Missing the Big Picture of Christianity

Without the Big Picture of Christianity, we don’t have Christianity, we have a small business operation with independent owner/operators borrowing a brand name.

We have all heard the saying, “you can’t see the forest for all the trees”.  In other words, you can’t see the big picture because you are focused on all the little details.  The church seems to be stuck in this mode today, focused on all the little details and missing the big picture of Christianity.

Listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 23, read it slowly and see if you recognize the “forest” and “the trees”.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! ²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. ²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

These are some of Jesus’ strongest words recorded. Can you tell that He is not really happy?  Can you sense that He is aggrevated that they are missing something important, something that they should see?

The trees:

* you pay a tithe of mint and anise and cummin

The forest (the big picture):

* but you neglect the weighter matters of the law like mercy, justice and faith

The trees:

* cleaning the outside of the cup

The forest (the big picture):

* you don’t clean the inside of the dish, the heart and soul

The trees:

* outwardly appearing righteous to men

The forest (the big picture):

* inside you are full of corruption

Jesus said that missing the big picture because we are focusing too much on the details was like straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel. I have always liked this verse because of its’ vivid picture.

The law (Lev 11:41-43) prohibited the Jews from eating anything that swarms, such as gnats. The Pharisees would be very diligent to strain out their drinks with a cloth to make sure they didn’t swallow even the smallest gnat. Yet Jesus says that despite all their effort, they were swallowing an equally unclean animal- a huge camel (Lev 11:4).  If you can recognize a gnat, how do you miss a camel?  Because you can’t see the forest for the trees!

Let’s bring this down to the practical level. What have we been fussing and fighting about in the church world lately? What gnats have we been straining at and what camels have we been swallowing?

* Straining at the gnat of church music and swallowing the camel of a lack of worship. Having been involved in church leadership for over 17 years, I have heard enough about church music to last me a lifetime. What is interesting is that most, if not all, of what is said has to do with personal preference. “I like”, “We should”, “I don’t like”…. and you can fill in the blank. The huge camel that we are swallowing is that worship is not meant, and never has meant, to entertain our preferences.

“Worship the Lord your God” is the Biblical phrase. We have translated it, “worship about God that I like”. In other words, we like that idea of singing about God, praying and a good Bible message… but the key phrase is “we like”. The gnat has become the big issue. “We should sing hymns”, “I like contemporary music”, “I don’t like drums”, etc, etc.. We have even proudly catagorized ourselves this way- “we are a contemporary church”, “we are a traditional church”… and we often look down our noses at those who do church differently.

Let me ask a question that I have posed to many people… if this Sunday you went to church and the temperature of the room was just right, your seat had not been taken by someone else, the service started on time (and ended on your time), the music had all your favorite songs, the pastor had a (short) encouraging message that you liked and all your favorite people from the church were there…wouldn’t that be lovely?  What’s the problem?

Where was the worship? Where was the focus on loving God and giving Him glory? That service would appeal to all your preferences and bless your little heart, but would God be happy? Does God really care if you sing a hymn or a contemporary song? Is He concerned about the beat or the melody or is He listening for your heart to love Him? We have swallowed the camel of worship, of truly giving God His due on His day. Shove your preferences aside and take your time of worship and spend it loving God.

The lost are not impressed by our music, they can go many different places and hear good music. They are however impacted when the people they are around sincerely are loving God and glorifying God in their presence. When God’s love, God’s power and God’s forgiveness are lifted up, people can be moved and can be influenced to consider inviting Christ to be a part of thier life.

* Straining at the gnat of church and swallowing the camel of people. “I love my church”… that’s nice, but what do you love? Have we fallen in love with the church as a group of people? Do we love the programs? Do we like the “feel” of being a person of faith?  The gnat is that our love is misdirected. The church is in love with itself, rather than with God. How can we tell?

The church, in its’ essence is a continuation of Jesus’ ministry on the earth. What Jesus did, the attitudes He had, the priorities that He maintained are to be the focus and function of the church.  Yet look at the priorities of the average church– take care of our people, maintain our buildings, keep all of us happy. Now, where do you see these things in Jesus’ ministry? Jesus was out among the people, He loved the least and the lost. He didn’t command his disciples to “make church buildings and keep everyone happy”.  Do you realize that Jesus never made it a priority to keep everyone happy?

Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, because they were. It offended them, but he didn’t apologize. Jesus told Peter he was being used by Satan.  He didn’t have a difference of opinion with him, He told it like it was. Jesus told the disciples that they lacked faith. Jesus spoke and many of his disciples stopped following Him, and He never apologized for it nor did He try to go back and “get those folks back in church”(John 6:60-71).  In fact He asked if the 12 wanted to leave as well.

Why? Because Jesus had established His priorities- to seek and to save the lost, to teach God’s word, to work God’s work and to share God’s love with everyone. How is it then that so much time in church is spent on budgets, buildings, the use of buildings, complaining about who is visited and not visited… all while our community, people, goes unloved, uncared for, and spiritually lost, unconnected with God?  Because we are straining at the gnat of church, doing everything to keep ourselves happy and satisfied, and swallowing the camel of love for our community.

Let me give you a real life example. I was pastor at a small church who had been struggling for years. We were having a Wednesday night business meeting to talk about a remodel to our fellowship hall for more youth space. Two weeks prior we had a night set aside to visit our visitors, had 3 attend. The Wednesday night before the business meeting we were having prayer, had 11 attend. Night of the business meeting to discuss facilities, had 27 attend… what were the priorities of that church?  When I pointed this fact out to the church leadership, they all shrugged it off as if this was standard operating procedure. The sad thing was that they were right. The “important matters” were the facilities, not people, not God’s priorities and passions.

Take Jesus’ own words- you tithe mint, but neglect justice, mercy and faith. The church encourages people to give. We print it each week in the bulletin- how much we gave, how much we should be giving each week to meet budget and how much under or over budget we are. But look at your average church budget and what is the vast majority of money spent on?  In nearly every church budget ananlysis that I have done, a small percentage is spent on the community, while massive amounts are spent on maintaining property for church members, programs for church members and yes, even staff members who the church expects to serve them.  Do we spend to keep ourselves happy?

Let me just ask one question- if Jesus were in charge of your church budget, where would He be spending the money? Have we empahsized giving and neglected justice for our community, mercy for the least of our community and spreading faith in our community?

There are numerous other issues we could look at, and will in future blogs, but I want to make one last point.

Jesus spoke the words in Matthew 23 to the Pharisees. This group was one big thorn in Jesus’ side, a constant opposition to His message and ministry. He said they were straining at the gnats of small issues but missing the big picture of God’s priorities. Could it be that our generation of Christianity is a generation of Pharisees? A generation of the church that is focused on the trees of preferences and minor issues while missing the forest of loving God and loving the community Jesus died for….and before you get self-righteous about this being true about other people, think about yourself and how you hold to your preferences and your way of doing things.

I have taken stock recently and I encourage you to do the same. What really are just the trees, the gnats you are straining at? Instead, embrace the forest, the big picture of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. All of us have preferences, but have they become huge camels that we swallow while we fail to love God and others?

If tomorrow you faced your God, would you tell Him about all the songs you liked, the buildings you maintained…  how about the people visiting the church you never spoke to or never connected with because you really didn’t care… or the gossip you spead about a church leader who was doing something that was not your preference… are you going to tell Him that you did it your way…or are you going to tell God how you left that church because it changed too much when they started reaching “those people”…are you going to present God with all the gnats and camels?

Instead I have determined that I want to present him with love, mercy and faith…big parts of God’s big picture.