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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Righteously
Disturbed I
recently wrote an article suggesting that certain things should disturb
us as Christians. I believe
many of us aren't disturbed because we fail to share Jesus' feelings on
these things. We don't share
His feelings because we don't understand the Bible sufficiently enough
to know how He feels. The
thing that disturbed Jesus most while on earth was the
behaviour of God's people, and the hypocrisy of their leaders.
Israel
failed to share God's heart on many issues. This irritated Jesus,
causing Him to call the Jewish leaders some nasty names.
With everyone else, He was kind and gentle, but still forthright
about sin. There
is nothing wrong with being "righteously disturbed" over
certain issues. It's
how we express these feelings that is important. I
mention this because now in the autumn
of 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States
is hearing a case that addresses this very issue.
A small church in Kansas
feels "righteously disturbed" over gays in the military.
Hiding behind the first amendment, the members of this church
protest outside the funerals of fallen soldiers.
While parents mourn the loss of their sons and daughters in the
funeral home, Christians who should know better stand outside, calling
the mourners fags and other nasty names.
I
guess these people are trying to be like Jesus by calling people nasty
names. I feel
"righteously disturbed" over this expression of being
"righteously disturbed". The
one thing these people don't understand is that the only people Jesus
called nasty names were the religious leaders of His day.
He actually cried along with the mourners at Lazarus' funeral,
even though He knew He'd raise Lazarus from the dead. (John 11:35)
The
apostle Paul told us to do our best to live in peace with everyone.
(Romans 14:19) He also said
servants of the Lord must be kind and gentle. (1 Timothy 3:2, Timothy
2:24) Like Jesus, Paul was
"righteously disturbed" at times with the religious elite, but
with everyone else, he was gentle and kind.
Calling mourning parents nasty names isn't a kind or gentle way
to express your feelings of being "righteously disturbed"
about an issue. If
you read the book of Acts you will see that Paul didn't live in peace
with everyone. He did have
enemies, but it wasn't because of any bad behaviour on his part.
He had enemies for one reason only, and that was because of the
message he preached. It was
certainly not because of the
way he preached the message. God
gets "righteously disturbed", and so should we.
We need to express these feelings in a redeeming manner.
There is nothing redeeming about calling people nasty names
outside a funeral home. There
are appropriate times and places to confront the sinner with his sin.
That being said, the most important sin to confront is unbelief,
or rejection of Jesus. All
other sins are secondary to unbelief.
A thief who stops stealing is still a sinner.
He only becomes a saint when he stops rejecting Jesus.
Sometimes we get the cart before the horse. Directing
one's "righteous anger" over certain issues must come from a
heart full of love. The
reason why a father gets angry with his son who steps out of line is
because he loves his son. If
he didn't love his son, he would not be so angry.
The same is true with our heavenly Father.
Just before Jesus was killed, He sat on the Mount of Olives,
gazed down at It's
important to understand that God's anger presupposes the existence of
His love. I wonder if these
church people in Kansas
love those they call fags. I
suggest they do what the apostle Paul tells them to do.
Go into the funeral home and weep with those who weep.
(Romans 12:15) That's
what Jesus did, and that's what we should do. (John 11:35)
Sin
should disturb us, and we should confront sin in
proper Biblical fashion. The
reason why we confront sin in people is because we love them and want
the best for them. Any other
motivation for expressing our "righteous anger" isn't
acceptable. It reflects
poorly on us and Jesus. If
you want to be like Jesus and overturn a few tables, find tables
belonging to religious hypocrites, because it was their tables Jesus
knocked over. The tables
belonging to sinners are better left as they are so you can eat and
drink with them. That's what
Jesus did. Of course, if you
follow Jesus' example in respect to this, you might be called a drunkard
as He was. (Luke 7:34) In
conclusion, don't call ordinary sinners nasty names.
If you feel inclined towards name calling, call a religious
hypocrite a nasty name, and then go and weep for his soul. Sit
down and eat and drink with the ordinary sinner. You might be called
nasty names in the process by some religious types, but it's better you
being called nasty names than you calling others nasty names.
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