Working Outside the System with Jesus

In the gospels, there are a lot of people who get saved in strange ways. A woman sneaks up behind Jesus, touches his cloak, and gets healed from a chronic condition. Jesus says to her, “Your faith has saved you.”

Jesus heals 10 men from leprosy, and one former leper, unlike his 9 similarly healed friends, comes back to thank Jesus, and Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.”

A man is told by Jesus to climb out of a tree, because he’s coming over for dinner. On the way, he promises to give away half his stuff, and repay 4 times anyone that he cheated. Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house.”

A paralyzed man’s four friends carry him up to the roof of house, dig a hole in the roof and lower their friend down, and Jesus (“seeing their faith”) tells him “Your sins are forgiven.”

In Luke chapter 7, there’s another, particularly gripping set of actions that leads to salvation:

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

Jesus tells the Pharisee a little parable about two debtors whose debts were canceled, and the Pharisee correctly deduces that the one who was forgiven the larger amount would be much more excited about the debt cancellation.

Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Now there’s a plan of salvation! Crash a party at a Pharisees’ house where Jesus is eating, pour perfume and cry on his feet, and then wipe his feet with your hair. Don’t say a single word the whole time. And bingo, your sins are forgiven and you’re saved.

Interestingly, the Pharisee is more offended at Jesus than the spectacle going on at his dinner table. Miracles and wise teaching aside, letting prostitutes touch you clearly indicates that you are not speaking on behalf of God, in this Pharisee’s informed opinion.

And then Jesus forgives her! It’s important to note that there was already a system in place for this woman to seek forgiveness – and this wasn’t it. Sacrifices would need to be made. Made at the temple, administered by officials, everything checked and dated a recorded in the daily log. This effusive, bizarre offering is way outside the ‘normal’ way of being saved. I think it would still be considered outside the boundaries of polite society for prostitutes to interrupt a religious leader’s dinner party to cry on someone’s feet.

It’s very interesting to me how many of these acts of salvation in the gospels occur not only on the initiative of the people seeking salvation, but on their invasion of Jesus’ personal space. Sneaking up behind people and grabbing their clothes is rude. A gang of ten lepers coming at you would normally send people the other direction. Digging a hole in someone’s roof is not typically acceptable behavior.

These stories excite me – I still believe Jesus is powerfully attractive to those who we would normally consider outsiders. The sick, the unclean, the immoral – even the godless fatcats. But they challenge me as well. What if these people try to reach Jesus in a way that’s outside my preferred system? What if Jesus tries to reach them outside my preferred system? What if they invade MY personal space, expecting by some miracle to meet Jesus through me? What if they dig a hole in MY roof, or my churches’ roof? How will I explain that to the finance committee?

Will we be able to see Jesus working outside the system?

Revenge of Bible Verse That Freaks Me Out #11 – Zaccheus’ Inner Child

A while back, I re-read a story that made me really love Jesus – when He invites Himself over for lunch, and it changes Zaccheus’ life. I was thinking about this again the other day – that Jesus didn’t preach to Zaccheus, or condemn him, or teach him anything. They weren’t even at his house yet, and Zaccheus had already committed to change his life. Jesus changed his life by being who He was, and by the act of befriending him.

I also said in that previous post that Jesus saw something about Zaccheus other people missed – that he was lost. Exhibit A was his being up a tree.

And then it hit me. What kind of person climbs trees? Little children. Grown-ups admire trees from a distance, and may prune them, or gather fruit from them, but they usually don’t climb them. That’s kid stuff. Is it possible that as Jesus was walking through Jericho, and he saw a man in a tree trying get a look at Him, that He remembered what He said a few days before? “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.” (Luke 18:17)

So here is a man who is despised and reviled by everyone already, who has just climbed a tree just to see Jesus.

Undignified! Immature! Scandalous! The act of a desperate person! How the next person who he collected taxes from would snicker behind his back about this child-sized man acting like a child. “Look, there the goes the tax-collecting monkey!”

But apparently, Zaccheus didn’t care. Or if he did, he was willing to be undignified for a chance to get close to Jesus. Like a child.

