THE STORY OF JESUS: Matthew 23:13-22
“You make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15)
I’ve never watched ‘Austin Powers’, but I have heard of Dr. Evil and his mini Me.
His protege is a mini version of himself, a clone of his evil ways.
Discipleship is the process of making a duplicate of yourself in someone else.
They watch you, mimic you, want to be like you, and soon reflect you – good or bad.
Over time, adults begin to recognize how much they are like their dad or mom.
But are the traits they’ve learned positive ones?
Jesus is harsh on the religious leaders in this passage, but for good reason.
They are cloning their evil ways, their hypocrisy, arrogance and greed.
Jesus does not hold back, “twice as much a child of hell as you are!”
Called to make disciples, we need to be sure that we are cloning the right stuff.
Our goal should not be to make people like us, but to make them like Jesus.
But we are the ‘Jesus’ that many of them see, so how are we doing as mini-Jesuses?
The better we know Jesus, the more we reflect on Him, the better we will reflect Him.
As we do, we can help others become twice as much a child of heaven as we are!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, today’s reading has me wondering what I’ve been reflecting in myself – Your strengths or my weaknesses? May my life draw more attention to You than to me, and entice others to want to be more like You!