The Gospel For Losers

Jesus came for losers.  Those who had lost their way; lost their hope; lost their lives.  Those who have won are called "winners".  Those who have lost are called. . . .well, you know.

We don't like to associate ourselves with anything that smacks of loss or weakness.  We prefer to let people know that we cheer for teams that are winning, to be part of churches that are big, influential and growing, to have jobs that show we are successful, to have families that look like nothing in the world can touch them.  But to be identified with something that looks like a failure--well, we just can't stomach that.

I had a friend recently tell me that "there is a big gap in my understanding of how good a golfer I am and what kind of golfer I actually am."  There is a lot of truth in that statement, especially when I think about myself as a Christian.  If I'm honest with myself then I could say "there is a big gap between how I view myself as a Christian and how I actually am as one."

I don't like to think of myself as a loser--someone who has lost his way.  But once I begin to grasp just how lost I am, and just how much I really need help, then I can begin to accept what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about---it is a gospel for losers. 

Jesus himself said in Mark 2:17 "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Jesus came to help those who really need help--and just like Paul I say right along with him "I am the chief of sinners."

But my Savior did for me exactly what this name describes:  He saved me, but my salvation is not something that I now own as though it is something that Jesus gives as a gift separate from Him.  No!  The gift is Him!  And so my salvation depends on Him always, for eternal life and for the life He wants me to live right now.  I am still the chief of sinners, but now I have His righteousness in me giving me life and hope.  I still experience loss, in a sense still wrestling as a loser, but I have the voice of Jesus speaking to me this, "You are a king!" (1 Cor. 4:8) 

In the beginning of Brennan Manning's book The Ragamuffin Gospel he so well describes the kind of gospel that Jesus presents to us: it is not one for those who have it all together, but those who are lost.

Here is how Manning puts it:
"The Ragamuffin Gospel. . .is not for the superspiritual.  It is not for muscular Christians who have made John Wayne, and not Jesus, their hero.  It is not for academics who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis.  It is not for noisy, feel-good folks who manipulate Christianity into a naked appeal to emotion.  It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion.  It is not for Alleluia Christians who live only on the mountaintop and have never visited the valley of desolation.  It is not for the fearless and tearless.  It is not for the red-hot zealots who boast with the rich young ruler of the Gospels, 'All these commandments I have kept from my youth.'  It is not for the complacent who hoist over their shoulders a tote bag of honors, diplomas, and good works, actually believing they have it made.  It is not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules than run the risk of living in union with Jesus.  If anyone is still reading along, The Ragamuffin Gospel was written for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out.  It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other.  It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.  It is for the inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker.  It is for the poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents.  It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay.  It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God.  It is for the smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags."

This gospel is for me.     

Do you think it is for you too. . . . .?

BT