Like the story of the prodigal son… Most people think the focus of it is learning to come to understanding your ways and coming back to God and He’ll forgive you…no. The scandalous part of the story is that a man never ran in the Middle East during that time because he would have had to have lifted up his robe to show his legs—that was considered scandalous and dishonorable. So when his father ran out to meet him, that right there actually demonstrates how scandalous the love of God is. The scriptures are full of these things that are equal parts history, geography, and culture.

So, all that being said, I think that’s why Jesus hasn’t come back yet because He, in some ways, it’s the mercy of God saying, “Okay, the vertical part, I’ll take care of that. And this other part, you’re gonna have to be involved in it. It’s probably gonna take 2,500 years for us to get to a point where [laughs] the Kingdom’s been ushered-in enough for Me to come back.” That’s the thing I think that is so hard… It’s easy to be reconciled with God because He did all the work. It’s hard to be reconciled with your brother because you have to get involved.

CCM: Interesting…
MM: And I do think that we are in uncharted territory, in a way. I mean, it’s the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation and it’s only been the past ten years, I think, that we’re hearing more songs now that talk about the importance of us working together, the importance of us coming together, the importance of us praying together…

Matt Maher, CCM Magazine - image

And even by virtue, the fact that I’m a Catholic and some people don’t have a hard time with that, and some people have a really hard time with it—and that’s fine, I understand. And I don’t want people to not be who they are, or not have their opinions, or their beliefs. But I think that nevertheless, I think the cross and the life of Jesus that we begin to ask the questions of, “If Jesus prayed for unity before he endured the cross, are we willing to take the mantle of that prayer? The responsibility of it?” Or, at least, “Are we willing to agree with God that that’s important?”

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