Moore to the Point
By Russell D. Moore. Russell D. Moore serves as the teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. In addition, Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Find sermons and other resources to help Christians engage the culture from a biblical worldview at www.russellmoore.com.

I love it when listeners to the Cross and the Jukebox send in their suggestions. One that has flooded in repeatedly, from all sorts of folks out there, is Miranda Lambert’s “A Heart Like Mine.” In the song, Miranda sings about her life of rebellion but concludes that Jesus would understand a heart like hers, and will welcome her into his kingdom in the end. After all, he drank wine and all.

The reason I think this song is important is because it hits at an assumption many people, believers and unbelievers, have about Jesus and his identification with sinners such as us. The Bible tells us that Jesus “sympathizes” with us in our temptations (Heb. 4:15). But what does it mean for Jesus to “sympathize” with us?

As we listen to Miranda Lambert this week, I want to caution us not simply to dismiss her. After all, I think all of us, as sinners, have a tendency to do exactly what she does in the lyrics of this song. Our own sins seem “normal” to us, and so we’re able to rationalize that we’re “only human.” If this is a persistent tendency, what does this tell us about how we deal, as a church, with our prodigals, and how do we see the full picture of Jesus: one who welcomes prostitutes and tax collectors and one who says the broad way leads to destruction.

Listen in to today’s program, and be sure to let me know what song, old or new, you’d like us to listen to in the future.