Losing Jesus:
Lets take a look at
the Book of Luke, in chapter 2. Joseph and Mary had lost their son.
Lost him in the most unlikely place of all, in the temple. The
church.
When Jesus was
twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the
celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed
behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because
they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t
show up that evening, they started looking for him among their
relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back
to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally
discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers,
listening to them and asking questions.
Luke 2:42-46 (NLT)
We would think the
last place on earth we would lose Jesus is in the church. Yet, that
is the very place where most of us lose him. Just a few weeks ago I
was in a conversation about all the different churches in town and
how many if not most of them where founded by splits of other
churches. Not planned church plants. Coming from California I find it
hard to understand. We had a hard enough time keeping our church up
and running. Planting new churches was a fight with the local
planning commission and zoning commission. Not founded by infighting
of fellow church members. So to hear a church was founded by
splitting off from another church takes me to the edge of
understanding.
This is where we
lose Jesus. For a time everything is just going fine and well within
a church. Then the pastor preaching a service which the message comes
from God, and it hits too close to the heart for some members.
Without warning someone's feathers get all ruffled up and starts
screaming, “Get the torches and pitchforks!” Or time comes to
replace the carpet. One group likes green. The other wants blue.
Again the Torches and Pitchforks come out. The piano gets moved or
the music seems too modern or the choir director tries to appeal to a
larger and a more diverse audience. Getting crucified for it when all
he is trying to do is please everyone. I hear these stories over and
over again. Some churches have such a bad reputation that local
neighborhoods will have nothing to do with them. These churches go
through pastors like kids go through shoes. Bright and shiny at first
will all kinds of ideas and on fire for God. Then crushed when the
truth of what they are really part of comes crashing down around the
poor new pastor.
Any church staff
member can tell you how hard it is. How would you handle having 50,
100, a 1,000 pairs of eyes looking over your work in the smallest
detail each week? It can become disheartening and down right
depressing. When someone does tell you good job. It is like a cup of
water after you have spent days in the desert.
Losing Jesus
happens all the time. One time when I was part of the church
basketball program as our gym's time keeper. We had a game were the
parents were a little too emotional to put it lightly. Two men sat
close to me always making sure I heard their comments when our
referees did not make a call to their liking. When the night was over
I was so grateful that I would never have to deal with those men
again. Oops! Just lost Jesus!. Should have been praying for them than
counting myself lucky in abandoning them. God was about to teach me a
lesson.
Two days later I
was with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend. We had stopped at
McDonald's for lunch. There was only one person in line when we got
there. Who was it? You guessed it. The same man from the basketball
game. Talk about God giving me a clear message. It was the father's
son who broke the ice. Recognizing me from the game just two nights
ago. Sounds like Peter when asked if he was with Christ? To make
matters even more obvious there was only one table open for us to
sit. Yes you guessed it again. Right next to them. We continued to
talk and I learned his brother who was the other man at the game had
suffered a stroke. He did not like to speak much and I was wrong just
48 hours ago thinking he was rude to me. You see. I had lost Jesus.
We both left with renewed spirits. A lesson well learned.
So how about you.
When have you lost Jesus? In church when you are trying to focus on
the pastor preaching and you get distracted by a child crying
thinking their parents should keep that kid quite? At work when
someone cracks a joke that rubs you the wrong way? At the store when
someone cuts in front of you? At home? Around friends? With family?
We seem to lose Jesus just as easy as Joseph and Mary did. Like them,
when we lose Jesus. We need to run back and find him immediately.
Teach, Preach and
Reach.
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