Sensible

...What Would Jesus Do?

He made sense.

He was God, He was the great Creator of the universe, yet still He made sense. Jesus could have said, "...because I said so". He could have wiped the entire human race out of existence for questioning his authority...

He didn't. He constantly validated His teaching with a masterful command of logic and reason. Jesus was not dogmatic. Time after time, He was questioned, drilled, "raked over the coals" for what He said. Often His replies were so powerful that those who heard were left speechless.

Consider John chapter eight where the woman is about to be stoned by the crowd for adultery. The pharisees tried to "trap" Jesus by asking Him if He would suggest that they should not carry out "the Law" and stone her. Jesus said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." One by one, stones dropped to the ground instead of off the woman's head.

Why? Is it because the people had a "change of heart". Some maybe, but the scripture later reveals that the Pharisees where among those who sought to kill Jesus for exchanges like this. Why? Because he "made sense." He made so much sense that while their selfish desires sought to kill the woman, their intellect could not find a valid warrant to contend with Jesus' answer.

Contrast this with what happens in the building called "the church" on Sunday mornings. While there is no Biblical or historical evidence to support the argument, congregations are expected to be sitting in a pew every Sunday morning and to pray for those who are not. It is strongly implied that attending Sunday morning services is an imperative part of Christianity. "To honor the Sabbath" is offered as justification, yet a Biblical study of "the Sabbath" would reveal that attending Church on Sunday morning does not come close to the clearly defined tenets of "Sabbath honoring".

Speaking of "the Sabbath", consider again where the "synagogue rulers" in response to Jesus healing a crippled woman, told those gathered there, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath." (Luke 13:14 NIV) Jesus rebuked them saying, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" (Luke 13:15-16 NIV). Finally, verse 17 says, "When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated..."

Why were they humiliated? Why didn't they respond? Jesus "made sense". That is why. He wasn't dogmatic. He didn't twist and take scripture out of context to fit to validate his teachings. His argument was so clear and effective, that the discussion stopped.

Contrast this with some of the church's burdensome teachings. Pews, alters, musical styles, service attendance, etc., etc., things that have no scriptural basis are crammed down the throats of those who attend in dogmatic fashions that often do not resemble anything logical. How many of today's Christians are "afraid" to invite someone to a service for fear that he or she will hear half of the service spent on one of these inconsistencies with the implication that any disagreement means that one must not know Jesus.

No one would ever be hesitant to invite one to hear Jesus. Of all those throughout history with the authority to be dogmatic, He never was. Why does those in the building called "the church" do any different?