Last night my five year old daughter and I sat down together and watched E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. This poor infant alien was left to fin for himself on a strange planet. He was fortunate enough to find friends in a young boy named Elliot and his family. Even though E.T. was able to adapt to his new environment he longed for nothing more than his home. Meanwhile, throughout the entire film he is secretly being tracked by government scientists. Eventually, after a bout with illness during a brief captivity E.T. is rescued. Before he leaves he assures his friend Elliot that he will be back. As we watched the film I could not help but find similarities in this story and what Jesus must have experienced.
The son of the living God was an extra terrestrial as are we. John 17:15-16. We believers are often tempted to alienate or isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Jesus went home just like E.T. and he promised us that He would return. Throughout Scripture we are given instructions on how we should live as resident aliens. In the Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-29) Jesus gives us a visual picture of how we are to live. We are surrounded by weeds (the ungodly) but it is the faithful that will be harvested when we are taken home.
Pastor Mark Roberts wrote the following on the subject:
In the hours before his death, Jesus prayed for His followers, those who were with Him in the flesh and those who would believe in Him in the future (John 17:20). Jesus recognizes that His followers are special, that “they are not part of this world any more than I am” (John 17:16). This specialness will cause problems for them, because the world will hate them even as it hated Jesus Himself (John 17:14). But removal from the world is not an option, according to Jesus: “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one” (John 17:15). In the classic phrase, we who believe in Jesus are to be “in the world, but not of the world.” We must live in the world. We must have meaningful relationships with people in the world. But we must not be like the fallen world, adopting its godless values or its twisted activities.
We are not to bet be conformed to this world, yet we must become all things to all people that we might save some. The goal is to participate as well as separate.
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