The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Here’s a truth about Christianity that I think often gets misspoken: Jesus did not come to make people good people, Jesus came to make people God’s people.

Often times, I hear people say, “I am a good person. I don’t need Jesus,” and they are right. Being a good person is something that people can become by many other means. Like shooting a basketball, anyone can learn to do it to some degree. True, some people can be better basketball shooters than others, but is that not also true about being good? With the exception of maybe a few people, most people acknowledge that they are not perfectly good, just like no one can claim to never miss a basketball shot, but when they do speak of their goodness they tend to write off their imperfections as minor or compare themselves to those who are far worse. It seems to me that the goal of being perfectly good for anyone who lives in this world is a goal that even Jesus would say is a humanly impossible goal. After all, no matter how many feathers you put on an elephant, it is never going to fly. Jesus did not come to put feathers on elephants….that is make people good people.

Rather, Jesus came to make people God’s people. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that Jesus came, not to add feathers to elephants, but to transform elephants into something that can fly, like eagles. “So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” (2 Cor. 5:17) When Jesus takes ahold of us, he doesn’t just feather us up, he changes us. He transforms our hearts to beat with God’s eternal life. He gives us ears to hear things we could never hear before. He gives us eyes that pierce the darkness. When Jesus gets ahold of us, he doesn’t just put feathers on us, he gives us wings of faith upon which we can soar in the wind of the Holy Spirit. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:10

Good people, as good as they might be, are still only as strong as they can be. They can find themselves shackled by chains that they cannot break. They can find themselves bearing loads that are too hard to carry. They can find themselves facing foes who can crush them like a bug. But God’s people are held in the power of God’s hand, and when Paul thought about the grip that Almighty God has, he said this, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Clearly, God’s people are formed to be good people, but they are formed to be far more than that. Regularly, God’s people find themselves encumbered with things that keep them from flying as they are able, things that the Bible calls “sins”. But daily as God takes God’s place in our lives through prayer, Scripture, Baptism, and Holy Communion, God tears those things off of us and sets us back on our way saying to us, “Fly!” Fly with “peace that surpasses all human understanding (Phil 4). Fly with hope that never disappoints (Rom 5). Fly with complete joy (John 15:11). Fly with love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. (1 Cor 13). Fly with grace upon grace (John 1). And fly with life that conquers death (1 Cor 15).

No matter how many feathers you put on an elephant, it won’t fly. Thanks be to God that he transforms us into something new…that can fly!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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