The arrival of God on earth was a pretty disruptive event.
As if it were not disruptive enough that Jesus was born to an unmarried Mary, Mary was still a virgin. The former was socially scandalous, but the latter was simply not in accord with the normal order of things. And this wasn’t just about Mary. This reflected on Joseph and both their families.
The angels announced His birth with these ironic words: "Peace on earth!" to a terrified group of shepherds guarding sheep in the shadow of the Herodian, a monumental construction reminding the Jews that they were a captive people living in occupied territory.
When wise men from the East who had traveled for months to track down the Messiah finally showed up, they had to hide from Herod so that he didn’t kill them.
Speaking of Herod, the first recorded political act after the birth of Immanuel— whose name means “God with us”—is the mass murder of infants by King Herod. Not God’s fault, obviously, but the arrival of “The King of the Jews” scared the Roman king over the Jews so much so that a slaughter commenced.
Jesus was only 12 when he stayed behind in Jerusalem to teach in the temple after his parents had started home. That’s like Vincent filling in for me on a Sunday without asking. His parents said, "What on earth are you doing?" which is somewhere close to what I would ask Vince. But their 12-year-old son rebuked them for not recognizing his mission (Luke 2:41–49). “I must be about my father’s business,” he said to JOSEPH. Ouch.
As an adult, in Nazareth, his home town, he had an opportunity to win the favor of family and friends before He began His focused mission the last few years of his life. Instead, he called them out for their narrow-minded view of the Kingdom of God. It seemed that God loved the Gentiles too. They tried to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). The first act of his public ministry touched off a small riot.
He hung out with people of bad reputation – tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, and even traitors and backstabbers like Judas. He did this so often his enemies called him a “friend of sinners” thinking that would bother him – but it didn’t.
At the time when Jewish men would pray and thank God that there were not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman, he welcomed women to participate in his mission, an almost unheard of concession. (see Luke 8 and Mark 15 for more on this)
In a time when actions mattered almost without concern for the motivation, He questioned why people were fasting, tithing, and praying the way they were. Jesus said, “People look on the outside, but God looks on the heart. If you are going to fast, or tithe, or pray to impress people, God’s not interested.” In other words, why bother doing all those ritual acts of holiness if your heart’s not right?”
In a time when there were a TON of obsessive laws about Sabbath observance, he encouraged his disciples to break the Pharisee’s rules about the Sabbath if needed because “People were not made for the Sabbath – the Sabbath was made for people”.
One Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. (Luke 6:6-11) The "scribes and Pharisees" were present, as was a man whose right hand was withered. The religious leaders had come to catch Jesus healing on the Sabbath. The Bible does not record that the man with the withered hand asked for healing. Jesus didn’t have to deny the request to heal or flaunt religious custom. Jesus could simply have done nothing, or waited a few hours and the healing would have been perfectly legal. The man could have waited one more day after a lifetime of sickness. Jesus could have made everybody happy. But the Bible simply says that Jesus knew they were watching, so he healed him.
Once, Jesus made a whip of cords and chased money-changers and animal merchants off the Temple grounds. He told them their presence made the temple a “den of thieves.” This is not a chapter in How To Win Friends and Influence People. That initiated a three-year-long conflict with society's most distinguished religious leaders.
One time, Pilate ordered his men to murder some Galilean Zealots who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and then mingled their blood with the sacrifices they were offering. At about the same time, a tower fell in nearby Siloam and killed eighteen more. Jesus was asked about what the cause was of these back-to-back tragedies. From the nature of his reply, we can assume that people were lobbing what they thought were softballs that Jesus could hit out of the park and make everybody happy. “Oh, yeah, those were exceptional sinners who had what was coming to them. God hated them.” But Jesus said, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:2-5).
Jesus was pointedly, deliberately, and dogmatically counter-cultural in almost every way. It’s not that he came to be counter-cultural: He came to save the world. It’s just that the world was so broken – even in the midst of His chosen people – that what He said and did changed everything. He upset expectations about God, about the expected Messiah, about the people’s understanding of what God wanted from them.
He didn’t come to be a revolutionary; He couldn't help but be revolutionary, because so many things had gone bad or become distorted.
He said God did not focus His attention on the self-centered pious and the legalistically pure, but on the poor, the mourner, the meek, those hungry for God, and the pure in heart.
He said being rich was not necessarily a blessing from God; God is concerned that we might gain the whole world and lose our soul.
He said that rather than getting vengeance, we should forgive.
