Mr. Cellophane

I remember when I first saw the movie "Chicago" I was struck by the powerful performance of John C. Reilly as he played Amos Hart. In this song "Mr. Cellophane" he captured the depth and pain of the loneliness that so many of us have felt in one period of our life or another. To some of us this song could become the embodiment of our childhood where we just couldn't find the love we desired. For others this song radiates with our high school years when we felt that no one truly knew "the real me." For some it is their marriage or dating relationships where they sought after love and acceptance. For others this is the present reality. It is a life that feels empty and without purpose.

As I write this blog, I am reminded of all the people I know that have been hurt and scarred because no one was willing to take the time to notice. I think of an 8 year old boy that was addicted to drugs because that was all he really knew. I think of a teenage girl who was raped at home nearly every night and was told that this is what love is. I think of a teenage boy who lied, stole and fought because he wanted attention from his parents. I think about a single mom working two jobs and trying to raise her three children. I think of a woman who would go to the bar every night hoping to get picked-up by a man so that she could feel important for just one night. I can think of a man who is drinking himself to death because the drunkenness helps him escape the emptiness he feels inside. And these are all people I knew growing up. Some of them were friends, some were people who knew my parents, but I knew them. I can still see their faces, yet over the years I have lost contact with each of them.

Like them, I too know what it is like to be Mr. Cellophane.

Often times Christians hear about these people and we think, "if they would just get right with Jesus, they wouldn't have those problems," or "they just need God in their lives." And in a deep, powerful, and spiritual way we are right, but we are missing something!

The fact is a relationship with God Almighty through Jesus Christ is the answer. So what are we doing about it? Most Christians wouldn't be caught dead in a bar or a prison or a rehab center. Many Christians are so afraid that others will look down on them if they are seen hanging out with the town drunk. Many of us are more content to sit back and put down that poor mother's wild children than dare to step out and offer her some help.

As I was thinking about these people and so many more in the world that are struggling, hurting, weary, tired, and lonely I was drawn to Matthew 9:9-13 where we find Jesus at Matthew's house:

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In this passage we don't find Jesus sitting outside pointing fingers at these tax collectors and "sinners" (aka. this is referring to prostitutes). No, we find Jesus inside eating with them. If we understood their culture we might understand just how important that is.

In the time and culture that Jesus lived, dining with someone was considered one of the greatest forms of intimacy. You only did this with people you cared deeply for. They would recline around the table leaning on each other as they ate. It is here that we find Jesus. In the midst of the hurting, the hated, the rejected and the lonely. And when questioned about it He replies, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

This is the kind of God I serve. One that desires to bring healing into the lives of the hurting, love to the lonely, wholeness to the broken, the great surgeon of the heart.

In Romans 10:14 it says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

The next time we see someone and think, "they need Jesus," maybe God is telling us it is time to introduce them to the Jesus who wants to eat with them.

Revelation 3:20, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.