Quiz: A Crooked Businessman, A Stripper and Caitlyn Jenner
It's test time. I want to give you a quick, three-question quiz.
Question 1: A guy at the office fudges the numbers on his sales reports and his reimbursement forms. He's stealing from the company. Two coworkers know about it. One loves that he's found a way to make more money and stick it to "the man." The other believes his behavior is ethically wrong. So … which of these two coworkers will love the guy more?
Question 2: A lady in the neighborhood strips every night in a sleazy club down by the airport. Two neighbors know about it. One thinks it's great that she can make money off her body and give guys a good time while she's doing it. The other disapproves of her career choice. So … which of these two coworkers will love this lady more?
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Question 3: Caitlyn, formerly Bruce, Jenner is on TV talking about how s/he's finally embraced her/his true identity and had surgery to become a woman. Two people are watching. One celebrates that Caitlyn/Bruce has finally embraced her/his true gender. The other believes there's something wrong about transforming your body in that way. So … which of these two will love Caitlyn Jenner more?
The test is over. Time to turn in your answers. Do you have them?
Well, you can't. Because they were all trick questions and you're missing the vital piece of information you need. What you don't know is this: The people observing the unethical businessman, the stripper in the cul-de-sac, and Caitlyn Jenner — were they Christians? Because if they are Christians, they will love people more, regardless of whether they disapprove of their behavior.
Zacchaeus was Jewish.
He was also a chief tax collector. That means he had chosen to betray God and God's people by aligning himself with the Romans. At the time, the Romans were taking over the world. They would come into town, put up a statue of Caesar, and command everyone to worship. Those who refused were executed. History tells us of thousands of men, women, and children being impaled on poles in one day. Zacchaeus would collect the taxes that would pay for the massive Roman army so they could go massacre more faithful Jews.
Everyone disapproved of Zacchaeus's behavior and hated him for it.
Everyone … except Jesus. Jesus disapproved of Zacchaeus's behavior but loved him anyway.
It was the same with the prostitute who crashed the dinner party Jesus was at, and the guy who lived in the graveyard and called himself Legion, and the Samaritan woman who was going from man to man to man. Everyone disapproved of their behavior and hated them for it. Jesus loved them.
And if followers of Jesus are actually following Jesus, they will love everyone more than those who are not following Jesus. They will love everyone more, regardless of everyone's behavior.
Right?
Jesus certainly didn't approve of Zacchaeus's behavior, but he loved Zacchaeus more than everyone else did. Jesus also must not have approved of the behavior of the prostitute, or the crazy guy in the graveyard, or the Samaritan woman, or the Roman military official, or the thief dying on the cross next to him. But still he loved them more than everyone else did.
If we truly follow Jesus, so will we.
It makes sense that Jesus, who came from the Father and represented the Father, would love people despite their behavior. I mean, I have two kids, and I don't approve of everything they do. I'm sure they'll do some things I disapprove of in the future. But I could never stop loving them. In fact, if you told me someone else would love them more, because they were more tolerant of their behavior, that just wouldn't make sense to me.
But enough about my kids and Caitlyn Jenner. Think of a person you know who does things you find objectionable. Would it be easier to love that person if you weren't a Christian and had no problem with their behavior? It shouldn't be. We're the ones who have been loved and have love to give.
"We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister" (1 John 4:19-21).
A lot of Christians would nod their heads. "That's right. We've got to love the sinner but hate the sin." But if the world questions whether we really love sinners — and it does — then we're not doing that right. No one would have questioned whether Jesus loved sinners. Watching how he treated people caught in sin, they might have questioned whether he hated sin, but they never would have questioned if he loved sinners. Today, no one questions whether Christians hate sin, but just about everyone questions whether we love sinners.
So what do we do?
We need to evangelize our hearts. Intellectually, we know all this, but some how it doesn't sit quite right in our hearts. Jerry Bridges used to encourage people to "preach the gospel to yourself everyday." We need to constantly remind ourselves that we're not as good as we think we are, and just like everyone else, we are in desperate need of God's grace.
We also need to focus on showing love to sinners and not showing disapproval of their actions. If we are able to do this, it might just lead them to change their actions. (By the way, showing disapproval never changes a person's actions.)
At my church in Las Vegas, we love people for who they are instead of judging them for what they do, and we've learned a secret Jesus seemed to know: It's love that turns a life around. When we love people they're drawn to us, and then to Jesus, and soon they're making decisions to change their behavior. Often we haven't even yet talked to them about what they were doing. They have always known it was wrong; being loved gives them the security to make the change they know they have to make.
Here's the true test: The world is watching us all the time. And it doesn't matter that we say we love people. Love is about our actions. Love is about how we look at people, what we say, what we do for them. If people don't think we love, it really doesn't matter if we do.
That's the true test. Will we pass it?
