Читать книгу The Grace-Filled Life - Maxie Dunnam - Страница 16

ISAIAH 57:14-22; MARK 2:13-17

It's a beautiful picture. Levi was so excited. His conversion gave him a love and concern he never had before. He wanted to celebrate that. But not only that, he invited persons whom he wanted to introduce to Jesus to celebrate with him. He had a desire for them to experience what he had experienced. Have you ever had any sort of religious experience that was worth celebrating, that caused you to want to throw a party? Maybe you can deal with it better if I ask you, "How do you celebrate your religious experiences?" or "Is celebration a part of your spiritual expression?"

CELEBRATION TIME

One of my favorite hymns of modern times is "The Lord of the Dance." It is one of the less-traditional hymns in present-day hymnals. I like it not only because of its message but also because it is set to the tune of the American Shaker hymn "Tis a Gift to Be Simple." That's a creative connection because the Shakers used to dance in their worship.

In the mid-1960s, I wrote my most autobiographical book, entitled Dancing at My Funeral. One of my contentions was, and still is, that our real test in facing life is whether we run, fight, whimper, or dance. Though I am a very poor dancer, the dance became a metaphor of the Christian life for me. I was so pleased that Sydney Carter wrote "The Lord of the Dance" about the same time that my book was being published. I'm more than pleased that the hymn was finally included in the official United Methodist Hymnal in 1988.

"The Lord of the Dance" declares that the proper response on learning the meaning of the gospel is to celebrate—to dance. Have you ever noted how much of the gospel has to do with parties and celebrations? When the prodigal son came home, the father wanted to celebrate, so he threw a great party. When the woman who had lost her coin found it, she invited her neighbors to come in and celebrate with her. When the shepherd went out into the wilderness to find the one lost sheep, on finding that sheep and returning home, he shouted out to his neighbors that he had found the sheep that was lost and then he invited them to celebrate with him.

There's a great deal of celebration in the Scripture. In fact, according to the Book of Revelation, when Christ comes again and history is drawn to a close, there is going to be a great marriage feast in the Kingdom. Christ the Groom, and his Bride, the church, will be united; and we will all sit at the banquet table of joy and celebration.

So Levi had a party. Jesus and his disciples were there, along with "many tax collectors and sinners" (Mark 2:15). But not everyone was happy. The Pharisees didn't like it. That's what the third verse of "The Lord of the Dance" talks about. "I danced on the Sabbath when I cured the lame; / the holy people said it was a shame." Jesus' behavior was shameful in the eyes of what the hymn writer calls the "holy people." "Holy people"—the Pharisees—believed that religion should be more like mourning rather than dancing, about judgment rather than celebration, about fasting rather than feasting.

Levi—or Matthew, which would become his Christian name—was a tax collector. This meant that he was disreputable because he worked for the Romans, and therefore was an outcast in the Jewish community. Jesus not only associated with him but called him to be a disciple. The text indicates that Jesus tells Matthew to gather all his tax collector and sinner friends together, and he will eat with the whole bunch of them. The Pharisees were shocked. They asked, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (2:16). Jesus overhears their comments, and answers, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners" (2:17).

SEEKING YOUR REWARD

Our suggested reading from Isaiah balances God's judgment with the promise that those who are contrite and humble will receive God's blessing, healing, comfort, and peace.

I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;

I will lead them and repay them with comfort,

creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips.

Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the LORD;

and I will heal them. (Isa. 57:18-19)

After this announcement of "peace, to the far and the near," in chapter 58 Isaiah condemns his own people, the "righteous" ones, for their hypocritical worship and their fasting on the Sabbath in disobedience to the commands of the covenant for justice and righteousness. These earlier "righteous" ones were not far from the scribes and the Pharisees Jesus addressed. They assumed they would be recognized and rewarded for the wonderful lives they were living. They also expected God to punish the tax collectors and the sinners for the kind of life they lived. No wonder they were flabbergasted by Jesus' association with Levi and all his sinner friends.

DO YOU HAND OUT PARTY INVITATIONS?

