JESUS OUTSIDE THE LINES

INTRODUCTION

OPENING STORY: JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN, BLACK LIKE ME. FALL OF 1959 HE DARKENED HIS SKIN BY SUBMITTING HIMSELF TO HARMFUL ULTRAVIOLET RAYS, AND THEN TAKING MEDICATION ALL IN ORDER TO LIVE LIKE A BLACK MAN IN THE SOUTH. HE WAS A WHITE MAN…HE WAS SCOFFED, RIDICULED AND SCORNED BY WHITES WHO ASSUMED HE WAS BLACK. BUT HE WAS LATER REGARDED AS A HERO BY AA’S WHO WERE SO BAFFLED THAT HE WOULD GO TO THOSE EXTREMES TO RELATE TO THEM. HE WENT OUTSIDE THE LINES…IN OUR TEXT WE SEE JESUS DOING THE SAME.

WHY SHOULD I LISTEN: HISTORY OF HUMANITY REVEALS WE ARE RELENTLESSLY TRIBAL. ‘WHY ARE ALL THE BLACK KIDS SITTING TOGETHER IN THE CAFETERIA’- BEVERLY DANIEL TATUM. FELT THIS PROFOUNDLY IN MY BIBLE COLLEGE. RICH LIVE SEGREGATED FROM THE POOR. BLOODS AND CRYPS…POLITICALLY TRIBAL AS NEVER BEFORE. ED STETZER’S BOOK, CHRISTIANS IN AN AGE OF OUTRAGE…WE ARE TRIBAL.

TRIBALISM IN JESUS’ DAY. CLASS SYSTEM FIRMLY ENTRENCHED. TOP OF THE CHAIN WERE WEALTHY, MARRIED MEN WHO FATHERED SONS. INTO THIS JESUS CAME- POOR, SINGLE, HOMELESS AND CHILDLESS. YOU WOULD NEVER HANG OUTSIDE OF CLASS BUT JESUS DID. HE ATE WITH SINNERS AND ROUTINELY, FOR SPORT, VIOLATED THE LINES OF HIS SOCIETY.

THE CALL OF THE CHURCH IS TO BE THE PLACE WHERE LINES ARE VIOLATED- . BUT IT’S NOT.

ILLUSTRATION OF NASCAR AND ME LIVING IN CHARLOTTE, A STUDY IN DIVERSITY AND LIFE OUTSIDE THE LINES. THE WEALTHY…BUT IF I WERE A DENTIST JUST STARTING OUT I’D SET UP SHOP AT A NASCAR EVENT AND MAKE A KILLING! TRAGICALLY CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY AND THE OAKLAND COLLISEUM MODEL MORE DIVERSITY AND LIFE OUTSIDE THE LINES THAN THE CHURCH.

ILLUSTRATION- QUENTIN, ‘DAD, WHY IS THIS CHURCH ALL WHITE?’

TO FOLLOW JESUS IS TO COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES! THIS IS HOW WE KNOW WE HAVE TRULY ENCOUNTERED HIM!

BUT WHAT EXACTLY DOES THIS LOOK LIKE AND HOW DO WE PULL THIS OFF?

EMPATHY-

EXPLANATION: HISTORICAL CONTEXT- WHY LUKE WRITES…FOR THE OUTCASTS AND OUTSIDER. JESUS AND THE OUTSIDER. ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM TO DIE. A GENERAL AND QUICK STAB AT LEPROSY. “WHEN HE SAW”= TO DEEPLY OBSERVE. TO STOP EVERYTHING AND LOOK INTENTLY AT.

ILLUSTRATION: DADDY WOOK AT ME. JESUS WOOKED AT THEM.

APPLICATION: HAVE YOU DONE THIS WITH PEOPLE OUTSIDE YOUR TRIBE? YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T. THEY SPEAK OF THE OTHER IN BROAD TERMS USUALLY PARROTING SOME MSNBC OR FOX NEWS SOUND BITE ON THEM. THOSE WHO HAVE WOOKED AT THEM SPEAK OF THEM IN PROFOUNDLY EMPATHETIC WAYS.

MERCY EXPLANATION. COMPASSION. IT HAS THREE LEVELS: 1. NEED. 2. FEELING. 3. ACTION.

ILLUSTRATION: TIME IN CHICAGO WHEN I WAS 15 WITH DAD IN WINTER. THAT MAN IS SOMEONE’S CHILD. SO HE GAVE MONEY.

APPLICATION: HOW ABOUT YOU? TOO BUSY. MINISTRY OF JESUS IS THE MINISTRY OF INTERRUPTIONS. YOU NEED MARGIN. WE NEED MARGIN.

ENGAGING THE SOCIAL OUTCASTS- .

EXPLANATION: TO FOLLOW JESUS OUTSIDE THE LINES MEANS WE ENGAGE THE SOCIAL OUTCASTS. LEPROSY DEFINED AND DETAILED. ITS SOCIAL STIGMA. HOUSE CONDEMNED, PUT OUTSIDE THE CAMP. “UNCLEAN”! 50 YARDS AWAY. CALLED WITH A LOUD VOICE. . WHAT AIDS WAS IN THE 80S AND 90S IS WHAT LEPROSY WAS BACK THEN SOCIALLY.

LYNNE AT FCBC ILLUSTRATION AND WHEN SHE TOLD EVERYONE IT WAS LIKE THE WHOLE ROOM TOOK A STEP BACK FROM HER.

CONTRAST WITH JESUS WHO DOESN’T TAKE A STEP BACK. HE LETS THE ONE GET WITHIN 50 YARDS OF HIM LATER ON. IN HE TOUCHES A LEPER WHO WANTED TO BE HEALED BREAKING THE SOCIAL NORMS! ONE OF THE MOST PROFOUND WITNESSES TO THE WORLD IS WHEN WE TRANSGRESS TRIBAL LINES AND VENTURE OUT TO THE SOCIAL OUTCASTS.

WINE PAIRING ILLUSTRATION. WE KNOW WHAT WINE PAIRING IS, AND WE ALSO UNDERSTAND THERE’S ALL DIFFERENT KINDS OF WINE PAIRING. THERE’S CONGRUENT WINE PAIRINGS, BUT THERE’S ALSO CONTRASTING WINE PAIRINGS. THIS LATTER KIND HAS TO DO WITH TAKING THE OPPOSITE TASTE OF A WINE FROM THE DISH, AND IT IS IN THESE COLLISION OF OPPOSITES WHERE THE BEAUTY EMERGES. IT’S HERE WHERE BOTH THE WINE AND THE FOOD FLAVORS ARE ENHANCED. IT’S NOT JUST THE MORE REFINED HELPING THE OUTSIDER, BOTH ARE BETTERED.

MY LIFE HAS BEEN BETTERED. MORE THAN ME HELPING HOMELESS AND POOR THEY HAVE HELPED ME. AND SO IT IS WITH YOU...

ETHNIC DIVERSITY-

EXPLANATION: TELL THE STORY. PAINT THE PICTURE. CLEANSING IS PROGRESSIVE. LUKE DROPS THE BOMB IN THIS VERSE. SAMARITAN AND JEW RACIAL WAR. JESUS DIDN’T DISCRIMINATE. CONSTANTLY VIOLATED ETHNIC LINES. . AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN. TO FOLLOW JESUS IS TO VENTURE INTO RACIAL HARMONY. A RACIALLY INDIFFERENT CHRISTIAN IS AN OXYMORON.

SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME ILLUSTRATION AND QUOTE (DENVER AND RON HALL. POOR BLACK AND RICH WHITE). POWER OF JESUS OUTSIDE THE LINES:

“Good medicine always tastes bad.” ― Ron Hall, Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together tags: medicine 24 likes Like

“You was the onlyest person that looked past my skin and past my meanness and saw that there was somebody on the inside worth savin...We all has more in common than we think. You stood up with courage and faced me when I was dangerous, and it changed my life. You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had just gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life.”

APPLICATION: THREE KINDS OF MULTIETHNIC CHURCHES. WE WANT TO BE NUMBER 3 BUT WE HAVE TO HEAR EACH OTHERS STORIES. HATE CRAZY RICH ASIANS. LIKE MADEA. OKAY. WE ARE DIFFERENT. BLACK VS. WHITE FUNERALS AND WEDDINGS…5ISH...

GOSPEL CONCLUSION: SO WHY GO THROUGH ALL OF THIS. I WAS THE OUTSIDER. SPIRITUAL LEPROSY. BUT JESUS WOOKED AT ME WITH MERCY AND SAVED ME. JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN RELATED TO THE OUTSIDER BECAUSE HE WAS BLIND AN OUTSIDER. WHEN YOU REALLY SEE THAT YOU WERE THE OUTSIDER THE LEPER AND CHRIST SAVED YOU IS WHEN YOU GO AFTER THE OUTSIDER.