I grew up in a tradition that treasured good preaching; we had a long list of examples of those who did it. In some cases we thought “good preaching” was a rip-snorting condemning of sin of all kinds. I have come to understand that the real Model that we say we follow did not use that as a method. Oh, He saw the sin and spoke of it as slavery from which He had come to bring freedom (John 8:34-36). He saw sin as a sickness that needed to be healed; He said He came for folks like that (Mark 2:17). He went against the Mosaic law on stoning the adulteress; He saw this “lawbreaker” as the broken person she was and said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:11). People were drawn to the healing Jesus; His crowds got pretty large. Many of them came to Him bearing their brokenness and fleeing from the wounds they had received from other preachers; they found in Jesus compassion, the kind of compassion their hungry hearts craved. Not only was the heart of Jesus moved with compassion to sheep who had no real shepherds; the hurting sheep saw it in His eyes and heard it in His voice. This is the kind of preacher dying churches and sick hurting folks still need.
