Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Seeker Sensitive

My local church body is into the "seeker sensitive" thing.  Trying to tear down the walls that might exclude people who don't "get" church, so that everyone might hear the Gospel.  They are trying their best to be "all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:22, New King James Version) I find my church to be pretty good at this.  Then again I was raised in the church and began following Jesus young, so what do I know.  Jesus is usually considered the prime example of this, using stories based on everyday things to teach truth.

The trouble is when you run into a story like this one:
 
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
(Mark 10:17-18, New King James Version)

Here comes a seeker, wanting to know the answer to spiritual questions.  Here was another chance for Jesus to pull out a metaphor or story that would strike this man to the heart and bring him to know God.  So what did Jesus do?  He quibbled with the man's choice of words, "Why do you call Me good?"
Come on Jesus, we all know you're Good.  Other people have called you "Good" and "Teacher." What's the problem with the guy calling you that?  The problem was what Jesus said, "No one is good but ...God."  This is what Jesus had been teaching, and what his disciples continued to teach.  Only God is good, and Jesus was God.  The problem that Jesus had with this guy was that this guy thought he was good too.  Jesus rattles off a few commandments and this guy responds, "yeah, yeah, I know all that."  Then Jesus tells this guy to sell all his stuff and we find out this guy didn't worship God but stuff.  So even though Jesus loved this guy (Mark 10:21), Jesus pushed him away from the kingdom.

Why would Jesus do this?  We find the answer in back in the book of Hosea, where the prophet says of some seekers:

“ With their flocks and herds
      They shall go to seek the LORD,
      But they will not find Him;
      He has withdrawn Himself from them.
       (Hosea 5:6, New King James Version)

Here we go, people bringing everything they have to go find the Lord, yet He hides from them.  Why?  There is ever only one answer:

    I will return again to My place
      Till they acknowledge their offense.
      Then they will seek My face;
      In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
     (Hosea 5:15, New King James Version)

These people were trying to find God on there own terms, not on His.  They wanted to form a truce with God, not admit they had rebelled from Him and surrender to Him.  They weren't seeking God, they wanted to hunt God down and keep Him as a pet.  God hides from people like this.

The guy who came to Jesus seeking the secret to eternal life didn't want God, he wanted to live forever.  Jesus didn't push this guy away, this guy didn't want anything to do with Him.  Jesus just showed the guy what he needed:  GOD!  Most of all Jesus proved to this guy and the world, that this guy wasn't spiritual or religious.  This guy was worldly in the worst way, and just wanted for it to last forever.

What is the lesson here?  Not everyone that is looking for God is seeking Him.  Some of them are hunting Him down as a pet.

Which one are you?  Do you really want God, or just what he can do for you?  Have you admitted that there is none Good but Him, not even yourself?

1 comment:

  1. Very good point!

    It is interesting, in reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer for class last night he made a very similar point regarding the church in Germany of his time, (1940's). It is so easy to project onto God humanity's expectations of good, forgetting it is God who is sovereign in this situation, not ourselves.

    As I have to study this passage for my Mark exegesis final tomorrow, I find it interesting that right after vv. 17-22 what the reaction of the crowd is to what Jesus had to say. They are confused. In their culture, the guy was rich because he was good, better than they were, how was it he wasn't getting into the Kingdom of God? Hence why they ask, "Then who can be saved?" If this guy, with all his blessings from God in the form of material wealth couldn't, how is this supposed to work?

    I see our culture thinking that too at times. We make assumptions on the grace of God, only finding out later that we are wrong in that. Like you said, we almost want to make God a pet, we project on him what we want, we make assumptions, and expect him to support that. And it is only later, when we actually ask him, we find out the truth, that it is not our definition that matters, but God's.

    Thanks for jiggling my brain for my exegetical final....I suppose I need to go finish writing those papers and quit dorking on your blog. *scampers off*

    ReplyDelete