Jesus Made "One" Anything But "The Loneliest Number" (Part 2)

What Did Jesus Do?

There is ONE body and ONE Spirit—ONE Lord, One faith,
ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all…
Ephesians 4:4-6

Something tells me that if Jesus were here to witness the divisions in his Body over sprinkling vs. pouring vs. dunking, and grape juice vs. wine, and hymnody vs. contemporary “praise music,” and KJV vs. every other translation it would at the very least give him a migraine, if not make him want to throw up, as Woody Allen once quipped in a seriously humorous way. While the mysterious “Masked Man” with the silver bullets may have been a hero in the Old West, Jesus did not exalt any Lone Ranger mentality. Contrary to all logic, Jesus taught that the real strength in numbers is when many add up to 1. That’s right, Jesus made “one” anything but “the loneliest number.”

It troubles me as much as anything these days that the Church has forgotten the most essential math lesson in God’s kingdom. It may be a maxim on the battlefield that to divide is to conquer, but, for Christian soldiers, to be divided is to be defeated. How is it that we don’t get this? Sometimes I am afraid that not getting the importance of being 1 in Christ is a strong indication that we really don’t get Him. And, if we don’t get Him, how, in the name of heaven, can we share Him? You’ve seen those bumper stickers that say, “If you don’t KNOW Peace you’ll have NO Peace”? Well, no one can know the peace of Christ if all we have to offer is a piece of Him! The one thing this does answer for me is why so many seemingly have no use for the faith we put on display, because it’s a faith that can’t deliver Jesus because we’ve made it all but impossible for Christ to be seen after we’ve divided him up into so many little pieces.

Here’s what I think just might be Job #1 for the Church—to be ONE! How else will the world ever come to know the ONE hope to which we have all been called if we don’t clearly and consistently put on display the ONE God and Father of all by showing our unity in the ONE Son of God and Savior of all, by the power of the ONE Holy Spirit who is in all upon whom God has poured out his grace and truth? I’ve never been much of a Beatles fan, but I think if Jesus were here today he might make use of a band that would exhort his people to “Come Together” and “Love, Love, Love.”

Think about this the next time you attend a worship service where Communion is being celebrated: Jesus is the Maitre d’ who, whenever two or more are gathered in his name, announces, “Table for One!” I don’t know about you, but I believe it’s time our congregations started relating to each other as ONE in Jesus. And I think it doesn’t matter if it begins in pew or pulpit, but begin it must if the churches in your community and in mine, and in every community, are going to be the Church.


S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4