Radical

Conservative, or Radical, which best describes Jesus Christ?

Websters defines “Conservative" as a) tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions; b) marked by moderation or caution; c) marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners d) of, relating to, or practicing Conservative Judaism. How well did Jesus fit this definition?

“Radical” means arising from or going to a root or source; basic; one who advocates or produces extreme, or fundamental changes. Clearly Jesus was a radical. >Jesus launched a religious movement by reaching out to social & religious outcasts, and he routinely went against social and religious norms –sometimes it seems, just to tick-off the religious right –conservative Jews. They vilified him as poser, a drunk, a glutton, and a friend of thieves and prostitutes.

Jesus made radical claims like “tear down this temple and I’ll rebuild it in 3 days." Imagine how some religious renegade from the Middle East would be viewed and treated if he stood outside of the Sears Tower right now and said the same thing.. That’d be good way to land yourself in jail, or get Homeland Security to put you in custody and investigate everything about you. Right?

Jesus got to the root about what had gone wrong with religion-as-usual. How their pride and greed, and preoccupation with rules, and posturing for others --looking good on the outside while being rotten inside was dead wrong. How many of you know that Jesus wasn’t being a “nice guy” for pointing out these things out?

He was a gutsy renegade, and he made lots of enemies as a result. and it’s illustrated so well by John who notes: Now the (religious) leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said that God was his Father, which made him equal with God." (John 5:18) Jesus was a radical. Nice guys don’t get called crazy, demonized, or get hits taken out on them, or get nailed naked to a cross. Scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find that Jesus was more of a radical than a “nice guy” and following His lead should lead to some radical changes in your life. The diagnostic question is: in what radical ways is Jesus impacting you? Perhaps you'll conclude -like I have- that our tendency is to domesticate and sanitize our faith of its more radical dimensions, like: loving your enemies, giving away all your money to the needy (he actually recommended that to a rich religious guy), etc... Perhaps our prayers should include this request: "radicalize me, Jesus!"