It's Time to Arise...

His whole life had been building up to this moment. With many hours of training, running, long afternoons, early mornings and cramped legs, John Stevens had been paying the price and preparing for this race at the Olympic Games. John Stevens was a 28 year old athlete with the dream of winning a gold medal while representing his country; Tanzania. Amongst all the runners, he was regarded as the strongest and fastest for the 65 km marathon.  The gun shot and the runners were off. The intensity and strain that these runner’s bodies endure would make most human beings collapse after a few minutes. Kilometre after kilometre and hour after hour; these athletes pushed themselves to the limit. A gold medal and a nation’s pride was in their hands (or legs). The years of preparation was now going to bear fruit. One of these many runners were going to win and John Stevens was in the lead.

After many hours, runners started to cross the finish line. Germany first, USA second and Russia third. No John Stevens. An hour had passed; more crossed while others collapsed over line. Still, there was no sign of John Stevens. By now, dusk had arrived, most of the spectators had left, some of the officials had started to pack up as one runner was still not accounted for; John Stevens. Suddenly, one of Olympic officials pointed to a figure moving in the distance towards them. Slowly, but surely, this athlete hobbled and trudged towards the finishing line. As this man drew closer, the sight of his condition was evidence of his position in the race. John Stevens was making his way down the road, his knees cut open, his arms covered in scrapes and blood, but he continued to move towards the finish. The blood had actually dried to his wounds. John’s face carried the expression of agony and pain as he made his way closer. Medical personal rushed to him, but he warded them off, shouting ‘Leave me alone, leave me alone, I have to finish.’

As John Stevens crossed the finish line, he collapsed onto his knees as medical staff brought him water, bandages and treatment.

By now, Olympic Games officials gathered around this athlete from Tanzania who was favourite to win, but ended up coming stone last, because of his fall.

They said to him ‘John, John, what happened? Why are you so banged up?’ John told them about his tremendous fall on the tar road during the first couple of kilometres. His knees were cut open, his elbows and forearms were scraped and had bled from trying to break the fall. The officials said ‘But, why didn’t you stop and call for help. Why didn’t you stop and get the treatment you needed? You didn’t have to run to end while in pain and agony.’ John looked at the men and women around him. He smiled and said the most powerful words many of them will never forget. He said ‘My country never sent me to start this race. My country sent me to finish this race.’

Jesus, what a guy!

Jesus was an amazing guy! I often wonder what it was about Jesus that made him so attractive to people. They enjoyed his company and Jesus certainly enjoyed theirs. One thing is for sure, they weren’t trying to impress Jesus; they didn’t have to. They could be themselves. And Jesus loved that.

In fact, he loved them so much that he wanted them to experience the kingdom so that the stuff that had polluted them could be removed and replaced by His kingdom qualities. The Bible tells us that Jesus hung with these folks because He loved them, he had a mission to reach them with his love and to so demonstrate that the Father didn’t isolate them when they mess up and sin, but quite the opposite. He longed to draw them to himself so he could clean them (Matt 9:12-13). This drove the Religious nuts of the day crazy because they were so religious in their hearts that they thought and honestly believed that the dirtier you are; the further God wants you away from Him.

He ate food and drank wine with the unrighteous. He told jokes, he laughed with them, and he shared stories and listened to theirs. He used these times to share principles about his Father’s kingdom. But he never did this to alienate, but instead to add salt to their lives so that they would thirst for more. The religious dudes of the day accused Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton because he feasted on good food and drank wine with these ‘sinners’. They even labelled him a ‘friend’ of these ‘people’ whom they despised and looked down upon (Matt 11:19).

The one thing that amazes me is how sinners never felt ashamed or embarrassed in Jesus’ midst. He was a man who was tempted, but was without sin (Heb 4:15). He never swore, he never told a dirty joke, he never lied, he never made a distasteful joke about a woman, He never got drunk, but yet he was always around people who thrived and lived daily in these vices. Surely, they discovered after the second or third party that Jesus was different. Jesus wasn’t going to get drunk with the rest of them. He wasn’t going to pull out the latest Hustler magazine for all to gawk at. But yet, instead of feeling weird around him, these sinners, these men and women who were far from God, wanted to hang around with GOD. They truly liked him! They invited him for dinners, they washed his feet with their tears, they anointed him with oil, they invited him to parties and they never considered Jesus boring. Not once. He never made them feel inferior to him because he was perfect. In fact, they felt more loved by Him through his perfection. Jesus had a way of looking past the sin of a person and connecting with the heart of a person in a social gathering with no worship playing in the background. He managed to connect with some people in such a way that they would in fact change their lives, turn away from what was wrong and live differently. And this all happened around live music, fisherman cussing, wine being served and prostitutes sharing on how business is booming!

Most Christians would be found helpless in a gathering of this nature. Not Jesus, he thrived in these meetings. This is the reason he came. Something deep inside me suspects that God wants Christians to infiltrate such gatherings amongst our friends and families, to imitate exactly what Jesus did (Eph 5:1), without actually saying much else; but just to love the unlovable (Matt 22:39) and to show an authentic care and love for people that most would look down upon and ignore. Jesus received much suspicion from the religious part of society and I no doubt believe that once Christians start reaching out as Jesus did, they will receive the same suspicion and maybe even worse.

Jesus was invited to more parties and more dances than he was Healing Conferences and Leadership Training Seminars.

This is what made him so attractive to unbelievers and such a threat to the religious guys of the day. It was because the religious couldn’t work out how he could be in such close proximity with sinners and yet be without sin. They had to resort to false testimony just to have a case to punish him. It drove them crazy that Jesus didn’t live inside the synagogue and perform the required rituals and yet he lived the perfect life. Instead of embracing HiHiHim, they shunned him. He invited them to His Father’s house, but they refused. He then went to the by ways and high ways to invited any who would come (Matt 22:2-10).

Jesus, what a guy!