Crock Pot Theology

My mind is kind of like a crock pot. Ever tried to make a quick meal in a crock pot? It doesn’t work. Microwaves are better suited for that. A crock pot works best when things are given a chance to marinate and stew over time. Often the longer you let the ingredients stew, the better they taste in the end. Like a crock pot, my mind often needs time to think and process things. I like to make observations, ask questions, ponder, listen… ask more questions, make more observations, then ponder and listen some more.

Over the last 7 months or so I have been pondering the “Kingdom of Heaven” as Jesus painted it in his preaching and parables. I have been making observations, asking questions… you get the point.

After 7 months of “crock potting”, there is one thing that I am convinced of: the Kingdom of Heaven is not being manifested in the world today the way Jesus envisioned and preached it. The questions become, “Why?” and “What can we do to change this?”

I think the Kingdom agenda is failing to be realized because too many Christians have missed the boat. We are content with what some have called “good enough Christianity”. We think it’s great that Jesus died for us and that we are going to heaven. Now that we have the salvation box checked off of our “to do” list, we can get back to our regularly-scheduled lives. Eternal life? Check. I’m in.

But we miss the bigger picture – the whole point really. Jesus didn’t just come to get us into heaven. He came to get heaven into us. Eternal life? It starts now. It could be translated “never-ending life” and it begins when God’s Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart. You are re-born into a new life – never-ending life. It is not something we are waiting to acquire, it is something we are to walk in today.

Back to the “Kingdom of Heaven”. Why was Jesus so popular among the crowds? Certainly some of it was the miracles he performed. But thousands of people also gathered to hear him teach and preach. Did Jesus lower the morality bar to get people to follow him? No. He raised the bar higher than anyone had raised it before. Forget about “do not murder”. If you are angry with your brother, you are in danger of the fire of hell (Matt 5:22). Adultery? Do you have eyes? You’re done (5:28). Jesus was honest about the reality of sin in our lives – the sin that resides deep down where few will ever see. His honesty resonated with people.

But if Jesus created awareness of peoples’ sinful nature, how was it that so many were drawn to Him? Jesus represented the grace of God in human form. He didn’t just make people aware of their sin, he represented (make that embodied) the solution for it too. Matthew says that “when [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” (Matt 9:36-37)

Do you desire to be a laborer in the harvest? If so, are you embodying the grace of God which you have so freely received (Matt 10:8)? Are you looking on the people as Jesus did – with compassion, recognizing that they are harassed and helpless? Or are you looking from an “us versus them” perspective? “Sinners and tax collectors” aren’t the enemy. They are victims of the enemy in need of a Savior. In need of the grace of God and someone who will show them that grace.

Is it just a coincidence that Matthew describes Jesus’ compassion just one verse before the appeal for laborers to go into the harvest (Matt 9:36-37)? Or was it intentional - to describe the kind of laborer Jesus is looking for?

As those laboring for the Kingdom, how can we be more effective laborers and increase the harvest? Or can we? I think it’s a matter of the heart. Having the heart of Christ. It is this kind of heart that will allow us to see people the way Jesus sees them. Then and only then will they be drawn to us in any sense of the way they were drawn to Him.