January 2, 2006 7:00-8:30
To be honest the first time I met Jesus he really upset me. He upset a lot of people that day. In short he told us Pharisees that we weren’t the great spiritual teachers we thought we were. He called us hypocrites. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” We all knew that verse by heart. The prophet Isaiah wrote it almost five hundred years ago. I never imagined Isaiah would be talking about me.
Boy, when Jesus said that me and my friends were furious. First, Jesus was saying that although we looked very righteous on the outside, we weren’t spiritual on the inside. I couldn’t believe it. If I wasn’t a spiritual person, then no one was. I paid tithe faithfully even as a little child. I never broke the Sabbath rules. I memorized more of the Pentateuch and prophets than many other Pharisees, let alone common Jews. How could I possibly be unspiritual?
Most of the other Pharisees wrote Jesus off that day. He had embarrassed us all publicly. Oh yeah, they went to hear him speak again, but the only reason they went was to trip him up with impossible questions or gather evidence against him. I went to hear him again because he interested me. I couldn’t get his statement out of my mind. Had Isaiah really been talking about me? That night when I got home I couldn’t sleep. I did honor God with my lips, no one would doubt that, but was my heart really far from him?
Late in the night I finally crawled out of bed and went to the roof. I couldn’t help but think of God’s view of me? If I only looked good on the outside, I couldn’t imagine God was pleased with that. But what else could I do? I kept all the laws. If that didn’t please God, I could not think what would. Right there I knelt down and prayed. For a moment I could not even speak. How long had it been since I last prayed?
“Their hearts are far from me.” If I really had a heart for God, I probably should have tried to talk to him more.
“God,” I said, “I really do want to honor you. I guess I just don’t know how. I try to obey the law, but . . .” I didn’t know what else to say. For a few minutes I stayed bowed unable to formulate my thoughts.
“God, I want to honor you with my heart and my lips. Please show me how.”
I slowly got to my feet and sat down on the wall. Nothing happened. I didn’t know what was supposed to happen. I didn’t think a scroll would fall from heaven with the answer written inside, but I guess I kind of expected something. It wasn’t until then that I considered the other part of Jesus’ statement that we had found offensive. Although Jesus never explicitly said it, when He quoted Isaiah He made it seem as though there was a connection between not honoring God and not honoring Him.
All the Pharisees had heard of the miracles Jesus performed up north in Galilee. Even before I ever saw Him the word, “Messiah” was being thrown around. Could it be? I remember I laughed at the thought. But, what if He was? I couldn’t believe the devil was the cause of healing miracles. After all, Jesus was the one who seemed concerned that my heart did not honor God, why should He care unless He really did want us to honor Jehovah?
“Talk to Jesus.”
No, no one spoke that audibly, but I did hear it from my heart. Talk to Jesus? If any of my friends found me talking to him I’d never be allowed to be a Pharisee.
“But what if He has the answers?” my heart said.
For many minutes I stood on my roof unable to decide. To be caught taking with Jesus would mean the end of everything I had worked for. If I lost my status for the babbling of a crazed lunatic, I’d never be forgiven.
“Go to him at night. Go tonight!”
Now there was a thought. If I visited Him at night I wouldn’t have to risk any loss. If He was who others claimed He was, I only stood to gain. If He were merely a deranged man, no one would know, and I would lose nothing. Without another moment’s hesitation I got dressed and stepped out into the streets of the city.
You probably know the rest of the story. Jesus made it very clear that He was God’s only begotten Son. God sent Him into the world to die on a cross and forgive us of our sin. I finally understood that I had not kept the whole law. Jesus said later that the single greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. No one could ever completely do that. No one could give God the honor He has always deserved. That is why Jesus had to die. The sinless Son of God bore our sins on the cross in our place.
When I heard that Jesus rose from the dead, when I saw Him ascend into heaven, when God finally answered the prayer I prayed that night on the roof - then, I gave Jesus my heart.
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