“You have no right to be here! This is a Jesus meeting!

CROSS PURPOSES # 91

25 July 2007


“You have no right to be here! This is a Jesus meeting! And you have no right to be here!” These words still ring in my ears as loudly and as piercingly today as when I first heard them several years ago. I was at the annual Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in Canberra. It’s a gathering of people who confess their faith in Jesus Christ – politicians from all sides of politics, parliamentary workers, and members of the public – and an occasion to give glory to God and to pray for our nation.

It started off really well – an opening prayer, and warm and friendly conversation at the tables. Religious leaders came to the microphone and proclaimed the Gospel. Politicians were invited to lead in prayer or read a passage from Scripture. There was a good feel about the whole occasion.

At a point well into proceedings a prominent politician was invited to read from the Bible. He had barely started when the serenity in the hall was brutally punctured by the angry, indignant, impassioned cry of: “You have no right to be here!”

I felt the full force of it because it came from the table right behind me. I looked around and saw a diminutive, very well dressed, elderly gentleman on his feet, his finger pointing accusingly at the politician. His face was bright scarlet with anger. I could see the veins dilated in his neck, his eyes glaring at the politician with indignation and outrage.

Then he called out again. “You have no right to be hear!” and this time he gave a reason why he believed this particular politician had no right to be there, which I won’t go into here. By now everything had come to a halt and all eyes were upon him. Then he called out – twice – something I will never forget: “This is a Jesus meeting, a Jesus meeting! And you have no right to be here!”

Another man at the table gently urged the enraged man to take his seat. He did. He composed himself and sat down. The politician handled the situation very well, I thought, and offered to arrange a time to talk with the man about the issue over which he felt so strongly. The proceedings resumed and the politician completed the reading.

But I can’t remember the rest of the prayer breakfast. I kept hearing: “This is a Jesus meeting! And you have no right to be here!” This is a Jesus meeting! – and I thought to myself, “Is it? Is it really?”

I thought, what is this fellow’s understanding or definition of a “Jesus meeting?” What would be the agenda for his “Jesus meeting” – what would be the business arising? Clearly, there would be rules and conditions for who could attend and who could not. If someone has no right to be here, then implicitly there must be terms and conditions that have to be met before an individual does have the right to be here. This would not a meeting for all, but for insiders only – those who had earned the right to be there. Clearly, the man considered himself to be an insider and the politician an outsider.

I have no doubt that this man was sincere and genuinely concerned for those affected by the issue he raised. It was a sensitive issue and he was impassioned about it, and rightly so. But by his own inference of what he viewed as a “Jesus meeting” he had behaved remarkably like Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7:36-8:3.

Like the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, the meeting between Jesus and Simon the Pharisee centred round a meal and, like the Prayer Breakfast, all was going well until an outsider disrupted proceedings – a woman known to be a sinner, who in the eyes of Simon the Pharisee had no right to be there because her credentials didn’t qualify her to attend his definition of a Jesus meeting.

Jesus read Simon’s thoughts and told him a parable about a man who cancelled two debts – one for a man whose debt was small, the other for a man whose debt was enormous – from which Simon correctly concluded that the one who owed the much greater debt had more reason to be grateful? Jesus used this parable to contrast the caring, welcoming action of the woman with Simon’s own lack of hospitality.

It’s an invitation from Jesus for Simon – and for all of us who at times are quick to judge someone as having no right to be here – to view things from Jesus’ perspective.

Jesus is saying, “Simon, look at this woman.” He is saying to the man at the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, “Friend, look at this politician.” He’s saying to me, “René, look at this person you believe should be excluded from the Kingdom.” He’s saying to you, “Look at this person you believe is an outsider and has no right to be here.”

He is saying, “Look, what do you see?” Do you see a sinner in need of exclusion, a sinner who has no right to be here, or do you see a sinner in need of forgiveness and reconciliation. Do you see a person who needs to be cast out, without concern, or do you see a person full of hunger who needs life-giving nourishment.

It all depends how we look at it. There is a difference in the way Simon the Pharisee saw the woman and the way Jesus saw her, just as there is a difference in the way the man at the breakfast saw the politician and the way Jesus sees him.

Jesus says: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30).

There is a message here for us who see ourselves as insiders. Our temptation sometimes is to look at someone else and say, yes I know I’m a sinner, we are all sinners, but that person is a real sinner, a bad sinner. It’s easy for us to grade sin on a scale of one to ten, and of course our sins are always at the low end of the scale. It makes it easy to set limits – what is excusable and forgivable, as opposed to what we deem would disqualify someone from having the right to be at our Jesus meeting.

But for Jesus, forgiveness is a gift to be received with empty hands, no matter how unworthy the recipient. In Jesus, our heavenly Father is busy inviting everyone to meet him – even unworthy and sinful politicians.

You see, the business of a Jesus meeting is forgiveness and salvation for all. We don’t need to present our credentials, which is just as well, because we don’t have any. We all fall short of the glory of God. The credential that gives us entry to a “Jesus meeting” is the Cross of Christ, and we did nothing, and could do nothing to merit a stake in that on our own account. We merit the righteousness of Christ by God’s grace on account of Jesus Christ alone and for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.

On leaving the breakfast I noticed the fellow who had earlier called out against the politician sitting at the table talking with the other man who had earlier urged him to sit down. This time there was a thoughtful, reflective look in the eyes of the man who had earlier expressed such hostility. Perhaps, just perhaps, he was listening to the other man telling him about the forbearance of our loving, gracious God, who excludes no one, whose forgiveness is for all, and who wants all to come to repentance, so that none are lost. I would like to think so, for such is the essence of a real “Jesus Meeting.”

René van den Tol