn’t launch into a theological argument proving that He is the Messiah. Instead, Jesus lists the miracles that He had been doing on a daily basis. The best evidence of Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior of the world, was the miracles. They not only fulfilled prophecy about His life but demonstrated the tangible reality of the Kingdom of God on earth.

So why did Jesus conclude with, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me?”

I believe Jesus knew that John, and many others, had different expectations of how things would turn out. John didn’t expect, as the Elijah-figure preparing the way for the Lord, that he would spend his final days in prison. He didn’t expect his life to end by execution. And many others didn’t expect the Messiah to go to the cross.

We are witnessing here the same juxtaposition that we experience in our own lives. Jesus is opening the eyes of the blind, causing the lame to walk, cleansing those with leprosy, opening the ears of the deaf, raising the dead, and proclaiming good news to the poor. And yet He’s not miraculously getting John out of prison. He’s not miraculously sending angels to bust John out of prison, saving him from execution (which we know He can and will do at times according to Acts 12 & 16).

This is the tension of the Kingdom of God growing side-by-side with the kingdom of darkness (Matthew 13:30). This tension can cause many to “stumble on account of (Jesus)“. As followers of Jesus we have to live in this tension while living in this broken world. The Kingdom of God is breaking out all over the world but so is the kingdom of darkness. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We have to keep our eyes focused on what He IS doing and not get sucked into focusing on what we think He should be doing.

I also think this passage in Matthew 11 points to the necessity of signs, wonders, miracles, healings, deliverance, and prophecy. The operation of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12) not only strengthens the church, but it also combats unbelief. It helps people know that the Kingdom of God is a tangible reality on the earth and not just a theory, not just a belief, not just a religious principle.

When our faith wavers, sometimes we need to see the power of God on display right in front of us. We need to know that Jesus is still opening the eyes of the blind, causing the lame to walk, cleansing those with leprosy, opening the ears of the deaf, raising the dead, and proclaiming good news to the poor today!

So many Christians today who do not believe in the miraculous gifts and do not operate in the miraculous gifts are falling away from their faith. In a cultural sea of unbelief and doubt, tangible and experiential evidence of God’s supernatural power is irreplaceable.

Have you seen God do the impossible recently?

All In

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:32-39

Those who like to paint Jesus as light and fluffy tend to skip over scriptures like this one. Those who like to think the gospel is all about unity and peace at any expense–at the expense of truth and surrender–are offended by Jesus’s words here. Try as they might to wiggle their way around what Jesus says here, they cannot.

These are not the words of a universalist. Persecuted Christians, particularly in Muslim countries, find hope and life in these words of Jesus. If we find these words difficult it is mostly an indication of the pampered and bastardized Christianity that has been handed down to us in the U.S. The hundreds of thousands of Muslims that are surrendering their lives to Jesus in Pakistan right now understand that the decision to follow Jesus is one that will likely cost them their families and might cost them their lives.

Universalism is not a message of grace and good news in countries where people are literally giving up their lives to follow Jesus. Universalism says their sacrifice was pointless. Universalism declares to them that being ripped from their family, rejected by loved ones, beaten, bloodied, scarred and broken was all very unnecessary. It tells them they could have lived in comfort and ease, rejecting Jesus, and everything would have been just fine. Does that sound like Jesus to you? Or can you now see it for the lie that it is?

Universalism is far from good news to the millions of persecuted Christians around the world. It is a message of mockery to their tremendous sacrifice. It also makes a mockery of Jesus’s own words here in Matthew 10.

The good news of Jesus is that if we are willing to surrender our lives in their entirety, we will find true life on the other side. If we are willing to join Jesus on the cross and in the tomb we will also join Him in the resurrection. If we are willing to make Jesus THE priority in our lives above all else, we will discover a river of life flowing through our life.

Clearly, Jesus is not messing around. He’s not playing church. He’s not interested in establishing a religion. Jesus is interested in sold out, all in, lovers who are willing to surrender everything to Him and His Kingdom.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? Are you all in?

