Weekly Devotion: Like A Good Neighbor...
Weekly Devotion: Like A Good Neighbor...
Are we good neighbors? And are we there ready to help our neighbors?
Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.
-Matthew 21;31
Daniel and I moved into our house in North Minneapolis in 2007. On August 1 of that year, we all learned of the horrible news: the bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis collapsed at the height of rush hour. People around the metro area started to wonder if their friends and loved ones were okay. Were they on the bridge? Were they okay? Daniel and I went to go and get some dinner and as we came back Julie, our next-door neighbor came out running out of her asking if we were okay. She knew that we worked downtown and feared that we were on that bridge. We assured her that we were fine. Daniel and I both remarked that we were so surprised that someone who didn’t know us that well cared about us.
I remember the jingle from State Farm Insurance which goes, “And like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”
That’s the question we should be asking. Are we good neighbors? And are we there ready to help our neighbors?
So, Jesus is in the temple. He made a big entrance by clearing the temple of the moneychangers and this all bothered the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and the scribes. They come up to Jesus and ask, “Who gave you this authority?” they ask.
Jesus knew what they were up to. He knew they wanted to delegitimize him in front of the crowd. Jesus doesn’t bother to answer their fake question and turns the question back on them. “Where did John get his authority?”
The religious leaders were in a fix. If they said it was from God, Jesus is going to ask them why didn’t believe what he said. If they go the other way, the crowd will be made since they thought he was a prophet. So they said they didn’t know. I can imagine Jesus nodding and then saying “then I’m not going to tell you where my authority comes from.”
But Jesus isn’t done. He then tells them a story of two sons. A father asks his first son if he will help him work in the vineyard. The son says he’s busy and doesn’t have time. The father asks the second son if he can help and he says he will, but then goes with his friends to a movie. That first son feels bad and puts on his work clothes to help his father.
Jesus then lowers the boom. Tax collectors and prostitutes are going to enter the kingdom of heaven ahead of you. That had to be hard for them to hear. They would have to come behind the people they judged beneath them. It would be these people who knew they were sinners but had heard the message of grace and forgiveness from Jesus and John that we have a place of prominence. Their lives might be a mess, but they had repented which is different from the religious leaders who thought their roles, their following the letter of the law meant they were God’s favored ones.
Jesus opened his heart to these people who found the doors and many times the hearts of the teachers closed to them.
The words that are used in baptism call us to live a life that is Christ-like. The baptismal vow says: “Do you confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and do you accept and proclaim him Savior of the world?”
Confessing isn’t simply what we say, it is also what we do. If we say holy things, but keep out those we don’t like, then we aren’t better than the teachers of the law.
A professor in seminary once told the story of his late father who came to visit the professor. He came out to see the old man talking to the people next door. The professor gathered his father and together they walked back to the house. He asked his Dad what was he doing. His father replied, “I wanted to see what kind of neighbor you were.”
Friends, are we doing more than talking about our faith? Are we also living it out in how we live our lives and in how we treat our neighbors?
And like a good neighbor...are we there?
-Dennis Sanders, pastor