A man named Saul day 3

 “I like Jesus, but I don’t like the Church.”

I’ve heard many people say this. I’ve even heard pastors say this! And maybe they’ve got good reasons. Certainly, the Church hasn’t always looked a lot like Jesus. We bicker and brawl. We split theological hairs and exclude people who don’t agree with us. We divide over dumb things like what kind of music to use or what women can and can’t do or what colour to paint the foyer. There are a multitude of reasons why a person might say they don’t like Church. You’ll never hear Jesus say it, though.

In fact, one of the statements Jesus made to Saul on the road to Damascus demonstrates how Jesus feels toward His Church. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

Saul, of course, had no idea what this Voice was talking about. He asked, “Who are You, Lord?”

Jesus replies, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” That was probably confusing for Saul. He wasn’t persecuting a person, he was persecuting a group of people who followed a Person.

But Jesus said, “If you’re messing with them, you’re messing with Me.”

These early followers of Jesus weren’t perfect. They had squabbles over who was important. They were very prejudiced against people from other nationalities. They had knock-down, drag-out arguments over silly things like what you could and could not eat and whether or not you had to observe certain religious holidays.

But Jesus said, “Those are My people, and as imperfect as they are, if you mess with them, you’re messing with Me!”

He still says the same thing about His people today. Is the Church perfect? Far from it! Will it ever be? Not until Jesus comes back. But Jesus loves Her, with all Her warts and spots and wrinkles and blemishes. She is His plan to save the world.

Saul, who became known more widely as Paul, apparently got the message. In his later writings, he referred to the Church as “the Body of Christ” (Rom12; 1 Cor12; Eph 4-5; Colossians 3).

Would you say to Jesus, “I like You, but I don’t like Your Body”?

Remember, you mess with the Church, you mess with Jesus. And if you accept Jesus …

 

Prayer 

 

Lord, when I consider the history of the Church through the centuries, it amazes me that You have chosen to use such an imperfect and inefficient vehicle to spread the gospel of the Kingdom throughout the world. Yet in spite of all the selfishness, pride, envy, strife, malice, deceit, errors and misunderstandings that have characterised Christendom, Your purposes in the world cannot be thwarted. It would be so much easier for You to spread the gospel directly without our involvement, but You have chosen to love and nurture the living Body of Christ, which is Your Bride, the Church. In spite of our imperfections and foolishness, You have chosen to love us and live through us. I look forward to the day when You will sanctify and cleanse us so that we can be holy and blameless when we are with You.

In Jesus’s name, Amen