I'm about half way through reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. I'm enjoying it and seeing Jesus through new eyes. Today this hit me hard...
"the more unsavory the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus. In contrast, Jesus got a chilly response from more respectable types....the Christian church now attracts respectable types who closely resemble the people most suspicious of Jesus. What has happened to reverse the pattern...?"
This is another reminder to me of how dangerous it is to be viewed as successful in the eyes of this world. Dangerous because we are tempted to feel that we don't need a savior at all, that we can take care of ourselves. The blatant sinner can't hide his need, but the respectable folks hide our "respectable sins" very well. He quotes C.S. Lewis, "Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger."
