Barneyisfat

How human, exactly? I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, how human do I have to be, Dad? - Jesus. Fully God and fully man. Have you taken a good look at the human race recently? We're so uber-sinful. How could a holy, righteous God live among us? Well, I'm sure that during the incarnation God would seek out the most righteous people on earth. He would reward them for their studies of the scripture and would seek them out to find solace in others who are as spotless as Himself.

But, He lived and loved with sinners surrounding him. He didn't just walk the streets with crowds pushing in - he ate dinner with, asked favors of, and performed miracles for sinners. He didn't seek out the goody-two-shoes of the day to find comfort in - he dived headfirst into a sea of humanity deeper than the ocean. Surely, the Son of God could not allow sin to occur in His very presence without getting very angry.

And yet, the triumphant, militant hero of the male-dominated side of faith, the Jesus who overturned the tables in the temple in righteous fury, is strikingly absent in almost every encounter with a sinner. He doesn't call down lightning fists of fury on the woman caught in adultery, the demon possesed man, the woman at the well, the Roman guard who cut off his ear, the governor who ordained his execution, or the soldiers who killed him. There is an absence of anger towards all of these people. He forgives, he loves, he heals, he graces - but he never gets angry.

And here we are today. Angry as hell at the sinners who deserve to go there. We find our little circles of good Christian people who we can relate to and we don't deviate. We don't want to rock the boat. We have no problem getting angry about sin. Bring up a "hot button issue" and watch us go crazy with rage - that's what Jesus did (?). We take the passage that tells us to avoid the appearance of evil and the passage of an angry Christ ripping up the temple and we justify (not only not talking to, but) hating sinners. We throw out the entire canon of scripture for a lesser God, a lesser faith, and a lesser life.

We take a perfect God who chose to come and love sinners (the very worst of His day) and we declare (from our high and lofty towers) that the passage about the good Samaritan doesn't tell us to love homosexuals, there's no comparison possible. We decide that our comfort is worth more than sinners' souls. Well, I'm very glad that Jesus never shared our passion for comfort.