Sunday 22nd June
Read Luke 9:49-50
“‘Master,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’
50 ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.’” (NIVUK)
Third lesson: Greatness is tolerance.
At the heart of all Jesus’ teaching after the disaster at the foot of the mountain is an emphasis on humility. John, as evidenced in his letters, eventually learned the lesson. He learned to balance the need for truth with the obligation to love. His hardness and intolerance were scrubbed away at the foot of the cross – where he saw what greatness looked like. It looked like self-sacrifice, putting others first at the expense of one’s life and identification with a flawed and weak people. At the cross, John saw Jesus forgive others their faults, as He died. Rather than divide from them He identified with them.
Too often we defend our own church, or beliefs, or behaviours at the expense of hearing and truly seeing those around us. All it does is weaken us – pride always will. Undivided hearts follow Jesus humbly…
