Good Saturday morning! Do you feel the sting of your own imperfection today? We all seem to have the urge to become perfect. But as imperfect creatures, do we even know how to get there? What if you felt a similar urge to become Martian, but had no idea where Mars sits in the heavens? Just in case we thought perfection was optional, Jesus had this to say in Matthew 5:48: "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This verse comes at the end of the chapter where Jesus also tells us that we sin by even thinking lust, we murder by even thinking hate, and that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees - those guys who upheld the strict Hebrew Law and the 600 or so rules piled on top of it. The chapter continues into loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us, and cutting off appendages that cause us to sin. Perfection? How are any of us going to accomplish this?
What appendage causes us to sin? Hint: it isn't something we can do without! Sin begins in our hearts, what we call our minds; the thinking part of us. If we chop off our heads because of sin, we aren't much good to anyone. Jesus must be telling us to look past the world that our mind sees when he tells us to cut off our right hand if it causes us to sin. Jesus has also called us to come to the Father. Without the Shepherd calling us, we would have no better idea of how to attain perfection than any of the world's religions. If Jesus has called us to his kingdom, would we not already have that perfection in us?
Perhaps not, but look at it this way. When Jesus called us to follow him, we were in the rough shape that he found us in. Let's say that Jesus called me and he needed a chisel. Somewhere in my rough shape, that perfect chisel was already created by God for His purpose. At the moment Jesus called me, that perfect chisel was hidden in a blunt (pun on me!) shape. Jesus is going to take that shape and start cutting off the parts that offend Him! Somewhere within me, Jesus the master sculptor already sees the shape he wants to use.
In some people called by Christ, we see big chunks knocked off right away. You have probably heard of alcoholics or drug addicts who gave their lives to Jesus and were immediately freed of the desire to drink or shoot up; that is a big chunk knocked of the rough shape right at the start. Jesus can do that! For many of us, that shaping and polishing seems to take our entire lifetime, or at least as much of our lifetime as we have seen so far. The changes in us may be impossible to see on a day by day basis. We shouldn't give up on the Master though, even if the progress seems slow and the blows of his mallet hurt some. After all, when would the progress seem slowest on the sculpture? Exactly, just as the shape is beginning to become clear!
As our purpose becomes clear, after Jesus has knocked away some of the big chunks, we will begin to see that perfection God has already created in us. One thing we will realize is that God created us in his image, but he didn't create another God. We are not God, just as a sculpture is not the sculptor. As our purpose becomes clear, it will become clear that we are not well suited for some things. A hammer doesn't turn screws, a chisel would be ruined by pulling nails, and God's purpose in our lives has a proper application. Paul used the illustration of body parts to show us this. If you woke up with your feet where your hands should be, you would have to start learning how to walk upside down, and you would quickly realize that legs are much better for walking than arms. Each of us has a place in the body of Christ and if we try to be what we are not, we might feel the sting of imperfection more than we have to.
I read somewhere that the average church pastor has 250 persons in his church, one youth bus, and works 65 hours per week. What does this mean? Those 250 persons are not the pastor of the church! Those folks all have a different place in the body of Christ, a different function to perform for the body, and a different purpose in the cause of Christ. Should one of those 250 see how easy the pastor makes the Sunday sermon look, he might get the idea that he too is a pastor. He might fall flat on his face too - much like a saw would that leaps into the carpenter's hand when the carpenter reaches for a screwdriver to remove a screw. The saw may get thrown down and humbled a bit.
Finding our purpose in the body of Christ and discovering our gifts is not always easy. We need wisdom to avoid causing harm to the body by trying to do what we are not suited for. The Holy Spirit is the answer to this. Jesus sent us a guide to help us find the narrow way Jesus has made for each of us.
Enjoy the weekend in Christ!
Bucky
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