Being Like Jesus…?
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” —Luke 15:1
I was reading an article today about ways we can be like Jesus. “Know him; love him; be considerate of others in all things; be humble; watch your tone…” An acceptable list, I guess; but I felt kind of constricted after reading it, as if I had to fit into a set of specific rules to “be like Jesus”.
I decided to do a search on this in my favorite search engine (I’ll let you guess which one) and found another article (here) that feels better to me. “Hang out with sinners; afflict the comfortable; comfort the afflicted; care nothing about power; protect children…” Jesus was not the cute little baby Jesus that keeps us in line through commandments and rules. Jesus is the one who fought against oppression, healed the unworthy, lifted up the lowly to a place of equality, and freed us all to act for justice and peace.
Being like Jesus is hard in today’s world. But thankfully, we are not called to this hard work alone. God’s Holy Spirit guides and strengthens us to do the work of being like Jesus. Today is a great day to go out into the world and be like Jesus, speaking the truth into a world that would put Jesus in a box and make him about obeying all the rules.
Be bold; be brave; and be like Jesus…and be blessed.