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

Time With Him

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
Matthew 10:27

Imagine waking up, not drinking coffee, and skipping breakfast. Lunch rolls around and you have too much work to do so you skip that. Just as you get home from working late, your child is late to a sporting event. So you rush out the door skipping dinner. You finally get home and get all the kids to bed. How are you feeling right now? And what are the chances of you eating something healthy?

For most of us in this moment, we’re feeling tired, run-down, exhausted, irritable and possibly depressed. The likelihood that we will eat something good for us is very slim.

While most of us would try to limit days like this because of the physical toll it would take, many of us are doing this very thing daily when it comes to our spiritual lives. We are not getting up in the morning and spending time worshiping, praying and reading God’s word. We’re not spending time in silence hearing from the Lord. And we aren’t checking in with God throughout the day.

We get to the end of each day and wonder why our spirit is worn down. We wonder why God feels distant. We wonder why we are so tempted by sin, so tempted to feed our soul with destructive things rather than healthy things.

Spending time with the Lord is like stepping into sunlight. Our spirit has a solar panel for the glory of God. When we worship, when we pray, when we read scripture, heaven opens up over us, the glory of God shines on us, and angels ascend and descend upon us (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51; Luke 22:43). The batteries in our spirit and our soul get recharged. As we draw near to God, He draws near to us (James 4:8; Hebrews 10:22). And just like a wireless charger for our phone, our proximity to Him causes our spirit to be recharged with His Spirit.

It is in this place of proximity, this place of intimacy–this place of adoration and worship–that the Lord shares things with us. If we draw near to Him and quiet our hearts enough to listen, He will whisper things into our ears. He will tell us things. He will show us mental pictures of things. He will speak.

If we get alone with Him in the dark morning hours, we will have lots to share in the daylight hours. He will tell us things to proclaim from the rooftops.

How are you spending time alone with God?

How are you daily recharging your spirit?

Releasing Peace

As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.
Matthew 10:7-13

Jesus sent out His disciples to do what He had been doing–preach the message of the Kingdom, heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead. They had freely received the authority of Jesus and now they were to freely give it away, freely release it to people in the surrounding towns. And they were to take nothing with them as they went. They were sent out with total dependence on the Father to provide for them.

Jesus gave them a strategy for entering a town to do supernatural ministry. They were to find a “worthy person” and stay at their house until they leave the town. They were to give the household their greeting. In the Jewish culture, the greeting was to say “shalom” which means peace.

Jesus then advises that they let their peace rest on the house if the home is deserving but to take it back if it is not. When Jesus sends out the 72, He says something similar in Luke 10:

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.
Luke 10:5-6

I believe this indicates that peace (as well as other aspects of the Kingdom of God) is something that believers can “release” into an atmosphere and onto people.

Every aspect of the Kingdom can be found in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” One of the fruits of the Spirit is peace (Galatians 5:22). So, I believe the Holy Spirit in us can release His peace through us into a room and onto a person. In other words, the peace that resides in us can be sent out of us to rest on a house or on a person.

Philippians 4:7 says, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” And Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Peace here is described as something that can stand guard like a sentinel. It is something that can rule like a king. The peace of the Kingdom is not a weak, ethereal, whisp that evaporates with the slightest disturbance. The peace of God is dominant, invasive, and blanketing in the best possible way.

The peace of the Kingdom is a peace that dominates chaos (see Mark 4:39). The peace of Christ has the ability to rule; it has the ability to guard our hearts and minds from anxiety, fear, and worry. I believe this means we can see the impact of peace when it comes to rest on a person or in a room.

As followers of Jesus filled with the power of Spirit who walk with the delegated authority of Christ, we have the ability to release tangible peace wherever we go. I’ve experienced moments praying for people where I released the peace of Christ upon a person and watched as peace completely blanketed them. The peace of Christ completely dominated the fear, hopelessness, and despair they were just experiencing moments before.

I believe that sometimes when we are waiting for God to bring peace into a situation, He is actually waiting for us to release peace into the situation.

Where can you release peace today?