In case anyone hadn’t noticed Zaccheus’ odd behavior, Jesus helpfully points it out to the entire crowd! And then He returns all the honor Zaccheus tossed aside for His sake by gracing him with His presence at his house, and his table.

God, grant us the faith to be undignified enough to let nothing come between us and Your Son!

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #19 - "Why do call me Lord?" - Luke 6:46

“Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” – Luke 6:46

I’ll let George MacDonald comment on this one:

“Get up, and do something the master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, Do it, or once abstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you. If you can think of nothing he ever said as having had an atom of influence on your doing or not doing, you have too good ground to consider yourself no disciple of his.

You can begin at once to make it true, to be a disciple of the Living One—by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so must begin somewhere: let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience!

What have you done this day because it was the will of Christ? Have you dismissed, once dismissed, an anxious thought for the morrow? Have you ministered to any needy soul or body, and kept your right hand from knowing what your left hand did? Have you begun to leave all and follow him? Did you set yourself to judge righteous judgment? Are you being wary of covetousness? Have you forgiven your enemy? Are you seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness before all other things? Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Have you given to some one that asked of you?

Tell me something that you have done, are doing, or are trying to do because he told you. If you do nothing that he says, it is no wonder that you cannot trust in him…”

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #11 - Zaccheus - Luke 19:1-10

"And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." - Luke 19:5

A little different flavor today. This verse freaked me out last week, but did so because it made made me really love Jesus. Anyone who has loved someone for a long time knows what I'm talking about. You have someone that you always love, day in and day out, but occasionally they do something above and beyond (or maybe something they always do, but you notice in a special way) and on that day you really love that person. Well, when Jesus invited Himself over to Zaccheus' house, it made me really love Him.

Normally, when someone invites themselves over to your house, it isn't a life-changing experience. Most would consider it rude. And Jesus isn't asking, He's telling.

Jesus does this a lot actually. People will be conversing with Jesus, or just sitting there minding their own business, and Jesus will command them to do something:

"Give me a drink."
"You must be born again."
"Follow me."
"You give them something to eat."
"Fill up the water jars."
"Put the net on the other side of the boat."
"Come out of him!"
"Talitha Koum! (a personal favorite - "Little girl, get up!)"
"Go wash in the pool of Siloam."
"Go into town and untie the first donkey's colt you see."
"Lazarus, come forth."
"Pick up your mat and walk."
"Hustle down out of that tree - I'm coming over."

It's like He thinks He has the authority to just tell people what to do.

Anyway, He invites Himself over, and before they get there the man has some sort of breakdown and decides to diversify his portfolio by getting rid of half of it, and then paying back people he cheated with the other half.

I think we can say Jesus wasn't naive. He knew this guy was a cheat, a thief, and a Roman collaborator with a Napoleon complex. But He also knew something everyone else hadn't realized - Zaccheus was lost. He was just wandering around, making things up as he went along. He didn't know the way. When he tried to follow the crowd he ended up in a tree.

Jesus invites Himself over (inviting criticism in the process), and it changed the man's life. Kinda freaks me out.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #3 - "Give to everyone" - Luke 6:30

"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back." - Luke 6:30

You know, it's verses like this that make people think Jesus was kidding with the Sermon on the Mount (or Luke's version on the plain). Or if not kidding, at least trying to drive us to despair at our lack of perfection so we turn to God for salvation.

But I think Jesus means it. He wants us not to care about what happens to our stuff. In fact, he told several people to give away all their stuff.

This is very hard. I have spent a lot of time, effort, energy, and money in accumulating my stuff. I would like very much for it to remain mine. Except for this:

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21

What would I have spent my time, effort, energy, and money on if I hadn't spent it on my stuff? What could I spend my time, effort, energy, and money on if I don't spend it on the long list of stuff I still want?

"Jesus Christ - Messing With People's Stuff since A.D. 30"

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #2 - "Nothing is hidden" - Luke 8:17

"For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light." - Luke 8:17

Well, yikes.

Luke places this as a post-script to the parable of the sower, and the statement about putting a light under a container. I think it applies specifically to "those who have no firm root" and those who are "choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life."

It's still packed with freak-out-ability that way, but how much more so if it's just a blanket statement about secrets (which it may well be)?