"Show me the money." Do you know where that line was spoken? (Besides you talking to you boss about a raise or the wife talking to her husband on payday.) It was spoken by...most of you will say Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry Maguire. And you would be...wrong. It was actually spoken by Cuba Gooding Jr. playing role of Rod Tidwell in said movie. Yes, you would be correct to say that Tom Cruise was shouting those words on the phone while in his office. But it was Cuba Gooding Jr. who got Tom to say/shout those words. "Show me the money!"
It was thinking about those words as I was reading in the Gospel of John this morning. Jesus is in the Temple following the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The people were excited. The Pharisees are saying "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him." (John 12:19 ESV) The world has gone after Him. And then we see that is case. There were some Greeks who came to the Temple at that time. Thy approached one of the disciples, Philip by name, and said, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." (John 12:21 ESV) Show me the Teacher. Show me the Messiah. Show me the Savior! Show me the...
People are crying out like the Greeks. They want something, someone to help them in their lives. They are struggling. They are frustrated. Things in the world today are not good. Murder and mayhem are the rule of the day. Love? That is just a word that is said when someone wants to get something from you. Sexual abuse happens in all corners of the world. The whole Harvy Weinstein debacle shows us more of the abuse in the world. Perhaps folks were saying, "Show me some love." By that they meant that they were willing to do whatever it took to get ahead, to make the money. I am not saying that he was right in what he did. He was a snake, a no good rotten person who used his position of power to abuse women and young girls. It was terrible what he did. Yet he was allowed to do this for years and years because folks figured it was a way to get what they wanted in this world. Many of the victims did get ahead because they put up with the abuse. "Show me the money!" they cried. "Show me the love!" he would reply. The sinful decadence of the world showing the terrible underbelly of rottenness.
Show me...Jesus. In a world crying for something, the Greeks had it right. What do we really need? We need the Lord. We need to see what true love looks like. We need to see that true love does not use or abuse a person but offers the greatest gift of all, freedom from sin, from the tyranny of the devil, freedom from the emptiness of death. That can only be found in Jesus. Only in the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, the sinless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
That is what you and I are to be about - showing the Savior. We often get off track. We forget that the mission of the Christian is to show Christ. The message of the Gospel does not need our help. We need the help of the Gospel in our lives. That is the task of the Church, the people of God, to show others Jesus. Christianity is not about getting rich, being healthy, having fun, being pain free, having the perfect job, etc. Yes, those things may happen. Or they may not happen. We don't know. But we know one thing, salvation is found in Jesus alone. Freedom is found in Jesus alone. Truth in found in Jesus alone. Life is found in Jesus alone. Eternal life is found in Jesus alone.
Show us Jesus! The world cries. What is your response?
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