Jew's harp

It is already evident from anyone who studies history that Jesus Christ is not only the most influential person who ever lived, but He is also still the most active, because He is not just a historical person like Muhammad or Isaac Newton. He is still alive today, and still seeking His lost sheep. Are you watching Him up ahead, following Him, and doing what you see Him doing?

Many people judge Jesus by the extreme content of His teaching, which goes beyond the mere Ten Commandments. They also judge those who believe in Him as not doing what He commands. As many have rightly observed, it is impossible for man to follow perfectly a perfect God; yet He still commands us, ‘Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).

The perfection, though, is this: ‘The sun shines on everyone the same; the rain falls on everyone the same’ (cf. Matthew 5:45). Not just on the good; not just on the bad. On everyone. This is the perfection that God requires. To look upon everyone with the same benevolence, even the same love.

The following of Jesus is easy—if that’s what we are doing—following right behind Him and doing what we see Him doing. It’s when we take our eyes off Jesus and look at ourselves, to measure how perfectly we are following the commandments of the Law, that we fall into difficulties.

Only Christ can ask us to do what He commands, and only Christ can do it in us, not we ourselves by our own power. ‘Apart from Me, you can do nothing,’ says the Word of God (John 15:5). This is not the time to be allegorical or poetic. He is speaking to us, now, and matter of fact. This is the voice of Jesus to us today, speaking to our hearts.

We are like the Jew’s harp that carries the melody that the Jew breathes into us.
Jesus is that Jew.
He is still breathing His song through us.

Image Credit: Taika-Kim at DeviantArt