From "Wide Eyed," by Nicole Nordeman.
When I met him on a sidewalkThere may be a small danger in encouraging people to listen to the guy with a tequila bottle in his hand. I have to say, though, that this is not really one of my problems. My problem is more likely at the opposite end of the spectrum.
He was preaching to a mailbox
Down on 16th Avenue
He told me he was Jesus
Sent from Jupiter to free us
With a bottle of tequila and one shoe
He raged about repentance
He finished every sentence
With a promise that the end was close at hand
I didn't even try to understand
...
Not so long ago, a man from Galilee
Fed thousands with His bread and His theology
And the truth He spoke
Quickly became the joke
Of educated, self-inflated Pharisees like me
I have already documented that I have a tendency to write certain types of people off as wackos. The question that I have to ask myself is whether this tendency would cause me to ignore Jesus if I lived in His day. Would I see him as a drunken lunatic when He spoke to me? Would I think myself too good for God?
7 comments:
Good question. The only response I can think of is that Jesus never appearred drunk and holding a bottle of anything that is mentioned in the Bible. He didn't stand in the middle of the street shouting at people either to get their attention.
...also, Jesus never said he was an alien from jupitar.
you all have very good points..I have nothing to add
The key is that Jesus may not have been a drunk on the corner spouting stuff off, but some of what He did say was hard to accept.
For example, when He told a crowd, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you," I think He probably sounded a bit off His rocker. (John 6:53)
"Eat my flesh and drink my blood" One of the hard teaching of Christ from Sunday School ages ago.
I cannot answer the question of whether I would have ignored Jesus if I lived in His day. In my youth, I fell for a few crazy preachers, but nowadays, I am looking for more solid ones.
Just this past weekend I explained to a person that I do not watch anything that claims to be "christian tv." NO TBN for me. They were surprised and commented that a lot of good things come from christian tv. I simply stated, "that maybe true, but I am more put off by it then blessed." I get angry at things that I feel are not accurate presentaions of the gospel and I don't want to take my personal time in deciding what ones are good and what ones are not. So I made a personal choice to avoid them all.
As I stated to that person, I don't think that is the solution for everyone, but it is my solution for me.
Maybe I would have thought "here we go again, another one claiming to fulfill the prophesies" and ignored Jesus too? I certainly hope I would not be that way but I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have been.
I have a big aversion to Christian whims and fad and new ideas. I too avoid TBN and most radio preachers because of some weird experiences. Jesus was radical in his day and put off all the official religious people. I tend not to accept anything too new or different religiously, so it's quite possible I would have been on the wrong side in his day. I'd like to think I would have come around eventually.
Post a Comment