Body-Soul-Spirit Connection

While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Matthew 9:32-34

Throughout the Gospels, when we see the English translation “demon-possessed,” it is the Greek word “daimonizomai.” More property translated, it would be “demonized.” Unfortunately, horror movies and media have given the American culture a certain mental picture of someone who is “demon-possessed.” Most people think of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-17; Luke 8:26-37) in chains looking more animal than human. Or they think of some person levitating off of a bed with their head spinning as they puke everywhere.

This is not a biblical way to understanding the affect of a demon on a person or in a person. Instead of translating it “demon-possessed,” which gives the impression that the demon is in complete control over the whole person, we should be translating it closer to the Greek text with the word “demonized.”

Properly understood, the word “demonized” speaks to a spectrum of influence that demons can have on a person’s life. A person can be demonized and only be affected in one or two areas of their life. It could show up in a chronic sin, an addiction, or a particular relational our interpersonal dysfunction (like the inability to control one’s anger, or eating, or the inability to show grace, etc).

Demonization starts with what we might call “attachment.” Picture a vulture clinging onto the outside of a person with their tallons. If it continues it can move inside and establish a “stronghold.” This would be an area of a person’s thinking and/or feeling that is fortified with lies, allowing the demon to remain. If we picture a person as a house (Matthew 12:25-29, 43-45), this would be a demon taking up residence in one or two rooms.

If this continues, demonic influence can spread to other parts of a person’s life and become “oppression.” Oppression is where many demons have access and influence over many, if not most, areas of a person’s life. If the person does not have the Holy Spirit in them because they are not followers of Jesus, then oppression quickly becomes possession.

If the Holy Spirit is there, it cannot be possession because the person belongs to the Lord. But severe oppression can occur even in Christians. Jesus owns the deed to the house but the rooms are full of demons. The Holy Spirit has not been given full access, through surrender, to all the rooms of the house.

So, demonization can describe a whole spectrum of demonic influence and control over a person’s life. This man who was mute in Matthew 9 was physically impacted by the demonic entities in his life. Some physical ailments have physical causes, but some have spiritual causes. In western culture, many people have a real struggle attributing spiritual causes to physical ailments. In this case, a mute spirit was causing this man’s inability to speak.

Had the issue been a physical problem–maybe a misfiring between the speech center of the brain and the muscles in the mouth, tongue and vocal cords–then Jesus would have performed a healing. We see Jesus heal people all the time. When it is a physical cause to a physical problem, healing prayer is what we see from Jesus. But that’s not what happens here.

Instead, in response to a physical problem–the inability to speak–Jesus casts out a demon. Not only is this concept difficult for people who have been steeped in rationalism (like most western Christians) but also for people who have been steeped in religiosity (like the Pharisees and many Christians today).

The Pharisees attributed Jesus’s ability to heal the man by driving out a demon to Jesus Himself being demonic. We see this same argument from cessationists in the Church today. They attribute many signs, wonders and miracles that come from the Holy Spirit to Satan trying to deceive the Church. It’s really unfortunate that they think the enemy is more powerful than the Holy Spirit when it comes to the miraculous.

I personally have seen a number of physical ailments healed by casting out spirits of affliction. One of the assignments of certain demons is not just to attack people’s mind, will, and emotions but also to attack the physical body. Not all physical ailments are demonic, but some are. It takes wisdom, and sometimes the gift of discerning the spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10), to know the difference. There is a greater overlap between our body, soul, and spirit than most people in western culture are willing to admit.

Next time you need physical healing, ask the Lord if the physical ailment has a spiritual cause. If it is a spirit of affliction attacking that part of your body, command it to leave in Jesus’ name! If while commanding it to leave, you notice the pain increase or move to a different part of your body, you can be sure you are dealing with a demonic spirit. Keep chasing it out of your body with commands until it leaves in Jesus’ name!

Resurrection Life

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
Matthew 9:18-19

What kind of faith does it take to believe Jesus can raise the dead?

I am amazed by the faith of this synagogue leader. By asking for Jesus’s help, he put his position in the synagogue at risk. If the Pharisees get wind of his request for Jesus to come to his house, they could not only remove him from his position but prevent him from even participating in synagogue life.

