A Year with Jesus: 'When Is Worship A Lie?'

What Jesus Might Say

Dear Disciple,

I love all people. That's why I came. At the same time, I have to tell you something - and yes, I'm sorry to have to do this near Christmas, but it's part of My story.

Hypocrisy makes me want to throw up (Revelation 3:15-16) - when people pretend to love the Father, say they live by the Spirit, and talk as if they love Me, yet their lives are lived in a totally different way. Some of My harshest words in My earthly ministry were targeted at hypocrisy (Matthew 23:1-39).

Herod even used the Scriptures for evil purposes to try to kill me. Something Herod said was nothing but a bald-faced lie:

Go to Bethlehem and search high and low for this Savior child; and as soon as you know where He is, report it to me so that I may go and worship Him.
(Matthew 2:8)

Herod's actions were a preview of what would happen during My ministry: the religious power brokers felt jealous and threatened, so they tried to have Me killed. In fact, they were successful. They just didn't know that after crucifying Me the Father would raise Me and then they would be in a real mess - people who saw Me alive after My resurrection couldn't be stopped!

So please remember during this time when people celebrate My birth that there is a war going on. It's not just a war between good and evil, but a war with an extreme form of evil: religiosity and people who want to turn religion into a system that makes them feel better than others and gives them power over others rather than a holy life lived in submission to the Father and in service to others. Remember, religious leaders were the ones who conspired with political leaders to murder Me. So don't lose Me in something that purports to be religion.

I came because God wanted lost people to be saved, the last people in line to be included, and the least people to be recognized for their kind acts of service. On the other hand, Herod was an evil, murderous, superficially religious, political weasel. He built great buildings and murdered children - some of them his own.

When worship loses sight of God's grace and My coming to save the lost, the last, and the least, then it is a lie. But when it celebrates the salvation of the lost, the inclusion of the last, and the service of the least... well, that's a foretaste of heaven!

Verses Jesus Might Suggest

These following two sets of verses stand in sharp contrast.

The first one is something that I said to the outwardly religious bunch, the Scribes and Pharisees:

Isaiah prophesied wisely about your religious pretensions when he wrote:
These people honor Me with words off their lips; meanwhile their hearts are far from Me. Their worship is empty, void of true devotion. They teach a human commandment, memorized and practiced by rote.
(Mark 7:6-7)

The second one comes from My description of the final judgment and is said to those who have lived like Me:

Come here, you beloved, you people whom My Father has blessed. Claim your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of creation. You shall be richly rewarded, for when I was hungry, you fed Me. And when I was thirsty, you gave Me something to drink. I was alone as a stranger, and you welcomed Me into your homes and into your lives. I was naked, and you gave Me clothes to wear; I was sick, and you tended to My needs; I was in prison, and you comforted Me.
(Matthew 25:34-36)

The last sounds a whole lot more like Christmas than it does like Herod!

Our Response in Prayer

I am sorry, dear God, that Jesus' birth story has to have some of the junk and crud of our human hypocrisy and evil. But it does comfort me, dear Father, that Jesus entered this kind of mess and redeemed it and brought Your grace to give us living hope. As I worship and give thanks during this season, tune my heart to Yours as I seek to honor You for Your indescribable gift of Jesus, in Whose name I pray. Amen.