What are you lifting up?

Last week I talked about “The Messiah you have? Or the messiah you want?” As I looked into the life of Judas Iscariot I came to a conclusion that the Messiah standing before him wasn’t the messiah he was looking for. Often we want our crosses we’ve been called to bear altered to fit what we would like. The whole “dying to self” thing is a bit much…so we don’t live it because we convince ourselves that maybe that isn’t really what he meant by “carry your cross.” If you would like to read the rest of my thoughts, take a look at my last post.

So the question is…if we lift up a messiah that we have altered, what does the world see? Does the world see an accurate portrait of Jesus Christ, our Messiah? Jesus said that, “I am going to be lifted up from the earth. When I am, I will bring all people to myself” (John 12:32, TNIV). I heard this verse talked about in an evangelistic since and it has changed how I view life. The question was, if Christ will draw the world to Him when He is lifted up, are we drawing the world to Him by what we are lifting up?

We’ve been called to live a life that is drastically different from the world.
If you look at www.barna.org, you’ll find that there aren’t many differences between the world and Christians. I know I’ve talked about this before but I really wish that Christians would keep the 10 Commandments themselves before sticking a bumper sticker on their car saying that they need to be kept in the courthouse. What is the world seeing in us?

Jesus calls us to a life of peace. I’m not making a war protest because I believe He is talking about a different kind of peace. The kind of peace that David talks about in Psalm 23, “I will fear no evil, because You are with me.” Jesus calls us to the kind of peace that no matter what is going on in life, no matter how bad things get, you will have a life of peace. When the world looks at our lives, do they see craziness or peace? Does your life show the Messiah to the world or are we simply asking people to trade their life of craziness for our life of craziness with something else to do during the week?

John 14:26-27
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”

The Messiah you have? Or the messiah you want?

Let me tell you why I love the outdoors store R.E.I….If you buy a backpack and use it a few times and decide that it isn’t the backpack you need, you take it back and get what you want. I know that if I buy something there I will get what I want and if I end up not liking as much as I thought…I can just exchange it. It is almost like the Burger King of the outdoor world, “What you want is what you get.”

How often do we approach Jesus, accept our cross, carry it for a while, and then take it back for some adjusting. If you really think about it and look into it, the cross is kind of a fixed object. It isn’t that Jesus does not want to provide the customer service for us. He does…He says He’ll help us. You don’t even have to go back to the store…He’ll help you where you’re at. The problem we have though, is that we don’t want “help” with the cross…we want something different.

It is amazing how when you have something on your mind, you end up having three or four conversations about it in a week or so. That is how it has been with me and good ol’ Judas this week. Why did Judas betray Jesus? You’re thinking, “Ryan, the Devil entered him…duh.” I thought of that too, but how often does the Devil enter into me? Think on that for a minute, not the Devil entering into me, but how, when you sin, the Devil has entered into you.

The Jews of the day were looking for a “Son of David” to come back and be their messiah, their King, and kick Rome’s tail. As a Jewish leader you would end up being pretty high up in the ranks of Israel as a nation. As an Apostle of the messiah you would be even higher in the kingdom…hence the mother’s request in Matthew 20:20-28.

I am under the belief that Judas was so wrapped up in the earthly kingdom and Jesus, the messiah, the king, he turned away from Jesus when the “Messiah must die” conversations started happening. Judas had the messiah that he wanted and not the Messiah that he had in front of him.

Do we ever crucify the Messiah you have for a messiah we want? Look deep into what Jesus taught. Die to yourself? Give your stuff away? Love your enemies? Fast? Pray? Do not worry? Don’t judge? Etc? Our Messiah calls us to a different kind of living…and sometimes we find ourselves saying, “I don’t think He really meant all of that.” How is your cross? Are you saying, “Here Jesus, I’ll save you the trouble of adjusting my cross. I’ll do it myself.”

A whole other subject, “how do we present the Messiah to others?” Maybe we’ll talk about that next week. For now ask yourself, “Do you want the Messiah you have or do you want the messiah you want?”