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Illustration
by: Jacob Thomas
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What
examples can you think of in Jesus' life when his speech was
gentile...? When it was cutting like a sword? Why the difference?
When is it best to be gentle with people? To be strong and cutting?
(Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1029).
Following
quotations from the Gospel, NIV translation.
"Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are
like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on
the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.”
“For
I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter
the kingdom of heaven.”
When
Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the
little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom
of God belongs to such as these.”
Now
when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit,
for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed
are those who mourn,
for
they will be comforted.
Blessed
are the meek,
for
they will inherit the earth.
Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for
they will be filled.
Blessed
are the merciful,
for
they will be shown mercy.
Blessed
are the pure in heart,
for
they will see God.
Blessed
are the peacemakers,
for
they will be called sons of God.
Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It
is clear that Jesus had kind words for the humble, spiritually
innocent, and those who conceded they were vulnerable (with no record
unblemished) and harsh words for those with hard self-righteous
hearts even though possessing a clean legalistic rap sheet. It is
certainly true that it is much more rewarding to work with humble
individuals behind bars than prideful pillars of society sure of
their own superiority. Jesus' modulated approach made sense because
the humble and vulnerable are easily hurt and do not misconstrue
kindness whereas the self-righteous ensconce themselves in a
maddening shell and see kindness as a weakness and hurt those who
live by it.
At
Christmastime the gentle Jesus is greatly emphasized. It is well to
remember at this time that Jesus did not get crucified for being a
wishy-washy wimp. He regularly made people mad—very mad. No fury
can match that of spurned self-righteousness exercising unchecked
revenge.
We,
it must be remembered, are to follow the example of Christ—not only
in our gentleness, but in our strength and crazy courage—for it
remains always crazy to poke a stick at coiled self-righteousness.
Some
Christians panned the movie “Jesus Christ Superstar” and found it
profoundly unbiblical. Not so me. It is worrisome to me that Christ
can be so abstractly conceived as gentle and sweet as to make his
crucifixion unthinkable. Anytime we find this to be the case, we can
be assured it is a fictional characterization born of a Pharisaical
heart within a steady state of wishful thinking.
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