He said that rather than hating our enemies, we should love them.
Rather than keeping what we deserve, we should freely give it away.
Being “good” wasn’t just about out actions; it included thoughts and intents of the heart.
No wonder the movers and shakers of his generation were so hostile to him. He said, “You’ve got it all wrong. You believe wrong, you act wrong. Some of you are making disciples, but they are disciples of hell. You have missed it, and I have to make it right. You need truth. And all who love truth will listen to me, because I am the Truth.”
He stepped into a world that had a lot of things wrong, and He confronted it head on, and he claimed he had the power and authority to do so because he was, in fact, God in the flesh, the long awaited Jewish Messiah, the rightful king of the world in ways that had nothing to do with acres of land and gold. Even the language the Gospel writers use makes clear that Jesus was challenging Rome not because he wanted to be Emperor of Rome, but because the King of all things had come, and there was no way that was not going to step on the toes of the world’s powerful.
An inscription dated around 9 B.C. shows Augustus being worshiped as a divine savior. The people of Asia Minor declared him divine and actually changed their calendar to mark his birthday. Here’s what they wrote:
“Since the providence that has divinely ordered our existence has applied her energy and zeal and has brought to life the most perfect good in Augustus, who she filled with virtues for the benefit of mankind, bestowing him upon us and our descendants as savior– he who put an end to war and will order peace, Caesar, who by his epiphany exceeded the hopes of those who prophesied good tidings [euaggelia]… and since the birthday of the god first brought to the world the good tidings [euaggelia] residing in him… For that reason, with good fortune and safety, the Greeks of Asia have decided that the New Year in all the cities should begin on 23rd September, the birthday of Augustus.” [1]
Lk. 2:10 describes the birth of Jesus as good news [euaggelia].
He is the savior of the world (Lk. 2:11)
He said he was the only perfectly good one (Mark 10:18)
Only he can order peace (Luke 19:42)
N. T. Wright[2] explains that the emperor was kyrios, the lord of the world, the one who claimed the allegiance and loyalty of subjects throughout his wide empire. That’s a word that gets applied to Jesus in Philippians 2:11 (and numerous other places)
Augustus was known as the “son of a god” (divi filius) because his adopted father, Julius Caesar, had been declared a god after his assassination. Augustus put this on the coins. Jesus was called dei filius, the Son of God (not a god)
When he came in person to pay a state visit to a colony or province, the word for his royal presence was parousia (the word used to refer to the coming of Jesus in 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23, and elsewhere).
John Dominic Crossan – whom I don’t actually recommend as a good source for information about the Bible,[3] had at least one important point to make that is noteworthy if for no other reason than that Crossan has a LOT of skepticism about the biblical account of Jesus:
“Tt)here was a human being in the first century who was called 'Divine,' 'Son of God,' 'God,' and 'God from God,' whose titles were 'Lord,' 'Redeemer,' 'Liberator,' and 'Saviour of the World.'" "(M)ost Christians probably think that those titles were originally created and uniquely applied to Christ. But before Jesus ever existed, all those terms belonged to Caesar Augustus… They were taking the identity of the Roman emperor and giving it to a Jewish peasant. Either that was a peculiar joke and a very low lampoon, or it was what… we call high treason. "[18]
We cannot understand how profound a claim Jesus and his followers were making if we don’t realize Jesus was claiming to be King of King and Lord of Lords in a way that challenged every authority and power in the world. He was THE way, THE truth, THE life.
It wasn’t just the Romans, of course. This claim to Kingship was a claim to be God, which scandalized the Jewish leadership. It was blasphemy. It was going to get him killed. Yet over and over, Jesus insists - by dropping hints that his Jewish audience clearly understood - that he was indeed the long awaited and true Messiah, the Savior, the fulfillment of all the prophecies. GOD HAD ARRIVED.
Then God was killed. In an execution designed to be excruciating and humiliating. He appeared to follow the path of so many others who claimed to be the Messiah. His followers were convinced he had failed (more on that next week).
But He wasn’t.
His holy disruption continued. His resurrection changed everything.
“[Jesus] tilted His head back, pulled up one last time to draw breath and cried, "Tetelestai!" (teh-tell’-es-tie) It was a Greek expression most everyone present would have understood. It was an accounting term. Archaeologists have found papyrus tax receipts with "Tetelestai" written across them, meaning "paid in full." With Jesus' last breath on the cross, He declared the debt of sin cancelled, completely satisfied. Nothing else required. Not good deeds. Not generous donations. Not penance or confession or baptism or...or...or...nothing. The penalty for sin is death, and we were all born hopelessly in debt. He paid our debt in full by giving His life so that we might live forever.” ― Swindoll Charles R.
