Was Jesus just a religious reformer, or someone more dangerous?.. more threatening? Read the story of his birth in Matthew and you'll find that the prospect of a new "King of the Jews" threatened Herod the Great... so much so that he had his henchmen try to exterminate Jesus, and forced his family to live as refugees in Egypt for a few years. Read Luke's account of Jesus' baptism in chapter 4, and you'll see that Satan personally showed up to check out this guy God labeled "my son, who I love, and am pleased with." Read on in chapter four and you'll see the demonic forces are rocked by this one man wrecking crew who's busy freeing people from their influence; kickin' 'em to the curb. Read Jesus' sermon on the mount and you'll discover a revolutionary ethic and lifestyle. Read about the response of "religion-as-usual" to Jesus' activity and you'll see that Jesus threatened their rules-based religion to the core with his mission, and strategies. How is it, then, that Jesus has -in many ways- become the poster child for the status quo? Have we tamed this revolutionary to suit ourselves? Is following Jesus challenging you to change in some revolutionary way? The first Christmas was a revolutionary event, that launched a revolutionary movement. May Christ challenge our comfort-oriented Christianity this Christmas season, and inspire us to rejoin the revolution.
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