Beyond the Walls

The picture at the right is a model built of the Temple that stood in Jerusalem in Jesus' day - the one that King Herod built. It's difficult to fathom how huge this place was. Those little pebble-like things at the left of the picture - those are houses.

The Temple was like a city unto itself. All kinds of activity went on in there, all to do with the business of worship, sacrifice, and alms-giving.

Outside, there were hundreds if not thousands of people whose lives were not in the least impacted by what went on inside, even though the presence and impressiveness of the Temple itself was a continual reminder of the rituals taking place within its walls. Yet the people outside were not practically impacted. Most of them believed that the state religion had little to do with their every-day lives and that it was fine in its place, as long as people didn't get carried away with it. (Hm, that sounds familiar.) Deep in their hearts, however, they'd been disillusioned by religion, hurt by its representatives, and therefore decided that God had abandoned them. They felt ostracized, judged, rejected. Among these were prostitutes, tradesmen, fishermen, farmers, tax-collectors, bakers, and many more.

Jesus did go to the Temple. But He himself said that not one stone of it would rest upon another. His prophecy came true some 45 years later, in 70 AD when Titus came in and razed Jerusalem to the ground.

He wasn't about the building or what went on in there.

Jesus spent the vast majority of His ministry outside the walls of the Temple - bringing help and hope to those who were in desperate need of someone to care, to show them what God was really like, and to meet them at their point of need, whatever that was. The vast majority of the people who followed Jesus around the countryside were the disenfranchised of the nation, the ones the Pharisees and Sadducees (whom Jesus called hypocrites because they put on masks of piety) looked down upon. The religious elite would never dream of sullying their reputations by hanging out with people who used foul language or went to the publican's house (that was the local bar - where do you think we got the word "pub" from?)

Jesus sought them out; He was constantly on the lookout for people who were hungry for a relationship with God. Like Zaccheus. Jesus loved people (still does) the way they were (and are). His message? God loves you so much that He is willing to give His very best so that you can be in a relationship with Him. You want to know what God is like? Look at Me, and you won't need to look any further. I and My Father are One.

Strong words. He backed them up with strong actions - and an unconditional love that drew in such people as Matthew, a tax-collector (a Roman sympathizer who profited from the occupation of Israel), Simon (a Zealot who was anti-Rome to the core), James and John (the tag-team brothers who were known as "Sons of Thunder"), Andrew and Peter (big, burly fishermen whose language was no doubt crude and unsophisticated), Mary Magdalene (a demon-possessed prostitute who, after Jesus delivered her from her demons, became one of His most devoted followers), Zaccheus (another tax-collector), Nicodemus (a member of the ruling council of Pharisees, whose religion was patently unsatisfying and who knew that Jesus held the key to a fulfilled life), and hundreds more of varied backgrounds and different occupations.

And Jesus did all of this, impacted this many people, outside the walls of established ritual, religion, and rules. He challenged the established thinking of the day and told instead of a Father who loved even when deserted, who forgave freely, and who continually longed for relationship with us.

Sometimes I wonder when we're inside the walls of the church building enjoying the service and reveling in the presence of God, what relevance this has to the people outside if it doesn't translate into us being the salt and light that Jesus talked about, that Jesus was when He was here.

Let's be honest. The deepest wounds we have received have been at the hands or lips of church members - haven't they? People outside the walls of the church know that. That's why they don't usually come to church or even want anything to do with God "if that's what Christianity is like." If they don't want to be stabbed in the back, they'll take their chances out there, where they're on their guard at least.

I knew one fellow once who was relatively new to spirituality, fresh into a brand-new relationship with God, who honestly believed that those calling themselves Christians would actually be like the Jesus they preached. His own relationship with God had transformed his life, set him on a healthy path, and restored his self-respect. He eventually got a job working in a (supposedly) evangelical fundamentalist church - it paid his bills and he was grateful to be working for people who he thought would not shaft him. But a couple of the leaders in the church found out about his previous life, perhaps felt threatened by the fact that he didn't worship at their church, and made his work atmosphere into a living hell. They judged him, did things deliberately to try to make him lose his temper and go back to his old way of living, and they generally attempted to manipulate the situation so that he would lose his job. They were more concerned (to use the temple analogy) with sweeping up inside of the walls, making sure that their little empires were protected, than they were about loving and accepting people who were made in God's image.

