Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Gen 40–41
Chronological Order: Job 36–38
Can You Be a Simon Cowell For Christ?
Matthew 10:26–42
I have really enjoyed our reduced reading schedule this year. The passages we have to read every day are so much shorter which gives us more time to digest what we are reading. Still, today’s reading contains several issues that we could discuss in length had we the time. In today’s reading Jesus encourages His disciples by reminding them that they don’t really have anything to fear. For a Christian death is meaningless. Death has lost its sting because death for a Christian is the moving on to a better place. When I was a kid there was a TV show named “The Jeffersons”. The show was about a family that had risen up from poverty to affluence. The theme song to that show came to mind as I considered the fate of the Christian. Here are the first few lines to that song.
“Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.”
Yep, we Christians are movin’ on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Once we pass through the veil we will finally get a piece of the heavenly pie. Why would any of us be afraid of that? Jesus tells us in today’s reading that God knows everything about us and that we are precious in His sight. Having acknowledged Him before men, He will acknowledge us before the Father. Hallelujah!
Jesus also says something that goes against the secular world’s understanding of Jesus. While we acknowledge that Jesus is all about love, and that He is the prince of peace, He says that He did not come to bring peace to the earth but a sword. Jesus says He has come to be controversial and confrontational. Now this doesn’t seem to go with Paul’s exhortations for us to show the world love, but I’m here to tell you that confrontation, and love are not mutually exclusive. The fact of the matter is that the way some define love we would never tell others about Jesus because we might upset them or offend them.
That is not love. Real love does the hard things for the sake of the beloved. Have you ever watched American Idol? There used to be a guy on that show named Simon Cowell and he could be absolutely brutal in critiquing the performance of contestants. People loved to hate Simon because he would just come out and say some audition or performance was just awful. He would tell people that they had no business trying to be singers because they had no talent.
Now I’m not suggesting that Simon loved those singers, but I do think he probably showed them more love than their families. I never once thought Simon was wrong in his assessment. When he told someone they couldn’t sing he was right. Unfortunately far too many people are encouraged to chase a dream they have no hope of acquiring because those that love them don’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them that they can’t sing. They may not want to hear the message but responding to the truth would have set them free from years of hopelessness and misery.
It is the same thing with the Gospel message. Many people today don’t want to hear it, but if someone will just love them enough to tell them, and they respond to that truth, they too will be freed from years of hopelessness and misery. Can you be a Simon Cowell in a Paula Abdul world? Below is a video with examples of Simon’s direct and brutal comments to contestants. Can you be this direct with people who need to hear the truth of the Gospel?
I really like this analogy, Bill. I tend to be timid, more of a Paula, at those times I should be a Simon. Bold and truthful, sounds like another “Simon” I know of, one that was a “fisher of men” .