Loving Jesus, Protecting Wolves

Abuse Reform is the Gospel Mission before the Southern Baptist Convention

The resurrected Jesus asks Peter, “do you love me?”

Peter responds: “Yes, Lord, you know that I do.”

For Jesus, love doesn’t stop at words, but stretches out into our lives.

“Take care of my sheep.”

When a sheep warns a shepherd about a wolf in the pen, the shepherd’s care and protection don’t only prove love for the sheep, but love for Jesus as well.

Taking care of the sheep is loving Jesus.

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A broken woman staggered behind the Good Shepherd in exhaustion. Bleeding for twelve years, this desperate woman had spent all her time and resources pleading with doctors for help. She had only grown worse as doctors drained any money she had.

Her health and her hope were on the decline. She was the envy of no one, increasingly overlooked, diminished, dehumanized, and alone.

Then Jesus entered her village on his way to the house of Jairus.

Jairus was the synagogue leader. She was nobody.

She knew prophets and healers like Jesus went to people like Jairus, not people like her. Jairus’ daughter needed immediate healing. This was an emergency. Urgency. There was no time to waste.

She couldn’t interrupt Jesus. He was doing more important work for more important people, so she intended to stay invisible. “If I can just touch the hem of his garment before he passes through…” she thought. She didn’t want to be a burden. She was horrified at the thought of slowing him down. She just wanted to receive a healing touch.

She rushed into the center of town, passing through the throngs of people to get to Jesus. Here was one last spark of hope.

She pressed through the crowds, reached out, rubbed her finger and thumb on the corner of Jesus’ robe, and the unthinkable happened.

The blood stopped.

It was a miracle! Brimming with joy, she silently turned around to flee before anyone knew she had taken healing reserved for people like Jairus and his daughter.

But Jesus turned around, too. Frances Taylor Gench points out that “Jesus allows himself to be interrupted by a nameless, destitute woman who deters his mission to a prominent religious official” (Back to the Well, p. 51). On his way to what everyone assumed was more important work, Jesus stops to ask:

“Who touched my cloak?”

The question was ridiculous. Everyone touched his cloak as the crowd pressed in.

But nobody is invisible to Jesus. Jesus sees people. Receving healing without a face or a name is replacing divine relationship with an anonymous transaction.

Jesus ask her to speak: she is not an object receiving power, but a human being with a name and a story. She is the Image of God, and beyond mere healing, Jesus cares about her identity and her dignity.

Still, she wondered how he possibly could have felt her tiny touch. But she was caught, and she was nothing if not an honest woman.

With fear and trembling, she knelt down before him and told the whole truth.

Scripture doesn’t tell us what “the whole truth” entailed. Can we imagine what she might have said?

Lord, you are an important man, and I am insignificant. Jairus came to you for his daughter’s sake. I have no father to advocate for me. Nobody calls me “daughter.” I must take matters into my own hands, and I am sorry that I have stepped out of my place. I have been sick for many years. No doctor can help me. I have no money, and my health has grown worse with the years. I didn’t want to interrupt you, to take your time, to stop you from getting to Jairus’ daughter. I simply came in desperation to be healed, but I intended to stay invisible. I touched the edge of your cloak, and I am healed! That’s all I intended, Lord. I am sorry.

We don’t know exactly what the woman said to Jesus, but we know how Jesus responded:

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34)

Jesus calls her daughter as he celebrates her faith, blesses her with peace, and heals her of her disease.

She was not a burden, an inconvenience, an insignificant interruption on his way to more important things and more important people. She was a beloved daughter, worthy of healing, yes, but also worthy of dignity and compassion.

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Christa Brown recently said: “There is no place within the SBC where someone who was sexually abused by a pastor or church worker can safely report it and get a proper response. I’ve been working within this arena for over two decades, and this reality has not changed.”

Can a wounded woman, bloody from church-inflicted trauma, interrupt the SBC’s mission to Jairus? Can a wounded sheep find a shepherd who cares in the SBC?

Augie Boto, Southern Baptist Executive Committee legal counsel, wrote that the sexual abuse crisis “should be seen for what it is. It is a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism. It is not the gospel. It is not even a part of the gospel. It is a misdirection play.”

When a wounded woman interrupted Jesus’ mission to a prominent religious official, Jesus stopped what he was doing, called her “daughter,” and offered her the twin gifts of healing and dignity. When wounded women come to SBC leadership, desperate for healing and dignity, the top leaders of the denomination have continually failed to emulate Jesus.

For Jesus, compassionate care for a woman in need was part of the gospel (“good news”) he came to bring. In the SBC, abuse survivors are labeled “satanic” distractions from the more important work of evangelism. If their gospel is not good news for abuse survivors, it’s not the good news of Jesus.

We must clearly understand:

Right now, abuse reform is the gospel mission before the Southern Baptist Convention.

The 2022 Guidepost Report found that, “Behind the curtain, the lawyers” — like Boto — “were advising to say nothing and do nothing, even when the callers were identifying predators still in SBC pulpits.”

For decades, Southern Baptist shepherds have known about wolves in the sheep pen. Their lawyers told them to leave the wolves alone, sheep be damned. SBC leaders have submitted to legal counsel instead of Scripture’s commands.

You can tell who a person worships by who they listen to. So we have to ask: who is the god worshipped by the SBC Executive Committee and entity presidents?

Peter said he loved Jesus. Jesus wanted to see that love in action:

“Take care of my sheep.”

Compassionate care for wounded sheep is love for Jesus.

So when a denomination’s leaders slander sheep and protect wolves, we’re forced to ask:

Is love for Jesus anywhere to be found?

But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Revelation 2:4