Zechariah 8:20-23 Let Us Go With You!

 

Observation: It's been a rough road for Jerusalem. After seventy years in exile in Babylon, the Jews have returned to a city, and a Temple, in ruin. Restoring and rebuilding their city, their Temple, and their nation, is a monumental task. Yet Zechariah lays out a prophetic vision that one day Jerusalem will be a spiritual center, not just for his fellow Jews, but even for people from foreign lands across the globe. 

Application: I was born in 1981. In the United States, for the entire time I've been alive, participation in churches, and in the Christian faith in general, has been declining in numbers. Of course, many individual congregations and movements here have experienced explosive growth. In other parts of the world--Africa, for instance--Christianity is growing. But here in America, the trend has been downward. That's a reality I've lived with as a Christian for as long as I've been alive.

Even before a global pandemic disrupted our congregations, Christians in this country had some rebuilding to do, much like the people of Jerusalem after their exile. We're not rebuilding the past, but building up a Christian life that we can pass down to future generations. It'll have to look different from the way our grandparents practiced their faith, and that's okay.  With that lifelong task ahead of us, Zechariah's vision is exactly what we need. We need to remember that the Lord we worship is mighty, but more importantly the Lord is supremely good. The Lord is someone worth knowing: someone our friends and neighbors will want to know, once they get to know us and what God has done in our lives. God is so good that, if folks knew what they were missing out on, Zechariah's vision would come true. We'd have ten people at once, from nations across the world, grabbing us by the lapels and saying, "let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!" Mind you, that vision is not ours to accomplish--only God can do it--but it's one to keep in mind when we're becoming forgetful. We are so very blessed to know God. 

Prayer: God, thank you for being you. Thank your for your grace and mercy from the dawn of time, and into eternity. Help me to remember how good you are to me every day. Help me to share your goodness with everyone I meet today, Amen.   

Matthew 9:9-13 Mercy, Not Sacrifice

 

Observation: Jesus calls Matthew--a tax collector, reviled by his neighbors for personally profiting from Rome's occupation of Galilee--to follow him. He doesn't ask him any questions about his theology or his moral conduct. He simply issues a challenge, "follow me," and Matthew gets up and does it. The text doesn't say of Matthew is the first tax collector to start following Jesus, but soon after, many tax collectors and "sinners" are in Jesus' presence, eating with him. After facing some resistance, Jesus clarifies that this is his mission: to call not the righteous but sinners.

Application: We spend too much time arguing with ourselves. Not on real introspection or prayer, mind you, but rather on the constant internal dialogue about whether we really believe what we say we believe, whether we're really doing what we say we're doing, whether we're really as effective at it as we want to be. We argue with ourselves about what we want, and whether our heart is truly in the right place. Am I a good person? Do I believe enough? 

I guess when I say "we" I mean "I." You may or may not relate. 

It is a word of profound grace, and profound challenge, to me today, that Jesus apparently does not care about the state of Matthew's heart. There is no litmus test. There is no moral qualification. There is no creed or belief statement to sign before starting his journey. There is only the challenge, "follow me," and the opportunity to take the first step. Jesus knows that when Matthew takes the first step, his mind and his heart will eventually get where they need to get. The same is true of us. 

If you want a restless heart and spirit, keep arguing with yourself about whether you're good enough. Don't move a muscle until you have it all figured out. 

But if you want a lighter burden, if you want a peace the the world can't offer you, gently place those questions aside today and go ahead and do one thing you know Jesus wants you to do. I don't know what that one thing is, but I suspect you do. And judging by my own experience, when that one thing is done, your trust in Jesus will have increased on its own, and your concern about your own goodness will have become just a little less relevant. 

Prayer: Jesus, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for the call to follow. Help me to leave my stupid little counting booth and take one step out into your world today. In your name I pray, Amen.