Luke 6:33-34 Cousins
Before Jesus started His ministry, His cousin John the Baptist announced that the Messiah was coming. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness dressed in animal hides with a very simple diet: grasshoppers (locusts), dipped in wild honey. John preached repentance. He preached that people should come and be baptized to signify that they were willing to die to themselves, be humble, seek God, and repent.
The Pharisees didn't like that, though. They thought his asceticism and strange diet in a remote wilderness indicated that there was something wrong with him. Their real contention was that he told them to repent. The Pharisees set up their own rules so that they could supposedly live by them and no one else could. Why should they repent?
But then Jesus came along. Jesus would associate with sinners and eat meals with them and the Pharisees didn't like that, either. Jesus confronted them in Luke's Gospel:
“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” Luke 7:33–34 (New American Standard Bible, 1995)
Here's the thing:
There are different styles of spirituality and sometimes they look very different. They are different.
Both John and Jesus were following God's plan for their lives. They were both criticized by those who didn't understand their thinking. Yet while these two cousins were very different in how they pursued God, both of them were doing God's will.
Just because someone's pursuit of God looks different from ours doesn't mean we need to criticize. Instead, we need to let God search our hearts to see if we need to change something in our own lives to conform to God's will for us, personally.
God, give us the grace to allow You to speak to our hearts and tell us what to do in accordance with Your word... but not to look down on others simply because they have a different style. In Jesus' name, Amen.
The Pharisees didn't like that, though. They thought his asceticism and strange diet in a remote wilderness indicated that there was something wrong with him. Their real contention was that he told them to repent. The Pharisees set up their own rules so that they could supposedly live by them and no one else could. Why should they repent?
But then Jesus came along. Jesus would associate with sinners and eat meals with them and the Pharisees didn't like that, either. Jesus confronted them in Luke's Gospel:
“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” Luke 7:33–34 (New American Standard Bible, 1995)
Here's the thing:
There are different styles of spirituality and sometimes they look very different. They are different.
Both John and Jesus were following God's plan for their lives. They were both criticized by those who didn't understand their thinking. Yet while these two cousins were very different in how they pursued God, both of them were doing God's will.
Just because someone's pursuit of God looks different from ours doesn't mean we need to criticize. Instead, we need to let God search our hearts to see if we need to change something in our own lives to conform to God's will for us, personally.
God, give us the grace to allow You to speak to our hearts and tell us what to do in accordance with Your word... but not to look down on others simply because they have a different style. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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