I am writing from my room at Mount Savior Monetary, in Big Flats, NY.
I sometimes feel sorry for churches I serve when I come here because I tend to hear God saying the darnedest things. One of the traditions here is for a brother to read while the rest of the community is eating the midday meal. Yesterday, the reading was from a book titled: “Ruth Burrows Essential Readings.” In the introduction to the book, the editor wrote of how Ruth spoke about accepting Jesus “Just as He is.” It is then that Jesus can unite Himself with us and transform us to be more like Him.
For a Baptist boy, I was used to the idea of Jesus accepting us just as we are. I can still hear the old hymn being sung during altar calls: “Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me.” And I believe Jesus accepts us as we are. There is no minimum amount of holiness we need to attain before He says: “Welcome to the club.” We don’t get things in order and then hear Jesus say: “Jump on in, the water’s great.” We turn to Jesus in repentance, seeking forgiveness and we find our Lord there with open arms. Now there is the matter of how, as a friend of mine puts it: “Jesus accepts us as we are, but loves us too much to let us stay that way.” But that can wait for another time.
So what of this “accepting Jesus just as He is”? I should probably read the book to see what Ruth Burrows had to say but the idea is new enough, counter-intuitive enough that it stuck in my head. And so I figured: “Why should I wrestle with this alone? I have a church full of folks that I can dump this on and at least I will have company laying awake at night wondering what she meant.”
And I do have some thoughts. It is true in every age that folks are much more comfortable with a Jesus that looks and thinks like them. But I think it is also true that you and I like to make Jesus in our image. For folks who are extremely patriotic it is easy to think that Jesus has a special place in His heart for America (What has been labeled Christian Nationalism.) For folks who need boundaries and prefer a strict set of rules, it is easy to see Jesus as one with little tolerance for sinful behavior. For folks who prefer to live and let live, it is easy to see Jesus as one who asked nothing of anybody. Of course these are all extreme, but I hope you see what I am wondering.
So; without researching what Ruth Burrows meant; here is my first attempt: “Accepting Jesus as He is means we least likely think He would be like. Which also means we see Him in the person least like us.” I am gonna sit with that for a while and home it doesn’t keep me up at night. But I have a feeling it just might.
Pastor Wilson