The Christ of Lost Causes
If you have no cause you shall have absolutely no effect. This is to say, if
you have rejected the Messiah, you have accepted the mundane madness of the
world. The world says, "Steal"; God says, "Peace - Be still." The world says,
"Blow up in anger"; God says, "Slow down, 'A soft answer turns away wrath." The
world says, "Watch out for number one"; God says, "Whosoever wants to be first
must be last."
In the fifth chapter of Mark, you'll read of a man gone mad. Rejected by family
and friends, he was shackled down and bound up in a cave for the mentally
depraved. He liked to cut his own flesh with stones as a form of release and
self-soothing. Society called him stupid. A cute, clever, and convenient label
was enough for the psychologists of this man's day to put him away. But Jesus?
Jesus did not see him as the intellectually enlightened had for so many years.
You see, there is little light to be found in being intellectual. Only a heart
bent towards heaven has humble enough a mind so as to be molded by the Master
Potter. A host of facts about someone tells but only a ghost of a story. Jesus
saw His beloved child despite the fact he was a grown man.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are!" -1 John 3:1
Where crowds felt contempt, Christ felt compassion. Where passersby saw
insanity, Christ saw opportunity. Where family responded to him with mutiny,
Christ embraced the man with mercy.
And even now, where today's culture sees a lost cause or an incurable dead-beat
with a disturbing diagnosis, Christ sees His child for whom He paid a high
price.
As for the madman in the cave, Christ set him free from the destructive force of
demons that had haunted him. Unworthy, dirty, unclean, abused, accused, misused,
alcoholic, addict, and finally.the lost cause of that era? When so-called lost
causes suddenly find Christ Jesus, things radically change.
And you? Unworthy, dirty, unclean, abused, accused, misused, alcoholic, addict,
and finally.the lost cause of this era? Let's let God have the final word!
And he came to her and said, "Rejoice, favored woman! The Lord is with you."
-Luke 1:28
So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free. -John 8:36
"Woman, where are they? Has no one judged you guilty?" She answered, "No one,
sir." Then Jesus said, "I also don't judge you guilty. Go and sin no more."
-John 8:10,11
But he was wounded for the wrong we did; he was crushed for the evil we did. The
punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of
his wounds. -Isaiah 53:5
Brian Jett © 2004