00:00 We hear Jesus say to his disciples, "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are
00:07 getting into heaven ahead of you." And there's a bit of a miracle involved in
00:13 that mystery, because if you think about it, tax collectors and prostitutes are
00:18 probably among the last people on earth that are interested in holiness or the
00:26 things of God. What has overcome the resistance in them and made them happy
00:32 to go to heaven? They can't wait to get there. One of my favorite television
00:37 shows is a show that's been on the air for, this is the 24th season, it's a
00:43 documentary type reality show called Intervention. And the premise of the show
00:49 is that the producers follow a person who is dealing with addiction. And we
00:57 follow the person through all of the affliction and the suffering and the
01:02 very terrible circumstances of their life. And then at the end of the show,
01:07 that addicted person is brought to a place, to a room filled with their family
01:14 and friends, all of the people who love them, because in this room there will be
01:19 an intervention by which the addicted person is invited to say yes to engaging
01:27 in a 90-day rehab. But we think, "How can this person ever turn their life around?"
01:34 But it's when they get to that room and they see the faces of the people who
01:39 love them, and they listen to them as they read letters to the addicted person,
01:43 letters that say how much they love them, how much of a difference they made in
01:48 their life, how much they need them to be in their life, that something starts to
01:53 come alive in the person who is so completely ravaged by addiction. And then
01:59 especially when one of the counselors says this, "These people, they're fighting
02:04 to keep you alive, and they just want to know, are you willing to join the fight?"
02:13 The reason why the tax collectors and the prostitutes change their lives is
02:19 because they look at John the Baptist who comes to them with so much love, with
02:24 the love of Jesus Christ, in a face filled with great desire for their own
02:30 salvation and for their own peace. And it is enough for them to leave behind their
02:36 sin and their strain, because what they're looking for and all their sin
02:40 and all of their going astray, they find in Jesus Christ, who John the Baptist
02:46 makes so present. And so for us, if we're straying, that presence is there for us,
02:53 and we can be that John the Baptist for so many others by inviting them to join
03:01 the fight for love that Jesus Christ is conducting, has conducted, is
03:05 conducting for us, to bring us back to life so that we can be among the first
03:10 who are going to be welcomed into heaven.
03:15 you
03:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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