Message Balls Blog

As a child I was taught right from wrong and given rules not knowing at the time they were basically the ten commandments. Throughout my journey I’d been trying even harder to do the right thing thinking that’s what God wanted. So, when I was first introduced to the idea of leaving the law behind and continuing on under grace, it didn’t make much sense to me until two stories from my Bible lesson and a special moment with my mother indicated that was where the road to great faith was headed.

Something about the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus in the gospel of Luke got my attention. With the two stories just a chapter apart, I couldn’t help but notice that both men had an encounter with Jesus yet went away with very different results.

The young ruler in chapter eighteen asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus went over the law with him, and the man said he had kept it since a boy. He must have thought he was doing good until Jesus told him to do something he wasn’t able to do. Jesus told him to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and follow Him. The Bible says the young ruler went away sad.

The next chapter tells of a man named Zacchaeus who, wanting to get a look at Jesus through the crowd, climbed a tree in Jesus’s path. When Jesus came by He called for Zacchaeus to come down and told him He must stay at his house. The Bible says Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus gladly and ended up giving half his possessions to the poor and promised to pay back fourfold those he had swindled. And Jesus said salvation had come to his house.

After reading the two stories I didn’t quite understand it all but I did see a clear difference between God’s law and God’s grace. The rich young ruler followed the law, did everything right his entire life, but didn’t get eternal life. Yet, Zacchaeus who spent his life swindling people ended up with salvation. It didn’t seem right to me, but I somehow knew there was more in the two stories for me to learn.

The next morning the stories were still on my mind. I thought about Zacchaeus and how the Bible says he received Jesus gladly. I wasn’t sure that would be my feelings if Jesus suddenly told me He was staying at my house. I’d be wondering if my house was clean, not to mention what I’d do about dinner. And, if I were to be honest, I don’t think it would be easy for me to give everything I had to the poor. So, could that be the lesson? Was I still trying to make myself worthy of God’s love even after all I’ve learned on my journey so far? I already knew I was saved by grace and not by anything I could possibly do. I knew that God loved me just the way I am and it’s made an amazing difference in my life. And, I’d put together that I can do more with God than I could ever imagine doing before knowing God. So what were these two stories trying to tell me, I wondered.

Later, I realized they were the answer to a question I’d had for some time. I had often wondered how I could have accepted Christ, attended church every Sunday, and still had come to the point of planning to kill myself. I never understood how that could happen, but through the two stories I realized it was because I hadn’t yet experienced God. I saw that after Jesus went home with Zacchaeus and spent time with him is when he was able to do what the young ruler wasn’t able to do. That’s when I realized the difference in my life had also come through my relationship with Jesus. On this journey is when God became real to me in a way no one can talk me out of, and where I came to know that God loves me just the way I am that’s made such a difference in my feelings of worthiness.

Happy to have finally found meaning in the two Bible stories, some additional understanding came through a conversation with my mother a couple days before Christmas. Feeling stressed over all that needed to be done to be ready for the holiday, my mother was reading her list to me while we sat at her kitchen table. After each thing, I told her I had taken care of it. As she continued, I finally said to her “Don’t worry Mom, I have it all taken care of. All you have to do is appreciate it.” After hearing myself say it, I had one of those “light bulb” moments and out loud made an “aha” sound. My mother heard it and said “What?” I was afraid to tell her though, because it was about God and she was already tired of hearing me talk so much about Him. Having to tell her something, I decided to just be honest and tell her the truth. So, I said “I was thinking that’s probably what God wants to say to us all the time. Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything. All you have to do is appreciate it.” To my surprise, she nodded in agreement.

The conversation with my mom turned out to be a special moment for me with her, but it also left me wondering if I’d missed something in Zacchaeusville. I thought about how my mom didn’t know what I’d already done for her and it made me wonder if these stories could be telling me there are things Jesus did for me that I don’t know about. Finally understanding that I could give up trying to make myself feel worthy of God’s love, just by accepting what Jesus did for me when He fulfilled the law, brought me to a place of gratitude I had never been before. But could there be even more, I wondered.

Making my way through Zacchaeusville I somehow knew the lessons on grace were only beginning. All indications were that I’d gone as far as I could with God’s law and it was time for me to find out more about God’s grace. I didn’t know where grace would take me, but I was excited about learning more of what Jesus did for me and finding out how it works in my life.

To be continued . . . see Radicalville

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 at 3:23 pm and is filed under The road to great faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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