Life of Christ 59
Jesus would elsewhere
say ‘unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required’ (Luke
12.48). The nation of Israel was God’s chosen vessel, specifically designed and
prepared over a period of many centuries to receive in human form God’s very
Son from Heaven. Of all the nations and peoples to reject Him, that it should
be this nation and this people was unspeakable.
I see in this aspect of
the centurion’s story both a great sadness and a great caution. I am saddened at
what God had done to Him by His own people, and I am cautious because we are
His people in this dispensation, and to whom much is given much is required.
Isaac Blessing Jacob, Govert Flinck, 1638 |
Secondly, there is here
a statement of equality. ‘Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 8.11).
No one was more esteemed in the Jewish mind than the fathers, and here, Jesus,
to a crowd of Jews in a Jewish city, explicitly places believing Gentiles on
the same level as the fathers.
Supreme Court Justice
Charles Evans Hughes was a Baptist. Upon moving to Washington, D.C. he chose a
Baptist church, and went forward to join it on a particularly Sunday morning.
The same morning a number of others had come but the pastor, excited by the
honor bestowed upon his church, attempted to begin the introductions with
Justice Hughes. Calmly, yet kindly, Justice Hughes refused to be first, saying,
‘Pastor, please start at the other end of the line. The ground is level at the
foot of the cross.’
I do not care if you are a native born citizen of the
United States, a naturalized American, a legal visa holder, or an illegal
immigrant, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. I do not care if you
were raised in church since Shep was a pup, or if this is your very first
Sunday to darken the doors of a church, the ground is level at the foot of the
cross. I do not care if you are Caucasian, Latino, Asian, African, Polish,
Assyrian, Filipino, Indian, Italian, German, or Irish, the ground is level at
the foot of the cross. I do not care if your 401k is maxed out for the year
already or if all your cash is tied up in debt, the ground is level at the foot
of the cross. I do not care if you have so many degrees behind your name you
are a thermometer or if you spent the best three years of your life in the 8th
grade, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. I do not care if you are
tall or short, light or dark, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, respected or
neglected, a dreamboat or a shipwreck, the ground is level at the foot of the
cross.
We will all of us get to
Heaven the same way, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We will all of us
sing in the greatest choir in history assembled with the millions on that
glassy sea facing that emerald rainbow encircled throne. We will all of us walk
the streets of gold and kneel prostrate at His feet for the ground is level at
the foot of the cross.
Fourthly, there is here
a call for missions. Jesus explicitly said that ‘many’ Gentiles would be in the
Kingdom. Well, how do those ‘many’ come to Christ from nations far to the east
and far to the west of Palestine? Very simply, somebody had to leave the comfort
of their own native land and take the Gospel to a foreign people. And they did,
and the succeeding centuries of Church history are replete with wonderful
examples of this. Beloved, we in our day have a solemn responsibility to
continue this great heritage.
When Mandy and I first
moved to the inner city of Chicago ten years ago we spent much of that first
year or two undergoing a great culture shock. She grew up on a farm on a rural
Pennsylvania hillside. I grew up in self-contained Ohio village of 4000 people.
Together, we spent our first years of ministry and marriage in a patch town on
the Ohio Pennsylvania line that was so small the entire borough didn’t have a
single stop light. Upon arrival here we found ourselves in a place that was
different in every possible respect from any other place we had lived. The
politics were different. The languages were different. The congestion was
different. The foods were different. The crime and grime were different. Even
the Caucasians in our church had a different culture, being city people, than
that to which we were accustomed. Frankly, it wasn’t very much fun at the
beginning, to put it mildly, but we rested secure in the knowledge that God had
called us to this very needy part of the world. In this we learned a great
lesson: Christians at ease in their comfort zone will never reach the world.
Is your giving in a
comfort zone? Is your prayer life in a comfort zone? Is your soul winning in a
comfort zone? The only way that the early Church did such a wonderful job
reaching their world is that the small group composed almost exclusively of
Jews at the very beginning left their comfort zone, and took the Gospel to the
Gentiles to their east and west.
…and I, for one, am
heartily glad they did, for the Gospel would not have come to me, as a Gentile
living far to the west of Palestine, if they had not. As God’s people we have
no right to turn inward, focusing on ourselves and our own needs, while the
world goes to hell. Jesus didn’t just come for His own people. He came for
those to the east and west as well.
If you would like to listen to the audio version of the blog you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 30, 'Many Shall Come From the East and West'.
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