Life In The Gray

No matter how great the start, religion will always gravitate toward black and white thinking simply because it’s the easiest kind of thinking there is, and let’s face it, humans are lazy. Especially when it comes to thinking.

Black and white thinking’s end game is always “Us right, them wrong. Us good, them bad.” Once that’s settled, we can make some snacks and enjoy the game.

The only problem is that Jesus shattered this paradigm with every moment on this earth—with every step into the territory of “the wrong and the bad.” The gray places and the gray people drew Jesus like nothing and nobody else. Because, frankly, the black and white people have no need of Jesus. They’ve got it all figured out. 

To associate with sinners was, well, sinful. To spend time with prostitutes only showed your bad character and moral depravity. To love on tax collectors (who were notorious cheats in that time) was unthinkable. To touch the unclean made you unclean. This was rock solid gospel truth.

Until.

Until Jesus redefined gospel truth. Until Jesus declared that the Good News wasn’t just for the established church with their black and white thinking—it was for those in the gray too.

He pulled a tax collector into his inner circle.

He gave his time and caring to prostitutes and adulterers.

He touched lepers.

He went into the homes of notorious sinners and shared a meal. 

There was a special place in his heart for the outcast because he himself was considered an outcast by some (the reluctant marriage of Mary and Joseph was probably not a complete secret) and in league with Satan by others. 

No one had more right to black and white thinking, but Jesus lived in the gray, shaping the world in a way that only love can.

So who are today’s outcasts—who are those that black and white religion condemns as lazy, as vile, as perverted, as a bad influence, as unclean?

The poor.

The homeless.

The addict.

Immigrants.

Minorities.

Those who identify as LGBTQ.

Drag Queens.

Feminists.

The woman pursuing an abortion.

Black and white thinking looks at a perceived problem group from afar and tries to control it through laws, shame, and cruelty. It’s a one-size-fits-all punch with a boxing glove that sends people scurrying away from God’s Kingdom.

Diving into the gray means meeting the needs of individuals with love, caring, and finesse, drawing them to the heart of God where for all people, sanctification occurs.

Because what black and white people don’t realize is that they’re gray too.