Exclusivity

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”-Matthew 11:28

Exclusivity in our culture has been branded and re-branded a hundred times over.  You see it everywhere: country clubs, fitness centers, property sales, etc.  The desire to be included is solidified when human intuition recognizes that someone else is excluded.  It is not always the intention to exclude that drives us to exclusivity, more so the longing to be included.  Let’s face it, we all want to be loved and included, but that gives us no right to be exclusive.   

If there ever was a man that walked this earth that deserved to be included it was Jesus Christ.  He was the Son of God.  He owed the Earth.  He owed the law.  He was the first and only person that understood both the spiritual world and the physical world while here on earth.  If there ever was a person who could start an exclusive club that excluded everyone it was Jesus.  He could have come as a worldly king, conquering this earth and building a temporal city; a city where he let only the: strong, intelligent, and beautiful in.  He could have fashioned a community of people that prided themselves on the outward and avoided anyone that did not measure up.  He could have made: social engagements, outward appearance, and strict habitual adherence to his status, his standards of accept.  He could have, but he didn’t.  You see a crowd like this already existed, and still exists.  The laws and precepts that God laid out did bring exclusivity.  When you serve God, you are different, and excluded.  However, that does not make you exclusive.  There is a difference, and the Pharisees of old failed to see it; truth be told, we as Christians sometimes find ourselves in the same trap.  For example, the Bible says that neither fornicators nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God.  So, the next party comes around, at work or at school, and you’re a Christian so you don’t receive an invite.  You have been excluded.  That’s fine, it’s part of the cross.  Now, say a Friday night cook-out is coming up at your church or a new small group is forming; so you go around and invite the rich middle class guy, or the pretty white girl, all your church friends you already hang out with since grade school; they hear about it, but the party people don’t hear about it, or the scary homeless man you see on the street corner everyday doesn’t hear about it, or the weird quite kid…..now YOU have become exclusive.  We as people naturally gravitate towards those with whom we are comfortable with.  The better you know someone or the more you have in common with them, the more likely you are to reach out to them over someone else.  However, when it comes to spreading the gospel, we must leave exclusivity at the door.  People don’t want to come to a church where they have to sit alone at Sunday supper.  They don’t want to see a Christianity that makes them feel like they are back in middle school during gym class.  Yes, we are to come out from the world, and yes we cannot accept sin, but we can reach out and love the sinner.  Did not Jesus do the same?  He said come unto me ALL.  He said they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  We must live to the scriptures and accept being excluded, but never fall into the temptation of being exclusive.  You want to run the Spirit right out of your church, and right out of your life?  Then put on the robe of a Pharisee.  Jesus was excluded by the “cool crowd” because he refused to be exclusive. 

The Bible tells a story of a man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead by a gang.  Three men passed by, two of them holding religious office and one of them with no religious heritage at all.  The third man, the one with no religious heritage, helped this poor man who fell among thieves; the parable doesn’t say why, except that he had compassion on him.  Perhaps he had compassion because he himself was once in a similar place.  Perhaps he understood what it was like to not to be cared for and included.  A generation of Christian raised in an exclusive Christian climate is a powerful weapon for Satan.  Every day, all around us, there are those who have fallen among thieves.  Life has beaten them, robbed them, and left them for dead.  Every true Christian was once the same; until Jesus reached down, and saved us.  Thank God he was not exclusive; thank God, he loved even me.  Now, ought we not to do the same?