One of These is Not Like the Other PART 2 “The Line in the Sand” (THRIVE Service)

Remember this picture? If you grew up in a church, chances are you had one hanging on your Children’s SS classroom.

It’s a 1940 painting by Warner Sallman, entitled The Head of Christ. It was reproduced 500 million times. He looks peaceful, kind, and calm. It’s hard to fathom why such a harmless and respectable looking person would ever be arrested, beaten, and crucified by the authorities.

John paints a different portrait of Jesus in the second chapter of his Gospel. Jesus goes to the Temple. What he sees offends and enrages him. The Temple, created to be the sacred House of God, defiled by corrupt leaders who turned it into a business scheme and took advantage of poor people. So angered by the sight, Jesus overturns the money changing tables and drives the corrupt dealers out of the Temple. It’s a shocking image.

Jesus draws the line in the sand and the line runs directly through the most holy space anyone could imagine. For Jesus, there is a line we cannot and should not cross. A non-negotiable that is not subject to compromise or rationalization. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. The sacred will not be profaned by those who know what God desires.

So, where is your line in the sand? What is the line you will not cross? What, when you see it, breaks your heart because you know it breaks the heart of God? What, when you see it, offends you, upsets you, angers you? What is your non-negotiable?

One of these is not like the other. Jesus is different. He wants us to be different.