The Bethany Bullet - March 16, 2010

From Foes to Family

Once we were foes of God, now we are members of His family. “We were God’s enemies, but we have been connected to God through the death of His Son Jesus Christ.” -Romans 5:10

In the movie, Tombstone, Virgil Earp agrees to be the town sheriff. When his brother Wyatt finds out about this he is distraught and enraged. In a last ditch effort to get Virgil to change his mind he implores their younger brother Morgan to “talk some sense into” Virgil. Morgan hangs his head, pulls back his lapel and reveals a deputy badge to Wyatt and says, “It’s like you say Wyatt, you gotta back your brother’s play.”

In the above text St. Paul pulled back a curtain and revealed that we, though by nature enemies of God, are through Christ the family of God. In his letter to the Corinthians, this past week’s second reading, the apostle sounds a bit like Morgan Earp as he too calls us to “back our brother, Jesus’, play.” We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God makes His appeal through us. Imploring others (foes), through us to (become His family) be reconciled to God.

We are called to back our brother, Jesus’, play. For Morgan backing his brother’s play meant putting on a badge and seeking to enforce the law. For we brothers and sisters of Jesus, backing our brother’s play means wearing the sign of the cross put on us in baptism and seeking to offer the Gospel. How? As we declare what Jesus has done and do as He did.

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer