I’m a charter member. Aren’t you?
Don’t you spend a good deal of your time grumbling?
I live in Colorado, and oh my goodness: If we go without seeing the sun for twenty-four hours, we are an entire state of grumblers. If I have to wait in line at the grocery store for the self-check-out lane, I grumble. When the golden arches ask me to pull up ahead to wait for my order, I grumble.
“So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
—Luke 19:6-7, ESV
It seems, from these verses in Luke, I’m part of an age-old tradition. Grumbling was in vogue in the first century. Jesus spies a guy he wants to be with, a smarmy tax collector looking out for him from the advantage of a higher tree limb. Jesus elicits a joyful response from this man, and the entire crowd grumbles. “That’s a sinner you are going to spend time with!”
Now.
Before we get all critical of Jericho’s finest, we must remember that old adage: For every finger pointed at someone else, three point back at us. We grumble when the music is too loud; we grumble when it’s the choir’s turn to lead worship; we grumble if the pastor is long-winded or too short; we grumble when the girl in the front pew is tattooed or the guy is wearing a nose-ring. We essentially are card-carrying grumblers.
And we should stop. Just stop it!
Jesus didn’t come to seek out grumblers. He is in search of the lost. Disciples and disciplemakers should heed that instruction.
So let’s give up our membership in that group and join the search and rescue.
By Don Pape, NavPress publisher.
Ready to start searching and rescuing? Here are great resources to get started on discipleship: