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The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
Awww, so sweet. A story about a good shepherd and his sheep. I can see now the old, faded pictures of this Jesus-figure carrying his lambs. Like really, what does this have to do with today? We left this kind of thing in the nursery with Mary’s little lamb. Baa-baa to you.
Every single one of them did it. When they heard the news, they didn’t believe it. Don’t blame them. We are no different. To be honest, it helps. It helps a lot, for if the report was swallowed hook, line, and sinker as the fishermen they were, it’d be pretty evident this story was falsified with some ulterior purpose in mind, like fashioned to make themselves into some kind of holy heroes. Not how it happened. They didn’t believe it, plain and simple.
Could it be that faith is not actually a fully convinced mindset? Could it be that to truly have faith an element of doubt, perceptions that rest in possibly not as much as possibly so, is necessary? Do faith and doubt exist not as opposites but as integral parts of each other?
How do you get out of bed in the morning when the day is still shrouded in darkness? How do you rise when grief, anger, and anxious fear sink deep into your soul? Why should you open your eyes to a pain that pierces whatever faith that is left? Somehow, they did.
. Before Jesus even got into town, they lined the road, spreading a carpet of coats and shouting, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” Expectations were high. If only he had come to fulfill them....With too much popularity and too many attacks on the powers-that-be, Jesus wasn’t making it easy on himself. Sooner or later, someone was going to put a stop to this. As it was, it wasn’t just one.
It’s hard to allow the less attractive parts of ourselves be exposed, let alone the parts which stink, with warts, bunions, and fungus embedded in the nails. Equally difficult is to accept it from one of whom we think so highly, even worship.... Worse yet, maybe they know us better than we think, better than we know ourselves. Their goodness shouldn’t be sullied with our mean stuff, the secret knowledge of ourselves.
Why does God have to come so close?
Appearance vs. Reality: commonly thought to be a literary device or a philosophical question. What you “see” points to something greater, that is, what is not necessarily visible or experienced with the usual senses...This day was one of them. Cheer from the sidelines or join in the parade. But store your expectations for another day.
People say they want it all, the best life possible. It’s like saying what they want but not really wanting what they say. Jesus says he wants the same, but not more of the same.
So God loves and God gives. God gives God’s self in human form who lived and died for real, reversing trouble by reversing where trouble ends into what God and every created person wants, not death but life that fulfills Love.
Love. For the Love of God, Jesus came. Not to condemn, not to bring judgement, but to bring Love.
Ok, you’ve lost it with this one. Jesus, the one sent from God as the Son of God, goes ballistic right outside his church. In this day and age, he’d be taken in as a terrorist. Whatever happened to being the Light of the World and Love and all that kind of sweet, meek-and-mild Jesus? And he’s angry, raging-mad kind of angry? Are you saying this is ok with God? Sorry people, but this doesn’t seem like the right road we should follow here. Too many people are going to get hurt if you get behind this guy.
