Jesus is for Losers

Last week, I went to City Church on a Saturday night with some friends.  This was because it was man-night, and my pastor was involved.  I had been to City Church once before, and all I remember of it is that they served root-beer floats.  Thus, I was pretty excited to go to the City Church again.

I was also kind of nervous for some reason.  Something deep down inside me was telling me that someone would judge me for what I was wearing, not speaking in tongues, or not wearing skinny-jeans like the lead pastor.  I wanted to be able to go in there without any one looking at me, because I felt like the minute that they looked at me, was the minute that they would start judging me.

I feel like this is how a lot of people think when they go to an unfamiliar church.  "They're going to judge me, they aren't going to like me, I've never sacrificed a goat before."  And in all honesty, except for the last one, maybe we as Christians have brought that on.  Maybe we are constantly trying to hide in a shell of self-righteous works, pretending that we're perfect even though we're screwed up inside.

I thought about how people who come to Overlake must feel, and how thinking that we're going to judge them at all is so off base of what we actually try to do. 

You see, the whole point of Jesus is not that He came for the good little boys and girls who never have problems, and never struggle with anything, and do everything that they're supposed to.  Jesus didn't die for perfect people, because that would be pointless. 

Jesus died for the broken, and the sinful.  He Himself says that He didn't come for the healthy, but for the sick.  He came for the people who can't do it by themselves.  He came for the sick.  Jesus came for the losers like me who can't seem to do what is right very often. 

So why then do people think of Christians as judgmental people who look down on other people because of all the bad stuff that they do?  If anything, Christians should be the most humble people on the face of the earth, because the description of a Christian is someone who knows they aren't good enough, and therefore let Jesus save them.

And yet we still get a reputation as being the good boys and girls of society who never have issues and look down on the kids that do.  That is completely and utterly wrong, and not what we're supposed to be doing. 

So for all the people who are reading this and think that Christians are judgmental, I say sorry on behalf of all of them, including myself.  I'm sorry that we've been a poor representation of truth.  I'm sorry that we've looked down on you even though we're just as bad off as you.  I'm sorry.

And to all the Christians reading this, I say let's step up our game a little bit.  It's our job to represent Jesus, the one who ate dinner with the tax collectors and prostitutes and the fallen and the sinners.  Let's show people who see us what our Lord is really like, rather than a twisted version of what He came to do.  Jesus died for the losers, so let's not be prideful, judgy, or arrogant.  Deal?