Jesus Makes Home Safe
Home is important. It's where we live and refresh before going back out into the world. Home is our comfort zone. Home represents a place of safety and intimacy where you can relax and be yourself.
However, for some, home doesn't offer these things. For some it isn't respite from the turmoil of life. And, for others, that comfort zone prevents them from seeing beyond themselves. It keeps individuals from being unified as human beings.
The Bible speaks of many instances where, after a significant event, everyone returned to their own home:
- John 7:53 - Everyone went home after the Jewish leaders argued over Jesus' authority.
- Joshua 22:6 - Joshua blessed soldiers and they went to their tents.
- 2 Kings 14:12 - When Judah was routed by Israel, every man FLED to his own home!
- Matthew 9:7 - The paralyzed man got up and went home after Jesus healed him.
In Judges Chapter 19 and the beginning of Chapter 20 a Levite priest was traveling with his concubine and his servant. They were away from home and encountered a struggle which cost the concubine her life. She was gang raped and murdered while he was inside the home of the man who hosted him. The priest was so distraught he took her body home, dismembered her, then sent twelve pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Can you imagine an overnight package arriving at your house with a bloody arm? What would you think? How would you react? The people of Israel were in such shock over the evil in their country, they refused to go home until the heinous crime of her rape and murder was vindicated. The passion of the situation transported them outside themselves into unity. They forgot their own "dismembered" selves and became one body!
As it is described in Judges 20:8: All the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house; then Judges 20:11: "So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man." As you can see, this wasn't just a physical union. The Israelite tribes were coming together in SPIRIT, and the spirit is where God meets man. (1 Cor. 6: 17 - But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.)
We need to understand God made us with three essential parts—mind, body, and spirit. (1 Thess. 5:23 - May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, [mind], and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.) These components are sometimes in opposition of one another. The physical realm, which represents the visible world, is separate from the spiritual world, or the eternal unseen world. (2 Cor. 4:18 – For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.)
As humans we struggle to reconcile these two worlds, but we have a guide, just as the Israelites did. God took the people of Israel outside their physical world (or comfort zone), moved through their passionate anger, and united them in the spiritual realm. (Judg. 20:1 - Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yaweh at Mizpah.)
We also need to be moved by a passion so great it gets us outside our comfort zone to unite us in spirit. The greatest passion that will ever bring us together as one is Jesus. He is the only passion worth living for and worth dying for.
Jesus set the example for us to learn to be comfortable living in the spiritual realm. He had the advantage of already knowing what his spiritual home looked like and was busy building God's kingdom. His eyes were fixed on an eternal dwelling. Jesus didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk. He lived it by serving, healing, feeding, forgiving, delivering, comforting, listening, and being there for everyone he met. The people saw the spiritual life through the way Jesus lived.
This doesn't mean a comfort zone is a bad thing. It's just important to have your comfort rooted in the right place. Home should be a place to find serenity; but, making Jesus at home in your heart and building on your relationship with him is the only way to really know lasting peace. Our spiritual home with Jesus is where we are truly safe. Why don't you invite Jesus into the home of your heart? He will never abandon you.
What are you working toward now? Are you building your spiritual home or your physical home? If we let him, Jesus will even build our spiritual home with us as we love him. (
John 14:23
- "If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.") As we grow in that love and unity we find that God is bringing us home to Jesus.