the only things you can see

is all that you lack

The Gospel according to St. Mark!

What is it that keeps you from Jesus?

Have you even given the question much thought?

Sadly, it seems that we all just take it for granted. We assume there’s this great chasm between us and Jesus and that’s just the way things are; and so our prayer life gets weaker, our devotion more feeble, our relationship with Jesus more strained…

Worse than all that, though, is that if were even to entertain such a question; the answers we would come up with would be unlikely to provide any real assistance in getting us any closer to Jesus…

Perhaps we would say our attendance at church could be better, maybe we would admit our giving could be a little more faithful, or possibly we’d confess that we could spend a little more time in prayer. 

Now, on the other hand, maybe we’d point to some things we should be doing less of; like maybe there is some vice we know we ought to give up, possibly there’s some sin we’d dare not even speak of, that we should cut out, or perhaps we’re a little too temperamental or unkind with out words.

We all have these places in our life that we think if we could just get it together, get everything in check, then we could start having a real relationship with Jesus.

The thing, though, is that those answers; for as quickly as they come, and for as likely as popular piety is likely to offer the same diagnosis; they don’t actually help us get any closer to Jesus…

Remember the Gospels (that’s a novel idea), isn’t it always the pious who are the furthest from Jesus?

And isn’t it those public sinners; the one’s who can’t put on the charade that their lives in order; the liars, weasels and prostitutes; that Jesus spends the most time with?

As Jesus goes about his ministry, those he comes the closest to are not the ones busy keeping their vices in check and their prayer life up to date. No, it’s those who don’t have a prayer; the ones with too many sins and not enough virtues to even entertain that notion that they should get their life in order that Jesus seeks out.

Now we’d never guess it, and of course that’s half the problem, but the thing that actually keeps us furthest from Jesus are not our sins - Jesus can handle those, but rather all our attempts to get our lives in order…

If we’re being honest; and if we can’t be honest in the church where can we be? If we’re being honest, what really keeps us from Jesus are our attempts to treat our vices or gin up our prayer life / bump up our attendance and push down our sin-count. 

We all spend so much time, so much energy and so much money putting on this charade that we have everything in order; or at least that we’re in the process of getting everything in order, don’t we?

Time, energy and money that could be spent with Jesus…

Instead, though, we tell ourselves that once we have everything just so, then; then we will call on Jesus. 

Try this on for size; have you ever found yourself in some trial, when you actually dared to pray to Jesus. 

Now, how many of those times when, no sooner had you finished your prayer, that you felt guilty? Maybe you remembered some sin or that last Sunday you worshiped at St. Mattress instead of Trinity/Faith…

Have you ever done that?

…And then, maybe afterward you said another prayer, probably less of a sincere prayer.

A sort of half-hearted apology. You told Jesus that you’ll get your life in order, that you’d take care of those sins and you’d set two alarms next Saturday night.
You nearly believed it, too… 

But then, next time you found yourself in that same darned spot; instead of praying, you remembered that you hadn’t been to church since that last Hail Mary of your’s, and now, in place of that one sin, there are ten!

Instead of praying to Jesus, now; you give yourself a little lecture.

You tell yourself you need to get those sins in hand and your attendance up to snuff, before you dare to pray for Jesus’ help again…

And on and on the game goes. 

The only problem with that, though, is the only person who’s fooled is you.

Instead of drawing nearer to Jesus, we go further from him.

The the one putting distance between us and our savior, is us, us and all our stipulations/our good intentions.

I’m just as guilty as putting on this charade as anyone.

That’s what it really means to be far from Jesus.

It isn’t being a public sinner, it isn’t even being a closet one.

No, being truly far from Jesus is when you don’t have enough good sense in your head to know you’re one who’s walking away. Being truly far from Jesus is not having enough honesty to admit that all your attempts to get close to Jesus are the very thing keeping you so far from him.

That’s far.

Jesus describes it as sheep who have no shepherd. 

When Jesus looks upon us he sees, not that people with lives that need getting in order, but sheep without a shepherd. When Jesus looks upon us in our time of need, he isn’t disappointed, but compassionate.

In the Gospel when the crowd sees Jesus, they come on the run. 

And when they get to Jesus; does he ask for their church membership or giving report? 

No! 

No, when Jesus looks on the people, he has compassion for them, because without him, all are like sheep without a shepherd. 

And it is that; Jesus’ compassion, that’s what can actually overcome all the distance between us and him.

See, Jesus isn’t out to get fewer transgressions and more merits in your stockpile; Jesus is out to get you, to have a relationship with you, to get close to you.

That’s hard to trust, that all it takes to get close to Jesus is his compassion.

In fact, if we’re being honest, many of us would rather feel lost than trust Jesus sees us and has compassion on us; that Jesus’ compassion is actually powerful enough to bridge the chasm between us and him.

So, we put on the charade. 

Even though it isn’t doing much good…

All those attempts to get your life in order, in the end, turn out to be the very thing that’s making a shambles of your life. They’re a false shepherd, they can’t save you. 

In fact, they’re just as likely to kill you! It’s like the person who spends their whole life searching for something, and when they finally find it; it kills them…

So when Jesus finds us in such dire straits, he has compassion. 

And when Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the true shepherd, looks upon his lost sheep, nothing will keep him from gathering them up… 

Sisters and brothers, Jesus has spotted you. 

The charade’s up, the game’s over! There is no time left to get things in order, you’ve been spotted. 

And that’s the Good News. 

Jesus, the shepherd, comes to you now, there’s no time left to get yourself out of whatever spot you’ve managed to land in, he’s the only one who can lead you out anyhow. 

You wanna get close to Jesus?

Stop running.

Not that it’ll do you much good anyhow.

The Good Shepherd has spotted you.