counter-cultural jesus
“Looking around, taking in everyone seated around him, he said, “Right here, right in front of you - my mothers and my brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:34-35)
Jesus’ words cut to the heart, cut out the bullshit. Even with his parents and family looking for him, Jesus uses it to illustrate a point: your allegiance ultimately lies with God. Not with earth. Not with your fellow citizens. Him.
Harsh, harsh, harsh. His words are so counter-cultural. The world says blood is thicker than water, the bigger the better, what goes around comes around. And along comes a man to shatter every notion, to reintroduce a whole new radical way of living. A new kingdom we can call our own.
Have I? Not quite. Allowing the tenets of Christ to permeate my being, to be the foundation of daily life, is something I haven’t quite grasped. It’s not for lack of trying. Rather, it’s that everything around me acts against the ways of Jesus, runs so anti-clockwise to His forward movements. What people say, how they act and react, what they believe and force others to believe, the system they operate in - all this are so opposite to Jesus’ words.
So how, father? How can I ever hope to learn to walk in your ways, when everything around conspires against it?
I don’t have an answer. But what I do know is I must keep searching. Keep fighting. Keep seeking to represent Christ in a consumeristic, self-absorbed world. Because if Christ’s words and stories and message don’t work against the grindstone of life in the 21st century, then it has no power. It has to work. More than ever.
Oh father, speak lord. You are Creator of the heavens and earth. The Gracious One, ever-merciful, abounding in love. I lift my heart to you Lord, a heart with questions, with many flaws and say: breathe life. In a world that wages war against faith, I ask you to untangle the knots and make sense of life.
Father, I’m learning no question is too great for you. I bring before you my questions of faith, family, vices, the past and the future into this present moment. Invade this present moment.
Your Spirit moves. May I wait with hope. Amen.
