The Trouble with Jesus

by Constance Hastings

Prepare to Pivot
January 6, 2025

The Trouble with Jesus: The Trouble with Jesus: reversals are necessary. Position for change, more so than simple New Year resolutions. 

Here we are, the first full week of a new year, and do we ever need one. Sure, much has happened that we didn’t see coming, but we’re almost too familiar with that now. The thing is, are we willing to accept, buy into, focus on what that means? Will we have influence, impact, or at least be open to any newness of life in the coming months? Or again, will we passively accept what has been without resolution to change?


Resolution? Don’t you know what happens to resolutions made this time of the year? Before the month is out most of them are shelved. What’ve you got here? Another article on how to make and keep New Year’s Resolutions? Sorry, I read them all for twenty-plus years, and the best I’ve come away with is not to make New Year’s Resolutions. Give me more, or I’m canceling out of this one.


Can’t blame you.  Quitter’s Day is a thing. And you’re right, the futility of the sentiment is pretty real. Honestly though, you’re going to get a Yes answer and No answer. Hang in here.


Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

If you can’t take the high road on this, at least concede this much: we all have that in our lives we’d like to change. Sometimes it’s a big matter: divisions in our society (racial, political, religious, etc.) Other times it’s a cause: poverty, climate change, equal access to good education. Relationships can be improved, both personal and professional. Health is always a big one this time of the year, losing weight being primary. But then there’s the one that is out of sight, intuitive, intrinsic, psychological, existential. Divide it up however you like. But something is nudging that change is needed, and ultimately, it starts with the individual. It’s nothing new either.


Our old friend JTB was into this kind of thing. Out in the wilderness (take that as literal or metaphoric), he declared a change was coming. What people had hoped for was about to be revealed. John the Baptist’s primary message had been to prepare for it, well, in this case, the Messiah.


Business as usual wouldn’t work here. Repentance was necessary…  Wait a minute. Is this going to be one of those, “Sinners, you’re going to burn!” ploys? Cause if it is, my thumb is on the home button.


Geeze, don’t be so sensitive, protective, fearful or whatever it is that makes you want to run. Layer on what you will without hearing this out, but you’re walking away from a chance to at least examine what you may be missing.


Start at the Beginning

Yes, repent, John the Baptist had said. You know you need it. Why do you think people make those yearly resolutions, devise vision boards around them, go to support groups, even counseling? Some kind of alteration, adjustment, amendment in how life is approached and worked out is needed. At its core is an admittance that something is not right in oneself and an unburdening of negative clutter is needed. Acknowledging that need and the regret that one has in being in these situations is repentance. It’s Step One, Part A: admit to the unmanageable parts of your life. All those in recovery have to learn this first.


So JTB was way ahead of the psychological gurus of today on this one. Yet, he knew more is needed. Part B: you’re powerless to do this on your own. Sometimes that’s what’s missing in those resolutions. People think all they need is willpower. If that were true, WW (a.k.a. Weight Watchers) would have gone out of business a long time ago. Add Step Two: a Power greater than ourselves is needed to restore the sanity in it all.


For JTB, that meant baptism.  (Roll of eyes; here it comes.)  Ok, granted, now you have images of river dunking or at least a big tub. Well, some just sprinkle a few droplets, but the effect is the same. Hold on though and see where John was going with this.


He did it the old-fashioned way, with water right out of the Jordan River. Yet, he conceded there would be a greater way, what he called a new baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.  Knew it! Sooner or later, you want us fried.


No doubt it’s tough to take but hear this: we all have that which needs to burn through the soul, a repentance, a willingness to admit life on our terms is not working. Still, the reversal required can’t be done on our own. That’s the Power greater than ourselves, the Holy Spirit. But watch; there’s more.


Enter John’s friend and cousin, Jesus right out of Nazareth, just one step removed from that wilderness they’re in. Jesus gets in line with the others. Likely, only John realized there was more to this than even he knew. John had muttered something about not being worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals.


