RELIGION VS RELATIONSHIP

Some days ago my friend and I were talking about how some Christians in Nigeria are just so religious that they miss the whole point of this whole Christian race which is Jesus but we talked more about how they because of their ignorance of who really Christ is they knowingly or unknowingly push people away from Jesus. I’ll give an example and I also saw this a lot growing up, and I am pretty sure this still happen because I still hear of it till date. We have some specific Christian in some churches in Nigeria that all they do is condemn people because they believe they are not well groomed enough for Jesus, they are not dressed properly, their skirt is too short, if you are a female and you have trousers (pants) on you can’t come into the church because after all haven’t you read in Deuteronomy that a woman must not wear what belong to a man (when in reality they are reading that verse out of context), you have too much tattoos on you to be worthy of the salvation of Christ, your makeup is too much, you as a female don’t have a beret or scarf covering your hair, and the list goes on and on. So fixed on religion that they forget Jesus has called us all into a relationship and when that is achieved other things follow. (Luke 10:27)

The more I thought about this, the angrier I got at people like this and everything in me just wish they would somehow be eradicated from the surface of the earth so more souls can be won for Christ and so we the real Christian can represent Christ well(can you feel my pride there). 

Truth be told I highly dislike people that call themselves Christian but don’t even know what that entails or are not even acting like one. And I am down for us calling them out on their action but after reading the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus I realized I was just like them.

Luke 19: 1-10:   Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-Figtree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus was probably so eager to see this person called Jesus that he has been hearing about but because he was small in stature and the amount of crowd around it was almost impossible so he had to do something extraordinary he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree just so he could be above everyone else and get a glimpse of Jesus more clearly, I am sensing an act of desperation by his action. After he does that Jesus notices him and then said to him come down I must stay at your house tonight. Jesus shows the divine necessity of bringing salvation to Zacchaeus home. And so Zacchaeus came down and gladly welcomed him. Note the word gladly, he welcome Jesus with open arms and he did it joyfully but when the crowd who I am guessing must have been following Jesus faithfully for a while, when they say what Jesus did they muttered, grumbled, condemned Jesus because he had gone to the house of a sinner, the house of someone whom they think is not worthy enough of the person of Christ, someone who they think he is not good enough for Jesus. But after Zacchaeus have welcomed Jesus, after he has tasted and seen the person of Jesus, after he has met the person of Christ for himself, his heart was so moved that he stood up and said to Jesus I will give half my possessions to the poor, and if I cheated anyone I will return fourfold. What moved Zacchaeus? His own personal experience with Christ. The only reason why Zacchaeus did what his did was because he had seen Christ for himself, he had met with the person of Christ, he had begun his own relationship with Jesus, he fell in love with the person of Christ and he was beginning to think, feel and be like Christ.

And then verse ten Jesus said “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” so the person that the crowd grumbled and condemned was the same person Jesus came for. The same person that we think is not good enough for Jesus, not properly dressed, has too much makeup, has too much tattoo on their body, not covering their hair with scarf, because that's what you think a Christian should do. Those are the exact people Jesus came for. And for me, the Christian that I think I am better than, the Christian that I have unknowingly and knowingly condemned because I think they are not representing Christ well are also the people he came for. So instead of me complaing how about I pray that they see the person of Christ and see his heart. Instead of me grumbling and condemning them, how about I love them like Christ loves them. I am not trying to sound self righteous or perfect I am just sharing with you how I was slowly becoming the Christians that I disliked. And I am also not saying we should not call this action out but if you are like me and have been thinking about this just like I have, how about we do it the Jesus way. Let’s pray for them, love on the, and rebuke them with love. 

LIVE CHRIST, LOVE OTHERS, LET’S GO!!!

Until next time. Peace.