(my best Mark Driscoll impression...)
Luke 24:44-48
Then he said, "When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true." Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures. And he said, "Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day. With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: `There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.' You are witnesses of all these things.
He tells them that the whole OT pointed to Him- “Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms… that’s a way of referring to all the categories of books in the OT- He’s saying, “The whole thing- it’s about Me, about this, about what you are witnessing right here, right now.”
He tells them, again, that this message of forgiveness and restoration wasn’t just for the Jewish people, but for all people… the word for “nations” here is “ethnos”, where we get “ethnic” from. You see, Jesus’ message from the very beginning- and what almost got Him killed at the very beginning of the Book of Luke, is that the Gospel, the Good News, is for all people- all kinds of people from all kinds of places. Jesus is not a cultural God. He’s not the deity of certain nationalities or certain ethnicities. He’s not the God of white Europeans only… how could a movement started by an Aramaic speaking Jewish Rabbi in the Middle East and propagated first by Jewish and Greek men and women all over the Latin Roman empire be something just for White Europeans? Jesus says, No- this is for all people, everywhere.
God offers this forgiveness, this new life, this chance to turn around and start over to the Dutch, to the Germans, even to the French. And He offers it to Native Americans, Italian Americans, African Americans, and undocumented Americans- Why? Because Americans need Jesus.
And more than just Americans… North Americans need Jesus. South Americans need Jesus. Canadians really need Jesus. Asians need Jesus, and Indians need Jesus and Russians and Slavs, and Turks need Jesus. And while it’s a dicey thing to say these days, I’ll say it- Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims need Jesus. And just as much and sometimes more than them, Episcopalians and Lutherans and Baptists need Jesus. Man oh man, do the Baptists need Jesus.
And hear this: Even people who meet in weird little pub churches need Jesus. All of us, regardless of where we were born, what color our skin might be, what religion we might claim… we need the forgiveness of God. We need Jesus.
He offers it to the rich, He offers it to the poor. He offers it to men, to women, to heterosexuals and to homosexuals. To children and adults, to the educated and to the illiterate, to those who know they need Him and to those who are sure they don’t.
He offers it to me, and He offers it to you.
Yes?
What is Jesus doing here? Well, He’s not starting a new religion, that’s for sure, just another way that man tries to reach up to God. Jesus is the end of religion. He’s saying- this is it- the kingdom of God come to all people, to all nations. This is a movement, not another institution, another religion, and God forgive us for ever turning it into that.
This a movement built around the person of Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection- and this pretty simple message: “There is forgiveness of sins for all those who repent.”
I cannot believe you failed to capitalize "undocumented." Have you no respect?
Posted by: jason | April 28, 2006 at 10:33 AM