The Blind, the Deaf, & the Shushers

Sometimes Christian leaders have bemoaned the fact that "Church people are the biggest obstacle to reaching people for Christ". People who are far more spiritual, others who are far more cool, far more avante guarde (and better spellers) than me have said it, long before I understood it myself, and I tend to agree with them. But I thought it was a recent problem for the church, or at least something that had only recently become prevalent, even if it had been around for hundreds of years. At any rate, I never realized that it was a problem that went all the way back to the very first followers of Christ.

In Luke 18, Jesus--with a crowd in tow--is passing by a blind man begging by the roadside. The blind man, realizing there is a large crowd going by, asks someone to tell him what all the hubbub is about. "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by" they tell him, to which he promptly responds not by begging for the crowd's charity in hopes of a windfall by volume, but by ignoring the crowd altogether and crying out for Jesus to "have mercy" on him. It's at this point in the passage that you read something startling. It wouldn't surprise me today, but it did surprise me somewhat for those walking in the actual physical footsteps of Jesus. Luke 18:39 says this: "Those who led the way were sternly telling him (the blind man) to be quiet..."

Fortunately, the man had the sense to not be deterred, and he kept screaming for Jesus, realizing that He was passing by and this was his big chance. When He heard him, Jesus showed a great deal more interest in the blind man than did His lead followers. In fact Jesus had these lead followers bring the blind man to Him for a face to face meeting and ultimately he gave the blind man what he asked for, his sight. The man got to "see" Jesus, no thanks to those following Him.

Now to be fair, this is before the cross, the resurrection, and pentecost, so the disciples were not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. That's an important distinction between those followers of Christ and Christians from today--or at least it's supposed to be a distinction. We've all met Christians who made us wonder...we've probably been Christians who made others wonder, for that matter.

But isn't it amazing that it was "those who led the way" in the crowd following Jesus who "sternly" discouraged the blind man from bothering Him. Isn't it tragic. Isn't it especially tragic that we have the full accounts of all that Jesus modelled, we have the full accounts of all the disciples' mistakes, we have the Holy Spirit living in us to guide us, and yet 2000 years later, "those leading the way" in the crowd following Jesus are still the leading discouragers of people getting close up and personal to Him.

Like them, we get so preoccupied in getting Jesus to meet our needs, or in our hurried attempts at following Jesus, that we stop listening or even wanting to hear the cries of blind men by the road. We forget what it was like to need him and not be able to find our way to him. We forget that Jesus stopped to listen when every one else behind him was only interested in stopping the man from crying out. I imagine some folks even dropped some change in the blind beggar's bag saying, "Here's some money for you, now shhhhh." Blind men are crying out...many of us have become deaf...many of us are trying to make them mute rather than listen.

I think I heard something,
Bryan

Man Overboard

My first blog...it'll take far more than doing a blog to make me "cool". But you know that, right? I'm finishing up coaching at Intensive Church Planter Training in Spartanburg. I always get far more than I'll ever be able to give. It's always a divine redirect for me, an opportunity to evaluate how "harvest" focused I am. Or have I just become obsessed with the Sunday morning stuff of church, the mechanics of keeping rather than finding? This time, my three days with the planters and presenters at ICPT have been part of something bigger and more basic for me...

I've been reading John Ortberg's "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat", and it is exactly what I've needed at this juncture of my journey. Forgive the cliche, but I'm at a crossroad. I'm faced with the choice to experience more of the same...a measure of effectiveness and usefulness...a "good" life and a "good" ministry. Or is there more?
I know there is. I can't help but believe that God has been showing me that He is interested in doing something greater than I've ever imagined...than I've ever been a part of. God has been wrestling me toward this realization for the last few weeks, even before I picked up Ortberg's book. But now I realize that I've played it safe most of my Christian life, I've stayed in the boat where I'm familiar and comfortable, at least more comfortable than I would be getting out of it and walking on the stormy waters with Jesus.

Trying to distill into understandable words a 3 week journey which I'm still processing myself is difficult, but let me just get to the nitty gritty of it all. I understand that my "boat" where I've been sitting comfortably to this point is a place of little faith. I've been satisfied to sit back and ride along content with whatever God might do around me. I've been content to have a God whom I believed walks on water, calms the storms, and can make me walk on water if he wants too. I've been content to say: "He can if He wants"...but never to risk actually asking him to do something that Great. How's that worked out for me? Pretty Good, really. Good, not GREAT, not great in Biblical proportions. That's just not good enough. God has helped me to see that I'd rather not risk being disappointed. I'd rather not ask him for something amazing than risk asking him and having him not do it.

I never realized that about me. I thought I was a person of strong faith. I've been safe in the boat, satisfied with a God whom I dared not ask for great things, lest I be disappointed. But he is a great God, greater than my faith...so I'm jumping the rail and asking him to pour himself out in a grand and glorious way that can't be denied...you know, like when a fisherman walks on water with a carpenter. I'm risking the asking, no longer satisfied for what I can do in the boat, for spectating as He walks on water alone without me.

Man overboard,
Bryan