Radical Like Jesus
As I am preparing for the World Race, I am spending a lot of time reading the bible. Reading God's Living Word is obviously a good thing to do anyway, but this trip has inspired me to actually do it on a daily basis. I'm no biblical scholar by any means. I can't quote scripture off the top of my head and tell you exactly which verse it is. Truthfully, until recently, my only experience with God's Word was the readings in church growing up (which I wasn't really paying much attention to). Sitting down and reading a book that used words I didn't really understand was always a kind of stupid idea to me. I thought I knew enough about Christianity and didn't really need to torture myself trying to figure out what that crazy book was saying. Maybe I did already know a whole lot about American "Chick-Fil-A" Christianity, but I knew absolutely nothing about what it really meant to follow Jesus. Here are some of the things I have learned about how incredibly radical Jesus was while He was walking the earth and how they are relevant to what my squad and I will be doing on our 11 months abroad:
1) Jesus was homeless-I guess if I think about it, I already knew this, but I never thought about it enough for the idea to sink in. Jesus left His throne in heaven to literally live like a hobo. He didn't come to earth and built a huge palace full of food and wine and servants. He wandered around the dirty countryside half starved hanging out with outcasts and outlaws. That is so radical that I can barely wrap my brain around it. While we are on the Race, we will be living out of a backpack for almost a year. Most of us have grown up living comfortably in America, so the idea that all of our belongings will be in one backpack seems like a huge sacrifice to us. We think that we are so radical for giving up the comforts of home to live in a tent, but when you actually look at it, we are still just pampered Americans compared to how Jesus and his disciples lived. In Mark 6:8-9, Jesus sends His disciples out saying "take nothing for your journey except a staff-no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals, but not an extra shirt…" Ouch! I know I will be taking food, money, and a bag full of extra clothes with me. I think that doing The Beard Campaign for eleven months is crazy. These dudes lived The Beard Campaign their entire lives. As radical as I try to tell myself I am, I will never be as radical as Jesus and His disciples.
2)Jesus hung out with scumbags-I mentioned this before, but I think it is worth looking at deeper. I already said that He didn't build a palace and live "like a King". He didn't even come down to hang out with the religious folks. I personally take great comfort in this. Two Thousand years ago when Jesus came to earth, like today, the world was filled with people who lifted themselves up for how devout they were. These Pharisees and scribes made it seem like they were so great because they were following the Laws of Moses, while everybody else just couldn't live up to them. So, when God came to earth, did He head strait to the temple to tell these rule followers how awesome they were? Hell No! He went out into the real world and put together a merry band of misfits. He headed strait for the tax collectors, prostitutes and beggars. This really pissed the Pharisees off. Mark 2:16-17 says: When the teachers of the Law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: "Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners." This is so awesome because I am the kind of broken scumbag that Jesus would have chilled with. When I first signed up for the Race, I was terrified that I would be put in a group of judgmental, bible thumping modern day Pharisees. I couldn't have been more wrong. Now that I have been meeting my squad I realize that we are just another merry band of misfits.
3) Jesus was more like The Masked Magician than David Blaine-For those of you who don't know, David Blaine is a street magician who wows the crowds by doing crazy tricks that nobody has ever seen before. The Masked Magician was a magician who did similar tricks, but immediately showed the crowd exactly how he did them. When Jesus came to earth he preformed miracles that nobody had ever seen before. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, and gave sight to the blind. He did all of these completely radical things while He walked the earth and wowed the crowds where ever He went. He did this, not only to show His goodness, but to show that He is God. In my opinion, the coolest, most radical thing He did was before He left the earth, He gave the Holy Spirit to His band of homeless misfits so that as His followers and in His name we can go out and preform these same miracles. In Acts 1:8, Jesus says "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth." I don't think I need to go into too much detail about how this is relevant to what my squad and I will be doing because this is exactly what my squad and I will be doing.
4)Jesus got seriously pissed off sometimes-Most people think that Jesus was just this guy who was nice all the time and helped people out wherever He went and because of this, as Christians, we aren't ever supposed to get angry. Don't get me wrong, He was nice and He did help people out. He also got raging mad. When I say that He got mad, I mean that he got mad enough to stop what he was doing, braid a whip, and start hitting folks with said whip (and inside the temple no less). If that's not radical, I don't know what is. If you read the obligatory coffee cups and bumper stickers that most Christians have, you would think He was soft spoken and meek all the time like Mr Rogers or something. If you read the actual bible instead of the bookmark in the bible, you would know that this isn't strictly true. John 2:15 says: So He made a whip out of chords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. So, next time you hear somebody knocking God, maybe you shouldn't look at that WWJD bracelet in an attempt to calm yourself down. If you really want to know what Jesus would do, He would grab a strip of leather, and start hitting that dude. I'm not sure if this applies to my World Race trip or my squad other than that we are merely humans and everybody gets mad sometimes, even Jesus. I seriously hope we aren't being called to fashion whips on this trip.
5)Jesus had the worst sales pitch in history and the best sales pitch in history-I think by far the most radical thing Jesus did was flat out telling his disciples that if they want to follow Him they would have to die. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus tells his disciples "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." For some of his disciples, he meant this literally. He actually said to them, "If you want to be my follower, you gotta get nailed to the worst torture device in history and die." Another way to look at this is that even if you don't actually die because you are a follower of Jesus, you have to "die to self" (turn your God given free will back over to God). Like I said before, this is the worst sales pitch ever. Just the idea of giving up free will sounds horrible. The good news is that true freedom comes from total and complete surrender to God. When you hold onto your free will you are also holding onto sin. With sin comes shame and guilt and trying to climb your way to God through your deeds. Surrendering to Jesus means that the Holy Spirit lives inside you and you no longer need to attempt that impossible climb. With the Holy Spirit in you, those good deeds come naturally. There is no need to struggle to do good deeds to try to buy your way into heaven. That debt was paid two thousand years ago. This is by far the best sales pitch ever. This is the "sales pitch" that my squad and I will be traveling the globe trying to share with as many people as we can.
This is just a fraction of the awesome stuff the bible has to offer. If you want to know who this radical Jesus really is, I suggest you stop reading those stupid bumper stickers and start reading the book they come from. I'm so excited that God has called me on this amazing mission trip. I can't wait to see how He uses me and my squad to spread His kingdom. If you would like to be a part of this adventure for Christ, you don't even need to leave your house. Mission trips like this one take a lot of funding. Myself and the merry band of misfits I will be traveling with have to raise $16,285 each to make this all possible. If you click on the "Support Me" tab on this page, there are instructions on how to join in on this noble quest. Thank you for taking the time to read my Blog and for prayerfully considering supporting me. Love Y'all!!!
