WE, THE WICKED

Then Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.”    

This quote appears in all 4 gospels.  The context indicates that Jesus said this on the way to visit His hometown  (John 4:44) , during worship while visiting His hometown (Luke 4: 24), and each time He went back to His hometown to visit (Matthew 13: 57; Mark 6: 4).

It’s like Jesus was sighing. 

In Luke 4, after coming off a powerful 2 day revival in Samaria, and a successful preaching tour of Galilean villages, Jesus circled round to Nazareth.  He went to worship in the church where He’d grown up.  He even taught the morning Bible lesson.  To His cousins, His classmates, His brothers-in-law, His old playmates, His old teachers.  Not just generically or spiritually His people, but HIS PEOPLE.   He loved them, so He had to tell them.

He knew how they’d respond, but He had to tell them the truth.

“But I tell you truly…” (Luke 4: 25-27)

The truth is that sometimes God punishes the people in the right country with the correct religion who voted for the most patriotic candidates because you’re just as full of sin and corruption and hypocrisy as the heathens and the Jezebels.

The truth is that God loves you all, but sometimes the person in the room that God likes most is the single mother with the lowest socio-economic status and the wrong ethnic background.

The truth is that the lifelong skeptic/ heretic/ infidel who humbles himself and obeys the word of the Lord will experience the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit before you do.

The truth is that you are pissed off now.  Sigh. 

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. (Luke 4: 28, 29)

You don’t have to throw me under the bus or off the cliff.  I already know.  It’s always like this when you tell the truth at home.

When the prophets speak of God’s favor on the righteous and His wrath against the wicked, we shout, “Amen,” because we think we're  the righteous and those people are wicked.   Sigh.

But God seldom sent His prophets to speak to the righteous.  He sent the prophets to warn the wicked.

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me. (Ezekiel 3: 17)

It makes us so mad, so form-a-mob-and-throw-him-off-the-cliff mad to hear  that maybe, maybe WE are the wicked.

WE ARE the wicked.

You know this one well, don’t you?   2 Chronicles 7: 14  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

But go back to the verse before.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people (2 Chronicles 7: 13)

“When,” not “If.”   God PROMISED to punish the land because of what His people did.  Not because of what the heathens did.  Not because of what the unbelievers did. 

WE ARE the wicked.

Ever heard a televangelist declare coming judgment for greed?  Or vanity?  Or self-promotion?  Or falsely prophesying the date for judgment so you could raise a million dollars but not sending anyone’s money back when the world didn’t end as predicted?  Stop listening to them telling you that judgment is coming for all the sins they don’t commit.

Stop trying to humble the Muslims, the Wiccans, the Atheists, the Republicans, the Democrats, the not-us.  We have to humble OURSELVES.

Stop seeking a preferred place in power, in history, and  in money.  Seek God’s face.  Cause He wouldn’t have told us we need to if that’s what we’d been doing.

The biggest problem isn’t THEIR ways of being wicked.  The problem is that we haven’t turned from OUR WICKED WAYS. 

Try this. Grab a piece of paper and write down the top 3 sins in America,  the 3 moral issues that are destroying the nation.  Done?  Now list the 3 sins you personally commit most often.  

Which list do you spend more energy protesting against, voting against, and condemning on social media?

(Oh, and if you listed as one of your sins, "I don't stand up for what's right," you aren't paying attention.  That's just another way of saying "I don't focus on other people's wrong instead of mine.")

I know. YOUR sins aren't that bad.  The problem with this country is what everybody else does wrong.

Sigh.

In 2 Chronicles 7: 15, 16, the Lord promised that His house would always have a special place in His heart and whenever WE who come to the house of the Lord and call ourselves by His name decide to pray the way He told us to, “My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.”

The prayers of the righteous church can avail much, but first there must be the prayers of the present church that humbles itself and confesses OUR wickedness.

But you hate me calling you “wicked.”  I really need to check myself on that.    I know.  You’re right.  Sigh.

In John/ Luke, Jesus hometown folks tried to throw Him off a cliff because He told them the truth about themselves. In Matthew/ Mark, Jesus went to the same people and told them the same truth knowing they’d get mad at Him all over again.

How well do you know me?  Maybe too well.  Maybe so well that you know I’m not perfect, so why should you listen to me.  Maybe you know me so well that you can’t get past who I am (or am not) to see the truth that I’m speaking.  You probably can’t help it.  You can’t stop knowing me, and I can’t stop loving  you, so I have to tell you the truth. 

If I’ve offended you---- it won’t be the last time.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064