In Matthew 11:16-19, Jesus tells a parable chastising His generation for their rejection of Him. The rejection of both Jesus and John the Baptist by Jesus’ generation was not due to Jesus and John personally, but the message they preached.
Recently, I have been frustrated with the unspoken ideology that preachers are a “cut above” everyone else and are supposed to be “perfect.” While we may not really think this, our actions and words often reflect this sentiment. I’m sure you have heard statements such as, “you’re not supposed to act that way; you’re a preacher,” or “preachers aren’t supposed to talk that way.”
I recently played golf with a Christian friend of mine, and heard him use a four-letter expletive after hitting a bad shot. He then apologized to me for his outburst, to which I replied: “Why are you apologizing to me?”
“Because you’re a preacher,” he said.
It wasn’t me he should have apologized to, but God. If it is wrong for him to say those things when I’m around, then it should be wrong when I’m not around as well.
The people of Jesus’ day were rejecting Christ’s message and their excuses were perceived faults in Him and John. I fear today that preachers have been put in a place we neither deserve nor can fulfill. I have heard many say that they would never go back to church because of what the pastor did or did not do.
As preachers, we have the same call to holiness and righteousness that everyone else does, but not more. Being in the public eye causes us to come under closer scrutiny, but even though the scrutiny is closer, it doesn’t mean we live under a different set of rules.
I know the Bible says we should be “blameless” (1 Timothy 3:2 NKJV), but Paul’s admonition here does not exclude everyone else from living a blameless life either. Please don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that preachers can just do as they please and live any way they want.
What I am saying is the standard of Christianity is the same for all. A preacher’s calling to ministry is not due to his/her biblical knowledge, nor of an intimacy with God known only by clergy, it is simply because of God’s sovereign choosing. After all, most people today would not have chosen the Apostle Peter to be a minister, even after he had been with Jesus for three years. Yet, God took a rough fisherman, whose mouth often led him into trouble, and preached to thousands, caused the lame to walk, and the dead to rise. My friend, my admonition to you today is simply for us to get our eyes off the preacher and on Jesus — He’s the only one who won’t let us down.
