Judgmental Jesus-Follower? Impossible.
February 5, 2021
But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. Luke 19:7 NLT
While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. Acts 10:27-28 NIV
Child psychologists tell us that one of the first desires and skills of little humans is that they love to sort. Give a very young child a box of different items, and quickly he will find a way to sort them into what he likes and doesn’t like. She might sort them into colors, sizes, or functions. It’s so normal to sort that many early childhood toys are marketed on that premise. We love to sort.
Unfortunately, it follows us into adulthood in ways that are neither cute nor helpful. When Jesus went to Zacchaeus’s house, he was in trouble. Zack had been sorted and dropped into the “notorious sinner” box, and everyone knew you just didn’t associate with him. Peter had been called to go to a Gentile’s home, but he simply was not going. It was believed that Gentiles were the kind of people that the entire Law and Prophets illustrated that God did not love. Peter had never associated with them before, let alone go to their house. They were in the “unredeemable, rejected- by-God” box. How could he go there?
Fortunately for all of us Gentiles, Jesus was absolutely right. It was new-covenant time. He threw the door wide open, and there were no longer any legitimate sorting boxes. We all were the much-loved children of God, objects of His attention, affection, and favor. He used a vision to correct Peter, and even though there was no “verse of Scripture” telling him to do it, thoroughly Jewish Peter stepped out of the old way in which he had always operated, and obeyed. He served Cornelius with love, and a whole new wing of the new kingdom opened.
What sorting boxes still hang around your neighborhood? In my neighborhood, Christians are still sorting, still accepting or rejecting, still loving or refusing to love based on denominations, gender, political party, theological differences, color, background, culture, and more. We even sort inside the boxes! The Father of us all finds it unacceptable.
For all of us who love that kind of thing, He does say that He has planned a sorting in our future. Matthew 25 records Jesus describing it. There will only be two groups: those who go forever into the presence of God, and those who are forever sent away. The sorting factor will be how we actively loved and served everyone, the least of these, with the love of Jesus. He said, “However you treated them is how you were treating Me.”
- Pray: Jesus, help me live and love like You and be ready for the Great Sorting.