The Ministry Of Reconciliation预览

The Ministry of Reconciliation

Day Two – Reconciled To Reconcile

When Jesus said that His disciples should do as He does (John 13:14), He put a holy tension on our life. This tension is a reminder of a deliberate intentionality to not allow the norms of the world to dictate our perspective and behavior, but rather that His life and teachings are our guide. There is no better example of this tension to do things as He does than by being a reconciler for other people. You see, Jesus was God’s Reconciler that came in the flesh to you and me. He had to overcome every temptation and perceived limitation of humanity that we as humans have to be this Reconciler for us.  

Therefore, if we want to understand the word “reconciliation” from a biblical point of view, from Jesus’ point of view, we must go to the why question. Why did Jesus make the effort?  Why did He inconvenience Himself by leaving His throne in Heaven to come and reconcile us to God? If we can understand this better, then we can understand better why we, in turn, would be a reconciler for other people to Jesus.  We would understand better why we are to be the reconcilers that make a way for peace to live in relationships.  We must answer the why question.

This question can be answered not by the will-power of Jesus, nor by the efforts He made in His teachings and sacrifice. Those things came out of the answer to the why question. They were the things He did to reconcile us. The answer is found in the love He received from the Father and His love back to the Father. It is the unconditional God-love in Him that caused Him to do the things He did for us, by becoming the initiator of our reconciliation.  

He did it because it was the mission His Father sent Him to fulfill. In the same way, the why question is answered in our life. Why would we inconvenience ourself to initiate reconciliation when everything in us cries out, “Even God could not love that person!!” It is because God loves us, and we know that His love can love even the worst of people. We are reborn into a royal family when Jesus comes into our life. When His Spirit enters us we are given a ministry of reconciliation.  We have been reconciled to God. But because we have been, we are given a mission to do as Jesus did for us. We are to be reconcilers as well.