Monday, November 8, 2010

the contrarian way

Contrarian:
  • a person with a preference for taking a position opposed to that of the majority (wikipedia)
  • a person who takes an opposing view, especially one who rejects the majority opinion (dictionary.com)

Jesus was a contrarian.
his way was and is the contrarian way.

It's no accident the New Testament was written in the simple language of the marketplace rather than classical Greek- which was far more eloquent but way beyond the grasp of the common man.
It was all part of God's plan to make the inaccessible accessible. When Jesus burst onto the stage, he confronted a religious system that saw God as anything but accessible. Spirituality was reserved for the elite- those with pedigree, education, and a commitment to rigid self-discipline. He countered this with a different path, one that farmers, fishermen, carpenters, even little children and sinners could follow. He raised the bar of righteousness but he lowered the bar of entry.
(larry osborne)

what we read in Jesus' words of blessing, woe and enemy love is his contrarian manifesto. he is at work establishing a new order- one that is designed by God to supercede the old, taking the spirit of the law handed down to Moses and turning up the intensity and the implication of it.

he challenges those who follow him to go beyond being a people set apart for God to being a people engaged by God to realize his intended order: LOVE.

Jesus speaks
blessing upon his followers when people hate, exclude, revile and defame them ‘on account of the Son of Man.’ he says his followers should rejoice with dancing when we are attacked.

why? because there is reward someday?
no- Jesus didn’t seem to be much into the whole reward thing. the business of eternal reward seems to be a bonus to sweeten the deal a little.

why then?

why should those who follow him with the desire of participating in the realization of the new kingdom coming dance for joy when people throw stones through their windows or spray paint defamatory remarks or symbols on their houses, cars and churches?

because this kind of friction is an indicator that his followers are still edgy;

that they haven’t started to blend in;
that there is conspicuous difference and that this difference makes others uncomfortable- not because these followers are lording judgement over people or otherwise rubbing others' faces in their own iniquity and selfishness, but because the way of love creates an awkward tension in the loveless... always has.

could it be that love itself is contrarian?

Monday, November 1, 2010

come down from that tree!


















why do some climb trees?
depends on who you are...

the incredible tree climbing goats of morocco climb the argan trees searching for food

i used to read books and eat apples up in a tree.

michael jackson had his ‘Giving Tree’ where he wrote hit songs.

in a well-known gospel story, zacchaeus, one of the chief tax collectors in jericho, climbs a sycamore-fig tree because he wants to see Jesus. for him, a few issues have piled up on each other and have made seeing Jesus so difficult that he must climb a tree
  • his basic stature: he is vertically challenged.
  • his occupation: a chief tax collector would bid against others with the romans for the right to collect taxes from the people, and would probably have employed 'collectors' to do his dirty work- he has power but he probably doesn’t have strength...
  • his wealth: even with outbidding other collection agencies and paying his ‘staff’ (all with the taxes collected from everyday hebrews in rome-occupied jericho) he is still described as wealthy, rich, quite rich, or very rich (depending on the translation)
  • his social standing: remember the paralytic whose friends carry him up onto a roof and lower him down for healing? zacchaeus has no one. he has to run ahead and climb his own tree. his only peers are other chief tax collectors, and you know how they can be...
so, being short on scruples (conscience), caring trustworthy friends (community) and inner peace (comfort), zac establishes a worship scaffold that allows himself to see Jesus without having to change/approach/connect or otherwise interact with anyone, not even Christ...

but Jesus seizes the teachable moment- again. he is on his way somewhere else at the time, yet this poor little rich goat up in a tree receives immediate attention. why?

main reason: it falls under Jesus’ personal ministry mandate. Christ has come to seek and to save the lost and he's been talking about it for awhile. recently he's shared a pretty memorable series of parables which all deal with something precious lost and someone going to find it because it matters- whether it is a sheep or a coin or a person.

the encounter between Christ and the guy in the tree plays out famously. Jesus looks up, using his authority voice, calls him by name and makes him a strongly worded offer he cannot refuse: ‘Come down from that tree immediately- I must stay at your house today.”

then the drama begins. this outcast comes down and obediently takes Jesus into his house. for all we know, the tree is, like the one michael jackson wrote songs in, in his very own yard. whatever the case, this event is an enactment of a bunch of Christ’s teachings that have been delivered to the same crowd left standing outside zacchaeus' house as sinner and saviour retreat from the sight and earshot of the crowd for an undisclosed amount of time. apparently, when the great shepherd leaves the ninety-nine, they don’t take it well. they begin to mutter among themselves the way they have done previously when the master has shown kindness and mercy to sinners and others. from the outside, they observe and have opinions about it all.

there is no account of what takes place in there.
Jesus alone is welcomed into zacchaeus' home.

however, when zac actually says something that can be heard and written down, he is a new man. he has the strength within himself to rise to his feet and demonstrate through his life from that moment on that salvation has indeed come to his house. no facade need be in place. no scaffold supports him and separates him from real life and real people- from knowing and being known. he stands on his own.

the details of restitution are not complicated. they actually fall in line with old testament law... what is powerful is that, in front of everybody who knows this man and his treacherous infamy, Jesus welcomes him back into the family and, one by one, the goats in the crowd start hopping down from their own worship scaffolds.