“Jesus didn’t come to thin the herd.”

A thought by Larry Osborne, (2009-04-04) from his book, Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith (Kindle Location 807). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book)

I know we just looked at this but I still think there is more to say. It seems that we need to really be reminded of this fact.

Larry goes on to say, “His goal was to expand the kingdom, to bring salvation to people who previously were excluded. He came to seek and find the lost, including a large group of folks no one else wanted to invite to the party. Everything about Jesus’ ministry was designed to make salvation and the knowledge of God more accessible.” He came to make it more accessible not more exclusive.

He says, “Even at the point of Jesus’ death, the heavenly Father sent a message of accessibility. The moment Jesus died, the temple curtain that had isolated the Holy of Holies from everyone but the high priest (and even he could enter only once a year, on the Day of Atonement) was ripped open from the top down. What had once been a symbol of the barrier between God and sinful people suddenly became a symbol of open access for all.”

He then says, “The religious elite weren’t opposed to Jesus being a messiah or a king. They were opposed to the kind of people he included in his kingdom. They fought with him because he kept ignoring their definitions of committed spirituality. He refused to let them pick and choose who was going to be invited into the kingdom — and on what basis they would be allowed to come in. So they wrote him off and tried to kill him. The same thing still happens today. People who plead for stricter and stricter standards of discipleship in the name of a purer church are happy to have a Savior — as long as they can decide whom he saves.”

Let’s do all we can in this day, all we can to not thin the herd but to grow the herd. That's what Jesus showed he came to do.

Why don’t we do that too. Ok?

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