GPiper
October 28th 2003, 10:08 AM
Into mysteries are you? Like a challenge do you? Well here’s one: Now while he was at table in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When he heard this he replied, "It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice. And indeed I came to call not the upright, but sinners."
{Matthew 9:10 - 9:13 NJB}
Have you figured out what the mystery is? It may not be what you think it is!
Nothing Jesus did was mysterious after all he did come to offer life to those dead by reason of their sins. There’s no mystery in where he was after all to save sinners he’d need to be with them. Nothing Jesus said was mysterious after all he only said what God wished him to say!
So what’s the big mystery? We’re the mystery, you and I! We will identify ourselves with either the Pharisees or the sinners. I’d like to end the mystery surrounding whom I identify with I’m one of dirty rotten deadbeat sinners the Pharisees looked down on.
How about you? It’s a very simple question with the same results as the parable of Lazarus and a Rich man: "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
{Luke 16:19 - 16:25 RSV}
We’ve met the mystery and the mystery is us!
Gary
{Matthew 9:10 - 9:13 NJB}
Have you figured out what the mystery is? It may not be what you think it is!
Nothing Jesus did was mysterious after all he did come to offer life to those dead by reason of their sins. There’s no mystery in where he was after all to save sinners he’d need to be with them. Nothing Jesus said was mysterious after all he only said what God wished him to say!
So what’s the big mystery? We’re the mystery, you and I! We will identify ourselves with either the Pharisees or the sinners. I’d like to end the mystery surrounding whom I identify with I’m one of dirty rotten deadbeat sinners the Pharisees looked down on.
How about you? It’s a very simple question with the same results as the parable of Lazarus and a Rich man: "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
{Luke 16:19 - 16:25 RSV}
We’ve met the mystery and the mystery is us!
Gary