I recently read something by Max Lucado, a renowned Christian author. He wrote about Jesus in a way that I think is wrong. What upset me was that he presented Jesus as a guy who wants to relate with people in purely a friend-to-friend manner without a healthy dose of the lord-to-servant view. Here is the quote:
“Jesus wants to be your friend. He wants you to understand your relationship with him not as servant to Master, but as a friend to a Friend.”
According to him, it is not “both/and”, but “either/or”.
Being well-known among Christians today, it is a big deal for this author to make such an assessment of Jesus. In contrast, the New Testament authors clearly show Jesus’ relationship with people as one of a master with his servants. It is one out of the scores of relational images that God gives us to reveal how he relates to his own creatures (to be fair, it is, of course, true that one of these relational images is that of a Friend).
But then something else hit me—square between the eyes. How ready am I to see Jesus as my own Master? How consistently does my readiness to defend His Lordship theologically, coalesce with my readiness to obey him in His Lordship, practically speaking? The answer: not very much. While I still affirm my concern over Mr. Lucado’s statement, I also stand convicted by my own criticism. The logs in our own eyes go very deep.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3-4)
4 Comments on "Criticism That Brought Conviction"
The ending caught me by surprise and I was convicted too when you said that!
Thanks for the honesty, Angie!
Thanks, its usefully for me.
Thanks, its usefully