Toward the end of the first season of The Chosen, there is a scene where Jesus calls Matthew. Peter’s response is incredulity. When Jesus reminds Peter that some people thought that he, Peter, was unfit to be a disciple, Peter responds, “But that’s different. Matthew is a tax collector!” Jesus answers, “Get used to different.”
Different isn’t always better. History is full of failed attempts to be different. In every field of technology, governance, philosophy, medicine, etc., there are examples where our human intellect missed the mark. Stephen Covey writes that for every one remarkable success, there are nine remarkable failures. The last several years have been a constant string of “different.” COVID forced all of us out of our comfort zone into a new way of doing almost everything. Some different things have been very good. Many have not. But with the stress of all that change, I suspect that all of us have had our fill of different. We are ready for some sameness!
But is this world a different we want to hold onto? As we move though our broken world, it is undeniable that there is so much wrong with it. Pain, death, violence, hatred, fear, greed for power or money, dissension, and division – these are the marks of this world. We are broken, our relationships are broken, our world systems are broken. Though we are tired of everything being different, is this a different we want to hold onto?
God’s different is, well, really different. It is unfailing, perfect, healing, restoring, life-giving. It is like a refreshing spring in these parched summer days. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
The amazing, supernatural truth of the Gospel is that every time someone comes into a real relationship with Jesus, God’s different begins to change them. The image of God, in which we were created, begins to reappear. The brokenness of our life begins to be made whole. Healing overcomes sickness and freedom overcomes bondage. Guilt and shame fall away and we are given power to be righteous. And as more and more people become God’s different, the world is transformed.
This next sermon series is based on the second season of The Chosen, in which we see a picture of God’s people as Jesus paints them in the Beatitudes. Each week, we will explore that kind of different in people’s lives. As we do so, I pray that we will all find ourselves saying, along with Mary’s character in the first series, “I was one way. And now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between – was Him.”
Get used to different. It is glorious.
Be Blessed,
Tom Deviney
