Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Jesus without Boundaries

As we've been working through Matthew 5-10 I've been struck again and again by how Jesus continually raises the bar.  In the Sermon on the Mount we see it as he calls for a righteousness not on a par with the Pharisee's but with God and he promises it is possible through faith in him.  Then as he comes down from the Mountain we see him continuing to challenge peoples limited preconceptions about who the Messiah is and what he has come to do and what it means to follow him.  Jesus is the Messiah without boundaries, he is Christ the Lord, he is the one who demands to be king and Lord of your life and will settle for no less.

He is the one who can take away the effects of sin as he overcomes illness and sickness, he overcomes the demons who recognise his right to rule and his coming kingdom and are terrified of its final realisation.  He is the one who speaks and creation hearing the voice of its creator is still.  He forgives sin and is prepared to take on the disciples limited view of him as well as that of the Pharisees.  He is the Son of God uncontainable and untameable.

We cannot keep Jesus within neat boundaries, we cannot say this far and no further to God the Son, we cannot pick up and put down our creator and the one before whom one day we will stand.  Jesus is God the Son.  It has been incredibly challenging to see this again and again, Jesus is not tame and domesticated, he is pushing his disciples and those following him to recognise who he really is not to settle for preconceived tame notions. 

And as we read Matthew God challenges modern day disciples not to limit Jesus but to recognise the real him, to have our thinking about him expanded and extended and to see him enthroned as Lord of our whole lives with nothing untouched by his reign and rule, nothing held back from his authority and command.  And we can do this because we see again and again that he is for his people.  It is a call for radical discipleship of a radical Messiah with a radical gospel.

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