By Steve Wyatt
Some successful real estate developers gathered to discuss a possible joint venture. To their surprise, the group”s leader began by describing his most embarrassing failure. He explained how his eagerness to make a killing caused him to overlook one important detail. He added, “I”m more careful now to get all the facts before moving out.”
The person beside him admitted he hadn”t always been a genius, either. He once purchased land for development that, unbeknownst to him, was sitting on solid bedrock.
But the youngest member was reluctant to share his big flub. Instead, he fumbled around till finally mumbling, “Well, everyone knows I”ve had many successes.”
And that was all he intended to say.
The leader replied, “Come on, Charlie. Put your rock on the table. Because if you haven”t failed, you can”t be in this group.”
I could say that same thing about the church. If this is your first time here, you might look around and think, This isn”t MY crowd. Look at these people! They”re perfect! Everybody has it together””except me!
WRONG! Christians may look otherwise, but here”s the truth: The only qualification for membership in the church of Jesus is for you to admit that you”re NOT qualified. That you”ve made mistakes. That you”ve got a pocket filled with rocks and you”re not proud of any of them.
We”ve all got rocks. Some have a tote bag filled with rocks, others have a pickup filled with rocks, and still others have so many rocks they could open up their own quarry.
But that”s OK, because rocks are why Jesus came. He didn”t come for perfect people. He didn”t build his church so nice people could sit around and talk about how we can be even more nice. He came “to seek and to save what was lost“ (Luke 19:10).
And that”s what he did””when he died on the cross for our sins. When he was crucified, God made Jesus “who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And when that happened, our Savior took all our rocks on his back. And then he used those rocks to build a forever pathway to Heaven.
Then he said, “I don”t want you to forget what I went through to remove those rocks from you. So whenever you gather for worship, I want you to eat a piece of bread to remember the pain my body went through. And I want you to drink a sip of juice to remember the blood it cost me to forgive you.
“I don”t want you to ever forget the one truth that unites every person who follows me: Every single one of us has rocks.”
Steve Wyatt is lead pastor at The Crossroads Church in Anthem, Arizona.
As I used to tell my students, “There is only one qualification for becoming a Christian “” you have to be a sinner first. And some of us (blows on fingernails, polishes them on shirt) are exceedingly well qualified.”