What are “our standards?”
“How do we respond” to those who break our standards?
“Are there even standards anymore?”
“Who” determines your standards for you?
Does your voice “even matter,” today?
Jesus was “notorious” for many things…one of the things he was notorious for (much to the chagrin of the Pharisees and scribes) was that he overtly associated with “tax collectors and other sinners.”
Jesus was always hanging out with people from the “wrong side of the track.” He did so routinely!
He seemed to enjoy their presence, and they his! It was a mutual expression of love.
He seemed to relish “those associations” and the time spent together.
He was “in your face” with them!
Anybody who was socially “not acceptable,” Jesus was drawn to and they, to him.
He “flaunted” those relationships. He actually ate with them, for G*ds sake.
He was so inappropriate for a Rabbi.
When all these “non-acceptible types” started gravitating toward Jesus – it raised not only the eyebrows, but the “ire” of the elite and righteous and holy people of his day…
Oh sure, they grumbled and murmured behind his back, because what else could they do…who would listen to them?
You do know, that a “goodly number” of the laws of Moses had to do with “WHO” you could eat with and “UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES.” Jesus seemingly ignored them all.
Tax collectors and sinners did not qualify-EVER! And yet, there he was, sitting down to “table fellowship” with them, again and again. Why, he even hosted them.
Allow me, to talk with you for a few moments more about the word “arrogance.” Because Jesus seemingly had “an arrogance” about him. It was almost a “holy arrogance.” It was almost a haughtiness, a conceit, a swagger and a self-importance about himself. Perhaps it was the way he carried himself…with an assuredness…a meaning…and a purpose.
There is an “arrogance” about someone who walks around and says that G*d loves me.
And if that is true, then there is a kind of “unholy arrogance” about the person who says or thinks to themselves, that God could never love the likes of “you!”
You are a sinner. You are unclean. You are one of them, that kind… Hardly… G*d would never – could never love that kind of person…he just couldn’t…you are an abomination to him…
Where does this kind of condemnation come from? Who made you judge?
It is with this kind of – “unholy arrogance” in mind, that Jesus offered “the parable of the prodigal son.”
So the Pharisees and the Scribes were indignant were they…and they were having another “hissy fit.” Well listen up, youse guys!
Keep your eyes on the “older son.” He was indignant, as well. He too, “pitched a fit,” of sorts. He was the son who stayed at home. He was the first born. He was the responsible one, or so they said! He got what was coming to him, both sons did!
The father did not dislike either child for their actions. He accepted both of them as they were. He turned neither of his sons out from his house.
The father was humiliated and shamed because of the actions of his sons. It did not matter to him. They were his boys, his sons.
He very simply compelled the older son, to regard his brother “as his brother” and to celebrate the fact that his brother had indeed “returned.”
God’s character always receives those who repent and turn to him. Lent is the season of returning…
It doesn’t matter “what it is” that they are turning from…
When the returning son “is us” – we think, WOW we are received and celebrated. We are loved and embraced. We are honored and accepted in spite of “what we have done!” Our father lavishes us with acceptance and love. All rationales are passe’.
And we, like Jesus, are to be practitioners of “holy arrogance…we are to be in awe and wonder that G*d loves us, and our brothers and our sisters, “whoever” they are and “whatever” they have done.
No condemnation… No Judgment…No finger pointing. No exceptions!
Our G*d is a G*d of love, mercy…and forgiveness. He, and he alone is judge.
Amen!