There are those who look to Jesus as the God of religion, and those who cling to Him as their Personal Saviour. The latter are some of the worst people around…
If you study their background you will find folk with a very dubious past — former addicts, drunkards, rebels, gang members, outcasts, criminals, atheists, prostitutes — people who’ve lived life on their own terms, tried it all and failed miserably…
In Jesus, they find Someone who accepts them as they are. Someone who died to pay for their sin, so that despite everything they can still hope for a better tomorrow, and an eternal home on the other side.
Even so, oftentimes their past (all the years of rejection, abuse, etc.) catches up with their present, and all the pain and anger that’s buried deep inside resurfaces in the form of violence, foul language, etc. And then they are back to square one. You’ll find these people continually running to Jesus, crying their hearts out and begging him to save them (mostly from themselves).
They don’t get down on their knees and lift their hands up in worship because they are “holy and righteous”. They lift it up because they are messed up, wrecked and broken, and desperately in need of a Saviour.
Back in the day too, two groups of people were trying to hang out with Jesus. The first group were the Pharisees, the overtly religious, self-righteous kind. They fasted often and said long prayers, honouring God with their lips, when in fact their hearts were far from him. Jesus turned this group away saying, “I did not come for those who think they are right with God.”
Then, the second group drew near. They comprised the lost and lonely, the sick and afflicted, people with no hope for a future, the rejected and forsaken, homeless vagabonds and sojourners — the very scum of society. When this group approached Jesus, he shocked the religious establishment of his day by happily welcoming them all in.
Incidentally, both groups — the “outstanding” and the outcasts — are still very much around. Both groups still want to hang out with Jesus — one out of “obligation”, the other out of LOVE. You can tell them apart by their fruits (Matthew 7:16).
The question is: Which group do you belong to? And who is Jesus to you? The God of religion or your Personal Saviour?
Kevin Menezes 