If only. . .

The problem with foolishness and error is that it sounds so good.  I read over the quote several times wishing I had the ability to turn a phrase.  The only real problem here is that the words betray what the Scriptures say about Jesus and what Jesus says and does about Himself as recorded in those Scriptures.

Jesus did not come to be a model but constantly insists He has come to save sinners.  We are not guilty of worshiping a God in flesh who wanted to be emulated but of failing to worship the God in flesh who came to be our Savior.  Again, the old canard of behavior rises up to become the chief purpose of His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection.  Jesus has come to make us better people.  Surely no one would find fault with that.  Well, except for Jesus.  He has not come to improve us or our world but to take us out of a world that is dying so that we might be raised to the life that cannot die.

Jesus did call out those who worshiped Him but not because He did not want that worship.  Rather, He called them out because their worship was cheap and empty.  Where does it ever say in Scripture that we are transformed and our world is transformed by mercy and love?  Jesus did not say that.  He has come to suffer, die, and rise again so that by His suffering the price of sin might be paid, that by His death death itself overcome and by His resurrection we be raised to new and everlasting life.  Jesus is precisely the One who transforms us -- not mercy in general or love that accepts it all.  All of these pious sounding memes are vehicles of distortion that betray the faith and the Jesus whom they seem to esteem.   Do not be deceived by them.  

What is real worship?  Is real worship modeling Christ's values and message in this broken world or is it gathering around His Word and Sacraments where He has promised to be and to what He has pledged to do for us?  What we do is not real worship at all but only what Christ does for us and in our midst through the means of grace He has established.  Now the real zinger is this.  Worshiping the Lord where He has made Himself accessible does not take away but only encourages even more the practicing of the virtues of His new life in us for the sake of our neighbor in love and in witness to the world of what He has done (and not what we are doing).

How sad it is that these little memes garner more attention from us than the solid teaching of the Word of God and the Catechism!  We are driven by such seemingly noble sentiment to be put back under the yoke of the Law and to destroy the cross of Christ by seeing it as mere example rather than real redemption.  It is sad beyond measure that the folks who refuse to pass through the door to the place where His Word is preached and His sacraments administered in His name will find comfort and solace in the idea that their good works are what are really important.