“Perfect,” I thought, “I hadn’t been to one of these in a while, and I happen to pick hell week. This can’t be good.”
The workout lived up to its name. I thought my leg muscles would literally burst into flames. I still feel the after effects a few days later.
After an hour of hell, I went home for an ice pack and sent a text to the leader of the boot camp. I felt a little awkward thanking her for putting me through hell. She laughed and said she was aware of the irony of having “hell week” in a church parking lot.
I told her it wasn’t the first time (and probably wouldn’t be the last time) that someone caught hell at the church.
If you’re surprised by that, let me introduce you to Jesus’ words to the religious leaders in Matthew 23. Jesus is giving hell to the church leaders in this section of the Bible because they had an amazing way of keeping all of God’s rules while completely missing the point.
These church people had forgotten that the point of God’s law was to restore and reconcile people with God and one another. But they were using God’s law to exploit people, condemn people and shut people out of God’s community. This kind of thing made Jesus’ face turn red, his eyes bug out and the veins pop out the side of his neck.
Yeah, it wasn’t the lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, gay people or those who’ve had abortions that Jesus went off on. That’s something you might not know if all you had was the example of church people in the Bible and church people in the news today.
Contrary to popular belief, Jesus is interested in restoring people in community. He’s interested in including those who don’t feel included. He’s interested in everyone having a part in the redemptive story He is writing for the world.
Some will argue that a holy God demands that we draw the line between the sacred and the secular, the clean and the unclean, the holy and the common, heaven and hell.
That is true. But Jesus makes us rethink where that line is between the sacred and secular, clean and unclean, holy and common, heaven and hell. Jesus surprises us with where God is willing to go, who God is willing to touch and with whom God is willing to hang out. He is much more present on the margins and in hellish places than we might have suspected.
Jesus is far more than a “good example” for us to follow. Jesus is God reaching into the depths of hell to take us back to the place we were made to live. Jesus is God coming to us to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves – make us holy.
God, thank you for your grace. Keep us from missing the point, even if it means giving us hell in church.
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