A Praise for Us or Warning?

Then He started to reproach the cities in which most of his powerful Works had taken place, because they did not repent:  Matthew 11:20

In Matthew 11 verses 20-24 we find Jesus lamenting the fact that the people of these cities where He had done great works, just refused to see the significance of it.

Deliberately on purpose we can choose not to sit back comfortably pointing our fingers at those poor people who inhabited those cities when Jesus rebuked them.  Rather in the hopes of making sure we ourselves are not falling into some clever trap of the world, the devil or our own fallen nature, we could implicate ourselves along with them and leave it to our Savior to judge.

Only Jesus will be able to see correctly the true condition of our heart and know for a fact that we have given it 100 percent to Him.  Therefore, let´s take things to Him and place it in His capable hands.  We would rather fall on His mercy than to be judged for something we failed to see clearly and had blundered along as we saw fit.

So we examine these texts in this light, accepting the reprimand in the hopes of further healing and enlightenment.

Jesus had been at work.  He had demonstrated to the world that He was come from the Father´s side.  There in God´s kingdom everything works by a different set of rules.  There in the realm of the Almighty, EVERYTHING follows God´s will.  Our familiar laws of nature depend on that will but do not define, limit nor control anything there.

So small is our understanding of this that we cannot even picture it.  It is too great of stretch for our limited senses to try to capture even tiny facts about this kingdom not made by hands.  The best you and I can ever do is to lift up to God what we do not see or cannot understand.  We can ask the Lord to take up where we lack, and in doing this, He may accept this attitude as the smoke and fragrance of incense before His presence.

The same we can do with His movement within the churches.  Jesus rebuked those cities for not realizing what was happening before their very eyes.  God was working among men.  Power had come from beyond our realm and people went on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened.  Don´t you think we should read into this too.

It was so easy for the people of that day, to weigh the facts and come out with the conclusion that they did not know what was really going on but there had to be an explanation.  They knew something was going on, but they wrongly chose to ground themselves in what they did know and understand.  They were going to continue on their well beat paths to and from the synagogue and plug away at religion as it had been handed down to them.

Their error was not in holding God as important.  They merely failed to place all the importance they should have, to the closeness of heart and soul.  Had they not been so sure of themselves, they might have repented.  If only they could have seen where their own eyes had built up a barrier to where they could not even see how and when the Lord was moving.  This was their problem and it might be ours too.

With the hopes of throwing ourselves upon our Lord without reserve or defense, let us turn to Him today.  Let us not be guilty in areas where we lack understanding or cannot see clearly.  For sure the Lord is working among us today as well.  Instead of cities, perhaps we have churches, families or social circles.  Let us not cling to the known and not look for an answer from a different realm where things work to a different set of laws.

Let us lift our hearts up above any and all limitation we have here on earth and set them on One who is infinitely higher.  Let us draw near to Jesus while we can, today.  Let us push nothing off for later, because perhaps then our Savior would have to lament our failure to repent.

Dear Lord, we cannot even begin to wonder at all the things you are working on but by some limitation of our own, we cannot see.  Please help us where we lack.  Accept our hearts even though filled with imperfections.  Let us turn to You today whether we see our faults or not.  We do not want to give you any reason for concern like those cities of old did.  If we cannot see you move, please draw us closer until we can see.

Do this we pray for Your pleasure and glory,

Amen

Scott W