Equally risky for the father and for Jesus is that they are dealing with a dead body. In Jewish law, touching a dead body made a person unclean for seven days and required ritual purification as a result (Numbers 19:11). Likewise, anyone in the room near the dead body would be unclean for seven days and required ritual purification (Numbers 19:14).

After healing the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years on their way to the synagogue ruler’s house, they arrive to a large funeral gathering.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.
Matthew 9:23-26

Jesus knew He would raise this girl back to life. He declared it before He even walked into the bedroom. Jesus is the resurrection and the life! But people laughed at the very idea of it. They had seen many dead bodies before this one. They knew the look of a dead body. They knew the cold, stiff feel of a dead body. They knew the smell of a dead body. Most people there had buried friends and family members. This girl was not just sleeping. She was gone.

Imagine if we actually believed Jesus can raise the dead. Imagine the laughing and mocking that would happen at our expense as we prayed for dead people. We’d not only get laughed at, like Jesus did, but we’d likely get kicked out of most hospitals.

I believe Jesus put the crowd outside because they had created an atmosphere filled with unbelief and doubt. The only people Jesus wanted in the room were those crazy enough to believe that Jesus can raise the dead. The Gospel of Mark records that only the girl’s father and mother as well as Peter, James and John–Jesus’s inner circle–were allowed in the room to witness the miracle.

At this point everyone in the room is ritually unclean because of their proximity to this dead body. Jesus compounds His “uncleanness” by then touching the hand of the dead girl. Except, instead of her uncleanness contaminating Him, His life contaminates her death. His cleanness contaminates her uncleanness.

Things flow in reverse in the Kingdom of God (light conquers darkness, clean conquers unclean, life defeats death, healing overwhelms sickness, wholeness overwhelms brokenness, grace covers sin). Life returns to the girl, and she gets up! Suddenly everyone in the room goes from unclean to clean, from death to life!

Incredible faith connects with an incredible miracle! Jesus is still doing these kinds of miracles all over the world today. He’s looking for a handful of people who are willing to believe enough to stay in the room with Him. He’s looking for people who are willing not to laugh but instead be laughed at.

What do you believe is possible with Jesus?

New Wineskins

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:16-17

Jesus was doing a new thing, bringing a new covenant, and it needed a new paradigm in order to hold it. Jesus teaches His disciples that if a new thing (new cloth, new wine) is forced into an old paradigm (old garment, old wineskin) not only will it not work, but it will actually cause damage.

We don’t relate to Jesus through the old covenant paradigm. Jesus is not just a new Moses, teaching new understandings about the Law. Jesus was ushering in a completely new paradigm. In the new covenant, we are filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:17-18) and are made new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).

This same principle is true for when God does a new thing in your life. About 5 years ago God began to disrupt my life with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life. Then about 3 and a half years ago I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that many would call a “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Having not been raised in a Christian tradition that talked about or experienced such things, I was experiencing new wine.

Yet, God had been preparing new wineskins–new paradigms of understanding–before He gave me the new wine. I didn’t understand what was happening when I went through it, but the Lord spent a year and a half renewing my mind with a new wineskin before He ever poured out new wine.

I see now that had He given me the new wine first, there could have been real damage done. I was already experiencing a lot of disruption in my life because of all the changes that were happening with the new wineskin. Had the wine come too early, it would have done some serious damage and the wine would have just run out. When the new wine finally came, there was new wineskin to hold it and not burst.

So often, before we can encounter the Lord in a new and fresh way, He will have to take us through a process of renewing our mind (Romans 12:2) which causes us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”(Proverbs 3:5). He creates new wineskins in our heart and mind before He pours out the new wine. This process is not only necessary for individuals but also for whole churches who want to experience God in a new and fresh way.

Do you want new wine?

Even now, do you sense the Lord creating new wineskins in you?

Jesus Offends Again

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:9-13

Matthew would have been in a booth collecting taxes for the Roman road that people traveled on or for the fish that were caught in the Sea of Galilee. Either way, these taxes would have been a difficult burden to bear for the people of the area.

