Blasphemy!

There have been days when I find myself the older brother in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son - actually that is most days... grace is hard for me. I try so hard to be right. And it seems as though one of the reasons we are at Tierra Nueva is to begin to dismantle that as I am regularly confronted by a love and acceptance of others, and an accompanying theology (as it were) that scandalizes me. My friend and co-worker, Chris, is a wondeful vehicle of this for me. I find that one of my regular responses to some things he says is, "I'm really not comfortable with that idea." He smiles and says, "Let's dance!"

Last week I was reading in Mark 2, where the four friends bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus and tear the roof off the house so they can get him close to Jesus. This is one of my favorite encounters in the gospels. As I was reading, I was thinking my thoughts about it, thoughts I have had in the past, good thoughts, insightful thoughts, but my thoughts. I stopped and asked Jesus - "Jesus, I know what I think about this passage. What do You want to show me here?" And very quickly I heard Him say, "I want you to see that they called Me a blasphemer."

I realized that I have not been scandalized by Jesus - and that is a scandal itself. Other than His claim to being the Way, the Truth and the Life (an exclusive claim), my thinking about Jesus has often glossed over the things I don't understand or am not comfortable with. I have stuck with the things with which I am comfortable or feel I can explain. In other words, I have a Jesus that is made in my image. Jesus was considered a glutton and a sinner by the religious leadership. And I am part of today's religious leadership. Thomas Jefferson made his own version of the bible where he removed everything supernatural or miraculous, probably because that scandalized his intellect. But I think we have all edited the gospels and the person of Jesus to fit (or even justify) our religious and cultural worldview. We need to let Jesus expose those cultural justifications and versions of Himself in our thinking. And that is really hard while we are still immersed in that culture. It is so ingrained in our thinking and living that it is like asking a fish to describe water. I can talk about it as an idea but living it feels like it takes more and much will resist it. I feel the resistance in me even here. I am just like the disciples who don't get it, not just about Jesus as the Son of God, but about the scandalous love of God the Father that sent His Son into the world. Jesus, friend of sinners.

I think we need to leave. We have been given the gift of leaving and having our cultural and religious assumptions regularly exposed. It would be more difficult if Tierra Nueva had come to our Seattle church and done a conference and then left. It feels like Peter and James and John leaving their family businesses, and Matthew leaving his tax booth. Is Jesus calling you to leave in order to follow Him?