"We're real people in a real world serving a real God! "
Pastor's Thoughts
Jesus is a lot more dangerous than we give Him credit. In fact, He is downright radical! And He doesn't always follow our expectations of how we think He should act, or the personality traits we tend to ascribe to Him. We like to paint Him as a kind and gentle soul -- He wouldn't hurt a fly, so to speak. And He is gracious and patient to a fault. He would never raise His voice to anyone, and always preferred peaceful interaction to hard-nosed confrontation. Really? Have you read the stories of how He "cleansed" the Temple in Jerusalem? That's right -- "stories", plural. He did it more than once! Sure, Jesus is the Prince of peace; but He is also the God of righteousness, and there were some things that were so serious in their offense that He just wouldn't let them slide with a simple kind word of rebuke -- they required direct and forceful action. But it's interesting, isn't it --these two sides of Christ? -- Prince of peace, and God of right. Yet they are in perfect harmony. For that same Jesus who drove out the crooks and creeps from the holy Temple in an effort to maintain the integrity of the house of worship and God's ideals, also would give His life -- the living, incarnate temple of God -- for their sins, by dying on a cross. Go figure. There is much we can learn from Christ's graciousness; and there is much we can learn from His passion for right as well.