photo credit: Lukasz Dunikowski
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. – John 5:1-3
We seek ways of standardizing the Gospel, of making it mainstream and accessible to all. In typical marketing fashion we concentrate our best efforts in reaching our biggest target group in the most efficient manner. We also invest our greatest efforts in doing this and hope to maximize our returns in doing so.
This thought gripped me: Whereas we take the Gospel mainstream, Jesus invested a great deal of His time, efforts and strengths on the margins. Whereas we would have been seeking out the milieu at the religious feast, Jesus as at the pool where the marginalized were. Maybe, in our efforts to maximize our results, we have overlooked the fact that there is a definite call to the margins in our preaching the Kingdom of God….. and that there is a special dispensation of grace way out there at the edge.
Friend, where are you focusing your energies? Are you living on the edge?
