We are so quick to kill Jesus in our worship. It becomes self serving. We are worshiping what Christ did for us rather than worshiping Christ by following what he taught. To show you what I mean, today we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There were thousands of people on a pilgrimmage to see the place where Jesus was crucified and buried. After visiting the magnificent Sepulchre, which seemed like a city in and of itself, we sojourned to the teaching steps of the temple. The southern steps of the temple is the one place in all of Israel that you can be most certain Jesus walked. This was the place where the rabbis taught the crowds. It was also a place the poor would gather. Jesus certainly walked this platform during his life and his boyhood according to the Gospel of Luke…and we were the only group there. Here’s the point. You couldn’t squeeze any more people near the tomb, but no one was on the teaching steps. We like to lift up Jesus’ death because then our worship again becomes about us, at least, what Jesus did for us. Leaning on Jesus’ life and teaching transforms us and molds us into the kingdom. Yes we are to pick up the cross, don’t get me wrong, the cost discipleship is great, but Jesus’ teaching asks us to empty ourselves in love of God and neighbor. But no one is at the steps. There’s no fancy church standing in it’s place. No street vendors. No one kissing the ground. No icons or candles. It’s simply steps.
We are so quick to sing about blood and the cross, placing pierced hand stickers on our trucks, and asking people, “Are you saved?”. If atonement is our only message it fundamentally becomes a theology of our self. We only worship what God has done for us rather than worshiping God.
I guess what I’m trying to say in my sleep deprived state is we should be spending more time on the teaching steps than venerating a tomb