It's a very commonplace trend these days to follow the voice of this popular Jesus who, curiously enough, never demands anything from anyone. He's very nice, pleasant, and completely tolerant of anything and everything I think, say, and do. He accepts not just me, but also whatever I decide is true, good, and beautiful. Little white lies? He knows I don't mean any harm. Rejecting whichever teachings of his Church that I just don't get or that I'm uncomfortable with? No biggie - he knows I believe all of the "important" stuff. Hell? Angels and demons? Sin? Judgment? The need to repent and change? The existence of absolute truth that isn't relative? Surely he's not so old fashioned that he'd really expect me to literally believe in those! He's far more understanding than that. Sure, he talked about those, but that was just for those other people (back then)... not me. After all, Jesus was bound by the unsophisticated, backwards, harshly judgmental culture of his time. He would never talk about those things today, I mean come on!
There's a little problem with all of this: NONE of it's true. We have to remember that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Christ does not change. HE said that he was the Son of the Father, sent into the world to proclaim the truth. Indeed he claimed that not only does absolute truth in fact exist, he claimed to BE Truth itself. In perfectly revealing God to mankind, in showing us the love that God Himself is, Jesus modeled for us with every moment of his earthly life that we simply cannot have it both ways. Love is someone, not just something. God is one - He does not have a split personality. Love, therefore, can never be "not love", and therefore we cannot just assign any label or personality trait or conviction (or lack thereof, for that matter) to Jesus.Treasury Department employees and other U.S. Government workers who combat the counterfeiting of money spend a great deal of time studying every last detail of American currency. They don't waste their time studying counterfeit bills or coins - this would be far too time consuming. Instead they focus on getting to know precisely what the real thing looks like. That way, if even the slightest detail is off, they can immediately identify the fake.
My prayer is that we can all be a little bit more humble and spend our time getting to know the REAL Jesus - the Jesus who makes demands of us, the Jesus who most definitely comes to us and accepts us as we are, but who loves us far too much to let us stay there!
