Matthew 11:16-24
“How can I describe the people who are living now? They are like children who sit in the marketplaces and shout to other children, ‘We played music for you, but you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song, but you didn’t show any sadness.’ “John came neither eating nor drinking, and people say, ‘There’s a demon in him!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and people say, ‘Look at him! He’s a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ “Yet, wisdom is proved right by its actions.” Then Jesus denounced the cities, where he had worked most of his miracles, because they had not changed the way they thought and acted. “How horrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How horrible it will be for you, Bethsaida! If the miracles worked in you had been worked in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed the way they thought and acted long ago in sackcloth and ashes. I can guarantee that judgment day will be better for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to heaven? No, you will go down to hell! If the miracles that had been worked in you had been worked in Sodom, it would still be there today. I can guarantee that judgment day will be better for Sodom than for you.”Jesus came to seek the sinnersand did what the “religious” people would not, he went to where the sinners were. It only makes sense. If you were going to catch fish you wouldn’t build an aquarium and expect the fish to come to you, would you? No. You would get in your boat and cast your line or your net, right?
Thenwhy do so many Christians think that, if we construct a beautiful church building, that the lost will come flooding in? Are we afraid to be seen associating with “tax collectors”?
Prayer
Jesus, you called us to be fishers of men* but we have become aquarium builders. Forgive us. Send your spirit to fill us with the same desire to save the lost that you and your early disciples had.
Amen.
*Matthew 4:19