Jesus and hind parts
How can the Church resolve to coming together and solving the Racial Unity dilemma? By using Jesus as our example. Makes sense, right? Seems simple. “Sam you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. And what does that have to do with Jesus and hind parts?” Keep reading.
The Pharisees were plotting against Jesus and were going to try to trap Him in his words. The Scripture says,
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances” - Matthew 22:16
While the motives of the Pharisees was to appease Jesus in their words. There is much truth to what they said about Him. Consider the highlighted phrases above. Let me ask you something; Would the world call us, “Teacher?” Do they want to learn anything from us, or no?
Does the world know that the Church teaches what is true? Do they sense that we are truthfully teaching God’s word? Or do they sense us teaching hypocritically, or teach non-Biblical things as if they’re biblical? Do they sense any personal agendas in our message? What about opinions? Do other’s opinions of us matter to the Church? Are we trying to make certain groups, or people, or “constituencies” happy with us, and are we trying to stay on their good side? Or does only the truth matter? What about appearances? Are we swayed by appearance? Do we try to look good, while ignoring the bad?
My old pastor Ed Carter used to say “the front of your suit looks good, but if you’ve split your pants, you’re just showing your hind parts.” Are we so busy trying to look good that we don’t realize our hind parts are showing?
It appears that the Church is not adequately using Jesus as its example of how to deal with the world, and specifically how to deal with Racial Unity. When we use Jesus as our example in the area of Racial Unity, we will encourage His mission in bringing the Church together. And we’ll stop showing our hind parts too.