“Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you’re not really interested in order to get where you’re going.”
–Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

Talk about sobering words that get to the heart of motivation and desire. When I look to Christ’s example, I don’t see him setting anything aside in order to get to where He was going. If I can take a bit of creative license with Morley’s words and my perception of Christ, I see Christ not joining the parade, but stepping inside of the parade in order to pull people out. He ate with the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sick, not in order to become one of them, but because He wanted them to walk in a different parade. The Parade. The Big Show. Eternity. That was where He was going, and He wanted them to come.

Next time I find myself walking in or around “the parade”, I need to pray earnestly that Christ is my tether and my compass. If anything, Christ wants me not to pretend to be someone or something else while I am trying to bring people to Him. He didn’t do it. There are times when I must change my outward appearance and behavior in order to reach people where they are at, in their parade, but never setting aside or denying He who is in my heart (as I think of colleagues working in Muslim countries and my own mother working with the prison ministry). That is not pretending. Christ did not pretend. And He was very interested!

I found one very interesting statement this morning in a blog I read: “If He did not eat with sinners, He would have to eat alone”, by Isaac Abaldy II. Abaldy went on to state, “While we must admit that, yes, Jesus ate with sinners, we also must not forget that He did not eat with all sinners. He ate with those sinners whom He taught, and He taught those sinners with whom He ate. And that is the pattern and command He gives to the baptized, forgiven people of His church and those He has called to shepherd them.”

Matthew 9:12, 13 – On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Christ went to where the spiritually sick where. No pretending. No lack of interest. Purpose and desire and passion.

Again, from Matthew 9 — When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Verses 36-38.

Who will eat with today?

In His service,
Keith