Don’t Swallow the Jesus Cocktail

John 6:14-15 The people saw this miraculous sign that Jesus did and said, “He must be the Prophet who is coming into the world.” Jesus knew that the people planned to come get him and make him their king. So he left and went into the hills alone.

Down through the centuries – indeed, to this very day – “religion” has been used to perpetrate unspeakable atrocities. There’s no arguing with that. So how does something that’s meant to be good end up becoming manifestly evil?

Let’s use the Christians as our bad example for today. Somewhere between several hundred thousand and several million people were killed during the Christian Crusades over two centuries, beginning in 1096.

The aim was to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control ensuring safe passage for Christian pilgrims traveling to sacred sites – but at what cost? How do things get that bad?

Historically, whenever people have sought to mix the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with some other agenda, a socio-political ideology, nationalism, moral superiority, the imposition of biblical laws on secular nations, enshrining Christian motifs and practices on unwilling participants … friend, thing have turned bad. Very bad.

But this idea of  Jesus-and, Jesus-plus something else, is nothing new. They wanted that from the very beginning.

John 6:14-15 The people saw this miraculous sign that Jesus did and said, “He must be the Prophet who is coming into the world.” Jesus knew that the people planned to come get him and make him their king. So he left and went into the hills alone.

How did Jesus react? He wouldn’t have a bar of it. There’s a powerful message in that for you and me today.

Don’t mix Jesus with anything else – not with ancestors, saints, materialism, politics, nationalism … whatever. Because when you try to make Him the mascot of your cause … He’ll leave and head for the hills.

Pure Jesus. That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.