Ouch! Me a Pharisee? Thursday, Oct 21, 2010

I am struck by a couple of things from today's reading, but most of all that I can see myself in the remarks of the Pharisee's to Jesus, always looking for an easy way out of following God . . . "Moses said it was ok to divorce, right?" For me that sounds like, "Hey Jesus, it's ok for me to bail on relationships that get messy, right? You don't want me to stick it out with people who hurt me, disappoint me, betray me, do you?" Or the rich man who felt he had kept all the commandments and done every good thing a person could do and asked," What good thing do I need to do to get eternal life?" How surprised he must have been when Jesus went straight for the heart of the matter and said in effect,  "You must do the impossible," knowing that true "goodness" or "righteousness" such that this man proclaimed he had, only comes from God. So, for this man, what he needed to do was to surrender his "manufactured" path of righteousness and choose God's, which in this case meant selling all he had and giving it to the poor. Jesus knew the man could only do that by the power of God at work him. I know that for me, often I am just like the rich man. I am willing to follow Jesus if it is comfortable, if it doesn't disrupt my world to much, if it seems "reasonable" to me or if I can do it on my own.  So, this morning I'm asking God to lay bare in me any and all of the hidden conditions of my heart, for I desire to be a fully sold out, devoted follower of Jesus.