Narrow Road of Forgiveness (Lent 8, 2024)

In a recent Super Bowl ad, the “Jesus Gets Us” movement portrayed Jesus’ followers washing the feet of people sometimes derided by Evangelical Christians as sinners. Granted, there are limitations in a 60-second ad and a broad brush is being used to paint Christian thought, but there is great benefit in our discussing what it means that Jesus commanded us to “wash feet” –a highly symbolic and active gesture of servanthood toward each other.

The downfall of such “Jesus Gets Us” ads is that the conversations of repentance must come in the aftermath as biblical Christians point out that this divine love of Christ is not sin-caulk, filling a gap to allow an army of prideful, unrepentant sinners to march boldly into heaven.  He calls us instead to self-denial in order to “enter through the narrow gate” to the higher finish of holy love.

It’s supposed to be “Come just as you are…” not “Stay just as you are.”
Unrepentant sinner.

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Sin distorts our view because we’re selfish.  A more biblical ad would have been to hold up a mirror to the camera and ask, “What sin do you need to have forgiven, and will you repent?”  Because the truth is that sinners come on the political and cultural right, left, and everywhere in between. The only person who doesn’t fall (and never fell!) into that category is Jesus Christ Himself.

Maybe Jesus “gets us”
but He isn’t a sinner like us and doesn’t want us to stay unforgiven. 
Such is the nature of His divine love.

Exercise: 

Read this description of “He Gets Us” foot washing in the Super Bowl ad including some photos which may be jarring for God-fearing people especially the expressions on the faces depicted and pray about their description and your emotional response. Analyze whether your response is from what you know biblically or what you feel emotionally. From https://hegetsus.com/en/what-is-foot-washing-and-what-does-it-symbolize/ 

“Honestly, images of people washing each other’s feet look a little strange and disconcerting because it’s not part of our modern-day customs. But there’s also something beautiful and profound in each image. Our hope is that our latest commercials will stimulate both societal discussion and individual self-reflection about “who is my neighbor?” and how each of us can love our neighbor even as we have differences and serve one another with more kindness and respect.”

Join me tomorrow for a look at the futility of trying to hide and cover our sins.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2024 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

• Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
•  A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God  which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014. 
• Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations.  We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17. 
• ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
• Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ.  It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
• Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
• Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
• Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
• The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
• Revelation in 40 devotionals for 2022 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.
• Last year’s devotionals “Created to Display His Image” explored what it truly means to be made in God’s Image and the profound significance of that fact. They are archived beginning February 22, 2023.