Jesus on the offensive

Last Sunday made me woozy. I still haven't quite recovered.

I am teaching through Luke. Last Sunday I was in Luke 11:37-54. These are perhaps the harshest words that Jesus speaks to anyone - anywhere in the gospels. While having a meal at a Pharisee's house with both Pharisees and scribes present, Jesus goes "gloves off" to the religious authorities of his day. It is blistering.

An interesting thing about this passage is that Jesus is not rebuking them for rejecting Him (which eventually they would do). He is rebuking them for things like: hypocrisy; having a polished external religion that betrays the sin in their heart; for creating a religion that majors on the minors and ignores what's most important; for seeking status; for burdening people with unnecessary rules that actually draw people away from a pure relationship with God; for wrongly thinking that they are the orthodox ones in line with the prophets of old (when in actuality they were cut from the same cloth as those who killed the prophets).

Those descriptions that brought about the harsh rebuke from Jesus - I am ashamed to say - are present in my own life much more often than I would care to admit. And, I am embarrassed to say, the Christian community is rampant with this stuff. We spend a lot of effort polishing an external facade - making ourselves look more spiritual than we really are. We are all too often guilty of majoring on the minors while ignoring things that really matter, things like loving God and loving people, grace toward sinners, justice for the oppressed, mercy for those in need. We have turned a relationship with God into a definable religion that has a certain look to it (certain way of dressing, acting, talking, etc.) - but often times does not share the same heart of Christ for those who are lost, sin sick, in need, physically hungry, scared, lonely, and hurting. Are we not just as guilty of looking the part but lacking the heart?

It makes me wonder. Who in today's society would receive the harshest words from Jesus?

There are many in the Christian community that think we are in a "culture war". We are warring against immoral media, liberal politicians and activist judges. You will hear many harsh words from the Christian camp against those who threaten to take our nation away from its "Judeo/Christian" roots. But, are those the types of people that received the harshest words from Jesus in his day? Did he pull out the big guns against Roman authorities? Were his harshest words against those who led a public lifestyle of sin like immoral prostitutes or thieving tax collectors? Did he fight political battles in an attempt to moralize a pagan culture? Jesus was in a war alright, but it wasn't against the culture he lived in - His war was against the Devil. He did not see people as the enemy. He saw them as hostages in a Spiritual battle.

His harshest words were not for the hostages. Nor were his harshest words directed toward the pagan, awful culture that those blind hostages created. His harshest words were for those who claimed they could see - for those who claimed to know the truth - for those who were supposed to be the rescue swimmers for the lost and drowning. They were supposed to be representing Him.

So, here is the question again - who in our day would receive the harshest words from Jesus?

Like I said, this sermon made me woozy.

I hope people come back this Sunday.