Would We Reject Jesus Today?

I heard recently that Craig Gross and Ron Jeremy had a porn debate in a church in Seattle. Craig Gross is known as “The Porn Pastor” and Ron Jeremy is known as the “The King of Porn”. It became newsworthy quickly and many news reports were running headlines like, “Eastlake welcomes one of the greatest sinners of all time,” “the godfather of porn comes to god’s house,” “raunchy vs. the righteous.” One man even broke into the church to protest the event. Hearing this made me think about how the church today reacts to sinners. It made me think about how the Pharisees reacted to sin in their day.

All of this made me think about how religious leaders of Jesus time viewed Him and what He taught. God is pretty smart in only sending His Son to live amongst us once. If you think about it, how many Christians today would accept Christ if He came again doing the same things He did then? In His time they freaked out when He ate with sinners and publicans. They plotted to kill Him when He did signs and wonders, especially on the Sabbath. They bought out one of His followers so they could stop His message of love and forgiveness. They did all they could to destroy Him, the whole time not really knowing who He was and why He was here.

The greatest irony, hypocrisy, or whatever you want to call it that exists today is that the church carries more of the attributes of the pharisees Jesus condemned for their actions than it does the attributes of Christ who we claim to follow. Jesus walked amongst the sinners, yet we rebuke those who do so today. Jesus broke the rules of tradition, like not washing His hands, picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, and we condemn those who don’t take communion the way we do, or sing the songs we sing. Jesus loved the unlovable, yet we drive past with our noses in the air thanking God that we are not like them. Jesus invited the sexually impure to come to Him, yet we hold signs that condemn them to hell. Jesus ate with the sinners, yet we quote scriptures like, “not even to eat with such a person” completely ignoring the context. If we read the whole scripture you can see Paul is referring to people in the church. 1Corinthians 5:11 “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner––not even to eat with such a person.” We sing songs of praise to God for His love in delivering us out of our past of bondage, yet we forget that many around us in the world have not experienced Jesus yet. We hold an unbelieving world to a believing standard. That is like holding Apple employees to the rules that the employees of Microsoft have to live by. It doesn’t make sense in the world to hold everybody to a standard that many don’t yet know, yet to us it makes perfect sense. Yet we forget that ignorance is not washed away when someone hears about Jesus once. It can only be washed away when they truly “have ears to hear” what God is saying.

I am reminded about the scripture in Romans 9:14, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” I  know the argument, “when we preach the Gospel to them they have heard.” In response, I challenge you with this thought, what if Jesus, when He said “if you have ears to hear” was referring to spiritual ears? What if the people around us don’t yet have spiritual ears because “the eyes of their understanding are blinded” by the enemy who wants to destroy us? What if Jesus is telling us in the Bible to love others even if they don’t get it the first time? What if He is telling us to love others despite their choice whether or not to follow Christ? What if there is more to walking in love than we think? What if we are to love them and love them and love them until they get the spiritual ears to hear the truth? What if we are to give up all we have been told about sin and sinners so they can see what we see?

So, in regards to people like Ron Jeremy, let them in. Let them become a part of what God is doing through the church. The Bible tells us that, Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Let people see the goodness of God through your church and through Christians as a whole. Let the world know, through our love, that we belong to God. The truth is, if you don’t want people like Ron Jeremy in your church, then you don’t want me in your church. If you really want to get honest, by this standard, you wouldn’t want you in your church either.

If we really want to get down to where the rubber meets the road, we are all hypocrites. We all have something in our lives, that if found out, someone else could point and cry, “Why is He in here!” The only difference between most of us and Ron Jeremy is that our sin isn’t broadcast for the whole world to see. Our sinfulness isn’t forever ingrained in society for all to know. Romans 2:1-4 “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

So, if you where to ever come across Ron Jeremy in your life, invite him to your  church, invite him into your home, go to lunch with him, have coffee with him.  Do something out of the ordinary. And do it with all the love that God has given you. Let’s not be the Pharisees of old and let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. If Jesus were to walk amongst us today would you recognize Him for who He is, or would you be so clouded by religious rules and regulations that you would dismiss Him as just another false teacher because He didn’t do things the way you thought He should?

Never forget that when Jesus was confronted with the question as to what to do with a woman caught in adultery, His response was for those amongst them that were without sin to cast the first stone. In the end, not one of the accusers was left able to convict this woman knowing that they, themselves, were not sin free. Once they left, Jesus simply told the woman to go and sin no more. Nothing overly profound or exceptionally punishing in His words. He knew her sin and brokenness, yet still invited her to be a person of greatest influence by changing her ways and accepting His. Let’s live our lives as an example to His, not as an example to the Pharisees of old.