Christians: Stop Public Shaming!

 “You’re doing it wrong!” The frustrated kindergartner looked up at my friend who was subbing in his class. My friend is an amazing disciplinarian when it comes to working with middle schoolers. This class confounded him and within the first half hour when he switched up the schedule, this little guy let him know he was doing it all wrong. The kindergartener was not impressed. He thought my friend was not intelligent and wanted the person who did school right back. He wanted his teacher who was real and truthful, even if this teacher was giving him an extra recess. It may appear right, but it was not right. 

I want to reiterate those words to Christians who keep blasting other Christians in public. “You’re doing it wrong!” Look, we all sin. We all make mistakes. We all at some time need someone to sit down with us and explain to us how our sin is affecting their lives and the lives of others. Jesus gave us a clear path to do this, and yet we continue to scream with our megaphones of how sinful other Christians, especially leaders are. We are doing it wrong. 

If we have the steps to do it correctly, why do we do it wrong? The answer is simple. We are sinners. We sin when we decide to be judge and jury and call out people’s sins in public, which includes social media. People blast Christian leaders on social media all the time. We consistently inform the people who follow us how sinful those leaders are. 

It’s not just that we are sinners and sin too, but that we refuse to repent of our sins. We blast other people so that they will not see our sins. Serial killers are notorious for this action. They behave the way everyone wants them to in public, but in secret they are destroying human beings. If we call out people’s flaws and sins in public, we are destroying human beings. We are not fixing or changing the world. We are making the world a bigger mess. It’s time we begin to clean up our own mess. 

I confess. I am guilty of having done this. It took one passage to come to life for me that made me stop. Even though Jesus informed us in Matthew 18 how to confront people. We are to go to them one on one first, then bring witnesses, then the whole church, and then treat that person like an outsider if he or she does not listen to all the steps. There is another passage that gives us how to confront someone who has sinned. Oh, and the first two steps are done in private. Jesus never shamed anyone. We must stop guilt shaming people. It is wrong, and it doesn’t work. 

There is a passage that tells us what to do when we know someone is in a sinful life. In James 5:16 it states that we are to confess our sins to each other. If we do that, then, we can heal. Then we pray. Once we pray, the prayer of a righteous person will be powerful and effective. Look at that first action. If you are going to tell someone their sins, you must confess yours to them. I don’t see people doing that on social media. In fact, I don’t see people doing that very often in real life. People just want to point their fingers and blast other people for their sins. 

Just like our secret sins, social media gives a place to hide. Usually, what I see on social media is outright blasts. Some people call it criticism. Some people call it trying to help someone. I call it a super righteous person pretending to be perfect calling out others for their sins and yet, never mentioning theirs. You know why they do this? They don’t want you to see their secret sin. They don’t want you to see their flaws. They want to appear super righteous, holy, and good. These people do more damage to the church and to other people than they realize. I know because I have been on both sides of the fence. I’ve been the one to put others on blast, and I have been blasted. 

Dear Christians, it’s time we stop screaming. It’s time we stop being right, and we start being loving. Just because a person is well-known does not give you the right to put them on blast in public. All the passages in scripture that involve confronting someone requires a relationship. We must build relationships with other people before we confront them. Notice that Nathan was a trusted friend of David’s when he confronted him with his sin.

We must begin to love. Do you want to be put on blast? Do you want everyone to tell the whole world of your sins? If the answer to those questions is no, then let us all stop doing it to others. Now more than ever, our world needs the love of Jesus. Once people come to Jesus, he will change them. We cannot change people, but we can change ourselves and inspire other people. We want the church to change the world. Let us change from the inside out. 

Jesus is Risen, and It Changes Everything!

 Jesus was dead. His followers were afraid and were mourning his death. Blood and water had flowed from his body. Joseph took his body and put him in a temporary tomb. The soldiers guarded the tomb because they understood that Jesus said he would rise again. So, they thought that Jesus’s disciples would come and steal his body to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. Little did the religious leaders know, the disciples didn’t understand that Jesus’s words were literal. They thought that he was being metaphorical. Before we berate the disciples for their unbelief, we may need to recognize our own flaws of not emphasizing the life of Jesus with his resurrection. 

