We despised him and rejected him- a man of sorrows, acquainted with
bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he
went by.
Isaiah 53:3
Passionate Faith
Jesus
had perfect faith and was absolutely sinless.
But
what do we mean by passionate? God and
Jesus declared how much they truly love his people. God declared through
Jeremiah “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3) And in
Hosea he agonizes over Israel- My heart is turned over within Me all My
compassions are kindled. (Hosea 11:8)
God
showed his people (and shows us, too) that we should be passionate. David was
passionate as he wrote the Psalms (6,31, 42) when down and when joyous.
Jesus
expressed his emotions freely and without shame. He embraced these emotions and
revealed his love anger, sorrow, very openly. Hebrews 4:15—we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness—Jesus knew and
experienced everything we do. He understands because he felt and experienced
too.
When
Jesus saw the sorrow in Mary and Martha’s eyes over the death of their brother
Lazarus, he wept and his heart was stirred. And he showed his anger to bring
about change. Expressing anger is often needed but we should do so in a healthy
way. One needs to deal with relational problems right away and not allow them
to fester or seethe within us.== be slow to anger. (James 1:19=20)
For
many years women were taught it isn’t lady like to become angry. For men, they
were taught not to cry. Yet if we are to have healthy faith, we need to embrace
and affirm our emotions. |We need to recognize that unhealthy faith denies
people the change to feel what they really feel. Healthy churches are healing
centres where we can express our true feelings as well as find prayer support,
accountability, appropriate forgiveness and cleansing.
Unhealthy
churches are filled with people who look good, say all the right things, and
support an image of perfectionism. Real
feelings are abandoned for the “good ones” supporting the myth that the
faithful have no problems.
But
to be genuine and healthy is to be able to embrace who we are as human beings.
There is no need to hide emotions for Jesus experienced them all. Health faith
allows us to embrace all aspects of our humanity and acknowledges our capacity
to sin and make mistakes. There is no illusion of perfection, no need to be
perfect or to hide when we fail. Health faith enables us to experience God’s grace
and to pass it along. We then become like Jesus, a wounded healer.
REFLECTION:
Have you ever felt that you had to
hide your feelings because someone in your church commented about how you
expressed your feelings? What did you do? What should we be doing? Unhealthy
churches exist because people are not honest with themselves nor about
situations around others. Yet this may be changed if those who truly realize
that they belong to Jesus, imperfections and all, and tell another one who is unsure about
their relationship with Jesus. Our goal is to have healthy faith and healthy
churches. What are the steps needed for this to occur? What do you do for
yourself and for others in order that your church be healthier?
PRAYER
Wonderful God we praise you for Jesus
our Risen Lord and how he lived his life being human when he did not need to do
so. We thank you for your Gift to us in Jesus and that he die and came to life
once again. Through this saving act he truly showed us the way of perfection
and love. Amen.
This reflection is based upon ideas
of by Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton More Jesus Less Religion: Moving
from Rules to Relationship. Colorado Springs, Co: Waterbrook
Press,2000. Chapter 7
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