When we think of the ways of our Lord Jesus we see outrageous love, mercy and grace. These poured out from Jesus as he healed, forgave and demonstrated who he was before Israel. Believers should be aspiring to these qualities, not by an act of theatre, but by the transformation of the core self as we submit, yield and abandon to Jesus, risen and glorified. We are given an overview of our fruitfulness and hopefully we desire to have love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, self control and faithfulness in wonderful abundance. I'm sure we all admit we are a work in progress.
The gospels record Jesus as the perfect model of divine attributes but then he confronts a particular bunch of people. These were the religious establishment of the time. Jesus' tact changed and we see love mercy and grace expressed in an entirely different way. The best example is John 8 when he is taken on by the Pharisees. Jesus wipes the floor with them, delivering truth straight from the hip. The motive behind this was love, grace and mercy but we should not miss the fact that he did not shy away from the hostility of the Pharisees.
Today it is frowned upon to stand up for truth or even engage anyone in what appears to be an argument. The overarching idea about Jesus is that He is a wet blanket, just being nice all the time. He called them liars! To tell someone their father is the devil and they wanted to carry out their fathers desires is not nice! But it is truth! To engage anyone in the way Jesus confronted the Pharisees is considered lacking in grace or missing the 'Jesus mark' somehow.
We must be careful that we are not in fear of being perceived lacking in grace or missing the mark just because we confront issues. BUT we must also make sure our motive for confrontation is love, mercy and grace. Often we confront out of poor motives and that is not good. But to slam confrontation itself as un-christian or graceless is error. Being like Jesus involves standing up for truth even when the society, culture or Pharisaical ministry fraternity don't like it.
The Pharisees were part of the corruption that misrepresented Gods word and therefore God. When we come across this today we may be expected to flag things up. This is being like Jesus. The Pharisees didn't take too kindly to Jesus because he scrambled their own self importance, status and rank. They valued their own profile as supposed 'men of God' in their community. Jesus' message did not prop up these self appointed popes and they plotted his murder because of it.
We don't see crucifixion in our societies but we do see social martyrdom where leaders with something to protect hate truth being issued forth. They shut out and exclude those who want to walk in all of Jesus' ways. They hate their words and actions and try to call them out on them like they did Jesus. Any attempt to address these Pharisaical claims is branded 'graceless' or failing to be 'nice.' We all want to be like Jesus unless it threatens our status among our peers. 'Truth' and 'nice' never really get on well in the arena of walking out God's truth.
Gary Ward
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