bread

I haven’t heard much from them lately, but there used to be a group called Red Letter Christians. These were Jesus-followers who focused on the words of Jesus as quoted in the scriptures – the ones that sometimes are printed in red letters in our Bibles.

I was intrigued by that, and since then I try to pay special attention to what Jesus said as I read through the Gospels. What if, as the Red Letter Christians did, I tried to live out those sayings of our Lord.

I was challenged again by that idea this morning as I read a few chapters of Matthew. First, in Matthew 4:1-2, was this from the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

That’s what got me thinking about Red Letter Christians, that idea that we need all the words of God as much as we need our daily food. What if I really believed that? I mean, I believe it in my head, but if I believed it in my heart wouldn’t I do it?

The I got to the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon is full of hard things, things like this from Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

I don’t want to do that, so most of the time I don’t. I also sometimes don’t want to let my light shine, or many of the other things Jesus admonishes me to do in this part of Matthew. It seems to hard, or unfair, or just unreasonable. People will take advantage of me, or laugh at me.

That’s why following Jesus is truly a counter-cultural act – because the culture I live in pressures me against doing anything Jesus commands. I want to get along and do well in this culture, so much so that I’m often willing to live my faith passively instead of actively.

Being a Red Letter Christian would be hard. So is being a black letter Christian. None of it’s easy as long as my values are aligned with the world’s instead of God’s.

Ok, I finally got to the root of this particular problem – ouch! If I shared Jesus’ values, then living them out would be a lot easier. But I need to do that to live, just as much as I need to eat to live.