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"Jesus died for whosoever."

JESUS was disposable. To some, He was just a rogue preacher, stirring up trouble in Judea. The Romans didn’t consider Him anything. They were only too glad to have a bit of sport, to gamble for His garment, and dress Him up as King. Pilate had labeled Him as such, and He’d made that laughable statement about an army from heaven, or some such. The Pharisees despised Him. He was stealing their thunder, making them look like fools. It’d been too easy to get the people behind them, shouting, CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY! After His death, the disciples mourned, closed up in a room, afraid to come out lest someone see them and recognize them as one of Jesus’ men. Jerusalem celebrated. They hid.

Those Christians were disposable. The Pharisee, Saul, was determined to do away with as many as possible. One of them named Stephen called out a vision of heaven, and Saul reveled in his death, the robes of those likeminded held in his grasp. He made it his mission after that to see them all in prison. He wasn’t alone. The estimates of Christian deaths at the hands of Roman emperors is still in debate, but when a bright light and the voice of the Savior spoke from heaven, Saul, known later as Paul, became an avid follower of Christ. Of the apostles who started the church after Jesus’ Resurrection, only John the Beloved died of old age. They were in the way, a bunch of loudmouths causing trouble for the idol worshipping world.

“That is why I have been harassed and persecuted. But I don’t regret it for a minute, because I know and trust Jesus, and I am certain that he will oversee the distribution of the Remedy he entrusted to me, until the day he returns.” (2 Timothy 1:12, Remedy)

The Jews were disposable. Lost in a demonic agenda, Adolf Hitler saw them as the problem to his formation of the perfect race. Some six million Jews died to fuel his rage. Women, children, the aged. Whole families were wiped from this earth. And many more, except for those who braved their own deaths to save them. Rabbi Meir Soloveichik tells of his grandfather’s salvation at the hand of a Japanese businessman who was told NOT to do what he did anyway, rescue the Jews. There are so many more stories like it. And long before then, children age two and under who died when Herod feared a hidden king’s prophesied birth. And going back many more generations, we see captivity in Babylon and slavery in Egypt.

Let me be clear. JESUS DIED FOR WHOSOEVER. That’s all people of any gender, no matter how confused, living anywhere on this earth, born in any nation, state, or culture. He laid down His life on purpose to save ANYONE who would call on His name.

There is NO PLACE IN US FOR CRITICISM.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men” (2 Timothy 2:24)
“And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt;” (Jude 1:22 BSB)

People are not disposable. We honor presidents with elaborate funerals while we dispose of the elderly, the homeless, the unborn without batting an eye. Heaven overflows with children, discarded from this earth. No child is ever lost. We despise those whose skin color is different from ours, whose language is not ours, whose lifestyles oppose the words of the gospel. As if Jesus has given up on men. Where there is fire, wind, or sword, we label it retribution and laugh. Worse, we paint God as guilty. What does the world think of us, the church, for this?

“Why do we care?” you ask

Because it is our actions that made them think that way. We are to represent Jesus, to look and sound like Jesus, who forgave a guilty criminal and gave him Paradise. Who ate with sinners and defended His right to do so. Who healed lepers, outcasts from Jewish society. Who protected a woman caught in adultery and forgave one who’d had five husbands and was living unwed with number six.

Caught in prison, the apostle Paul said what should have caused him great pain and difficulty was instead spreading the gospel (Philippians 1:12). His being there drew attention, and he was glad of it, even if some people had the wrong motive. Christ was his motive. What is ours? We sit in our chosen pew and chitchat about who didn’t come today and what we heard about them. Or we’re relieved because she’s too loud. Too strange.

“But may God watch over and protect Onesiphorus and his family, for his home was always open to me and he was never afraid to be seen with me, even though I was in and out of prison.” (2 Timothy 1:16, Remedy)

The attitude of an unsaved world has become the viewpoint of the church, and these things ought not so to be. In the world, it’s survive if you’re strongest, smartest, most lucky. In the church, we’re all made equal under Christ, whose grace and beauty gave to every man, woman, and child eternal life and all the glorious effects of it. All can be healthy, all can be well-provided for, all can have joy in their family and friendships. And those who are hurting should draw our attention and compel our compassion to reach out and do something.

Our prayers should be God-centered and not man-centered. We should know the Spirit’s voice clearly and definitively, not assuming what He might say but recognizing what He did say. Our monetary gifts should be generous and our trust in God supernatural for the ability to give more to those organizations who feed the poor, visit prisons, take care of single mothers, and other civic needs. We must be humble in our circumstances and merciful in theirs.

We should mourn those who think they are disposable. Who fade away as disposable. These are Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:4. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” The Father mourned Jerusalem after the army of Babylon emptied it. Jeremiah the prophet stood in the center and called out His faithfulness. And Paul mirrored it in his words about foods. Though eating food offered to idols was not condemned by God, if it caused a person to turn away from Jesus, then don’t do it.

“And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:20-22)

There is a verse of Psalm 119 that I have made my confession. Verse 165 says, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” What if this was seen in us? What if people noticed that we loved all men, we never speak against them, never talk behind their backs. What if retribution and hatred and gossip were as far from us as the east is from the west? Because that is what God did for me and you. He removed our sins to such a distance and erased our restless past. He sees us through Jesus, and how beautiful that is.

Our gratitude should do the same for all other men. We must lean into God and lean away from the flesh. And know that what we speak about people, treating them as disposable, isn’t what He would say. This stops me in place. Has Christ wept through you? Can He trust you that much? He’s such a gentle Savior, tenderhearted and kind. Holy. And aware of everyone who has ever existed. What boggles our mind should be like oil in our hearts and clarity in our vision.

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)

“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13)

Arab Man Image by Ivana Tomášková from Pixabay
Jewish Rabbi Image from Freepik
Catholic Priest Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Image of Joseph Smith from Wikipedia

*All images are ai


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com