It's easy to comprehend the events in the Bible that make sense. We understand the marriages and births. We understand how Joseph was faithful to God and his character when he was enslaved in Egypt. We even understand the miracles. We struggle to understand how Jesus being dead can be alive again. You know how I know this? It’s simple. We continue to equate the deity of Jesus with the traits of being a human. Jesus walked on this earth as a full human, but he was also fully God. As Christians, we must worship Jesus, the living God. 

All other religions have a Friday. Their god has died. Christianity is the only religion that has a Sunday in which our God has risen from the dead, but if you listen to our speech when we are in despair, you will wonder if we serve a risen Savior or if we just like to sing that line in an old hymn that we cherish. The risen Jesus is more than our traditions, type of worship music, or set of guidelines for which we should live our lives. 

With a risen savior, we no longer need to blame him for the actions of human beings. Jesus is superior to any human being living or has ever lived. Once you realize that and really worship that Jesus, then you become less judgmental to your fellow human beings. Here’s why. When I realized that Jesus was greater than humans, I had to work on my own flaws and not be concerned with the flaws of others within the church. I was grateful to the risen Jesus and not just the human who walked on earth. I no longer live to impress humans. I live for Jesus. 

Instead of demanding that everyone behaves within my moral ground and believes just like me, my superior savior has taught me that He can breathe into existence the love I must have for those people. Then, as I love them, they will recognize the Jesus who not only died for them, but also came back to life. 

We must be grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, but we also must be grateful that he is living. He is not dead. He physically rose from the dead. That’s what this Sunday is all about. It’s not about the clothes, a bunny, candy, or even church attendance. It is about worshipping and serving a living Savior who is superior to all other gods because he is living. 

Christianity would not exist without the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is what separates Christianity from all other religions. We do not worship a dead god. Our God is alive. Our God conquered death, a feat that no one else in history has done. It then makes Christ more than a good teacher or a good man who was kind to the poor and women. It changes everything for every human. 

Jesus has power. He is not a political leader because his power is greater than that. We must stop reducing the power of Christ to a political agenda. The Pharisees struggled with that. They wanted their Messiah to rescue them from the political powers that oppressed their people. Jesus didn’t do that, and he’s not going to do that today. His rescuing is from the sin in our lives. We don’t want that because then we must face the sin in our lives. Once we face the sin in our lives, we must get rid of it, which is not easy and sometimes we struggle not to desire that sin. 

If you face the sin in your own life and recognize the resurrected Christ, your faith will grow beyond following rituals and following rules. If our faith grows in Christ, we follow him doing what he has asked of us. We don’t need to hover over everyone and continue to expound our greatness of our following rules that we never intended to break. We repent of the sins that we have committed and have broken us. 

Our all-superior Christ does not have sin in his life. Humans have sin. Humans hurt us. Jesus does not. If we believe that because Christians have hurt us than Jesus has hurt us, then Jesus is not a resurrected all-powerful God. He’s nothing more than a mere human. If we confess that Jesus is greater than all other gods, then we understand that mere humans sin and hurt. Jesus is sinless and because he is sinless, he heals. We can put our faith in Jesus who heals. 

This Sunday, let us worship the resurrected Christ. Let us worship the one who is greater, the one who is perfect. Forget about the people around you. Stand with Jesus. See him as omnipotent. The one who conquered death. Instead of focusing on Friday, let us see this Sunday as the greatest moment in history. Once we see the resurrected Christ, we cannot keep it a secret. We must share it with others. That is why our churches will be full. People come with the curiosity of this risen Savior. Let us embrace them and love them with the genuine love of Jesus so they too can worship the living Savior. 

Palm Sunday Changes Everything

 The audience stands and applauds at the remarkable words you have spoken. The event is a success. Then, at the next event, they follow the crowd and taunt you. For some people, that is their existence every day on social media. One post and everyone loves and likes it and you are a genius. The same in real life too. The next post you are slandered and considered horrific, in real life too. Jesus understood these two polar opposites from crowds of people. 

