Reflections on a Revolutionary

Just a brief note this morning—

If you’ve been reading up here the last few weeks, I’ve been drawn back in deep into the Jesus of the Gospels. He’s weird, friends. Every time I slow my roll and read what’s actually on the page, I can’t make it fit with the Four Spiritual Laws or the angry God in need of an excuse to let people into heaven.

This summer, I’m working on Luke, a book whose opening chapters are easily ignored cause we think we’ve got them covered at Christmas. But there’s very little Christmas there, my friends. In fact, none at all of the holly and the ivy. What is there are angel warriors, throne room messengers, threats of revolution, and a claim to the throne of Emperor and his minions. Jesus’ origins are overtly physical, human, steeped in the political, social, and theological issues of His day.

And here’s the amazing thing, when we see Him there, without trying to strip away the context, we see him everywhere. It is the particular Jesus of the first century conflicts and resolutions that capable of being seen in the universal.

I’m sure my time in Luke will be seen in my thirtysixwords essays this summer. But I’m also sure carrots, eggplants, garden snakes and sounds of silence will as well. The troubles of our day become less “special” (but no less significant) when we zoom in and we zoom out. When we see the fine-tipped particulars of Jesus who claimed His existence was to let the oppressed go free. When we feel the expansive air filling our lungs. The same molecules that have filled the lungs of every life ever lived here.

If you’d like to join me zooming in and zooming out on Jesus’s beginnings—as promised—I’m hosting a weekly Zoom study on Thursday nights at 7:00pm CDT, starting this Thursday. Register to get the Zoom links.