My friend became so disillusioned that he had to take stress leave and be on medication to control the panic and the depression into which he slid. The horrible actions of God's representatives made him question his faith and turned him away from, rather than attracted him to, the church. It took him a long time to heal from that - and it was totally uncalled for.

This happens all too frequently. We can deplore the actions of these leaders. But are we any different? How often do we go outside our comfort zone? Someone comes into the church - or even into our circle of influence outside the church - and (let's say) they look like a gang member. Tattoos all over, including the face, a nose ring, a do-rag - and smelling of body odor. Hm? Isn't the first thought to show this guy the door? I think of this example because just recently, someone showed up in an evening service somewhere who looked just like that. This girl who had been in the morning service brought him to the evening one.

Here's the thing. Nobody showed him the door. Nobody reached for his wallet or her purse to protect it from getting stolen. The girl who brought him, let him sit with her, right in the front.

Because the people attending that service saw him as a real person with real needs and real value, that night he gave his heart to Jesus.

Is he still going to have tattoos on his face? yes. Is he still going to have the nose ring and the do-rag? probably. Does it matter? Absolutely not!

Is he going to meet Christian people who will judge him by how he looks? Let's be real here - of course he will. Is it right? Certainly NOT! But lookit - this guy can reach more people for Jesus BECAUSE he has the body art, the piercings, the trappings of his old life. He understands the mentality of the culture he has just been saved from. Who better to reach the people in that culture than someone like him? I can't imagine some person in a 3-piece suit who won't even SAY the word "tattoo" - being able to reach that guy's friends... can you?? Wouldn't that guy in the suit do far more to damage the message of Jesus to them than the guy with the tattoos would?

God has a calling for each and every person who has made Jesus the King of their lives - a calling that is as different as each person is from another. Our life experiences are completely different and there are some people to whom we cannot relate. I can't reach the same people you can; you can't reach the same people I can. But each of us is called. Not to park our butts on a pew once, twice, even five times a week. We're called to go "beyond the walls."

We've been rescued from so very much! We forget that!! We isolate and insulate ourselves from the people "out there" because they have (so we think) nothing in common with us. Their speech is littered with um, colorful metaphors. They listen to different music than we do. Their lifestyles, centered around pleasure, are those which we don't share. They do different things to unwind after a hard day's work. This kind of thing is outside our comfort zone. We pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves that we're coming apart from them and being separate. Our friendships are all with fellow-Christians and we can't seem to relate to the people around us who don't believe in Jesus.

But we do have something in common. We all need Jesus - them and us. Every moment, everywhere, in every situation. The life Jesus died to freely give us isn't to be kept in this one little compartment called "church." Once we "get" this - loving and reaching the people next door, or the people at work, or at school, or ... wherever God tells us to go (and it has to be God, because the guilt trips we hear sometimes over the pulpit won't cut it) ... becomes so much easier because we know there's no difference. We all need mercy. We all need grace. Jesus is the answer ... for everyone.

There is no "us." There is no "them."

If we are silent, if we stay in comfort and ease inside the walls, God will find another way to reach them - but we will have missed out on receiving something very special as we could have watched God transform their lives from up close. How much better to participate in His plan and know the joy of being there when the Light comes on for someone we care about!

If we already go beyond the Walls and reach people ... and we are tempted to congratulate ourselves for that, I quote Don Fransisco here (from the ballad of Baalam, about 1978 or so) -
"God's the one who makes the choice of the instrument He's usin' -
We don't know the reasons or the plans behind His choosin'.
So when the Lord starts a-usin' you, don't you pay it any mind -
He coulda used the dog next door if He'd-a been so inclined."