Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him. – John 10:31

Today's Scripture Reading (January 15, 2024): John 10

A few years ago, as I was reading this passage, a question started to build inside of me: Why aren't we trying to stone Jesus? I know it sounds like a strange question, but let me ask it: why aren't we trying to stone Jesus? Has he become less radical in his message over the years? It can't be that we have become more radical because I don't think that is true. Is Jesus just so much more mainstream now? Years later, I am still not sure that I know the answer.

As I continue to try to puzzle my way through what this passage of scripture is really saying, but this is the understanding that I have taken from this text. It starts with the Jews asking the question, "Don't keep us in suspense, Jesus. Who are you: Jesus, son of Joseph, or Jesus the Christ?" The Jews had been praying for the Messiah to come for centuries; they anxiously wanted the Messiah to arrive on the earth and begin his reign in Israel.

The problem was they couldn't believe, wouldn't believe, that this ugly little man had anything to do with the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. And they were right. Throughout the three years he spent teaching in Galilee and the surrounding areas, he proved that he had very little desire to play the games they were playing. His economy, his sense of who and what was important was different. And that made him ineligible when it came to being the Messiah.

His Jewish opponents were waiting for him to respond. Tell us you're the Messiah, and then we will stone you. I am afraid if we really understood what Jesus was asking of us today, we would be the ones picking up the stones. Part of the way we have stoned him is, in a sense, by cutting him in two. We have separated God and his church into two separate entities. I don't think we intended to do it, but we have limited his power over our lives. Ultimately, we give lip service to the idea that God is our priority, but the church is much further down our list of priorities.

As a result, our message becomes that we believe in God; we just don't believe in the church. I believe that God demands my tithe, but the church isn't doing the ministry I think it should be doing, so I will not put my tithe there. (Let me make a quick aside here; God has asked for a tithe. A firm in Ottawa, Canada, a few years ago, researched giving habits and found that the average church attendee gives about 2.6 percent of their income. The debt the average church attender services outside of their mortgage on the house is 9.6 percent. Part of the growing financial problem in the church is that our tithe is going to service our personal debt.)

I believe in God, but identifying with the Body of Christ through membership is unimportant because that's just the church. I believe God is first, but whatever I find offensive in the gospel message is not God; it's just the church. Every time we make the distinction, we pick up another stone.

If what I am doing in the church is not of God, I have to admit, I really don't want to be here. The church has to be of God, and we must stop the separation.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 12