Dan Czaplewski posted on September 13, 2007 17:50
Did you ever wonder what God thought of a situation? We form our opinions fairly quickly – maybe too quickly. But what is God’s opinion of a situation?
The Gospel reading for this coming Sunday is from Luke 15:10. In those verses Jesus tells two stories about being lost, being found, and throwing a party. The occasion for those stories (the “setup” if you will) is verse 1-2: “All the tax collectors and sinners came to listen to Jesus. But the Pharisees and the scribes complained, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
The religious leaders looked down on the riff raff with which Jesus associated. They criticized Jesus for hanging out with disreputable characters. They may have had a point; bad company does corrupt good character. What they failed to recognize was that they needed saving too. The scribes and Pharisees were as lost as anyone else and they needed to be found.
So what did God think about their criticism? What was His opinion of their judgmental attitudes and condemnation?
I would suggest that God wept. I believe that it pains God a great deal whenever one of us looks down on someone and takes a spiritually superior attitude. That attitude, in effect, resents God for His grace.
The safeguard against that resentment and judgmental attitude is to remember that you are the lost sheep and the lost coin; to remember that you need a Savior. The good news of these verses from Luke and of the entirety of the Bible is that you have a Savior. Not just any savior, but one that will stop at nothing to seek you out and carry you to Himself.
God bless you with days of knowing how deeply God desires you to be found.