Jesus’ Upside Down World
Today was an enjoyable day. I spent the morning preparing for a conference call interview related to my new position with a group educating the public about the energy industry. I did get some work accomplished outside and had a good swim at our neighborhood pool.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “Whoever is your servant is the greatest among you. Whoever makes himself great will be made humble. Whoever makes himself humble will be made great.”  Matthew 23:11,12 NCV
Jesus created consternation in many ways for the religious elite of His day. He taught with authority. The crowds loved Him. He healed on the Sabbath. He went places He was not expected to go, with people He should not be around.
John the Baptist was unique with His dress, lifestyle and confrontational preaching and this new ritual called baptism. However, Jesus whom John introduced as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” was not one who would be described as “main stream” for His day.
One of the greatest ways we see this is in the priorities that Jesus taught. He said to enter the Kingdom of God, you have to become like a child. I know our culture is different, but in Jesus day as important as children were, it was not a “child-centered” culture.
Jesus taught that the first shall be last and last first. He said, servants are the greatest. He even said of Himself, “the son man came to be served, but to serve….” He said the way to greatness is through humility and that the “meek shall inherit the earth.” He said that it is hard for the “rich to inherit the kingdom of God.” To which even His disciples asked, “who then can be save?!”
When Jesus selected His disciples He ended up with a mixed bag of fishermen, zealots, a tax collector and those that would not have been on anyone’s “most likely to succeed list” let alone be world changers.
Jesus told a parable about “workers in the vineyard” and in the parable the landowner gave the same wage to those worked only an hour as He did to those who had worked the entire day. As a matter of fact Jesus teaching through parables challenged, confused and created consternation, especially for the religious leaders when they knew Jesus was talking about them.
When the Pharisees asked Jesus a hypothetical question about a women who ended up being married to seven brothers because each brother died with no children, Jesus said, “You don’t understand, because you don’t know what the Scriptures say, and you don’t know about the power of God.” (Matt. 22:29) Ouch!! Then Jesus really told them what He thought about them by calling them snakes and “white washed tombs.”
We can readily see that Jesus is One who acts outside of “the norm.” You can’t put Him in a box or feel confident that you have Him “figured out.” He upsets the “status quo” and leaves people scratching their heads. That is why we are called to be “yoked with Him and learn of Him.” (Matt. 11:29) That is why we are to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)
That is why Jesus is to be followed, worship and obeyed. The greatest adventure of life is found in following Christ. Perhaps like Thomas the disciple, you want to know “where Jesus is going?” “What is He up to?” Jesus simply told Thomas “I am the way….” (John 14:6) Our call is not to go “where Jesus is” but to follow Jesus to where He is going, and anticipate a forever future in His home that He will lead us to. In Jesus’ world everything is “right side up!”