It's a sunny Sunday morning. Jesus asks his disciples to go get a colt or a young donkey. As they bring the donkey back to Jesus, they notice that crowds of disciples are gathering around him. They were all at the entrance of the city of Jerusalem. Some of the disciples laid their own clothes and blankets on the colt and helped Jesus on it. People who were wandering the streets noticed that a large crowd was gathering around a man on a donkey. They peered at him and recognized him. 

In royal fashion, the disciples created a red-carpet event for Jesus, even though they did not have a red carpet. They took their outer coats and laid them down on the road for the donkey to step on them as he entered the city. Their voices rose in jubilation and some of them grabbed palm leaves off the trees near them and began waving them in celebration of Jesus. Their voices rose so loud that everyone who had gathered in the middle of town noticed and joined in with the crowds. Everyone loves a celebration. 

Everyone was joyous except for the few who always grumble. The Pharisees shouted above the noise for Jesus to silent his disciples. Jesus replied, “If they were to keep silent, even the stones would cry out.” (Luke 19: 40, CSB) The people cried out their exaltation. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  (Luke 19: 38, CSB) They called him their king. They claimed that he came in the name of the Lord. They knew who he was and is. 

Four days later, everything drastically changed. The celebration took a sudden turn to death. The chanting crowd that celebrated Jesus on Sunday, was calling for his death on Thursday. On Friday, Jesus was crucified, but the following Sunday, three days later, brought the entire event to a full circle. Jesus rose from the dead. Many of us know the basic story of Jesus’s death and resurrection, but have we ever recognized that the Sunday before Jesus died changed everything. It was on that day that the religious leaders recognized that Jesus had more power over the people than them. It was that day that the religious leaders realized that if Jesus were to continue, their impurities would come to light. So, they intervened, but had no idea that they were part of the plan for everything to change for the best. 

On Palm Sunday 2011, people entered my church rejoicing with celebration that the following week would have pomp and circumstance celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Then, my pastor made the announcement. “Join us next week for Easter at our NEW LOCATION!” That’s right we received information that day that we were moving! There was no planning, no committee meetings, no arguments. Everyone was surprised. That day changed everything for our church. 

We moved to the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Blvd. We have remained there for eleven years. We moved quickly because we received free rent for a year. Why would anyone have weeks of discussion and waste money? I have been involved with churches as a member and a staff member that would have resisted this change. Like the Pharisees, they could only see the present. They were blind to the future of the resurrection. It is a common blindness with most people, even in the church. 

That little gathering grew. We adapted when we had to go online. We have had thousands come to Jesus. We have a beautiful leadership team that creates an atmosphere of love. We have a praise team that creates our own worship songs. Hollywood has come to embrace us. None of it would have occurred if we didn’t allow for that change from that Palm Sunday to the following Sunday, Easter. 

Jesus told the resistant Pharisees that even the stones would cry out if they silenced the human beings. Jesus will receive praise, whether people gather around him or not. What the Pharisees did not understand is that if they create chaos, Jesus will create change. We may not enjoy or appreciate the process of the change, but once we realize the end result, we praise Jesus. 

Change is difficult. Before the pandemic, I used to claim that I loved change. I’m not so sure if I love to change as much as I appreciate the result of change. The process of change can be painful. It can require a sacrifice. Even though many Christians claim to be supporters of sacrifice, it’s not easy. There are days when I don’t want to sacrifice. I want others to finally sacrifice something to make my life more comfortable. Life works best when we sacrifice instead of waiting for others to sacrifice. 

At the end of that week with Palm Sunday, Jesus sacrificed everything for us. He changed the script. He moved the world in just a few days. He fulfilled the law. He loved everyone in the entire world and made the greatest sacrifice. His enemies thought they won on Friday, but Sunday came, and many of his enemies became his followers. 

It all started with a celebration. It all happened because Jesus is the change maker. When we follow Jesus, we must change our direction in our lives to follow him. We may not like the process of the change. We may have people in our lives that do not understand and judge us, but the end result will be a life of faith, love, and hope. The greatest result will be love. As we enter this week, let us enter it with an understanding that change is coming. Jesus is going to change everything! Let us change with him.