Following the Reckless Jesus

It is easy for us to fall into the trap of seeing Jesus as extremely orderly and as almost stoic in His approach to things.  It doesn’t help that so many movie portrayals of Jesus make Him out to be a somber, scowling character straight out of Shakespearean tragedy. 

We tend to want to see Jesus as efficient, orderly, and as very “black and white” in His thinking and actions.  Make a mistake around Jesus, and He will quickly correct you!  Step out of line around Jesus, and He will set you straight.  Break a rule, and He will be the holy, eternal policeman issuing a divine summons that you had better not ignore.  Don’t get too close.  Don’t interrupt His script.  In short, we want efficient, straightforward Americanized Jesus, who has little time for pettiness, small talk, or slackers. 

But the Jesus of the New Testament is quite different.  In the Gospels, Jesus goes against all the things that an efficient God whose job it is to run a tight ship should be.  For instance, Jesus hangs out with people who are not very refined.  Even His closest followers rarely follow proper etiquette, often speak out of turn, and sometimes make suggestions that would make even a Roman soldier blush (“Shall we call down fire on these Samaritans who are not listening to you?” is an example of one of their brilliant quips).

The more we get to know Jesus in the Gospels, we see that He Himself can appear almost reckless at times!  In one of Jesus’ parables, He speaks positively about a farmer who sows seeds without regard to where they will go: some landing on good soil, some landing in the middle of thorns, and some just scattered in the middle of the road to be eaten by birds!  Jesus also teaches about an important man who throws a banquet, but at the last minute (because the host is not getting the response he hoped for), he tears up all the old invitations and sends servants out “into the highways and byways” to bring in whomever is available to fill his table.  If Jesus’ teachings are not reckless enough, just look at His actions!  He walks right up to lepers and touches them.  He welcomes rowdy kids who are interrupting a gathering of attentive adults.  And He walks right up to a notorious woman at a local gathering place in the middle of the day in a “hostile territory”, and just strikes up a conversation (it’s a good thing there wasn't a twenty-four hour news cycle back then – think of the headlines!). 

Why would Jesus, who was sent to show us the “heart of God the Father” and to usher in a new way of living, come and say and do these seemingly reckless and rowdy things? 

Could it be that Jesus wants us to stop being so “in control” and safe and instead to live in a way that takes seriously that God exists?  He commands all who would follow Him – who would be called His disciples – to “love as I have loved.”  This means that the world around us can no longer be at arm’s length.  We can no longer neatly organize ourselves into a quiet corner of existence and stay there, if we are to follow this Jesus who lavished His love and mercy at full speed to everyone He came in contact with.  To do this, we really have to be convinced that Jesus’ way is the only way.  We cannot water it down with our political or even religious safety nets.  It may seem reckless, but it is really not.  It is simply faith-filled, love-filled living – which, according to Jesus, is the only way to live!