Jesus Wants the Rose!

I recently heard one of Matt Chandler's powerful messages about the redemption of Christ. In his freshman year of college, he happened to sit next to a 26 year old single mother who knew nothing about Christianity and had never been to church. They began to discuss Christ and the cross, and eventually him and a few friends would help the lady out by babysitting and mentoring when they could. One of Matt's friends was playing in a band at a church in the area, so Matt invited this lady to come join him to watch his friend play.  She thought she was going to a concert, but little did she know it was actually a sermon. So she tagged along and they watched his friend play. As soon as he was done, the minister of the church came on stage and said "today I want to talk to you about sex..." Matt immediately got nervous. He thought "this could be a problem." He didn't want the minister saying anything offensive that maybe the lady would get hurt by, or feel judged. So, the speaker brought out a beautiful red rose. He sniffed it and bragged about how good it smelled and lovely it was. He told the audience to pass it around and smell it. Then he began to speak. Matt described it as one of the worst most horrid handling of what sex is. The preacher goes on and on about how horrible it is, and all the diseases you can obtain through it. So with Kim (the friend Matt brought) sitting next to him, he thought "what is this guy doing?!" He was being so harsh and judgmental. Finally, after sitting through a night mare, he yells"where's my rose?!" Someone came up and handed the rose back to him. It was beaten up, and clearly not as appealing as when it first got passed out, pretty destroyed after being passed out to an audience of a thousand. He then proceeded to say "Now who would want this rose?!" That was his whole point! To show how worthless it was after being tossed around and used. Matt began to have anger bubbling up inside of him, complete fury and deceit for this preacher. It took everything in him not to yell 
"Jesus wants the rose! That's the point of the gospel!" Christ died for us so that WE may be forgiven, redeemed, renewed! It is a powerful statement. Jesus wants that rose. That trampled up, beaten down rose. He loves that rose. That despite where that rose had been, and how much it lost along the way, Christ wanted it when no one else would. I thought it was a story worth sharing. To watch the video, click here.


Sincerely,
Stephanie