Are you irrelevant?

The life of Jesus provides us a great deal of insight into spiritual reality. Jesus' greatest resistance came from the religious leaders of the day. They were deeply invested in protecting their ideas of God and the proper expression of religion.

Tragically these experts in religious matters were drastically out of touch with God, with His ongoing plans and purposes in that day. Instead of allowing God to be God, they created an image of God according to their desires. Their stubborn insistance that God could only operate according to their parameters set them at odds with Jesus.

Jesus on the other hand, allowed the Father free reign. He spoke only what He heard from the Father; He did only what He saw the Father doing. Instead of demanding that God conform to a set of parameters, He willingly submitted to the will of the Father.

Here is the interesting point for me. The religious leaders, in spite of their rank and position, were largely irrelevant to the work of God in that day. In all their efforts to protect a religious system and their own perceptions of God, they missed the point completely. While they appeared devout, while they put forth an image of goodness, they were irrelevant to the Kingdom of God.

Over the years, I have observed people who stubbornly cling to their perceptions of God. They resist anything that does not align with their ideas. Like the religious leaders of Jesus day, they are irrelavant to the ongoing redemptive work of God. They may position themselves as being on the cutting edge of Christianity but in reality, their life is at best not in harmony with the work of God and at worst resists the very God they claim to serve. They are irrelevant.