What is the right attitude for a
follower of Christ?
Here in Luke 7:24-35, Jesus goes into
full teaching mode, and asks the crowd how they see themselves in light of
John’s ministry and in light of his own.
What Jesus seems to be after is an
understanding of what God’s people are to be like, what they are to value, and
how they are to live. It is the same values he had just reminded John’s
disciples about so they could convey to John the Baptist that indeed, he,
Jesus, was the Messiah!
So, Jesus asks the crowd…
When you went to see John (and by
implication, when you come to see me) what are you looking for?
Is it a prince or a king? Someone
dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit, or a robe and a crown or in priestly regalia,
someone who fulfills the role of a political or economic or religious authority?
Or did you go looking for a prophet?
Yes, that’s it!
Someone you knew would be living a simple,
possibly even ascetic life. Someone who was like Elijah, preaching repentance
and a return to the work of healing, casting out demons, and ushering in God’s
presence.
This prophet you went to see, I’m
telling you, was the real deal!
He is the second Elijah, preparing the
way for the Messiah, the one whom after your repentance and baptism, invites
you to step through the veil into the Kingdom of God that is already here,
inviting you to a new way of life, new values, and new hope.
So, look around! What do you see? Messiah
is here!
Messiah, you understand, isn’t Elijah. Elijah’s
job was preparation!
You needed to get your head and your
heart in the right place.
Now that you are prepared, you need to
start putting resurrection power to work, bringing hope and joy and love and
acceptance to a very broken, very angry, very hurting world.
But, Jesus points out, there are always
some who don’t see it.
They get caught up in the details, the
problems, and lose their sense of awe and joy.
Which is why Jesus takes up the rather
absurd criticism by some of John, that he was too austere and judge-y, and of
Jesus that he was too fun and joyous!
Jesus seems to suggest you just can’t satisfy
some people! And that is because their world view is all about them, not the
Kingdom of God.
Jesus says that sometimes people are
like children who played a fun dance melody and then a funeral song, and are
mad at everybody because they didn’t do what the children wanted, to dance to
the joyous music and then cry at the funeral dirge.
The rules are, they believe that when we
play the flute, you dance. We sing a dirge, you cry. We are the masters of our world!
It all about us! You have to do what we want!
But Jesus will have none of that, making
sure the people understood that this was childish thinking.
You need to see the world not from your
selfish an sinful desires, but from God’s point of view and understand God’s
delight when tax collectors are repenting and being baptized, and dead people are
being raised to life.
Resurrection power at work.
All of this is hugely challenging,
because it is not our natural way of being. We like focusing on our stuff. We
want the world to work the way we want it to.
But Jesus calls and reminds us to quit
focusing on our stuff and instead raise up our heads and see that the Kingdom
of God is breaking out all around us.
So, what is the right attitude for a
follower of Christ?
To always be looking to see what God is
doing, ready to sing praise, and share the good news with everyone that Messiah
is in the house!
Amen.
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