Stress Test Devotional May 11
May 11, 2024
MATTHEW 11:18-19 | 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
The gospel is an invitation to tears and joy. It calls us to face the reality of darkness and evil. Verse 18, in Matthew 11 refers to the work of John the Baptist who preached judgement and repentance. He was a living reality check to institutional religious life. His clothes and lifestyle was ascetic and self-denying, his ministry location a literal wilderness. He insisted the people of Israel had wandered so far from God’s ways, they had become Gentiles who needed a cleansing baptism to once again, become God’s own. Many of the leaders reacted to him as an extremist, uncouth and overly severe. Yet when Jesus displayed God’s mercy and undeserved grace to the sinners and the broken, they condemned Him as insufficiently serious, too given to partying with the wrong crowd. They failed to mourn with John over the world’s wrong or celebrate with Jesus over God’s rescue.
What are you mourning over right now?
What are you rejoicing over?