Prepare to Pivot

If there’s going to be a change in your personal position and perspectives, you’re going to have to get in the line. That is, you need to position yourself for whatever difference you want to achieve. And you have to be open to however that comes to you.


The record states, “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened...” The heavens were opened? Yes, split open, an explosive tearing apart, not just a peak into the scene, but a spilling out of cosmic proportions. Certainly emphatic yet containing a limitation. The record does not say it blew the place apart. The indication is only Jesus saw it and heard these words of affirmation, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him.” In other words, it was all for just him to know and live into.


The bigger point is in how change happens in life. A willingness is necessary to reverse one’s perspectives, practices, lifestyle, even beliefs because you can tell it’s just not working. That’s repentance. And it cannot be done alone or even with the help of those who want something better for you. Life must be positioned for change, for a “baptism” that acknowledges it needs to be turned over to the one who wants to call you Beloved.


Whether it’s by an immersion in the waters of the Jordan River, or a cry of the heart to God, the heavens still open in answer. It’s not a mere resolution to try and be better, but personal conversion that turns hope for now and in the future into reality through the work of the Holy Spirit.


We’re going to need it. Look what happened to Jesus. Following this epiphany of who he was, where did he head next?


Into the wilderness to meet his own demon.

Happy New Year. 


Luke 3:15-17, 21-22


The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away  by Constance Hastings

Available wherever you get your books or  Click Here to support local independent bookstores!

 

Subscribe to The Trouble with Jesus Blog  Here.

 

The Trouble with Jesus: Faith must be linked with doubt to become belief.
By Constance Hastings April 21, 2025
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 in possibly so, is necessary? Do faith and doubt exist not as opposites but as integral parts of each other?
The Trouble with Jesus: No god does this sort of thing. Wonder.
By Constance Hastings April 19, 2025
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.
The Trouble with Jesus: He wasn’t betrayed by just one guy.
By Constance Hastings April 18, 2025
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.
The Trouble with Jesus: His love is  counter-cultural, an intimate, dangerous act of shared power.
By Constance Hastings April 13, 2025
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?
The Trouble with Jesus is by a power misunderstood, not a parade, might people realize his purpose.
By Constance Hastings April 7, 2025
The Trouble with Jesus: Only by witnessing a power often misunderstood, not a parade, might people realize his purpose.
The Trouble with Jesus: extravagant love comes with extravagant sacrifice.
By Constance Hastings March 31, 2025
Judas wasn’t your best guy. Why you brought him in, we’ll never understand. How he ever became treasurer for your disciples’ accounts must have happened with mastered manipulation. As it is, though his intentions weren’t the best, he may have had a good point here. And saying it might have been the mic drop of the night.
The Trouble with Jesus is his teachings go places we never see coming.
By Constance Hastings March 23, 2025
Frequently when Jesus was teaching, those of ill-repute were in the crowd, tax collectors and “other notorious sinners.” Reputations are made by who your friends are. True, so why did Jesus seem to prefer, maybe even have a better time with the likes of these? He answers with parables about what gets lost.
The Trouble with Jesus is he advocates for more time by grace while not denying judgement.
By Constance Hastings March 17, 2025
The Trouble with Jesus is he advocates for more time by grace while not denying judgement.
The Trouble with Jesus is how he knew what was coming and still went straight into it.
By Constance Hastings March 10, 2025
The Trouble with Jesus is how he knew what was coming and still went straight into it. He'd call out Herod for the fox he was even as he sobbed over the rejection he'd meet.
The Trouble with Jesus is he seemed to be looking for something no one else could see.
By Constance Hastings March 5, 2025
All heroes have an antagonist, one who pushes hard against the best parts of who you are and what your purpose is. Fitting then, God’s beloved Son would meet the total antithesis of who he was before he even got out of that hot place, a kind of hell.
More Posts