THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 11:45-54
“You have taken away the key to knowledge.” (Luke 11:52)
I often think the church of history is guilty of a similar offence.
Jesus presents a very simple message: trust Me, put your hope in Me.
This simple message of faith has morphed into a complex message of beliefs.
You must believe this way, with these words, with these actions.
The simple “I believe, help me in my unbelief” (Mark 9:24) no longer works.
Now one must affirm multiple complicated doctrines and creeds… to be saved.
Definitions of God, trinity, incarnation that I still can’t wrap my mind around.
Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the catholic faith.
Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally…
Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity…
One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully. (Athanasian Creed)
We have made complex beliefs the key to salvation, rather than desperate hope and simple trust.
How many people have turned away from God because they could not swallow the beliefs.
My guess is that all of Jesus’s followers, including the twelve, would have failed this.
Look at the people that came to Jesus, that listened with desperate hope to Him.
Not believers in doctrine, but trusters in this man they did not understand.
“You have hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)
Our church includes both atheist and seminary graduate, and everything in between.
We have people who hold to unorthodox beliefs… including myself.
What unites us together is some kind of positive response to Jesus, to what He said or what He did.
We welcome anyone who wants to come… to belong, to participate, to be baptized, to communion.
The journey of faith in Jesus begins with baby steps, growing closer to the man we do not understand.
He is the key to knowledge, and I will not hinder anyone from Him!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, we are a hodgepodge of believers and unbelievers somehow drawn to You. Though few of us could pass the test of orthodoxy, all of us pass the test of grace. Thank You that grace wins!