Suspending Judgment

In Mark 6 Jesus was rejected in Nazareth and he delivered the line, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown.”

Jesus was never seen more than the stereotype of his family. He was never given the chance to become more than what he seemed to be. Judgment was not suspended for him but rather decreed. He was Mary and Joseph’s son. He was a carpenter. He was not fit to do miracles or to teach. He needed to learn his place. He needed to step in line.

Jesus felt the wrath of his hometown turning their back on him and he had to live with that regret forever. I honestly believe the central message of this story is showing us how sad it looks when a community disenfranchises someone.

There is not one sin too great (in my opinion) to put someone outside the bonds of a church fellowship – unless it’s the sin of the church being blinded by their own ideals.

A healthy church must never stop growing and seeing growth in the people around them.

The best metaphor I know for this is a church and individuals are like acorns. We have so much potential inside of us to be more and do more but we just aren’t mature and haven’t been in an environment in which we could grow. So we are all acorns to start.

We have potential deep within us that is just waiting to blossom. The trick like any good plant is we need healthy, nurturing soil that provides more than enough resources for us to grow.

The church and a community must be a place where people can bury themselves into the love and support of the church or community and allow their roots to run deep so they can become well rooted, nurtured, and loved.

Nazareth stopped being the soil in which Jesus’ roots were growing. Grace was shut down and Jesus was no longer accepted.

A church community has the power to be the best or worst resource in a person’s life.

The power of a church community can actually be the soil for which everyone has room to grow their roots, but only if it remains open to suspending judgment. It does not matter where you come from or what you have done because the church should be the one place where stereotypes stop at the door. We are all God’s children and are all worshiping a God who intervenes in our lives for the better. We are all traveling pilgrims that need Christ. It is never ok to judge someone for their sins or cast someone out for being different.

Maybe Grace at times means giving a person, a family, a church, or a community the chance to prove expectations wrong, to reserve or suspend judgment.