A young woman named Kelly Tietsort was called by God to be a missionary to Boys Town, a red-light compound controlled by a cartel near the border town of Reynosa, Mexico.
To be clear, she wasn’t a missionary in the traditional sense. She didn’t establish a church or even a school. Instead, she walked around Boys Town and prayed for the women and children trapped inside and for the men who traveled from near and far to the hellish destination.
One day as she sat outside the gate to Boys Town, a gray Crown Victoria car slowly drove past. The driver with gelled up hair and big reflective, Robocop sunglasses locked eyes with Kelly and gave her a smirk. Clearly keeping an eye on the guests at Boys Town, the spiky hair driver asked Kelly what she was doing.
She answered honestly. “Me? Oh, I’m praying.”
Over the next weeks and months the man kept up his patrol and always slowed down to keep an eye on Kelly.
One day, the driver, whose name was Kilo, stopped to talk to Kelly and ask her again what she is doing in Boys Town. After a few minutes of conversation, Kelly asked Kilo if she could pray for him.
Pete Grieg, who tells this story in his book Dirty Glory, writes:
Kelly prayed a simple prayer, asking God to reveal his love to Kilo. As she did so, an extraordinary thing happened: A single tear rolled down from behind the Robocop shades. ‘Jesus is after you, Kilo,’ she grinned. ‘He wants to give you a whole new life.’
Jesus is after you.
In our modern world, we like to think that God is contained in the church or in our theology. We like to imagine that God is like a stuffed animal that we can pull out when we need comfort only to put back in the closet when we are finished.
The truth is far more troubling for those of us who like control in our life.
God is active and moving. Even more, God is coming after you and me. God has taken the initiative in Jesus and God continues to move through the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was my formation in a mainline denomination, but I was never presented with the truth that God is on the offensive in the world.
Take Jesus’s commissioning of Peter in Matthew’s Gospel, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (16:18)
The Gates of Hades will not prevail. It is not hell that is attacking heaven, but the opposite. God is taking the fight all the way to hell. God is on the offensive. Jesus is after you.
In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, we hear the story of a wayward son who flees from his father, only to return in disgrace. But in a moment of earth-shaking grace, the father goes out to meet his son and restores him to his undeserved place in the family.
A colleague of my recently preached on the parable and as she retold the story, she emphasized that the father character was the true prodigal who lavished grace and mercy on both of his wayward sons. In telling of the father’s joy at his youngest son’s return, she described the visceral scene: “The father grabbed his robe so that he could run. He flew down the stairs of the porch towards his boy. As he ran he let out loud war whoops of joy and relief until he reached his son.”
As that image sank in, I burst into tears. I could hear the father yelling. I could feel the joy. And then the reality of God’s love and mercy hit me like a ton of bricks once again. The Father lets out war whoops as He runs to embrace his children.
God is not a quaint idea. Jesus is not a figure consigned to history or our seminary or Sunday School classes. God is living and active. Jesus is alive. The Holy Spirit is moving right now. But even that doesn’t get to the whole truth. Indeed, Jesus is after you. The Prodigal God is lavishing grace and mercy on you, right now.
Lent is a season of repentance which too often becomes a season of “doing things for Jesus”; giving up or taking on tasks or trying a little harder to be a Good Christian™. In reality, repentance means dropping the act. It means giving in to the God who is on the offensive, pursuing us even to the gates of hell.
Preachers love to remind you that repentance (metanoia) literally means to turn around. If that is true, then we are in for a surprise. The moment you turn away from your selfish and destructive ways, you are in for a holy shock. It turns out that God is right next you, as close as your next breath. It turns out that God is not locked in the nice little box of our pieties. This Prodigal God is in pursuit. Jesus is after you.
COMMENTS
2 responses to “Jesus Is After You”
Leave a Reply
This was a beautiful thing to read. Thank you for that.
L”In our modern world, we like to think that God is contained in the church or in our theology. We like to imagine that God is like a stuffed animal that we can pull out when we need comfort only to put back in the closet when we are finished.
The truth is far more troubling for those of us who like control in our life. “
I come back to this piece every time I need a reminder of the ways God and Jesus are just as invested in loving me as I am in loving Them. The image of the war whoops and laughs of joy bring me so much comfort and misty eyes, just as you say they brought you to tears. Thank you, Connor. This is beautiful and gives me strength constantly whenever my faith needs a reassuring embrace.