A Long Line of Extremists

A Long Line of Extremists--January 5, 2018

"Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news'." [Mark 1:14-15]

I sometimes used to wonder how Jesus knew when to start.

You know, as in, when to begin his public life--his movement; his campaign, if you like; his ministry and mission.  How did Jesus decide that this was the day to start speaking, on whatever day that happened to be?  Other stories, after all tell us that Jesus must have had some kind of internal sense about when the time was right--since his initial protest to his mother at a certain wedding reception that has run out of wine is simply, "My hour has not yet come."  Jesus has a sense, it would appear, of when the moment was right to begin.  

And oddly enough, it doesn't seem to have been triggered by something that looked religious at all.  It wasn't a holy day or religious festival.  It wasn't the Passover, the Day of Atonement, or the Fourth of July.  And it doesn't seem to have been any kind of personal milestone either, like some kind of messianic mid-life crisis on his 40th birthday making him wonder what he had ever "done" with his life so far.  

No, but rather, the only hint of a cue that Mark the Gospel writer gives is that John--the forerunner--had been arrested.  Consider that for a moment. Let it sink in.  The trigger, the tipping point moment, for Jesus to begin his movement was the point at which John was arrested.  That is to say, it was at the point at which there was no doubt whatsoever that continuing in John's work and message would also get Jesus in trouble. Ah, but as Andrew Greeley's line so perfectly puts it, nevertheless, despite the clear warnings of the risks and the consequences, "Jesus and his troublemaking go merrily on."

That is crucial to understanding who Jesus is, and what it will mean for us if we dare to follow him as well--not just in this year ahead, but all of our lives.  Jesus avoided neither controversy nor consequences of being regarded as a troublemaker--and at no point did he fuss that it wasn't fair when he got into trouble, or insist on special treatment because he was the Messiah, or try to change his message to avoid saying things that would upset the powerful people who had thrown John in prison and then had him killed.  That by itself is a mark of Jesus' courage.

Take a look at the way the Gospels summarize John the Baptizer's core message, and you'll see something like this: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!" (See Matthew 3:2, as a case in point.) And when it becomes clear that the powers of the day have done the worst they could do to try and silence and stop John, Jesus senses that the baton has been passed to him, as it were, and so Jesus takes up the same message, as Mark gives it to us here (and Matthew, too, just so you know I'm not playing fast and loose in some kind of  Evangelist Switcheroo).  Jesus says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."  Sound familiar?  Jesus doesn't swerve or soften the message.  He doesn't qualify or backpedal so that his words will sound less threatening to the Herods and Pilates and Respectable Religious Crowd.  He just picks up right where John left off, knowing that it will likely land him in at least the same hot water it landed John in.

One of my recurring rules of thumb as someone who has been trying to live the Jesus way of life, as fully as I could grasp it or try to grasp it still, is the reminder that if your mental picture of Jesus is of someone who would never do or say something provocative enough to get himself crucified, it is a sure sign you have confused the real, living, breathing Jesus with a dumb idol of your own liking, with all the rough and jagged parts smoothed away.  That also means recognizing that Jesus did not simply wander into thorny situations and accidently upset people, despite trying hard not to offend anybody.  It means that Jesus knew sometimes very well that he was headed into a confrontation with the priests or the Sadducees or the Pharisees or Herod's party, and he was willing to take whatever heat there was to be borne from it.  It means that Jesus, like John, was willing to criticize things, actions, and perspectives that were hypocritical, and that Jesus was willing to do such things from the beginning of his public life.

I am reminded of a line from Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," one of those works that I have made it my personal practice to read at least once a year (yes, usually in mid-January, for obvious reasons).  And while there are numerous passages in his letter that provoke and challenge me year after year, I am reminded again of these words today, in light of these verses from Mark's Gospel.  Dr. King writes:

"Was not Jesus an extremist for love: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' Was not Amos an extremist for justice: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.' Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' Was not Martin Luther an extremist: 'Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.'"

If our picture of Christianity is that it is simply a ticket to having a quiet, comfortable family life with a steadily rising income and a reserved seat in the afterlife, we have missed something crucial.  There is something fierce and relentless about the movement and the message of Jesus; loving in its ferocity, to be sure, and gracious as well as relentless, but something that will inescapably always look like trouble-making to the world at large. 

It has to be--Jesus is announcing that there is another Kingdom, another Reign, one that the powers of the day cannot control or thwart or comprehend.  And even more intimidating for the powers of the day--and for us in our self-centeredness, too, to be honest--the Kingdom that Jesus announces is an order of things in which God sets a table for anybodies and everybodies, rich and poor, women and men, "acceptable" and "unacceptable," insiders and outsiders, enemies, strangers, and neighbors alike.  Empires like Rome's and fiefdoms like Herod's can only thrive on dividing people into "us" against "them" and insisting that it's better to have a tyrant like Herod supposedly protecting "us" and our interests over against "them" and those other people out there who are "the enemy." But Jesus' message, like John's before him, announced that where God rules, even enemies are invited, and we find that MY well-being is inseparably tangled up in YOURS and in everybody getting fed. (If you need proof that this was also part of John's message, take a quick peek at Luke 3:10-11 and following.)  

To be a follower of Jesus, then, is necessarily to be signing up for a life of gracious trouble-making.  Troublemaking, not because we are trying to just make noise or need the limelight, but because the news of God's Reign (rather than Caesar's over the Empire or Herod's over Palestine, or me over my own life) will always disarm us at the same time it embraces us.

So let us be clear, then.  We have spent these last weeks--days the church calls Advent and the Days of Christmas--preparing ourselves to come face to face with this Jesus and to follow him.  Hopefully we at least have some clue now as to what we will be getting ourselves into when we hear him call us by name, as he is bound to do.  But let us go with eyes wide open, knowing that just like Jesus himself taking his cue when his fellow provocateur John was in jail, we will go in the footsteps of Jesus ready to be a part of his blessed, holy, troublemaking.

Let's go....

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to follow you, and the grace to be extremists of love as you lead us.