What made him different?

I remember my junior high years like they were yesterday. They are so vivid in my memory. I loved those years. I remember wearing a jean jacket to school with rips in the elbows (done on purpose), tightrolling my pants (or "pegging") because that was how you wore your pants, sporting some high tops (even though I wasn't on the basketball court), and wearing my New York Mets hat (even though we lived in San Jose, CA) backwards every day to school. School wasn't difficult. I played every sport offered to me. I had friends. I was starting to get the whole relationship with Jesus thing because of Mr. Dahl (our Jr. High director in church at the time). Life was great.

But there was this one guy, Eric (I can't remember his last name). Eric was a year older than me. Eric was also a lot bigger than me. I could run faster in soccer, shoot better in basketball, and field better in baseball than him, but he was just a lot stronger than me. It seemed to me that Eric's life goal was to torture 7th graders (me especially). Every time he saw me, he would pound on me! It got to the point that if I saw him in front of me, I would turn around and go the other way, and walk around the entire building just to avoid getting pounded by Eric.

I know this is a poor analogy, so please don't make a direct correlation, but in the Gospels of the Bible, it seemed that every time that Jesus spoke to or about the Pharisees, Sadducees, or other religious leaders it was always harsh and direct. Granted, it was deserving, and the religious leaders were doing their part to trip up Jesus, but Jesus didn't hold back on these guys. When I read some of the stuff that Jesus said to these guys, I start doing my Tiger Woods fist pump! Go Jesus! You tell 'em!

Well, I noticed in Mark chapter 12, that one of these "teachers of religious law" had been standing in the crowd listening to Jesus' words and observing. There seemed to be something different about this guy than the other Pharisees though. He asked Jesus, "Of all of the commandments, which one is the most important?" Now we know that Jesus normally wouldn't answer a straight up question like that, but Jesus , knowing men's hearts, I think sensed a genuine question for once and not a trap. So Jesus answered it. His answer for the sake of space is "Love God with everything, and the 2nd is just as important, Love others. All other commandments support these two."

Get this. The teacher then says, "You know what? That makes total sense, Jesus. It also makes sense that God would want us to focus on loving Him and others as opposed to our offerings and sacrifices." I wouldn't have seen this coming from a Pharisee, and I think Jesus response is incredible. Jesus looked at the man and said, "You are not far from the Kingdom." After looking at many commentaries on this statement, we might say in other words, "You get it. You understand it. You're almost there. You just need to believe (trust) it now." This man understood a truth that can be hard to understand. He understood that doing all of the right things don't mean anything unless your heart is right, and your heart can't be right unless you love God with everything!

What a cool insert in the Gospel of Mark! Love that! You might be wondering if anything ever happened with Eric. Well, as the year went on, I started gaining more confidence toward Eric, but I knew something was going to happen when I took his starting spot at 2nd base. I avoided him for days, when finally I turned the corner and there he was. He grabbed me, grabbed my cap, put me in a headlock and started pounding me. Something inside of me snapped. I pushed away with all I had, punched him in the stomach as hard as I could, and shouted "Don't you have anything better to do than to go around picking on 7th graders? Get a life!" With that said I was expecting the onslaught of blows he would give me. Instead, he looked at me, tossed me my cap back, and said, "It's about time. I was just waiting for you to stand up for yourself." And from that day on, Eric never bothered me again.

I stood out to Eric in a way that was different than all of the other 7th graders, and this teacher stood out to Jesus. He didn't stand out because he shouted at Jesus, but rather understood the notion of getting one's heart in love with God's. So how about you? Do you get it? Do you get that you need to fall in love with Jesus as opposed to trying so hard all the time to do the right things that might make God happy with you? Maybe you can start today with just spending some time with God and give Him your heart.

Have a great day!

Ron Foster