Levi's experience invites a second question. Has a person been genuinely converted by the Grace of Christ if he does not in consequence have a desire that others be converted also? Not only was Levi celebrating the fact that he was converted, he was using that occasion to bring people together in order that they might also meet Jesus. Think about it. How deep is your desire for others to experience what you have experienced in Jesus Christ? If that desire is not deep, and if you're not doing anything about it, you might follow up with other questions: How real is my experience with Christ? Do I feel the depths of forgiveness to a point that I want to share the possibility of that forgiveness with others?

The Pharisees murmured against Jesus and his disciples because they were attending Levi's party. That raises questions about how we practice our faith, and how the faith is transferred, communicated, one to the other. Could it be that Levi gathered his tax collector friends together to meet Jesus because he knew they also wanted to leave the life they were living, a life of bondage, and be freed for the fullness of life? Isn't it true that the way we may lead people to change is by not condemning them? That is at least a part of what Jesus means when he says, "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

It's interesting that Jesus' call of Levi and this encounter with the Pharisees is in the setting of Mark's Gospel where he talks about Jesus' healing ministry. He tells two healing stories. In Mark 1 he tells the story of the healing of a leper. It's one of the most beautiful stories in the Scripture. A man full of leprosy—that most awful of all diseases in New Testament times—saw Jesus and fell on his knees and said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean" (v. 40). Immediately Jesus stretched out his hands and touched the leper. I like that. He didn't keep his distance from the leper. In fact, he laid his hands upon him, and said, "I will—I will heal you—be clean." And immediately the fellow was made well.

The second story is of the lame man who was lowered through the ceiling into the presence of Jesus in order that he might be healed. The lame man had some friends who believed in the healing power of Jesus. So they took their friend to Jesus. Jesus was teaching in a house, and the house was full of people, and they couldn't get anywhere near. With the ingenuity that an ardent faith can give, those men literally tore a hole through the ceiling and lowered the man into Jesus' presence. Amazed at their remarkable faith, Jesus healed the paralytic.

With all this healing happening, it was natural for Jesus to use the image of a doctor in response to the Pharisees' criticism about eating with sinners. "Those who are well have no need of a physician." That focuses the issue. Wouldn't it be strange if a doctor thought that he was doing all he could in his work against disease if he lectured the healthy on the dangers of disease, without ever going near the sick?

OFFERING YOUR LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Two things are clear here. One, the gospel will never make it into the world with its transforming power if we Christians are afraid of getting contaminated. Someone has to run risk. Two, the church must never become a religious club where the saints are protected. My friend Len Sweet, one of the most creative communicators of the gospel I know, tells of an unforgettable experience he had at an Amy Grant concert at Kings Island near Cincinnati. It was in the midst of the controversy that swirled around her during the summer of 1986 for "crossing over" from gospel music into the secular market.

At the concert, Amy Grant talked about songs she was working on and how her tour was going. But then she became very quiet, and out of the silence she confessed the pain she was feeling because of the abuse and derision from her sisters and brothers in Christ. She then straightened up and spoke of her resolve not to listen to it. And then came these words (so powerful, Len said, that he wrote them down on the spot):

Some people think I should stand in the light and give my witness. But I believe God has called me to stand in the dark, and there give off my light. I know there is danger in the dark, but God's Word has told me that I'm all right so long as I don't lose sight of the light. (Leonard I. Sweet, "Bibelot," 1990, Vol. 5, No. 3-6)

Amy Grant was making herself available to be the Word of God that comes to us wherever we are. But there is another side to this coin. Not only does the Word of God come to us where we are, the evangelistic task of the church is to go where the people are—and the witnessing task of the Christian is wherever the Christian is.

Who needs a doctor? Most of us do. And you can be sure of this: there are a number of persons in your own circle of friends who need a doctor. The question for most of us is not whether we will be called to witness and minister to the sickest of the sick but whether we will be faithful witnesses to those around us who have perhaps not yet realized that they are spiritually sick and are as surely spiritually doomed as those we quickly think are out of the mainstream of so-called righteousness.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

What can you celebrate about your life? If you were going to have a party to introduce Jesus and tell people what he had done for you, then let him talk to them, who would you invite? How would you talk to them?