Integrative Post.

Reexamining your faith, beliefs, and religious practices is an overlooked and important part of being a Christian. Growth only happens when you are first made aware to what it is that needs to grow. I think this is why I’ve enjoyed so much this semester-long examination of the life of Christ. Jesus’ story is like an all-in one package deal of what we need to examine the priorities and practices in our own lives. He provided the ultimate example of blamelessness, but it wasn’t only in his resistance of sin. I have learned this semester that there are decisions that Jesus made while here that are often understated, yet are just as important as his adherence from sin. Jesus ministers to and comforts the poor. He heals relatively few, but those who he heals, he heals of blindness and hunger and death. He “follows the rules”, but he’s undeniably anti-legalistic and counter-culturally controversial among those who keep track of the rules. These points seem subtle to some, but I think they’re of utmost importance, and they’re areas in which I’ve felt convicted this semester. Jesus subtly, almost silently, calls us to ministry for the poor, the hungry, and those who don’t believe. Through his actions and rarely his teachings, he calls us to comfort them and teaches us that he comforts them as well, and that we are among them.
It is so important to our society to uphold our sense of morals. Yet I believe that it was nearly a second priority to Christ throughout his ministry. The Sermon on the Mount wasn’t constructed to be “the next hundred commandments”, but rather to remind us of our God’s unfailing grace. Jesus didn’t heal or befriend to remind us to repent our sins, but to show us how to love better. And whether it truly is more of a priority to Jesus than upholding morals, I think it needs to be to us. I feel like it’s the one of these two concepts that we least understand, as well as the one that draws people away from the church more quickly. People understand that they sin, and that they’ve fallen short of God’s glory, and it makes them start coming to church and praying and disciplining their spirits. But people misunderstand God’s message of love, which includes so much more than just being kind and nice to people. God loves us so much that he teaches us, transforms us, and waits for us to come to him. If we could portray these qualities as loving and caring, then maybe the world would start to see how God is working in their lives.