Jesus Gossip
This morning I was reading Luke 9 where King Herod had been so inundated with Jesus gossip that he found himself asking, “Who is this man about whom I hear such stories?” Herod was hearing about Jesus healing the lame and the sick, the demon possessed and the diseased. See Jesus’ reputation precedes Him. It always does. People were amazed at Jesus’ power, wisdom, authority, healing, teaching, and basic all around awesomeness. So much so that they followed Him wherever He went. News of this Jesus quickly spread from town to neighboring town, from cousin to second cousin, from peasant to king, from mother to daughter to friend. And so Herod, a very evil, bad, violent, greedy, selfish man heard the gossip and was puzzled by what he heard.
This got me thinking, this question of Herod’s. People are always going to ask this question “Who is this Jesus about whom I hear stories?” They are going to ask this because your life and my life gossip about Jesus. Our very character, our decisions, the way in which we go about relationships, how well we care for our neighbor or carry about business or talk of faith and God, all gossip about who Jesus is. If we are claiming to be Jesus people, our lives gossip about who He is.
In a year of trying times surrounded by division and unrest, coming up on an election standing in the middle of a freaking pandemic, I wonder if we ought to pause and truly think about the Jesus gossip our lives, our behavior, our Facebook rants, our political opinions and how we share them, our faith or fear and how it witnesses to God’s presence and power, how all of it speaks of our Lord to a world in desperate need of His love.
My great hope is that my life and how I live it will answer this question with statements like:
Jesus is a Rescuer.
He is kind.
Jesus has a grace that overflows to places you never thought grace traveled.
He Loves all His kids.
His wisdom transcends understanding.
Jesus is a compass home.
He is Healer.
Jesus is alive and He is well.
His love will do anything for you.
If my life could spread Jesus gossip, I sure hope it spreads messages like this. Friend, will you pause with me today and think about what Jesus gossip you hope your life spreads? Rulers and kings, politicians and peasants, rich and poor, your neighbor and mine, will all hear of Him, but what will they hear? Our words, our action, our inaction, our kindness, our generosity, our forgiveness, our integrity, all of it speak. May we speak of Jesus in a way with our lives that people can’t help but whisper behind our backs about how good He must be. And may that gossip spread into lives and plant seeds in hearts that make room for Jesus to come in and show just how good He is.