Now that’s a holy disruption.
The dead can live again. His power over physical death proved He had the power over those whose souls were dead as well. Now, everything that has lost its life—everything that is stale, lifeless, and seemingly dead—can be made vigorous, free, lively, and new.
When God came to earth in the person and life of Jesus Christ, He forced everyone to make a choice: hold on tight to the life lived by our expectations, with our plans/hopes/dreams, with our own power, with us at the center, serving a God made in our image, living a life in which our culture seeps into us until we have absorbed so many incorrect and damaging views of the world that we know longer know what it true, and good … or listen to Jesus, be strong enough to see the brokenness, sinfulness, and deception within ourselves.
“Unless you see yourself standing there with the shrieking crowd, full of hostility and hatred for the holy and innocent Lamb of God, you don’t really understand the nature and depth of your sin or the necessity of the cross.”― C.J. Mahaney
This is the start of the road to redemption - seeing ourselves in the crowd that needs the same cross we want to ignore at best or rage against at worst. Coming to grips with this might not be not easy.
When God had to get Paul’s attention, a blinding light threw him to the ground and left him in darkness for three days and nights.
When God had to get Peter’s attention, he sent him a dream which left him sleepless and anxious because God told him to abandon a life-long prejudice against the Gentiles.
God didn’t deliver messages like a Facebook event notification. You couldn’t click, “Hmm, maybe I’ll attend,” or “Like.” It wasn’t an easy message to hear.
Jesus is not a Muzac Savior, whose goal is to make us feel better about ourselves and comfortable with where we are. These are okay things, but they are not the mission of Jesus. He's not a tame lion, and he’s not interested in tame people. And sometimes he has to bring a little disruption into our lives to help us become the people he's called us to be. Anne Dilliard once wrote,
“It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.”
IF JESUS DOES NOT UNSETTLE YOU, YOU HAVEN’T MET JESUS.
This countercultural Jesus of the New Testament is going to bring upheaval into your life too. We are embedded in a culture; it’s going to seep into us. If you are not feeling the challenge Jesus brings to how we think about life, you are not fully experiencing the life-changing nature of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
If you believe the most important thing is “You’ve got to follow your heart,”Jesus responds with, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” (Mark 7:21-22, NIV 2011). We need to follow the heart of Jesus, and in that process our hearts conform to his.
If you believe that you must “Be true to yourself, ”Jesus responds with, “Take up a cross…you must lose your life in me to find it.” We are most true to our true selves when we are true to Christ, in whom we have our identity.
If you believe that the Good Life is the Moneyed Life, Jesus responds with ,“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil… Seek the Kingdom of God FIRST.” Getting that first is the only way your money won’t destroy you.
If you believe that “The good life is a life of self-expression and experimentation. Have fun and be safe!” Jesus responds with, “The pure are blessed. Our body is God’s temple…the presence of God in your life brings self-control and purposefulness.”
If you agree with reality TV that “I deserve my 5 minutes of fame! Do you know who I am? My office smells of rich mahogany!” Jesus responds with, “The last shall be first. The people who are greatest among you are the ones whom you think of as the least. Why don’t you wash somebody’s feet?”
If you are content with saying “There is no truth. Question everything.” Jesus responds with, “I am the Truth. Those who love truth love me. You will know the Truth, and it will set you free.”
To those who say to God, “I’m okay! Spiritually, I feel fine! I don’t need anything from you!” Jesus says, “You’re spiritually sick; sin has broken you, and you are in need of a physician. If you don’t get help you will die.”
To those who respond, “Okay, fine, I don’t feel so good, but I’ll fix myself,” Jesus says, “You can’t, but good news. I am the Great Physician, and I can.”
The presence of Jesus brings holy disruption into the unholy places in our life.
These challenges may leave us uncomfortable, confused and bewildered for a time. He challenges our self-deceptive existence in which all these competing voices around us sound so good but lead us so badly astray.
Jesus will destabalize us so that He can re-stabilize us on the solid foundation of Truth. God is going to lead us toward crucifixion so we can experience resurrection.
“The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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[1] According to John D. Crossan, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now.
[2] “Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans”
[3] God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now. Like I said, I don’t recommend you run out and buy his books.