Matthew 4.17 From that time on Jesus began to preach,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
The world to the unknowing is not what it seems. The
unknowing think this is all there is: sunrise, sunset, and another monotonous day.
Browne sang:
And when the
evening rolls around
I'll go home and
lay my body down
And when the
morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do
it again - Amen. *
The world to
the unknowing is just one step in front of another each day until one day the
steps cease, and maybe a dream of peace.
But into that world (the one that continues to this day)
Jesus spoke: Be different, for the
Kingdom of Heaven has come near. His hearers were unknowers – they only
knew that when the evening came rolling around, they’d go home and lay their
weary bodies down; and when the morning light came streaming in, they’d get up
and do it again. Amen. And here’s this Guy proclaiming: Be different! Different
than what, Jesus?
To be different is to believe there is something beyond
the unknowing. To be different is to march to the beat, not of one’s own drum,
but God’s. To be different than the unknowing is to say, there is a God and He is
not me. To be different is to live each moment of each day in a Kingdom not
from here, but from there. Repent – be different – for the Kingdom of Heaven has
come near. It has moved toward us so
that we can move toward It.
The unknowers of Jesus day had long forgotten about being different; the world and its ways
have a tendency to do that to the unknowing. So, when Jesus offers this command,
this challenge, it comes as no surprise that some saw a gleam of light: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the
Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people living
in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow
of death a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4.15-16) Some said, “I want to be free from the unknowing!”
Today, that light still shines. Today the clarion call is
still to be different and to walk in the
light as He is in the light that we may have fellowship with one another… Him
with us, and us with us and Him. The
call to be different has never changed.
To answer the call is to say yes to God and see this life and this world for what it is: the
opportunity to learn about the next and to prepare diligently for its complete
arrival. But in order to do that one has to be different. One has to be filled
with difference and to be saved by difference. I hear His voice and I am called
to be different that I may make a difference in a world filled with the
unknowing whose need will be met by heeding the call: Come, be different for
the Kingdom of Heaven has come near…
Lord Jesus, You are the Difference Maker. Make me
different today that I, in You, may make a difference in this monotonous world
of the unknowing that simply get up and do it again – Amen.
*The Pretender, Clyde Jackson Browne, November 10, 1976
Asylum/Elektra Records
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