Brothers and Sisters! A Sweet Gift!

Read: Luke 15:1-2; John 13:26; Ephesians 4:1-6

God has given those of us who have turned our lives over to Jesus many precious gifts. Among them is forgiveness, Colossians 1:13-14; cleansing, 1 John 1:7; new mercies each morning, Lamentations 3:21-23 and the list goes on and on. However, for today, may we look at the incredible privilege of belonging. Belonging to a family whose members, like us, have been set apart for Jesus. A family where each of its members has the honor of doing the good works that God has planned for us since before the world was created, Ephesians 2:8-10. Praise God that we are not alone in this world that appears to be getting darker and darker. Oh, what a precious gift belonging is in a world where loneliness is so very common. Where hopelessness is endemic.

How different it is for us. We truly have brothers and sisters everywhere. Their customs and everyday lives often look very different than our own, and they speak languages that we might never learn or understand. However, we share the bond of having the same Father and the same Lord and Savior, Ephesians 4:1-6. Whether they live close to us or on the other side of the world, because of the blood of Jesus, we belong to each other. There is a common bond to be cherished because we share the same goal. That we bring honor to the One Who has given us salvation.

This morning, I was thinking about a gift we have because we are a part of this forever family of believers. We walk together through the joys and sorrows of life through prayer and the reaching out in love that is part of the true family of God. That thought came to mind when I received and e-mail and a phone call. The short e-mail contained the news that a friend's brother-in-law for whom we have prayed for many months--perhaps even longer than a year-was now in heaven. I thought about the little details that we learned about the family for whom we had prayed and how sharing in their journey had united our lives. Even though we had never met Jim, there was a sweetness that we shared with my friend and a little way in which we shared in his family's story. If you will, a sweet belonging. The phone call was an up-date concerning a different friend's husband. More sharing of just a bit in that friends ups and downs. We have a little part in each other's lives.

As I thought about those two very simple incidents, I remembered that the people who lived in Jesus' day had a special understanding of belonging to each other. When they ate together, they dipped the bread into a common dish. A liquid. Perhaps meat juice or wine sauce. It was a way of uniting with people with whom the host and guest were eating. A sharing together as they ate from that same dish. That is why the religious leaders couldn't understand Jesus. A rabbi Who ate with those who were living sinful lives. Something they would never do. Connect their lives with tax collectors and immoral women? No way! They did not understand God's heart and how He had come to seek and save the lost. That included the ones they shunned as well as themselves.

The religious leaders voiced this complaint in Luke 15:1-2, and Jesus spoke three parables to show that God's heart was toward those whom they looked upon with contempt. If they only knew the love that Jesus had for those "sinners." If they only knew that there is joy in heaven when sinners--which we all are, Romans 3:23--repent, but they were unable to see beyond their own pride in their own "righteousness", Luke 18:9-14. If they only knew that God was walking and standing in their midst, John 1:14. He was the One Who ate and drank with sinners. If they only understood that Jesus would not only unite His life with sinners by eating with them, He would also become sin for us so that we could receive His righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

In John 13:26, Jesus displayed God's love in another beautiful way. He had just told the twelve that He would be betrayed. Unthinkable. Then He told them that He would dip bread into the common dish and give it to the one who would betray Him. It doesn't appear that any of Jesus' men understood that the Savior knew that the guilty one was Judas. The dipping of the first morsel and the giving of it was a gesture of respect, and Jesus held it out to Judas. What a picture of love that Jesus held out to the one who was in league with the evil one, John 13:26-27. The scriptures make it clear that Judas never truly belonged to Jesus, John 6:64-71. How different it is for us.

Thank You Lord for making us Your own. Not because of any merit we have but because of Your grace.