Tax collectors were Jewish men employed by the Roman government. They were hated and seen as traitors to their own people. They were known to charge more than was required as a means to line their own pockets. Since they had the power of the Roman government behind them, they could extort their own people without consequence. There is a lot of talk of “white privilege” and “male privilege” in our own culture. Tax collectors would have been the epitome of privilege within the Jewish community.

What the crowds expected Jesus to do as He passed by Matthew’s tax collector booth is unload one of His famous rebukes, like the ones we see Him speak to the Pharisees. Instead, Jesus does something wholly unexpected. Jesus calls Matthew to be one of His own disciples. Not only that, but then Jesus goes and has dinner at Matthew’s house bringing along His disciples and other “sinners.”

Jesus isn’t afraid to hang out with sinners, be welcomed into their home, and fellowship with them over meals. And while hanging out with sinners, He isn’t afraid to tell them that they are sick and in need of healing. In this way Jesus is a total offense both to liberals and conservatives in our own culture!

Can you imagine what progressives would have said if they witnessed Jesus choose someone who is full of greed and privilege–someone who regularly socially and economically exploited the marginalized–and call that guy to be one of His exclusive and chosen disciples? I can just hear progressive Christians saying, “Jesus clearly doesn’t understand what the gospel is all about. Someone should give Him a lesson in diversity, inclusion and privilege.”

Can you imagine what conservatives would have said if they witnessed Jesus partying at a house full of sinners–people who were morally compromised, whose lives were riddled with licentiousness and perversion? I can just hear conservative Christians saying, “Jesus clearly has gone over to the dark side of compromising the gospel. Associating with those people does not promote the gospel of truth.”

Can you imagine what progressives would have said when Jesus responds to the question of why He eats with tax collectors and sinners and His response is essentially that they are sick and need of healing? Can you imagine how offended they would be? “How dare you call them sick. Who are you to judge them? How dare you say they need healing!”

Can you not see how far we have fallen from the standard that is Jesus?

Can you not see how easily offended we all are?

Can you not see how the progressives and conservatives both do not understand nor represent who Jesus really was?

Jesus may You help us to become much more offensive than we currently are…in all the best ways. May the way we lean into mercy instead of sacrifice offend and provoke in all the ways that You did, Jesus. I pray that my life would be a total offense to religious folks who are both progressive and conservative.

Their Faith

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Matthew 9:1-2

A paralyzed man lying on a mat would not have been able to get to Jesus. He would not have been able to move himself toward Jesus to receive healing. If someone else didn’t bring him, he wasn’t going.

Then a group of men, maybe family or friends, bring the paralyzed man to Jesus. And Jesus says something that should sink deep into our hearts. “When Jesus saw their faith…” Their faith? The man was healed because his friends had faith. Astounding!

And this isn’t the only time. We see a pagan, Gentile girl who was demonized get delivered because of the faith of her mom (Matthew 15:21-28). We see a servant healed because of the faith of his centurion boss (Matthew 8:5-13). And on and on it goes throughout the Gospels. Over and over again we see friends, family members, parents and others engaging their faith for the sake of their loved one. And we see Jesus honor their faith even if the person needing healing has none.

It is as if, for healing to occur, faith must be present. But God in his graciousness will let faith come from anyone involved. Sometimes it is the person who needs healing who has the faith. Jesus often said, “Your faith has healed you.” Sometimes the faith comes from friends or family who are standing the gap for their loved one. Sometimes faith comes from the person praying.

God is just looking for the conduit of faith through which to release His power into the situation. He doesn’t even need much faith. Just a little faith will do. And He’s willing to work through the faith of anyone present.

What this means is that growing in our faith–increasing our trust in God–isn’t just about us and our relationship with Him. It is about that, but it is also about being able to release faith for the sake of others.

Are you engaging your faith for the sake of others? Are you releasing your faith into situations where others may not have faith? Are you letting friends and family borrow from and draft off of your faith as it grows?