trying to kill jesus

Jesus was his own man. As he said, he came to do the will of the Father who sent him (John 5:30). He didn’t care if you liked it or not, he did what he came to do.

Of course, in the pursuit of this he made a lot of people mad. In fact, they got mad enough that they killed him. This was not a procedural argument or a little disagreement. He made the ruling religious leaders so mad they had him put to death.

Is it the same today? Yes.

The church doesn’t like what Jesus stands for: love and freedom. He came to seek and save the lost, to set us free. Again and again he said that, or variations of it.

And the religious leaders today seek to put him to death.

Oh, they don’t think they are doing so, but they are. They try to put to death the things he stands for that they do not like, or they try to append things to his mission that they want.

Sometimes he becomes like a senate or house bill that is so weighed down by amendments that it has become worthless, bogged down.

Jesus did not come to campaign for the Republicans or Democrats, to advance the agenda of veganism or environmentalism. He didn’t come to speak out on social justice, although he talked about it. He didn’t come to heal or do miracles, although he did these things. He didn’t even come to preach and show a better way.

He came to seek and save the lost. He came to bring us back to God.

And it made them mad that he didn’t agree with them and come onto their side and into their camp. So they killed him.

They try to kill him today by watering him down. But Jesus was truly a radical and revolutionary man. He came to bring new life and that abundantly.

There is no abundant life where there are nothing but restrictions. That way is death and was what he came to change.

In him is freedom.