FORSAKEN

There is a lot of “forsaking” going on these days within the family of God. As Christians we seem to be good at forsaking others. Yet Christ was the example of dying for them. Did He forsake or did He embrace? That’s the question. Perhaps we’ve not learned to speak truth and love at the same time. Maybe that’s it!

Here are a few thoughts that this blog began from.

-You hold a different theological view…FORSAKEN!

-You sin differently…..FORSAKEN!

-You hold to a different political party….FORSAKEN!

You know it’s true. If any of these three show up in the average church circle, they are automatically an outcast. Do we even know how to love those who are in different “camps” than us?

Yet when I look at the life of Christ, forsaking others wasn’t an option. Jesus sits right down in the middle of the mess and loves them.  He sees relationship so important that He does whatever is necessary to have relationship… which was the cross… and we throw relationships away like used rags.

I think the heart question which would shake Christian culture to its core is does our culture of “forsaking” others look like Christ? We have deemed it necessary to take a stand for righteous living by “forsaking” them and yet Christ did that and loved them all the same.

I would like to propose that as we read scripture we have focused too long and hard on His followers who tanked are being “like” Jesus. It seems like they have become our plumb-line of holy living not Christ.  They aren’t our example. They, like us, didn’t grasp how He truly lived. Even up until His death they never really grabbed hold of who He was. The disciples had huge hang ups when it came to others who sinned differently than they did. The religious rulers  didn’t want anyone other than “their” kind receiving the good news!  What does that tell you?  It tells me it’s super easy to get on the super slide of arrogance, pride and pious living. And that my friend doesn’t look like Christ….and yet we do it everyday!

Being Jesus today gets you crucified by the religious crowd but understood and loved by the world. How is that paradigm even possible? And when you love like Jesus loved and you sit in the places that Jesus sat (with the whores and the sinners) you get labeled a liberal or “easy on the gospel”.

We have work to do, church. We have work to do.

-Marni

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