The world has been broken, and we are unwell. Sin has entered the world through humanity, and we have mangled our relationship with God and our relationships with other people. How’s that for a cheery start to my weekly blog? Well, now you’re going to need to keep reading to see if this gets any better.
In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus prescribes the remedy for our disease. A lawyer came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” What Jesus is saying is that the primary human problem is one of broken relationships . . . We don’t love God as we ought and we don’t love others as we ought. But this is a prescription and nobody is ever healed by a prescription! I don’t take the little slip of paper that nobody can read, and rub it on my injury or eat it for effect. I need to get the prescription filled.
The cross is the medicine. It is the place where our relationally devastating sins against God and our relationally devastating sins against mankind were dealt with! Without the cross we are left in a constant cycle of broken relationships with others and with God.
It is for this reason that relationships matter so much in the church. The way we treat each others matters. Community, unity and authentic relationships are not a secondary issue in the church. Jesus came to heal us . . . And not just heal us in some future way, but He died to provide a remedy to heal broken relationships now.
When more people gather there is more room for brokenness to show in our relationships. As ReCAST has grown we must be ever vigilant to be sure to maintain healthy relationships in the church. Jesus’ advice about relationships seems a lot like common sense. If someone has offended you, go to them and make it right.
All of us have inherited a broken way to deal with disagreements and frustrations. . . We rally troops, win people to our vantage point, and then march to war. Nothing can divide a church quicker than back channels and trying to win people to our side of a disagreement.
Whatever church you attend, would you be willing to commit to going straight to the one who has offended you? So many hardships and difficulties in the church could be resolved by following Jesus advice found in Matthew 18:15-29
Jesus came to heal broken relationships. We must take those relationships seriously by showing love to one another!
